Solidarity In One Big Fight.

 

       It is great to see that the racist policies of this government, (and the previous ones) are being resisted and that resistance is growing, not just with meetings and leaflets, but by direct action. This latest action was in London and shows solidarity and ingenuity. It is all linked, migrants, workers conditions, social cleansing, austerity, it is one large fight against an all encompassing system of repression and exploitation.

This from Rabble:

       On Monday afternoon the neighbourhood of Deptford, South East London, chased away a Home Office “Immigration Enforcement” raid team. The Home Office bullyboys had reportedly been spotted several times in the previous week doing so-called “intelligence gathering”. I.e., trying to harass shopkeepers into giving them permission to carry out “operations” in their premises so they don’t have to go to the hassle of getting a court warrant. On Monday they came back in greater force, but people gathered and sent them away empty handed. They drove off in several unmarked cars but abandoned their marked “racist van” in a back street, which was then refurbished with the windows smashed and messages written in spray paint (see pictures).

     Deptford market is a regular target for Home Office raids, often working in conjunction with police, the local council and other agencies. The most recent major raid was in April. As with other London street markets (such as East Street), there are clear links between these attacks targeting migrants and wider attacks on the neighbourhood, as property developers and state authorities combine to “socially cleanse” the area, and clearing out those they consider undesirable. But resistance is growing. In Deptford, there is now a regular “Deptford Anti Raids” information stall every Saturday in the market, and Monday shows that people are ready to fight back.

Check the AntiRaids twitter account for raid alerts and other live updates.

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

A Cameraman's Oversight!!!

 

        While the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, has been over in France covering the football and the "supporters" kicking the shit out of each other, it seems amazing that with all their high-tec equipment and rapid access to getting anything of interest to their pulp making base here in the UK, they seem to have missed a few facts. One being that France, has been in turmoil for weeks with strikes, mass protests, and streets bathed with water cannons, and a haze of tear gas hanging in the air. Eager to show those nasty Russians kicking the shit out of those nice law abiding English, they failed to notice the French police in riot gear, kicking the shit out of the French citizens. You would be lead to believe that the only violence in France was those nasty Russians, everywhere else the population were sitting in cafés sipping cappuccinos.

       Here are a couple of "little incidents" that all those cameras and microphones seem to have missed. Probably a small oversight, or biased or censored reporting.

More Videos at arrezafe.

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

Singing In The Rain.

      Once again I was visited by the evil of the computer world, my computer decided to crash and leave me with a black screen. After a day of typing in gibberish, and getting "unknown command", I gave up and popped it into your friendly computer repair shop. I got it back working, but lots of stuff gone, so I've been trying to get it back to where it was before the dreaded black death. Hence my ranting mind being clamped in the sound of silence for the last week. Where would we be without the internet.

View of the Campsie Hills at Campsie Glen, before you start the walk.

     So today, in spite of the rain, I decided to escape on the dream machine, and head for familiar territory, the Campsies. It was dull and overcast with drizzle when I left, and raining steadily on the way back. However, I didn't suffer too much at all, despite the dampness, and thoroughly enjoyed the outing.

The view as you start the glen walk, too rough for my delicate bike.

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

 

A Future Thought.

        A poem, and why not? This one I found in an old newspaper, Free Society. An American paper, published in Chicago, with the sub heading, A Periodical of Anarchist Thought, Work and Literature, Vol.IX, No. 30, dated November 30th, 1902. It states that the author is unknown, so if you think you can throw some light on this, I'd be delighted to hear from you. After all, the poet deserves some recognition.

A Future Thought.

When o’er my cold and lifeless clay

The parting words of love are said,

And friends and kindred meet to pay

Their last fond tribute to the dead,

Let no stern priests with solemn drone

A formal liturgy intone-----

Whose creed is foreign to my own.

Let not a word be whispered there

In pit for my unbelief,

Or sorrow that I could not share

The views that gave their souls relief.

My faith to me is no less dear,

Nor less convincing and sincere

Than theirs, so rigid and austere.

Let no stale words of Church-born song,

Float out upon the silent air

To prove my implication wrong

The soul of her then lying there----

Why should such words be glibly sung

O’er one whose lively tongue

such empty phrases never hung.

