The High And Mighty.

The High And Mighty.

Politicians, high priests of the holy church

of greed, 

Yours are the crimes from which the many

bleed.

See, vice and corruption make their

stand,

with brutal tyranny, walk hand

in hand;

your arrogant minds, lost in ambition's

cloud,

oblivious to the suffering of the humble

crowd.

When poverty's knife makes our people

bleed,

your cancerous power is all you ever

feed,

holding high some ego-inflating avaricious

plan

that divides, soon pits man against

man. 

Now, anguish and war mark your mad

career,

covering our world in the brume of

fear,

then shedding youth's blood by cruel 

deceit,

with spurious pomp, lay the guilt at

another's feet.

As we fall heir to a plunder

land,

you tyrants walk in manner

grand,

what must we do to make you

yield,

to see our children play in a bloodless

field?

Smash and crush your dark nefarious 

power,

allowing love and peace to freely

flower.  

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

Glasgow Southside Film Festrival.

        A date for your diary, if you're in or around Glasgow, October 8th. to October 11th..

Glasgow Southside Film Festival.

         Glasgow's Southside Film Festival returns for a fifth edition, and, as ever, the organisers have made inventive use of a variety of venues south of the Clyde
        The Southside Film Festival, now in its fifth year, was a pop-up long before pop-ups were all the rage. Its appropriation of non-cinema spaces has become its biggest asset; the joy of the festival is its clever use of venues and this embracing of its civic spaces makes every screening feel part of the community. For example, at this year’s event you can watch Martin Scorsese’s Hugo in the grand surroundings of Queens Park Church (10 Oct), catch The Gorbals Story in the eponymous borough’s St Francis Community Centre (9 Oct), or experience Bill Forsyth’s deadpan debut, That Sinking Feeling, in a drained swimming pool (10 Oct). The pool in question is the long-closed Govanhill Baths, which also hosts a screening of United We Will Swim… Again, documenting the long battle by southside residents to renovate the baths and bring them back into the heart of the community (10 Oct). 

       Scottish cinema is the festival’s real focus. We’d encourage you to head along to the festival’s screening of Grant McPhee’s great doc on the Scottish punk scene Big Gold Dream, followed by a gig (Glad Cafe, 9 Oct). Cinema discussion Scotland on Screen, meanwhile, asks if Scottish cinema has influenced how we view ourselves – film writer Jonathan Murray and director Eleanor Yule give their thoughts (Glad Cafe, 11 Oct). And then there’s southside-made Much Ado About Govan, a lo-fi Shakespeare adaptation shot by local teens, which sounds like a riot (Kinning Park Complex, 9 Oct). All that, plus a crash course in film review writing with critic Siobhan Synnot (The Glad Foundation, 11 Oct) and a rare screening of Laurel and Hardy short Putting Pants on Philip (Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, 9 Oct), to celebrate Laurel’s southside connections (he grew up in Mount Florida). The curtain comes down with Dziga Vertov’s playful documentary A Man with a Movie Camera (Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, 11 Oct), a fittingly inventive spectacle for a festival full of invention.

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

A System Run By Greedy Arrogant Arseholes.

       We are surrounded by greedy arrogant arseholes, unfortunately, lots of them are in positions of power, and shape our lives and our society. Take the research director of The Taxpayers Alliance, Alex Wild, who is quoted by the BBC as saying that cuts to benefits such as winter fuel payments and free bus passes should be made “as soon as possible after an election for two reasons”. “The first of which will sound a little bit morbid – some of the people... won't be around to vote against you in the next election. So that's just a practical point, and the other point is they might have forgotten [who made the cuts] by then.” 

      Anther arrogant arsehole who agrees with these cuts to pensioners benefits, is one Dr Liam Fox. At the Tory conference he stated, “that any such cuts must be made permanently, in order to help the next generation”. He is also reported as having said, “We can't afford it now, we can't afford it in the future, why don't we try to get a longer-term plan put in place so that people can make the adjustments they will need to make for us to be able to get back into balance,”
         This particular arsehole is no stranger to sticking his snout in the MPs expenses trough. This from Wikipedia: 

In March 2010 Fox appealed Sir Thomas Legg's decision that he had over claimed £22,476 in mortgage interest payments. Fox immediately[68] repaid the money, then appealed the decision. Fox's appeal was rejected and the decision was upheld by Sir Paul Kennedy, a former high court judge.[69]

