Rent Strikes And Walk Of Pride.

       The Spirit of Revolt exhibition being held in the Mitchell Library foyer has been running now for two weeks, and has proved popular and has had many positive comments. 

       If you have not yet made your way long to browse through the exhibits and have a chat with Spirit of Revolt members, you still have an opportunity, as it has a couple of weeks to run, it ends on November 28th.

      The main theme of the exhibition is the 1915 rent strikes, and is called, The Rent Strikes 100 Years On. It highlights the use of rent strikes across the world as a tool of struggle by people trying to improve or safeguard their conditions.  There is also display paying homage to the peace movement around the same period during WW1. As November this year marks the centenary of the execution of Joe Hill, there is a display marking some details of his life. 

      There is another event in which the Spirit of Revolt is involved. To mark the magnificent victory of the 1915 Rent Strikes. There will be a "Walk of Pride" held on November 17th. forming up at the Donald Dewar statue at the top of Buchanan Street and walking, noisily and with pride in our tradition of solidarity and struggle, making our way to the City Chambers in George Square. Do come along, bring your friends, family and the rallying implements of the rent strike, pots, pans, whistles, racquets and banners, let's reclaim that pride in our history and our working class culture.

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

Black December.

       The Greek state is preparing for Black December, the police are organising to crack down on anarchists across Greece. The crack down has been going on for a considerable time, however, the call for Black December will allow them to escalate the brutal repression.

This from Greek Reporter:

       Greek police are on alert after jailed anarchist Nikos Romanos issued a written statement calling all anarchists to wage war against the state and “…take over city halls and blow up fascists and bosses.”
      As the November 17 celebration and the anniversary of the murder of teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a policeman on December 6 approach, the 22-year-old man who is serving 15 years in prison for armed robbery sent a written statement to indymedia.gr website calling all anarchists to arms.
     Given that since December 6, 2008 when Grigoropoulos was killed there are extreme riots taking place in Athens and Thessaloniki with arson and injuries of policemen, Greek police are preparing to deal with the threat.
      In the long statement coming from inside Korydallos Prison, there is mention of a destructive “action campaign called ‘Black December'” which will “restart the anarchist revolution, inside and outside of prison.”
     “Let’s smash the windows of department stores, occupy schools, universities and city halls, let’s distribute texts that spread the message of rebellion, blow up fascists and bosses,” read the message co-written by Romanos and convict Panagiotis Argyrou, member of terrorist group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire.
        “… Let’s blow up the homes of politicians, throw molotov cocktails at cops, cover walls with messages, sabotage the normal flow of Christmas trade,” the statement continues.
        “…Let’s paint with ashes on the ugly buildings of banks, police stations, multinational corporations, army camps, television studios, courthouses, churches and charity organizations,” the statement further reads.
      Romanos was with Grigoropoulos on the night the 15-year-old was killed by policeman Epameinondas Korkoneas. Since then, Romanos pledged to avenge the death of his friend and fight against the state that killed him. In early 2013, Romanos, along with Yiannis Michailidis, Andreas Bourzoukos and Dimitris Politis were arrested during an armed robbery attempt at Velventos in northern Greece. 

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Capitalism And Slave Labour Camps.

       Capitalism, where is it going? I suppose we could look at the most developed capitalist country in the world and gain some idea. America, King Capitalist, the big boy in the game, the pinnacle of capitalist development, what does it show us? Over the last six years, America's wealth has grown by over $30 trillion, a staggering 60%, over roughly the same period, the number of homeless children has grown by the same staggering figure, 60%. In 2013, 2.5 million children experienced homelessness, 1 in 30. According to UNICEF, America has the highest child relative poverty rates in the developed world.
      Homelessness in America is another indicator of what capitalism brings to people, approximately 3.5 million people experience homelessness in America each year. Roughly 15% of Americans, 4.8 million, live in poverty, with 7.7 million classified as living in poor households. These are figures from the crowning glory of capitalism.
      Apart from the poverty and homelessness in America, there is a much more sinister aspect to American capitalism, the road that we are all heading down, its prison system. America incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, its recent figures stand at 2.3 million, of its citizens locked up, mostly Black and Hispanic. America has locked up half a million more people than China, which has five time the population of the US. America, with 5% of the world's population, accounts for 25% of the world's prison population.

      The prison system in America is big business, the system is highly privatised and a wonderful money maker for the corporate world. 

       “The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work, lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being “an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps.”
     The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. “This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors.”

