Friday, 3 February 2017

Avalanche 10.

 
       Avalanche puts out an appeal for all your tales, stories, adventures, activities, actions, planned and past. It helps to unite and strength us, and sets out a learning process from other's experiences. It also alerts the public at large that we are not asleep as the world goes crashing along on its destructive corporate capitalist course.
Dear comrades,
       We make this call out for contributions for the next issue of the anarchist correspondence paper Avalanche.
Texts concerning anarchist interventions, ongoing struggles, past
experiences, critical evaluations, broader reflections on the anarchist struggle, can be send until the 1st of march 2017 to the following email:
correspondance@riseup.net
        Thanks for telling us as fast as possible if you think on sending a contribution.

Queridos companeros,
Hacemos esto llamamiento a contribuciones por el proximo numero de la revista de correspondencia anarquista Avalancha.
Se puede mandar textos sobre intervenciones anarquistas, conflictos en curso, experiencias del pasado, balances criticas, reflexiones mas amplias sobre la lucha anarquista, antes del 1 de marzo 2017 en este correo:
correspondance@riseup.net
       Gracias de decirnos lo mas antes possible si pensais en mandar una contribucion.

Chers compagnons,
On lance cet appel aux contributions pour le prochain numéro du journal de correspondance anarchiste Avalanche.
Les textes concernant d’interventions anarchistes, des conflits en cours, des expériences du passé, des évaluations critiques ou des réflexions plus amples sur la lutte anarchiste peuvent être envoyé avant le 1 mars 2017 à l’adresse suivante:
correspondance@riseup.net.
Merci de nous prévenir si vous pensiez envoyer une contribution.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Thursday, 2 February 2017

Has America Moved From The Path Of Righteousness???

         I find it encouraging that millions of people across the globe are taking to the streets to vent their anger at the agenda being driven by the new American emperor. However, my fear is that this rise in anger displayed against Emperor Trump, is tending to give the impression, that this new emperor has in one fell swoop, taken America from the path of righteousness. All that went before, was peace, justice and the rights of people, seems to be the illusion that is being created by this sudden up-swelling of mass anger. Let's not forget, America has been an imperialist nation since its invasion of the Philippines in 1899. Since then it has continued to overthrow elected governments, plan and implement subversion in other sovereign states, supported dictators, despots, replaced elected leaders with puppet dictators and supported military juntas, all this with a brutal savagery unparalleled in the history of the world. 
       It has done all this and more with impunity and the support of other Western nations. The now deposed emperor Obama is being held up with a glow of nostalgia, as how good things used to be, how he was the Prince of Peace, The Pope of Hope. But like other American emperors before him, he was brutal in pursuing the policy of American world dominance. 
      Before we look at Emperor Obama's foreign legacy, a quick glance at his home results:
This from Politicus:
      So during his reign, he has decimated the conditions of the American people, but the shear savage ferociousness of his foreign policy stands as testament to his unstinting support for American corporatism.
        While Emperor Obama reduced the number of US troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, he increased dramatically the air wars and use of special operations forces around the world. 2016, saw US special operators in 70% of the world’s countries, 138 sovereign statesa staggering jump of 130% since Emperor Bush retired.
          During 2016, Emperor Obama was responsible for dropping at least 26,171 bombs, most in Iraq and Syria, but also in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. His drone policy is the stuff of nightmares, raining down death and destruction at an alarming rate of at least ten times that of Emperor Bush.  This means that every day last year, the US military blasted combatants or civilians overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day. That is what we are supposed to look back at with weeping eyes of nostalgia of the "good old days" 
           So let's get it straight, the new Emperor Trump has not moved America in a different direction, he is just more blatantly open about what he intends to do. Our anger should not be directed at the new emperor, but at the system that he and previous emperors have been inflicting on the world for generations. So yes, let's take to the streets to protest the brutality of this system, let's display our anger, let's move to bring down this system, no matter who sits on the throne. 
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Careful Who You Call Comrade!!