Fox stated that his decision to remortgage his second home to pay for redecorations and claim the higher interest repayments on his expenses represented value for money because he could have charged the taxpayer for the decorating bills directly. In his response, Sir Paul Kennedy stated: "What you claimed was not recoverable under the rules then in force. I entirely accept that, like many others, you could have made other claims if the fees office had rejected your claims for mortgage interest, and that you may well have spent some of what you raised by increasing your mortgage on your constituency home, but the evidence is imprecise, and my terms of reference only allow me to interfere if I find special reasons in your individual case showing that it would not be fair and equitable to require repayment, either at all or at the level recommended."[68] This reportedly made him the Conservative Shadow Cabinet member with the largest over-claim on expenses, and as a result, he has been forced to repay the most money.[70]

It was reported in June 2009 that Fox claimed expenses of more than £19,000 over the last four years for his mobile phone. Fox claimed the high bill was due to regular trips overseas, in his capacity as Shadow Defence Secretary and said he was looking for a cheaper tariff.[71]

In October 2012, the Commons Speaker blocked the release of data showing which MPs were renting their homes to other MPs for financial gain. However, a study of parliamentary records was published in the Daily Telegraph.[72] The study showed that Liam Fox receives rental income from his London home while simultaneously claiming rental income from the taxpayer to live at another residence.

In October 2013, Fox hit the news again, after documents showed he claimed 3p for a 100 metre car trip a year earlier. He also made an additional 15 claims of under £1 for car travel approved in 2012-13, two of which were for 24p and 44p. He told the Sunday People: "I don't do my expenses. My office does them. But they are all done according to the rules for travel distances."

        Then we have MP Michelle Thomson, an greedy arrogant arsehole who believes that emotion should not get in the way of making a profit from other people's misery. Regarding her property business, she is quoted as having stated, a rise in families losing their homes as a "great opportunity" and said emotional attachment could stand in the way of "huge profit". 

       Then there is prize greedy arrogant arsehole Alan Sugar, who is quoted as saying in an interview with the Times magazine, "Who are the poor these days? “You've got some people up North and in places like that who are quite poor, but they all have mobile phones, being poor, and they've got microwave ovens, being poor, and they've got televisions, being poor.” This particular arrogant arsehole is estimated to be worth, £1.4 billion, admitted, that he didn't know the price of a pint of milk, a loaf of bread or a dozen eggs, and only bothers to look at the prices for “planes and boats and things like that”. 

      These are the type of greedy arrogant arseholes who shape our society, who shape they way we live, and basically they are taking us all to the cleaners. We live in a society where they system dictates that we hand the keys of the chicken coup to the foxes, (no pun intended). When will we wake up to the fact that we don't need greedy, arrogant arseholes to run our lives, we can do a much better job all by ourselves.

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

The World Is Our Village.

        How much bloodshed and misery has been caused by armed thugs belonging to a rich elite defending imaginary lines on the ground? Some warmongering thug gathers around themselves a bunch of paid mercenaries to hold on to some land they have stolen, they set up an apparatus called "the state", this is supposed to legitimise their theft and butchery. From then on, all those trapped within those imaginary lines are the slaves and servants of that elite. All those outside those imaginary lines, are alien, different, inferior, dangerous, of course the same insanity is going on within all those plots of land bound by imaginary lines and defended by force. It is the mind set of the insane, the greedy, the psychotic, their are no borders, these are simply robbers stakes from plunder by deceit and force. We the people do not need borders, we do not need imaginary lines to create imaginary enemies, we are one world, one humanity.

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

Bring Freedom Through Death.

 

      Like I always say, our mainstream media is simply a babbling brook of bullshit. It spews out misinformation, distortions and down right lies. It is no more than a propaganda machine for the imperialists, and a money maker for its owners. Truth, real information and honest discussion, are alien to its basic structure. 

 Bringing freedom to the people of Baghdad.

      Below is an extract from a report made at the beginning of this year, The report is the result of studies by respected and highly qualified people in their field, it trashes the frequently circulated figures of deaths by the US/UK war on terror in the Middle East, vomited out by that babbling brook of bullshit, yet up until now they have ignored it. 

 Shock and awe, democracy Western style.

This from Middle East Eye:

A Muslim holocaust. 