        The American prison system is slave labour, with a workforce that can be paid less than a dollar a day, has no union rights or representation, never turns up late, never goes on strike, or makes demands for increase wages, and can be punished for not working hard enough. In some cases, private prison are paid by the government for the number of empty beds they have, as the government guarantees a certain occupancy rate, so logically it pays the state to fill the prisons. This of course encourages big business to build more prisons.
       The US prison business is no small-fry production unit, this is BIG business. The American prison system produces for the American market, 

     100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts pants, tents, bags and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98 percent of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93 percent of paints and paintbrushes; 92 percent of stove assembly; 46 percent of body armor; 36 percent of home appliances; 30 percent of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21 percent of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.”
       When you can get that kind of labor for less than a dollar a day, it’s hard to see the government’s motivation for incarcerating fewer people. And it’s all done at the taxpayer’s expense.

        So let's look at America,  and see the future of capitalism, poverty, homelessness and mass slave labour camps by means of state incarceration. This is our future, unless we do something about it, and do it quick.

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

Greece, December 2008, A Prelude.

 

 

Athens December 2008.

 

          I was in Athens that December 2008, on the streets around Syntagma Square, the atmosphere was electric, awe-inspiring, walking and chatting among those thousands of people from all walks of life, it was easy and wonderful to get drunk on this new elixir, an elixir that is there for us all. I had never felt a feeling like it before in my life, and I have never felt anything like it since. Deep inside you felt that something wonderful was about to happen, something new and empowering was about to be born. Sadly it didn't happen that month, or the next. The process is still going on, still forming, still waiting to burst forth and create that new world we all hold in our hearts.

There Will Come a Time

There will come a time when the hordes remember,

who bound our grand-parents to the yoke of oppression,

who sentenced our parents to deprivation,

who bid poverty sink its teeth into our heart,

who teach our children, greed is a noble art.

Who sent our sons through the gates of hell

to a litany of cambist brawls,

crammed coffers with blood-stained gold

while laughing in Ares’ halls.

“Who does these terrible things to us?” they will ask,

and when they remember,

they’ll bring an energy that is endless

to drive a fist that is fearless.

Then this merciless market-driven world will crumble

under an insurrection of integrity,

the poor will emerge from the dark husk of capitalism

to live in the light of social justice.

There will come a time when the hordes remember.

Athens December 2008.

The following from Contra Info:

 

        I hate the individual who bends his body under the weight of an unknown power, of some X, of a god. 

        I hate, I say, all those who, surrendering to others, out of fear, out of resignation, a part of their power as a man, are not only crushed themselves but crush me, and those I love, under the weight of their frightful cooperation or their idiotic inertia. 

      I hate, yes, I hate them, for I sense it, I do not bow before the officer’s braid, the mayor’s sash, the capitalist’s gold, moralities or religions; for a long time I have known that all of this is just baubles that can be broken like glass.
— Joseph Albert (Libertad)

       There are times in history when the randomness of some events can cause dynamic variables, able to almost entirely paralyse the social space-time.
      It was Saturday night, on 06/12/2008, when the culmination of a conflict between two worlds took place in just a few moments. On one hand, the youthful, enthusiastic, spontaneous and impetuous insurrectionary violence; on the other hand, the official state institutional organ that, legitimately, claims the monopoly on violence through repression.
       No, it was not about an innocent kid and a paranoid cop found in the wrong place at the wrong time, but a rebellious young comrade who attacked a patrol car, in an area where clashes with the forces of repression were common, and a cop who patrolled the same area and, out of a personal perception about the honour and reputation of the police, decided to confront the troublemakers on his own. It was a conflict between two opposing forces: on one Insurgency, on the other Power, with the main protagonists of this conflict each representing their own sides.
     The murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos by the cop Epameinondas Korkoneas, and the large-scale riots that ensued, caused a powerful, high-tension social electroshock, because the image of “social peace” was shattered and the existence of these two opposing worlds was made visible, in the most manifest way, triggering situations from which there was no easy return, at least not without a creation and manifestation of events whose momentum nobody could any longer pretend they did not notice, they did not see, they did not hear, they did not take into account.
     The 2008 rebellion rocked a society that, in its majority, still enjoyed their consumerist bliss and the culture of western lifestyle, and ignored the unbearable consequences of the coming economic crisis. It caused embarrassment, numbness and perceptive paralysis, since the majority of the social body was unable to comprehend whence sprang so many thousands of rioters, who were creating disturbances of such a tension.
      In the aftermath of the rebellion, a number of intellectuals, political analysts, professors, sociologists, psychologists, criminologists, and even artists, each taking advantage of their own professional prestige and renown, joined the public debate, not only in order to interpret December ’08, but also to de-signify it by slandering its occurrence and condemning violence altogether, from wherever it may come, making it clear what their real social role is.
      There is much more to be said about December ’08 and its insurrectionary heritage, as manifested through the dozens of direct action groups which proliferated explosively across the country, creating a front of internal threat. A period when anarchist direct action undermined the social normalcy almost on a daily basis. But what we want above all is to remember…
      To remember what December ’08 was and how anarchy, having a leading role, contributed to the manifestation of dynamic situations, which gained resonance in the international anarchist movement.
      To remember the time when anarchy overcame the fear of arrest, captivity and violent repression, and therefore acquired a tremendous self-confidence, moving on to actions and gestures that, until then, seemed impossible; a self-confidence which was manifested in the whole range of anarchist polymorphous action, from simple public interventions to all kinds of occupations, and from spontaneous confrontational practices to more organised offensive actions.
       We want to remember our young comrade who was guilty of his spontaneity, which he paid with his life. Under other circumstances it might have been us in his place, as the same insurrectionary enthusiasm pervades us since then, and besides, EVERYONE should remember their origins instead of exorcising them.
      We want to remember the beauty of paralysing the social space-time through smaller or larger social short circuits.
     We want to remember how dangerous anarchy may become, when anarchy wants to…
      We want to relive the days when “death shall have no dominion, and dead men naked they shall be one with the man in the wind and the west moon, and they shall break in the sun till the sun breaks down”
(paraphrased verses from a poem by Dylan Thomas).