But rather let the faithful few

Whose hearts so close were knit to mine

That they with time the dearer grew,

Assemble at the day’s decline.

And while the golden sunbeams fall

In floods of light upon my pall

Let them in softened tones recall,

Some tender memory of the dead----

Some virtuous act, some word of power

Which I, perchance, have done or said,

By loved ones treasured to that hour,

Recount the deeds which I admired,

The motives which my soul inspired,

The hopes by which my heart was fired.

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

"Holidayism".

       As capitalism lurches from one "crisis" to another, we get ever new theories, economic theories, social theories, some very complex, others not so, all pointing the way how to change the system, how to destroy the system, where we should be heading, and so on. Sometimes if we look back we find that somebody has said it all before, and in some cases in a very explicit fashion and very simply.

Walter Wilkinson, 1888-1970, author, puppeteer, put it quite simply in his book, The Peep Show:

       "If I were a philosopher expounding a new theory of living, inventing a new "ism," I should call myself a holidayist, for it seems to me that the one thing the world needs to put it right is a holiday. There is no doubt whatever about the sort of life nice people want to lead. Whenever they get the chance, what do they do but go away to the country or the seaside, take off their collars and ties and have a good time playing at childish games and contriving to eat some simple food very happily without all the encumbrances of chairs and tables. This world might be quite a nice place if only simple people would be content to be simple and be proud of it; if only they would turn their backs on these pompous politicians and ridiculous Captains of Industry who, when you come to examine them, turn out to be very stupid, ignorant people, who are simply suffering from an unhappy mania of greediness; who are possessed with perverse and horrible devils which make them stick up smoky factories in glorious Alpine valleys, or spoil some simple country by digging up and exploiting its decently buried mineral resources; or whose moral philosophy is so patiently upside down when they attempt to persuade us that quarrelling, and fighting, and wars, or that these ridiculous accumulations of wealth are the most important, instead of the most undesirable things in life. If only simple people would ignore them and behave always in the jolly way they do on a seashore what a nice world we might have to live in. Luckily nature has a way with her, and we may rest assured that this wretched machine age will all be over in a few years' time. It has grown up as a mushroom, and like a mushroom it has no stability. It will die."

       Of course Walter didn't see the strange new world that would spring from the madness of the old industrial world. The world of electronics, IT, artificial intelligence and mass surveillance, further alienating us from the simple world of "holidayism". However "holidayism" is still a road to be examined in detail.

       Walter Wilkinson was the brother of Arthur Wilkinson, English born anarchist, puppeteer, artist, and conscientious objector during the first world war. Arthur married Scottish born woman anarchist, writer, translator, and artist, Lilly Gair Aitken, (Lilly Gair Wilkinson).

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

We Have To Destroy To Build A New.

 

      New York, what is going on, a picture that you will not get on our babbling book of bullshit, the mainstream media. Well worth the watching through its 31 minutes. No Borders, Sur Negro, First Chapter, New York.

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

Pleasure In The Drizzle.

               Well today, Sunday, wasn't my kind of cycling day, dull, cool, a bit of a wind and drizzle, all the factors that play havoc with my wee bronchial tubes. However ever the optimist I decided to have a short run up to Clachan of Campsie.  I coughed and spluttered a bit, but no real problems, and I thoroughly enjoyed the outing. While having my obligatory plate of lentil soup, I had the added pleasure of my partner, Stasia arriving by car and joined me in the eating routine. So, all in all, a great afternoon.

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

As The Oil Flows, So Does The Blood.

       We all know that wars are fought not for principles of morality, defending democracy, or freeing "the people", but for the gain of those in power, the controlling of resources for big corporations, and dominance in resource rich territory. Anybody who can't see this, just isn't paying attention. Sometimes the manoeuvring remains shrouded in illusion and the fog of lies, sometimes it comes out quite quickly, but it is always a struggle to get the facts accepted.

       The Saudi lead massacre in the Yemen is one of those charades that the light of truth falls on while it is still in operation. The whole Yemeni slaughter is no more than bombing a clear path for a Western/Saudi backed oil pipeline to by-pass the Strait of Hormuz, and be free from Iranian influence. 