       Last month, the Washington DC-based Physicians for Social Responsibility (PRS) released a landmark study concluding that the death toll from 10 years of the "War on Terror" since the 9/11 attacks is at least 1.3 million, and could be as high as 2 million.
      The 97-page report by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning doctors' group is the first to tally up the total number of civilian casualties from US-led counter-terrorism interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
        The PSR report is authored by an interdisciplinary team of leading public health experts, including Dr. Robert Gould, director of health professional outreach and education at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, and Professor Tim Takaro of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University.
        Yet it has been almost completely blacked out by the English-language media, despite being the first effort by a world-leading public health organisation to produce a scientifically robust calculation of the number of people killed by the US-UK-led "war on terror".

Read the full article HERE

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

London Anarchist Bookfair.

       It's that time of year again, a time when anarchists and like minded people come together from far and wide, discussions abound, stalls display a wonderful array of literature, the air is filled with chat and banter. A great time of friendly story swapping, information transfer, meeting long lost comrades, and making new friends and contacts. A chance for anarchists to recharge their batteries with a new lease of life.

        I am of course, talking about the annual London Anarchist Bookfair.

       The 34th London Anarchist Bookfair will showcase anarchist ideas from around the world and across the UK. As usual it’s not just books. Thousands of Anarchists will gather to discuss everything from Austerity and , Housing to Migration or Workplace Orgainsing. Anarchists from around the world including Greece, Kurdistan, Spain, Czech Republic, USA and the Caribbean will be talking about the struggles in their countries, and how we can work together to strengthen the global Anarchist resistance. Most of all people will be able find out the truth about anarchist ideas rather than the distorted caricatures presented by politicians and journalists from any of the 100 stalls and 60 meetings.

      Key speakers include Janet Biehl on social ecology, Scott Crow who helped organise the grassroots response to Hurricane Katrina and was criminalised for his efforts and John King, author of the Football Factory and England Away.

     The bookfair has a new venue – at Central St Martins  (University of the Arts London)  and as always it will be free with a crèche and older kids space.

For further information see the website. Telephone contact – 07960 668471

10am – 7pm at Central St Martin’s  (University of the Arts London)

Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, Kings Cross, London N1C 4AA

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

Scotland's Beauty.

      Scotland's beauty is the wonderful mosaic of cities, towns, small towns, villages and varied countryside, all compacted into a small country. Another dry day, another run out on the bike. It is now getting a bit cold for my old damaged bronchial tubes, so it is getting near the end of the cycling season for this fair weather cyclist. I usually put the bike away when we shift the clock back, then hibernate and wait for the seasons to turn. However, I'll grab each day I can.

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

I Am The Crowd.

I Am The Crowd.

I am the crowd

I swim in the quagmire of poverty

its hook, its barbs, tear my flesh, 

rupture my dreams.

I hold my breath for centuries

hoping to break through, gasp pure air.

Through the murky mire

I see bright things, shiny things sparkle

I see women in fine dresses, men in fine silk shirts

I ask myself,

why do I swim in this cesspool?

I want the light and warmth of rectitude

to caress my labouring body,

seeds of my dreams to bloom

like wild flowers in a meadow.

One day I will use my boundless strength

to haul this torn battered being

out of the morass

onto the warm grassy bank,

when I do;

woe betide you, women in fine dresses,

woe betide you mister in your fine silk shirt

should you ever try to get in my way,

for I am the strength of the world,

I am the crowd.

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

The Creeping Disease Of Corporate Fascism.

 

         We all know that we live under the illusion of democracy, governments are in the pockets of the corporate world and the financial Mafia. However, if the world of big business gets its way, even that veneer of the illusion of democracy will evaporate. The big corporate players have come together and are in secret negotiations with EU governments, to remove completely any shred of power that governments may still have, they are trying to put the final nail in the coffin of the voice of the people. Governments will be held to account by the CEO and shareholders of big business, should they attempt any legislation that might in any way hinder their drive for increase profits. They want to get their grubby plundering hands on all public assets, privatisation will be the law, NHS, education, social services, all must be open to them for profit. Any legislation that might improve working conditions or wages will be challenged, and governments fined, as it may hit the  profits of the corporate greed merchants. Corporate fascism will be the only power, unless we wake up and bring this whole stinking, corrupt, unjust, exploitative system to an end.