Read the rest of the article HERE:

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States And Fascism, Two Sides Of The Same Coin.

      The fascists attempt to spread their divisive and bigoted ideas by brutal acts, attempting to instil fear, while the state looks the other way. Greece is no stranger to the foul, brutal vomit and actions that spews from the these forms of low life, The latest is a bomb attack on a squat in Athens.

This from Contra Info:

      On Monday morning (November 9th 2015), at 05:30, the Epavli Kouvelou squat was struck by bomb attack. The result of that murderous attack was that nearby houses and shops suffered heavy material damage, while some damage was caused to the main entrance of the squat itself.

       What is shocking, however, is not the material damage caused by the attack but the fact that the perpetrators left the high power explosive device in the middle of the street, acting with complete disregard for the lives of neighbours or passersby.

      This attack was not a bolt from the blue; besides, it was not the first one aimed against the squat (recall the 2011 arson, and the golden dawn’s attack on 01/08/2014). It came as a response and intimidation attempt in the face of the dynamic interventions undertaken by people housed in the squat. The perpetrators, who belong to the extreme right-wing milieu, have targeted and struck the squat exactly because they fear these interventions. They fear solidarity with refugees and migrants, they fear the resistance to governmental and memoranda policies, the struggles against employers’ terrorism and against fascism. They fear all of us, who do not serve the interests of our bosses, but instead fight with dignity, putting self-organization and solidarity in the forefront of the struggle.

     We do not discriminate against people on the basis of national origin, race and sex, we do not go along with the powerful, nor become their minions; we, therefore, want to reassure the neo-Nazi killers that their attack not only does not terrorise us, but it confirms that our action is directed in the proper direction.

more photos: athens imc

      On Monday evening, a gathering was called in the squatted space. A PA system was set up from 18:00, and the above text was read and also distributed in the neighbourhood. At 19:30 we began marching loud and lively in the surrounding area, then moved to the centre of Maroussi, and ended the demonstration at the squat. The slogans chanted were anti-fascist, anti-statist, and in solidarity with refugees/migrants and squats/self-managed spaces. An estimated 250-300 comrades from various neighbourhoods of Athens participated in the demonstration.

     We make clear once again that such attacks do not terrorise us but make us more tenacious.

      Our struggles are dynamites, not only in Maroussi but everywhere We erect embankments against fascism

Epavli Kouvelou squat
Dionysou & Solonos St., Maroussi

source: epavli kouvelou

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The Sacrificed, On War's Red Altar Lie.

      To mark Remembrance Day, with an abhorrence of war, and all those who plan, engineer and profit from its vile destructive power, two short passages from the recently re-discovered Political Essay by the young Percy Bysshe Shelley. One the first passage, the second is the last passage from the poem. 

DESTRUCTION marks thee! o’er the blood-stain’d heath
Is faintly borne the stifled wail of death;
Millions to fight compell’d, to fight or die
In mangled heaps on War's red altar lie.
The sternly wise, the mildly good, have sped
To the unfruitful mansions of the dead

Oppressive law no more shall power retain,
Peace, love, and concord, once shall rule again,
And heal the anguish of a suffering world;
Then, then shall things, which now confusedly hurled,
Seem Chaos, be resolved to order’s sway,
And errors night be turned to virtue’s day.