        We will support organisations like al-Qaeda, one day, then bomb them the next, depending how the powerful can use them.

        The following is an extract from a very interesting article on that Western backed Yemeni slaughter, taken from The Canary:

Massive attack

         In an official statement after the April operation, the Saudi-led coalition said that “more than 800 al-Qaeda elements” had been killed in the military confrontation. Mainstream media outlets parroted the coalition claim. The Wall Street Journal referred to a successful “offensive” marking a “new direction for the coalition.” And Reuters described the operation as a “lighting advance” that “routed the militants” from their stronghold. In the official narrative, on the day Saudi-led Yemeni and UAE troops moved to the outskirts of Mukalla, local Islamic clerics and tribesmen were enrolled to mediate al-Qaeda’s withdrawal. AQAP subsequently “fled westwards” in the wake of the frightening military advance.
        A statement from the Saudi embassy in Washington said: Saudi forces are also on the ground alongside the UAE forces in Mukalla… it is a Saudi-led Arab Coalition that is fighting AQAP alongside the US military contingent on the ground. New details about the alleged US and UK-backed assault emerged on Wednesday from an interview with the Commander of the Saudi-led Yemeni forces behind the Mukalla operation.
         In the Al Jazeera interview, Major General Faraj Salmeen al-Bahsini painted a Hollywood-esque picture of a: big number of [AQAP] fighters… destroyed first by the coalition’s warplanes and then by [our] forces on the ground. None of the al-Qaeda fighters was able to flee these camps.
       Al-Bahsini said that the total number of AQAP fighters killed was “probably” much higher than the 800 originally claimed. The general described: precise air strikes by the coalition’s warplanes on [AQAP’s] key positions, gatherings, ammunition depots and centres-of-command rooms.
         There were also, he said, bold coalition navy attacks on hundreds of fighters who were fleeing the city on boats and vessels bound for the Horn of Africa.
Not to mention: special commandos who attacked al-Qaeda from the sea The commandos bravely secured the Dhabah oil terminal from the AQAP barbarians, before rapidly defusing hundreds of landmines.

Except they didn’t.

Attack? What Attack?
        Independent on-the-ground sources have denied there was any such attack. Veteran BBC journalist Iona Craig, who has reported extensively from Yemen, said that the coalition statement was “ridiculous”, as AQAP had already deserted the city before the alleged military ‘rout’: There weren’t even 800 fighters left there. There was no fighting inside the city because al-Qaeda had already left. She described the 800 figure as “a lie that’s not even plausible.” Craig had been in Mukalla a month before the military operation. She said that Saudi-led forces had been secretly negotiating with AQAP for the previous two weeks “to let fighters leave”. Far from being ‘routed’, al-Qaeda “had been given free passage out of the city” by their Saudi benefactors.
         There were sporadic clashes on roads leading into Mukalla, but none within the city itself. She also said that coalition airstrikes were hitting targets that had already been repeatedly bombed.
        Mohammed al-Yazidi, a Mukalla-based writer, said during the operation that locals were surprised at the “prompt and bloodless exit” of AQAP from the city.
         Hisham al-Omeisy, a Yemeni political analyst, similarly reported that there was “no real battle” as AQAP fighters had left the city within twelve hours. Yet, he said: Coalition capitalise, claim huge battle killed 800. In other words, the Saudi ‘victory’ against AQAP in Mukalla was achieved without a single fire-fight in the city.

The US and UK collude in Saudi pipeline plan        While under al-Qaeda’s control, Hadramawt had remained curiously free from Saudi aerial bombardment since the beginning of the war. The province is central to a long standing Saudi plan, supported by the US and UK, to install an oil and gas pipeline route through Yemen to the Gulf of Aden. The idea is to bypass Iranian influence via the Strait of Hormuz. Regional oil supplies must currently pass through the Strait to reach world oil markets.
       The pipeline plan is mentioned in a top secret 2008 State Department cable from the US embassy in Yemen to the Secretary of State: A British diplomat based in Yemen told PolOff [US embassy political officer] that Saudi Arabia had an interest to build a pipeline, wholly owned, operated and protected by Saudi Arabia, through Hadramawt to a port on the Gulf of Aden, thereby bypassing the Arabian Gulf/Persian Gulf and the straits of Hormuz.
        Ousted Yemeni President Abdullah Saleh had originally supported the project, but eventually became its chief opponent.