 
          We all know, or should know, the depth of depravity, the repugnant subterfuge that any state will accept as right and proper, in its attempt to intimidate and silence any opposition to its control of the people. Undercover paid scum, who live by lying and the deception of those who offer them trust. Other times the state apparatus will, by threat and inducement, use desperate and vulnerable people as their tool for fabricating phony evidence. Sadly, we know that under the present system of corporate capitalism, you will find this type of state behavioured in any country on the planet you care to name. In this instance, it happens to be Spain, but we in this country have recently, had this stench of state deception poison our nostrils. This is what you vote for, the continuation of this corrupt, greed driven system of exploitation, held together by coercion, threat, illusion and brute force. 
 Careful who you call comrade!
          Tuesday, 24 January, on the outskirts of Vigo (Mos), a deployment of about 60 armed men between the Guardia Civil and secret agents, searched (and almost destroyed) the house where Gabriel Pombo da Silva had lived for a few months with his partner Elisa Bernardo. At dawn the two were violently awakened, handcuffed and separated … aim: to find firearms and explosives! The search lasted about eight hours and in spite of the means employed (dogs and high technology radar tools), gave no results … among the things seized there is the usual “interesting” anarchist material, cameras, maps of various cities, some cable and old malfunctioning cell phones.
While Elisa, despite the repeated threat of being placed under arrest unless she revealed the much desired hiding place, remained free, Gabriel was arrested on charges of “illegal possession and trafficking of weapons and explosives and armed group”. During the 24 hours’ detention (the release of the comrade happened, in fact, the next day) the facts were bitterly reconstructed.
          About three months ago the couple got to know a self-proclaimed anarchist comrade who, during the few opportunities to meet, “confesses” her problems with drugs and a conditional sentence she is doing because of an arrest suffered in 2013 on charges of being the author of an attack with Molotov cocktails on an institution in Vigo. Heart in hand, Gabriel and Elisa, respond to the request for help from the “comrade”, accepting her for a week (at the beginning of the year) in the aforementioned house to accompany her in the worst phase of a path of detoxification. After this brief period, the girl returns to her own home … reappearing as informer (of false information) the day prior to the present named “Operación Buyo”.
If we had not received certain news that during her previous arrest she had defamed other people, we would have limited ourselves to considering her a “victim of the system”, but that is not so. Maria, this is her name, is currently in jail on the same charges as Gabriel, probably hoping that being the daughter of a military leader can help her to avoid the worst since an arsenal of firearms was found at her home. In 2013, in fact, despite the charges of terrorism, one saw the sentence being reduced significantly (from 11 to 2 years !!!), then converted to parole, with her remaining imprisoned not more than a few months. With all the hatred toward the repressive system, prison and the judicial system, it is inevitable to wonder since when do those who claim themselves as anarchists receive such treatment. Each to their own conclusions.
               Gabriel, for now on bail and under investigation … comments on this latest repressive operation thus:
Read the full article HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

Policies Written In Blood.

         The following video is of West's powerful butchers, the power mongers of NATO, the brutal protectors of the West's corporate imperialists. Having wined and dined on our money, they display their arrogance by proclaiming their belief, "We are the world", their joyous and flamboyant display disguises their savagery, their blood socked past, and their brutal destructive vision. When will we rise up and rid ourselves of this militarised savagery and corporate greed. Their policies are written in the blood of ordinary people, and it is all about plundering of resources, corporate greed and state power.
Thanks Loam for the link:



       At the Istanbul meeting on 13 May 2015, NATO leaders finished a well-watered meal. They mock the cretins who believe in them by singing "We are the world". This video is of Jens Stoltenberg, General Philip Breedlove, Federica Mogherini and many of the West's Defence Ministers.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Tuesday, 31 January 2017

Legalised Plunder And Murder.