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Blek Le Rat.

         Another interesting episode from Circled A Radio:

       Blek Le Rat is a French street Artist known as the father of stencil graffiti. He has earned this title through years of spray painting unforgettable figures on walls across the globe. In the early 80’s he became one of the first street Artists in Paris, known for his iconic rat stencils. His stencil technique has since been adopted by some of the biggest names in graffiti and street art today.

Listen HERE:

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Glasgow's Walk Of Pride, November 17th.

     Citizens of Glasgow should be proud of their heritage in working class struggle, over the centuries they have fought and won many a battle for better conditions in their homes, and in the work place, not just for themselves, but for everybody. It has always been a city of struggle for the many, and our previous generations of men and women have always risen with determination and pride to what ever challenge the system threw at them. It was February 3rd 1919 that one of Glasgow's better know anarchists, Guy Aldred, arrived from London to stay in Glasgow, when asked why Glasgow, his reply was," --he was attracted to Glasgow by its citizen's truculent attitude, rebellious spirit and disrespect for leaders."  Can we grow that spirit and add a large dose of pride.

      One of the many victories we Glaswegians can can take great pride in, is the 1915 Rent Strike. By solidarity, determination and co-operation, between the women of the districts of Glasgow/Clydeside and the workers in the yards and factories, they beat the landlords, and forced the government to freeze all rents across the country until the end of the war.

      November 17th. marks the centenary of that great victory, and to honour with pride that event, a Walk of Pride, will take place on November 17th 2015.

       Let's make this the noisiest, largest, walk Glasgow has seen in years. Bring the implements used in the Rent Strike, pots and pans, whistle, racquets, banners, let's show our pride in that massive victory and all those determined women and men that came together to make an unbeatable working class army.

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

Entertainment, Information, Education, Fun.

      Glasgow, great city that it is, always something going on, at the moment we have the Spirit of Revolt exhibition, The Rent strike, 100 years On”, taking place in the Mitchell Library foyer, running until November 28th. Following on from that we have an eight day festival of events from, “The Only Way Is Ethics”, running from November 29th. To December 6th. This festival has a myriad of events, so I'm sure you will find one or more to grab your interest. If I were to pick a couple that I will certainly be at, then it would be, “Banner Tales of Glasgow” December 1st, Free, from 6pm-9pm. Film, Live Music and Conversation. The other, a must, would be Wednesday 2nd December, “The Man Who Never Died” a Joe Hill Song Night, Live Music, 17:30-23:00, this is shaping up to be a fantastic night, £7, £4 un-waged. Both these events will take place in The Old Hairdressers, 27 Renfield Lane Glasgow G2 6PH. It's events like this that let's us take the council's sterile slogan, “People Make Glasgow” and turn it into a truth, the real people make the real Glasgow.

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Fight To The Finish.

       Remembrance Day, when the pomp of imperialism walks the streets in all its glittering finery, when the heads of state, the purveyors of war, bow their heads as if the cared, while planning their next battle field. When will we learn, that war is their tool, their weapon of dominance. Their corridors of power are steeped in the blood of the ordinary people, sacrificed for some grand plan that only benefits the power mongers. There is no war to end wars, war breed wars. 

    As our own Prime minister stands there solemn and head bowed, what thoughts of Syria are going through his head. How many can he risk to get his moment of glory, to play the imperial  game with the big boys.
     We have been sending our young men and women to die across the globe continuously since that war to end wars, 1914/18, the blood of ordinary people has flowed in its gallons, and it will continue to do so, until we destroy this system of power that creates wealth for the few by devastating  humanity.

Fight To The Finish.

The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying,

And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit street

To cheer the soldiers who'd refrained from dying,

and hear the music of returning feet.

'Of all the thrills and adrours War has brought,

This moment is the finest,' (So they thought.)

Snapping their bayonets on to charge the mob,

Grim Fusiliers broke ranks with glint of steel,

At last the boys had found a cushy job,

.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .

I heard the Yellow-Pressmen grunt and squeal;

And with my trusty bomber turned and went

To clear those Junkers out of Parliament.

Siegfried Sassoon.

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Anarchist Black Cross.

An announcement from Italy Black Cross,  Croce Nera Anarchica: 

        As already announced in the first meetings for the presentation of the Anarchist Black Cross editorial project, besides the contribution made with information and discussions through the paper and the blog, we’ve been proposing the creation of a solidarity fund for anarchist prisoners, as we want to give economic support to those who fall into the tangles of repression of which they are active conscious enemies.