The full article is a must read HERE:

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

Undying Desire To Be Free.

        Gabriel Pombo da Silva's first letter of gratitude and commitment from outside the Spanish state's cages.
From Act For Freedom Now:

      “Anarchism concerns the individual, not only with regards to collectivity but also with regards to itself’. Anarchism is not directed at the “citizen” but to people.” – Albert Libertad.

Dear comrades,

        Finally, after endless games and chicanery by the prison institution and the ministry of the interior they were forced to obey their own laws, which they constantly break, here I am finally free, writing these first words of gratitude and love to all those who over these past 30 years have accompanied me and reaffirmed my own anarchist beliefs, putting into practice the basic values and principles of anarchism like mutual support and solidarity and have finally managed to pluck me from the clutches of the prison beast which I will continue fighting from the street without forgetting, obviously, the combat being waged outside.

          I am certain that even in all of this I am very privileged to have had the support of comrades, because there are many who do not have this possibility. In the coming days we will send out statements in more specific terms about what concerns our movement and possible strategies that we must develop so that we can cure the revolutionary anarchism of our elders of all institutionalism and insubstantial chatter. I want to be clear that I will never forget our libertarian comrades imprisoned in the spanish state and around the world, particularly Mónica, Francisco, Claudio, and the latest comrade to be arrested who will soon be extradited to the german state, and many more unnamed.

         There is still so much to do, I know, and it will certainly not remain undone due to lack of will, passion and commitment. In these moments I won’t refer to the pettiness implemented by the prison administration to try to impede my release because we will be documenting this with official papers that denote, clearly, how crude and cunning the justice administration in this country is.

           I am free and apparently in 45 days they intend to imprison me again, they will unleash their hounds on me. Obviously, I will not go voluntarily or participate in any way in any kind of agreement or negotiated release with those disgusting people. Therefore I suppose that I have no choice but to continue, as always, fighting from the shadows, supporting those processes and anti-authoritarian projects that I consider it necessary to give life to with all the means I can reach from my imposed clandestinity.

       It would be impossible to mention here all the people and organisations that have supported me throughout all these years, because they are too many. I only want them to know that they can count on me yesterday, today and forever for anarchism and social revolution.

         Today, from a place outside the walls, huge greetings to all my sisters and brothers in latin america and southern europe, with the confidence that we will find ourselves on this journey and project of emancipation that is our lives in struggle.

Gabriel Pombo da Silva   10th June, 2016.

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

American Slave Labour Camps.

       The American prison system is nothing less than slave labour camps, where billions of dollars of merchandise is produced for the American military and large corporations, and the prisoners get no choice in the matter.
          Regarding the action against the American prison system, June 13th. from Free Marius Mason site. 

         Greetings to all the good folks who are coming together on this day to fight together against an important Environmental Justice issue. It inspires me to see that friends in the environmental movement and friends in the prison abolition movement are seeing some essential common ground, to join forces and visions in their work.
       Many, many years ago in Detroit, I and a small group of neighbors got together to oppose a trash incinerator that was being built in the city, in our neighborhood. At one of the many public hearings, I accosted an EPA official who had signed off on a report that said that the fatalities due to the operation of this monstrosity would be about 40 people. His answer to me, was that was only if people were exposed to the toxins coming from the stack every day, all day. His assertion was that most people would go away from the area, either by moving or for vacation or for work…..but this was a false assumption. The poor people of my neighborhood were stuck there, many were house-bound elders or small children, and most of us who were able to work did so minutes away from the faculty. We were in essence a sacrifice community, deemed expendable because of our poverty or our race. We eventually lost our fight, for the most part. But were able to get them to put the state of the art capture technology on the Incinerator that would NOT have been put in place had it not been for our intense struggle. Direct action really does get the goods, but you have to be in it for the long haul.
        No one is more locked into one spot for the long haul than are the prisoners incarcerated in the United States; so many for decades on end. Many are prohibited from transfer and would certainly be exposed relentlessly to any toxic source that was on the premises. And as recent litigation has proved..hardly anyone is less likely to be served as to their medical needs. So the curse of a toxic facility on a prison population is doubled by the lack of access to any monitoring or treatment. Given that the prison population is overwhelmingly people of color, trans and queer folks and poor people – the result is a great human rights tragedy as well as the thoughtless destruction of an environment that is literally coming apart, unable to withstand the damage that our society is inflicting on it.
     As an environmental and animal rights activist, as a trans prisoner of conscience, as someone whose choice and whose voice are so often taken away by the system – I am infinitely grateful to all of you who are here today to insist that we want a world that cares and respects all beings and this Earth. Thank you for speaking for so many who cannot. I wish you strength and success in your campaign.