        The Greek situation has fallen of the agenda of that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, their short concentration span has moved on to “the refugee crisis” to terrorism in Europe then on to that dangerous nut-case Trump. That doesn’t mean that things in Greece are fine and dandy, far from it. The people of Greece are still suffering poverty and deprivation at the hands of the financial Mafia. Some of the figures are staggering. Take the population of Greece, since the financial Mafia took dictatorial control of Greece, the population has gone from 11.1 million in 2011 to 11.0 million in 2015, for a small country, that’s a remarkable drop. Unemployment shows an equally devastating trend in the opposite direction going from 17.9% in 2011 to 25% in 
2015. Looking at the volume of money the Troika, ( EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) have poured into Greece, you would imagine that its problems should be sorted. Of course we all know that the money shuffling is an illusion, though they say they are giving it to Greece, it doesn’t actually stay there. Around approximately 80% goes back to the financial Mafia in interest payments, so the problem of Greece’s debt remains. In fact the amount of public debt, (state debt) has risen from 172% of GDP in 2011 to 177% of GDP in 2015.
         To show how little concern the Troika have for the people of Greece you just have to look at their response to the Greek government’s meagre Christmas handout to to pensioners earning less than €800 a month. They have said that Greece has broken the conditions of its loans and they will have to look at what to do.
          To grasp the reality of the situation of the people of Greece, all you need do is focus on the fact that the poorest 20% of Greece’s 11 million people have suffered a 42% drop in disposable income since 2009, and during the “Greek crisis” the country has lost over 25% of its GDP – the biggest downturn to be experienced by an advanced western economy in peacetime. All this because the European banks, mainly German, threw too much money into the gambling casino that was Greece’s “economic bubble”. It was all done to make lots of money for the financial Mafia, and when the bubble burst, the gamblers started to cry, and wanted their money back. In steps the Troika, and under the banner of austerity, it starts to stripe all the wealth out of Greece, plunging the people of that unfortunate country into poverty, deprivation, unemployment, stress and trauma, with the resultant effects such as massive increase in suicides, substances abuse, homelessness, mental and physical health problems, confounded by the collapse of social services, including health and education. This year will see more cuts to salaries and pensions in real terms, as far as the people of Greece are concerned, the storm is gathering pace. All of this is a human tragedy happening here in super rich Europe, but to our babbling brook of bullshit, it is old news and not worthy of reporting.
         To compound the situation of the people of Greece, while the financial Mafia is mercilessly plundering all assets from that unfortunate country, we should remember that Greece is the main landing point of those hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the imperialists’ blood curling adventures in the Middle East. Greece is now home to thousands of refugees who are herd up like cattle and detained in concentration camps. Greece, a country because of the financial Mafia’s brutal policy of austerity and plunder, is probably the least able of the EU countries to cope with this traumatising, and avoidable human tragedy. The agony of the people in Greece is nothing short of legalised plunder and murder.
         Nine months after the EU-Turkey refugee agreement and the official closing of the Balkan route towards north Europe, thousands of refugees and migrants are being forced to live indefinitely in concentration camps across Greece, in horrendous conditions, with no hope for tomorrow, being exposed to below zero temperatures, in inadequate and unacceptable dwellings or even tents.
         The tragic images of refugees living in tents covered with snow and barefoot toddlers in the muddy water of the camps, waiting in long queues for a plate of food under unbearable temperatures, are still fresh. Despite government claims that the measures for the protection of refugees from the adverse weather conditions have been successfully completed, the preparation for protecting migrants and refugees who are trapped in the Greek islands has failed, despite the millions of euros that have been given to prepare for the winter, which recently has been harsh even for Greek weather standards. And it’s no wonder, since the Greek government, local municipalities and NGO’s see refugees as a business opportunity.
        And for these reasons for many months since the initial wave of refugees coming to Greece in 2015 the government and the police -through media propaganda and arrests- managed to demonize and barred all the hundreds of volunteers that in a self organized manner were helping the thousands of refugees arriving to Greece. Then they imprisoned the refugees into camps guarded by the police, from which they are allowed out of them for few hours a day, (which is pointless in most cases since they are situated far away from villages or cities, so that contact with people and necessary services is avoided or prevented), forbidden outsiders to visit the camps, even reporters or photojournalists without supervised permission and directed all the money to NGO’s to run the camps (many of them were set up just a bit after the first refugee waves sensing the flow of money to the European entry point of Greece). There have even been situations were local authorities used the money they got to hire people to help the refugees indeed to hire employees but use them for completely different duties serving the local authorities, based on the excuse that greece is under financial crisis, thus we see these appealing conditions in camps were already to refugees have died in January.


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

Monday, 30 January 2017

This Is Not a Dialogue.


          I have always maintained that this society will always encourage you to debate anything, but punish you if you try to change things. As long as we fail to see this society as a class war with two diametrically opposed sides, and one side holds all the power levers, we are doomed to enter into an endless and pointless conversation that goes under the label of dialogue. If you are bound by the rules of your opponent, then you are not in a fair and equal dialogue. If the ground rules are shaped by your opponent, and backed up by threat, you are not in a equal dialogue. You cannot discuss capitalism into a fair and just system, that’s not how the system works. Under capitalism, the reality is that the majority will always have to struggle to get a reasonable standard of living, while the corporate bosses and their henchmen, will live in unimaginable opulence, that’s how the system functions. We can’t enter into a dialogue under such conditions, it is an illusion created by our opponents to weave passivity over society, a trick for continuity of the system. What we want is to frame the argument in our value structure, equality, justice, freedom and sustainability, realise that we can’t have those conditions under capitalism, forget the illusionary, action sapping dialogue, and organise to destroy the existing system. 
         This is not a dialogue. How could you be so naïve? A dialogue—from which some of the participants can be deported at any time? A dialogue—in which one side keeps shooting and incarcerating the other side? A dialogue—in which a few people own all the networks and radio stations and printing presses, while the rest have to make do with markers and cardboard signs? A dialogue, really?
          You’re not in a dialogue. You’re in a power struggle. All that matters is how much force you can bring to bear on your adversaries to defend yourself from them. You can bet that if you succeed, they will accuse you of breaking off the dialogue, of violating their free speech. They will try to lure you back into conversation, playing for time until they need no more stratagems to keep you passive while they put the pieces in place for tyranny.
          This isn’t a dialogue—it’s a war. They’re gambling that you won’t realize this until it’s too late. If freedom is important to you, if you care about all the people marked for death and deportation, start taking action.
Read the full article HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Saturday, 28 January 2017

"Fastest Growing Economy In Europe".