This from Global Justice Now: 

Something exciting is about to happen. On Saturday 10 October thousands of people from across the EU and the USA will be taking to the streets to protest against dangerous trade agreements that could put more than 1 million of us out of work, ruin public services like our NHS, and allow dangerous chemicals and hormones in our food.  Probably the best known of these deals is TTIP which is being negotiated between the EU and the US. There’s a Stop TTIP action in Glasgow starting at 9.30am outside the SECC. Please come along and join in. www.globaljustice.org.uk/events/stop-ttip-action-glasgow

We’ll be there celebrating the enormous amount of names added to the Europe-wide petition against TTIP which closes in four days. If you haven’t already you can sign the EU-wide petition here. It’s reached almost 3 million signatures! Acting together, we can beat TTIP.

Best wishes, Guy Taylor Trade campaigner

P.S. Another dangerous trade deal is CETA between the EU and Canada. It could lock-in privatisation of public services and open up our government to huge lawsuits by corporations. If you haven’t already, tell your Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to vote against CETA.

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

The State Can Be Beaten.

 

      To all those who showed support and solidarity for Evi Statiri, while she was imprisoned for being a relative of a prisoner, and voiced their anger at her need to go on hunger strike to seek justice, good news, she is soon to be released.

This from Contra Info:

      According to an update we received from the ‘Relatives–Friends of prisoners and prosecuted fighters’, Evi Statiri (currently hospitalised) is soon to be released from prison, though with the provision of the strictest restrictive conditions.

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

Finn MacKay, Explains Feminism. .

        Finn MacKay explains feminism and the need for it in our society, we obviously have a long way to go to reach that desirable state of gender equality.

        Finn Mackay is an Author, Academic and Feminist activist. She founded The London Feminist Network. Revived the London Reclaim the Night march, And a former organiser of the Feminism in London Conference. She was nominated as a world-changing woman in a 2006 Guardian poll. After working in youth work and education, Finn devised policy on domestic violence prevention before returning to academia and completing her PhD on the British Women's Liberation Movement. She is currently a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of the West of England in Bristol. She speaks and writes regularly on Feminist issues, particularly male violence against women.

 

       This episode of Circled A Radio interviews Finn MacKay on feminism.

Listen HERE:

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

The Society Of The Spectacle.

     Guy Debord (1931-­1994) was the most influential figure in the Situationist International, the notorious subversive group that played a key role in provoking the May 1968 revolt in France. "The Society of the Spectacle" (1973, 90 minutes) is Debord's film adaptation of his own 1967 book of the same name. As passages from the book are read in voiceover the text is illuminated, via direct illustration or various types of ironic contrast, by clips from Russian and Hollywood features ("Potemkin," "Ten Days That Shook the World," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Shanghai Gesture," "Johnny Guitar," "Mr. Arkadin," etc.), TV commercials, softcore porn, and news and documentary footage, including glimpses of Spain 1936, Hungary '56, Watts '65, France '68, and other revolts of the past. Inter-title quotes from Marx, Machiavelli, Clausewitz, Tocqueville, and Debord himself occasionally break the flow, challenging the viewers to question their own relation to the film -- and to the society as a whole. San Francisco filmmaker Konrad Steiner has produced a dubbed version of this film using Ken Knabb’s English translation as read by artist/scholar Dore Bowen. Konrad also located and reinserted the original English-language clips from the many quoted films (which in Debord's film were mostly dubbed in French). This enables English-speaking viewers to pay full attention to the images instead of trying to follow subtitles, and thus better perceive the complex interplay between montage, image, and language through which Debord presents his theses.

 
(English overdub) The Society of the Spectacle (Final sound edit) from konrad steiner on Vimeo.

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

State Repression Continues.

        As the vindictive Greek state sticks to its inhumane policies, the life of Evi Statiri ebbs away. She is being held in prison simply because she is the relative of a prisoner. However, protests continue, but need all our support and solidarity. 

Poster reads:

FREEDOM FOR EVI STATIRI WHO CONDUCTS HUNGER STRIKE SINCE SEPTEMBER 14TH When the Power fail to make subversive prisoners bow down to them, they target their close and supportive environment, seeking to punish what goes beyond the polarity between innocence and guilt: solidarity.