We are all in it for the long haul, love and solidarity,

Marius Mason

Write to Marius.

        We encourage everyone to write to Marius in prison:


Marie (Marius) Mason #04672-061
FMC Carswell
Federal Medical Center
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TX 76127

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

Squat The World.

          Squatting is one path to where we are going. A brief statement from a relatively new squat in Exarchia, Athens. Solidarity across borders could help it keep functioning.

         Since April 21st 2016, we have occupied an abandoned private house on 119, Zoodochou Pigis Street. It’s Cat’s spirit, where we want to have a base for anarchist people, especially new people arriving in Exarchia. The plan is to create an open space for both anarchists and refugee activists, but also for people in emergency housing need.
Squatting is always a political action. We are fighting against private property in a capitalist system that created it. We are trying to live in a different way: collective, dignified and self-organised.
         After having abandoned the building for years, on June 6th 2016 a woman presenting herself as one of its owners threatened to call the police if we didn’t pay a rent in the next days. The reality is that we’ve expropriated one empty and destroyed house, and we are trying to live in it. So, we refuse any kind of negotiation with the owners.
         We believe in solidarity with all self-organised places in Exarchia, in order to show to the system that we will continue to resist and fight for autonomy and freedom.
         Let’s all be ready to support self-organised spaces everywhere!
SQUAT THE WORLD! RESISTANCE!
Cat’s spirit

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

Hello Lamp Post, What Kind Of Day Have You Had?

 

        It seems that the citizens of the fair city of Bristol are to be part of a large and very expensive experiment. They are soon to be enmeshed in a web of connectivity, an invisible spider's web of waves and pulses. The City council with the help of hi-tec giants, universities and pots of money will be working together to create a magic world of an all joined up society. Lamp posts, bus stop and other inauspicious objects will become points of communication. The latest face recognition and crowd analysis will be employed, the powers that be boast of the wonderful benefits, stating that it could mean that if there was an accident, the emergency services could be notified before you can reach for your phone. Of course they don't mention that with all that face recognition and crowd analysis, that other service, the one with the riot shields and truncheons could arrive before you can reach for your phone. Another feature they seem to be getting carried away with is, you will be able to communicate with the said lamp posts and bus stops and have some sort of conversation, and others will be able to hear and see what has been going on there, swapping information. Doesn't it sound wonderful, you will be able to communicate with everybody without actually meeting anybody. So when you tire of watching crap TV or playing with your game consul, you can walk down the high street and have a conversation with a lamp post, or perhaps your fancy is a nice bus stop, this they say is connecting the city!! 

      What it boils down to is a super surveillance system where there is no hiding place, no need to came face to face with another human being, or are you naive enough to think that all this money and effort is being spent for the benefit of the citizens of the fair city of Bristol. If it is successful, in the eyes of the powers that be, it will be rolled out across the country. The perfect controllable society, where people can function in isolation, always being observed and recorded, a system where decisions are made by algorithms, computers and faceless individuals. Welcome to the world of connectivity. 