We’ve now done it and created the fund.

      Anarchists are intrinsically reluctant to all political categorization, they are anti-political by nature and therefore shouldn’t be referred to as political prisoners. At the same time, anarchists end up in prison on the grounds of ideas, actions and behaviour that are the result of ethical, political and existential awareness. Painful awareness, intellectual conscience, joyous revolt and any other mixtures of feelings, actions and knowledge, is a natural process that leads us to be informed, alert and critical towards certain trajectories of struggle and repression. We are anarchists, alien to the concept of politics, no matter what the name; if we fall into the net of the enemy, we don’t claim to be political objects but are subjects of a different sociality/a-sociality, a different view on the existent. We look for allies, accomplices, comrades among the others oppressed by the machinery of dominion. But that doesn’t mean mythicizing class belonging as the old communist Vulgate did, or making clumsy attempts at social entomology and looking for the oppressed we talk about, be they outside or inside prison, from the pulpit of our analysis, as though the oppressed were objects of study.

      We are well aware that in this context making distinctions can be unpleasant and misleading, as this can lead to simplifications liable to be exploited on a political level and by the repression; that is why we decided to clearly specify the discriminating factors we have chosen, for the time being.

      A solidarity fund in support of anarchist prisoners, which obviously goes beyond the fictitious distinction between political and social prisoners.
     We’re also aware of the increased repressive clampdown as a result of recent legal measures, which makes the need to use instruments that the enemy would like to suppress even more obvious.
We want to add that we don’t intend to give any ‘geographical connotation’ to the prisoners we are about to support, and that this is a solidarity fund for them, not a fund for legal expenses or a tool of legal support.
      We want to become active on these grounds, aware as we are of the effort required and our current possibilities.

CNA

To send solidarity contributions:

PostePay Card Number: 4023 6009 1934 2891

Account name: Omar Nioi

Via:croceneranarchica

Translated by act for freedom now

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

Let The Dream Commence.

 

       We live in a society based on illusion and deception, continually swamped in a morass of propaganda that sells the lie, that happiness comes in different shaped boxes at different prices. The dearer the price, the bigger the box, the greater the happiness. One of the basic tenets of this smoke and mirrors society is the "self", all that matters is you, if you work really hard, you can have that large house in the country, with a large powerful car, and lots of exotic holidays abroad. If on the other hand, you find yourself poor and struggling, then you are just not working hard enough.

      There is never any mention of the fact that those with the most wealth, far from earning it by working hard, they got it by exploiting others, or they inherited from others, who, in the first place, had gathered it from plunder and exploitation.

       What this society  delivers to the ordinary people is benefit sanctions, workfare, (slave labour) bedroom tax, increasing homelessness, poverty and deprivation. It is estimated that this Christmas, you know, that season of plenty, family fun and warm homes, 90,000 kids will spend it being homeless. During our winters, around 22,000 elderly die from cold related problems, too poor to heat their homes properly, and poorly insulated housing.

       Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Department of Health’s chief medical officer, said severe weather could “substantially add to the average winter death toll.”

She wrote in Public Health England’s Cold Weather Plan for England 2014-15: “Excess deaths are not just deaths of those who would have died anyway in the next few weeks or months due to illness or old age.
“There is strong evidence some of these deaths are indeed “extra” and are related to cold temperatures, living in cold homes as well as infectious diseases such as influenza.”

      The truth is the enemy of this society, hence the need to cover everything in flashing lights, tinsel and deception. The truth is that we the people are being bled to death, while we create an abundance of wealth. Unimaginable wealth that is hived off into fewer and fewer hands. If the truth is broadcast enough, it will become obvious to us all, that this cannot and should not go on. We who create all of this wealth live amidst homelessness, child poverty, fuel poverty and ever deceasing living standards, while the exploiting plunders grow ever richer and richer.

      A better world is possible, we have the ability, the strength and the resources, we have the imagination, all we are lacking is that burning desire to tear down this fabricated  insanity, of creating wealth for the few at our own expense. We built everything you see, we done it for a greed few, we can build a better world for ourselves if we so desire. Solidarity, co-operation, mutual aid, respect for each other and sustainability are the building blocks. We can start by taking control of our communities, building self-help groups to circumvent the need to draw on the corporate world, shaping things in those communities the way we want them Let's take our dreams from the drawing board into the real world.

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A Stone's Throw From Freedom.

        "A Stone's Throw From Freedom", another interesting piece from "It's the end of the world and I feel fine" at subMediaTV.

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