      As of today, September 30th 2015, we participate in the mobilisation of prisoners throughout Greece (at the prisons of Trikala, Domokos, Grevena, and the women’s and men’s prisons of Koridallos in Athens) for the immediate RELEASE of Evi Statiri, wife of political prisoner-member of the Cells of Fire Gerasimos Tsakalos.
      Evi has already been admitted to the General State Hospital of Nikaia, having entered her 16th day on hunger strike.
     Solely responsible for her life are the justice minister — who enacted an amendment-scrap of paper for the cessation of prosecution against relatives of inmates, which nevertheless remains inactive — as well as the judicial council where the request for Evi’s release has been filed – who are procrastinating at the expense of her constantly deteriorating health.
      Until Evi is released from prison, we refuse the midday lock-up and count in our cells.
       Initiative of Political Prisoners
Koridallos Prisons Underground Annex [*]
September 30th 2015
        [*] basement in Koridallos women’s prison, a special high-security unit for men where those convicted as members of armed revolutionary organisations, including anarchist comrades, are being held separately from the general population of inmates

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

US Police Kill 234 Black People In 6 Months.

          An appeal from Color Of Change, an an organisation fighting police racism and brutality in the US. The figures speak for themselves, 234 Black individuals kill by the police in six months. What country can tolerate such blatant racial brutality, no way can a country be called civilizied that tolerates such racial brutality.

    My name is Scott Roberts, and this is my third day as Criminal Justice Director at ColorOfChange. For months, I have admired the hard work of ColorOfChange members like you and I am honored to be joining this critical community of people committed to achieving Black liberation — especially at a time like this.
   In the past 6 months, police have killed at least 234 Black people nationwide — an average of more than 1 person a day. 1

It’s a painfully familiar story:
        Police — driven by explicit or implicit anti-Black racism — brutalize or kill a Black person who is doing nothing more than shopping at the grocery store, driving home from work, playing in the park or reaching out for help;2,3,4,5 Law enforcement and police associations then criminalize the victim, often lying, filing false police reports or planting evidence to cover up the truth.6 The media jumps on board, but within just a few days or weeks journalists stop covering the story; the community and family are left broken hearted, fighting a near impossible fight for justice, which is almost always denied.7
      We must stop this vicious cycle. As we know from past experiences, police cannot police themselves. Prosecutors rely greatly on police for help with their cases, which makes it far less likely they will risk the political fallout that comes with holding abusive and discriminatory officers accountable. If we want justice, we need to be ready to take matters into our own hands.
       Will you donate $5 a month to our Rapid Response Private Investigator Fund? If enough people contribute, we can put independent investigators on the ground following police violence targeting Black people to help expose the truth and build momentum for justice.
     Following Sandra Bland’s tragic death in Waller County, TX you and more than 3,000 ColorOfChange members donated to hire a private investigator. It was clear from day one that Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis and Sheriff Glenn Smith would likely fail to properly investigate Sandra's death. If her family hadn't raised their voices, the public would've never seen the video of Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia racially profiling and violently arresting Sandra — DA Mathis was ready to wash his hands and rule Sandra's death a suicide, no questions asked.
      Part 1 of our investigation was released last week, and the results are deeply disturbing. Attorney Paul Looney, who was appointed by the Sheriff to lead an investigation into the Sheriff Department, has confirmed that the investigation is a sham: "We're not trying to do an exposé...[Sheriff Glenn Smith] can read it or not read it...if he wants to throw the whole thing in the trash can, he can.’"8
      This is exactly the type of information we need to help secure justice for Sandra. Following cases of police violence, local officials often wait for the media attention to fade away before denying justice to Black families suffering one of the worst injustices this world has to offer. But we can't let that happen. A Rapid Response Private Investigator Fund will allow us to uncover the truth, keep the media attention alive and expose the different forms of anti-Black racism in an area in order to plan campaigns for systemic change.
     Tragically, police will kill hundreds more Black people in the coming months and we must be ready to act quickly. This fall marks 10 years that ColorOfChange members have taken action to strengthen and amplify Black political power in America. In the coming days, you will receive a number of different fundraisers asking you to support the critical work of our community in the years ahead. We depend on you. Your donations — the hard-earned dollars you give because you believe in justice — are what sustain our work.
      Private investigators cost on average $5,000. If just 3,000 ColorOfChange members gave $5 a month for at least 6 months we could afford to hire at least 15 private investigators. Click here to donate.