This from 325:

       City authorities and allied technological entrepreneurs are working to kit out Bristol with a city-wide ‘digital fabric’ of the very latest in sensor and connectivity technology, to make it the world’s first open ‘programmable city’. A high-speed fibre-optic network (making use of disused cable ducting owned by the council) is being combined with a new ‘city operating system’ that will power an experimental network. In the coming spring of 2016, 1,500 sensor-equipped lampposts are being launched around the city; the vast majority of Bristol will be covered in a Radio Frequency (RF) mesh. This is predicted to revolutionise the way that emergency response, traffic management and other municipal services are handled, and track certain vehicle locations, with eventual alleged trickle-down ‘benefits’ such as informing residents of parking spaces and air pollution (ahem, from those parking spaces) in an increasingly mechanised and technified environment.-------

And there is more:

---------The sensors will collate vast amounts of raw data, which the council is already equipt with various ‘Big Data’ processing platforms to analyse; Bristol has already opened up almost two hundred of the city’s data sets on traffic flows and energy use, crime trends, targeted advertising, generating new innovative businesses, as well as encouraging citizens to interact with the city in new, digitalised ways. ‘Acoustic detection sensors’ have also been mentioned; similar uses have been made of microphone-equipt lampposts in major cities of the United States, with audio recording and gunshot detectors linked straight to police targeting ‘high crime areas’, to be combined with surveillance video. As opposed to the reactions which their use in obtaining convictions have earned across the Atlantic, as a precursor to the Bristol Is Open initiative the PAN innovation team began a four-week project in Bristol during 2013 called Hello Lamp Post, to introduce smart-city technologies more ‘softly’. The project’s co-creator, Ben Barker, was featured in media at the time. “Smart cities, where technologies play an important role, tend to be perceived as high on efficiency yet low on warmer, human elements, Barker explains. “Our starting point was a desire to use the city’s existing infrastructure to encourage human interaction through storytelling and story sharing.” ” In a bizarre mix between Artificial Intelligence and a chat forum, users were offered the opportunity to ‘communicate’ with street furniture like lampposts, postboxes, and bus stops via text message by using the repair numbers found on these objects as SMS codes. The object would “wake up” and respond in kind with a series of text messages, “sharing interesting content about that specific location left by others who’ve come before”.

The full, well worth reading article, can be found HERE:

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

What If------!!

          Some thoughtful words from Not Buying Anything:

       What is the ethos of our time? Most people would agree that it is the American Dream, or globally speaking, the Consumer Dream.
An ethos is defined as "the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations." So ours is something like - work hard and you will be able to buy everything you have ever wanted. As nice as this lie sounds, it has had some unintended consequences.
         There are currently several individuals in the world that are in the running for designation "First Trillionaire". They truly exemplify the ethos of our day, which could also be read as "The Ethos of More".
But only for me. Not for you. My gain is at your expense because there is a scarcity of everything. There is not enough so we have to compete with each other, and winner takes all. This is a distortion of the facts when we live in an infinitely abundant universe. “If you perceive the universe as being a universe of abundance, then it will be. If you think of the universe as one of scarcity, then it will be… 

         I always thought that there was enough to go around - that there are enough ideas in the universe and enough nourishment. It’s very hard to move beyond the idea that there is not enough to go around, to move beyond that sense of ‘I better get mine before anybody else takes it away from me’.” 

- Milton Glaser

       Our current ethos, The Consumer Dream, has become The Planetary Nightmare.We need a new characteristic spirit to guide us, one diametrically opposed to the one we have today.
        In an abundant world there is plenty to address everyone's need, but there will never be enough to fulfil the greed of even a few. Needs are finite, while greed is unlimited.
        What if we are not as greedy as the economists tell us we are? Maybe we don't have infinite wants, or wouldn't if it weren't for being immersed in profit propaganda and advertising our whole lives. Maybe, with a new world view, people would give simplicity a try, and discover that a simple life of limited wants is a sustainable, happy existence. It is enough.
Imagine if, in an Ethos of Abundance, we all thought that there was more than enough to satisfy the needs of every human on the planet. In such a world view we could freely share the gifts of Earth with everyone taken care of in the healthiest way possible.
        In such a world we would spend our time taking care of ourselves and those around us in a spirit of cooperation and sharing. Most people would agree that this would be preferable to competition and perpetual war.
         It is an idea whose time has come. Goodbye American Dream, hello Enough For Everyone. Gift what you can - receive what you need.

"What if...

Everyone started sharing, just a little bit
With everyone else,
something that they liked to do
and didn’t charge for it?