Onward,
— Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Lyla and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
September 30th, 2015
References
1. "National Police Violence Map," We the Protesters, updated 9/21/2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5370?t=4&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

2. "No Charges in Ohio Police Killing of John Crawford as Wal-Mart Video Contradicts 911 Caller Account," Democracy Now! 9-25-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4477?t=6&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

3. "‘I will light you up!': Texas officer threatened Sandra Bland with Taser during traffic stop," Washington Post 7-22-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5045?t=8&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

4. "As investigation enters fifth month, Tamir Rice’s mother has moved into a homeless shelter," Washington Post 05-04-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5371?t=10&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

5. "'Black women unnamed': how Tanisha Anderson's bad day turned into her last," The Guardian 06-05-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5372?t=12&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

6. "Walter Scott, Michael Slager, Taser planted?" Slate 04-07-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5373?t=14&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

7. "Thousands dead, few prosecuted," Washington Post 04-11-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4861?t=16&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

8. "The Sandra Bland Investigation Is In Trouble," Huffington Post 9-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5349?t=18&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

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

Disaster,---Tearoom Closed!!!

       Well the month of September proved to be a wonderful month for an old wrinkly fair weather cyclist. Pity about the rest of the year. Up round the Campsie area again, sadly my favourite wee tearoom was closed when I got there. So it was just a matter of carrying on, and then heading home for that plate of soup. I thought I was taking a very picturesque little scene, but sadly the photo didn't turn out quite like I expected. Never the less here it is, it still marks a delightful run.

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

Solitary Confinement Is Torture.

      The state likes to keep everybody in line, no disobeying rules, always do as you are told, it works hard at this with the early stages being our education system, and as you go through your life there is a tsunami of propaganda that washes over you on a daily basis, reinforcing conformity. In case this doesn't work there are the police and the judicial system, backed up by the prison system, and by any stretch of the imagination, on entering this, we have left the realms of humanity.

      Within the inhumane system of locking people up in cages, there are degrees of repression that can take you deeper into the morass of dehumanising, in an attempt to turn the individual into a submissive clone of a human. Solitary confinement breaks every aspect of humanity, we are social creatures, to take somebody and lock them away from any human contact, any form of mental stimulation, for days, weeks and months, is nothing short of torture, to break the individual. There is nothing reforming, or rehabilitating about the prison system, it is a tool of state repression to protect its apparatus and power.

      There has been a long running series of hunger strikes at the Menard Correction Center Illinois, against the excessive use of solitary confinement, like all prisoners, they need our support and solidarity.

An appeal from Anti-State STL: 

       On September 23rd, prisoners in the administrative detention unit at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois declared a hunger strike in response to the administration’s continued unwillingness to respond to their demands for relief from their conditions of long-term solitary confinement. See below for their list of demands and description of their conditions. This strike is a continuation of a series of hunger strikes by the prisoners there, which began in January 2014.

Read the full article HERE:

    

Our core demands are:

· We demand an end to long term solitary confinement.

    We demand minimum due process at Administrative Detention Review Hearings by providing inmates with written reasons, including new information relied upon, for Committee’s decision for our continued placement in A.D. and be allowed to grieve all adverse decisions. As it stands, the basis of the Committee’s votes are kept secret.
      We demand more access to outside recreation for the sake of our physical and mental health. As it stands, we are confined indefinitely to these cages for 6 days out of the week, with the exception of one 5-hour day. This is unbearable.
      We demand that meaningful educational programs be implemented to encourage our mental stability, rehabilitation, and social development for the sake of ourselves and our communities that we will one day return to.
     We demand access to more visiting privileges. For most of our families traveling to Menard is like traveling to another state. Considering the distance, 2-hour visits behind plexiglass is insufficient. We should be allowed 5 or 6 hours. Moreover, our family members, including inmates, should be provided the human dignity and decency to purchase food items and refreshments from vending machines after traveling such great distances. This would benefit one’s social development, as well as benefit prison staff environment.
        We ask the public’s help by calling the warden, the Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, and the Governor on September 23, 2015, and so forth, to check on our welfare.

Warden Kimberly Butler, 618-826-5071
Menard Correctional Center
711 Kaskaskia Street
Menard, IL 62259

Director John Baldwin, 217-558-2200
Illinois Department of Corrections
1301 Concordia Court
P. O. Box 19277
Springfield, IL 52794-9277

Governor Bruce Rauner, 217-782-0244
Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706

       We will stay on [hunger strike] as long as possible in order to hopefully bring some change to our conditions. We thank you for any kind of support you can give us.

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