I like making art and growing plants.
In current society, I have to sell
“things” or my “time” to live.

But if I gave some of my art
And some of my plants away,
And other people gave away some of what they do
Before long our society
Would have a different shape.

I believe we would soon have
More time for 'giving'
than for 'selling'."

- Candace Ross

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

Another World War, Whose Side Are You On?

         Pick your country, and there is a need for solidarity across those borders, as the various states use their purloined power to stifle any attempt by the people to reclaim that power. There is a world war going on at the moment, it is the war against the tyranny and exploitation of the capitalist system, it is a world wide class war. If we want a world of freedom and justice, a world we would be proud to hand to our children and our grandchildren, then it is a war we must win. 

         We have to forget those phoney lines drawn on maps by kings, presidents and dictators, and realise that the struggle, in any part of this world, by people defending their conditions or fighting for a decent life, is our struggle. The system we are fighting is world wide, it is not national, though states call on us to be patriotic, their masters, the capitalist system, is never patriotic, they laugh at those same borders they insist we observe. 

        Today French unions, students and undocumented workers have been in the streets day and night to reject the anti-labour reform pushed through the government without a vote. Not that our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media notices. They are on the streets defending some meagre conditions that they wrestled from the system, and it now wants them back. That struggle is our struggle, it is the same system, what is implemented there can and will be implemented elsewhere if it suits the profit motive. Don’t be fooled by the propaganda that the French workers have it easy with their guaranteed 35 hour week. The facts are somewhat different. The French workers on average work longer hours than their UK and German counterparts. The figures for 2014 show that on average the French workers worked 37.5 hours per week, UK, 36.1 and German workers, 35.3. Like all conditions for workers, they can be manipulated at will by employers. 

         Those in struggle in France are part of that world wide class war, they are planning a general strike for June 14, it demands all the support and solidarity we can muster. Let the borders melt, we are one people in one gigantic struggle. Our solidarity is our most powerful weapon, if we use it we can win.

 Some points from the French labour reform bill.

• The 35-hour week in theory remains, but as an average. Firms can negotiate with local trade unions on more or fewer hours from week to week, up to a maximum of 46 hours.
  
• Firms are given greater freedom to reduce pay.
  
• The new law creates easier conditions for laying off workers, which is regulated in France.
  
• Employers given greater scope to negotiate holidays and special leave, such as getting married and maternity leave.
  

Where in this is there anything that is a gain to the workers? It is an employers bill

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

The Grand Illusion.

      What a hullabaloo about the possibility of a woman president in America. All those women shouting about feeling empowered, remember Thatcher? As one woman put it, "I fell as empowered by a woman president as I do about women cops". Then of course we had that other earth shattering empowering moment in America, when the first black man was was voted in as president. Suddenly all the people of colour in America were empowered, my arse. Things will go on as before, the financial Mafia will rule, the new figurehead might indicate a slight difference in emphasis, but not direction.

      How much money was thrown at Hilary to get her where she is? Well it was a cool $296.4 million, that's what you need to be empowered in the capitalist world of America. All those big backers that threw their money at her will be waiting in the wings to get their pay-back if she gets to the Whitehouse. and that's where the empowerment goes, never to "the women", "the people of colour" or any other group of ordinary people. 

       Every four years we are subjected to this grand illusion, this spectacle of mass insanity, where millions think that by all voting for one person, the system will change. Out goes one figurehead, in pops another, but the power moguls still sit with their hands on the power levers. Of course there might be a few titbits thrown here and there, some crumbs for the peasants, a sort of window dressing, but not necessarily so.

       Think of the number of presidents and prime ministers that have been ushered in on a wave of misplaced belief that this would bring change, here we are, in the twenty first century, and the result is a planet facing destruction, a world at war, poverty rampant, and the gap between rich and poor ever widening. Can't we wake up to the fact that this system doesn't work. There is an alternative, first we have to get rid of corporate power, dispel the illusion of capitalist representative democracy and take power into our own hands. We don't need presidents, prime ministers, CEO, and other hoarders of wealth and power, we can have a fairer system of distribution and see to the needs of all our people, if we really want it to be that way. 

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