        A little bit more of my thoughts on the “fastest growing economy in Europe”. a phoney growth built on a mountain of personal debt. While this is held up as a success story by our corporate minded lords and masters, its fruits to you and I are nothing like a success story. As I mentioned in my previous post on this illusion, child poverty is on the increase, homelessness is on the increase, those in temporary accommodation are on the increase, those sleeping rough is on the increase. We can add to that, this year saw an increase in insolvency and bankruptcies. Then we have the number being locked up in our vastly over-crowed prisons is on the increase, with obvious resultant riots. So the dystopian vision materialises with other details such as a massive increase in prisoners suicides and self-harm. All this is the world of the ordinary people in this the fifth richest country in the world. Where is all that extra wealth generated from this “fastest growing economy in Europe” going? Certainly not to our National Health Service, as it crumbles under the stress of under funding and under manning, in preparation for its slicing and dicing for sale to the corporate greed merchants. Our education system is falling apart for much the same reasons as our NHS, with the result that the future potential of millions of kids will be stunted. Yet we are supposed to feel satisfaction, and take comfort in the fact that we are the “fastest growing economy in Europe”. 
        The crap coming from the mouths of our lords and masters sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, is that ever increasing trade will solve all our problems. Hence their scurrying around post Brexit, screaming about trade deals with all and sundry, dictators, fascist regimes and despots, as long as the corporate world can make money from the deal. As long as we frame the problem in these terms of ever increasing trade, we will lose the argument. Ever increasing trade is the life blood of the corporate world and will only widen the gap between rich and poor, will only fatten the bank accounts of the corporate greed merchants. Instead of pushing for ever increasing trade, we should be framing the argument in terms of building self sufficiency, with a decent life for all, seeing to the needs of all our people, and what ever surplus we have distributing in the form of mutual aid to those communities still struggling for self sufficiency. Removing profit from the equation and allowing the corporate world to die is the only road to equality, the only way to end poverty and deprivation. We should be aiming for a world where all the wealth that is created should be delivery to all those who created that wealth and those who are in need. We should see the phrase, “the fastest growing economy in Europe” as the slogan of the greed driven corporate world and as the death knell of equality.

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


Thursday, 26 January 2017

Growing Economy, Growing Poverty,


       That babbling cabal that infests the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, are continually telling us that we are living in the fastest growing economy in Europe. They trumpet, employment is up, unemployment is down, wages are rising, and we should all be feeling yippedy doda and be extremely grateful. All smoke and mirrors, all illusion and lies. That “fastest growing economy” is not based on making things and exporting, it is made up of consumerism and ever growing personal debt, hardly an economic success story.
       What does this “fastest growing economy” look like to you and I? Well let’s look at children, The number of children in absolute poverty has increased by 0.5 million since 2010. At present nine children in a class of 30, will be living in poverty. Of course the babbling cabal are always making adjustment to taxes and benefits, supposed to be for our benefit, but according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, as a direct result of tax and benefit decisions made since 2010, the number of children in relative poverty will have risen from 2.3 to 3.6 million by 2020. Our babbling cabal of the money class, will always spout, “get a job you lazy poor and that will sort everything out”, well not so, Two-thirds (66 per cent) of children growing up in poverty live in a family where at least one member works.
       Let’s look at homelessness, during the period 2014- 2016 the number of those accepted by councils, (England) as homeless rose by 6%, while for the same period, those housed in temporary accommodation (England) rose by 23%. Sadly, and shockingly, those at the bottom of that poverty/homelessness crime, those sleeping rough, saw a massive increase 16% from 2015 to 2016(England).
        These are the facts on the ground, in the real world where you and I live, a million miles away from that babbling cabal of money, greed and privilege. While you and I struggle to get a decent living, they on the other hand, spend their time waffling and babbling in endless pointless circles, making sure nothing changes. Their main purpose is to make sure the wealth and the power remains securely in their hands. Ah, the wonders of capitalism. 
Endless Babble.
 
 The questions arise, why war and hunger?
Why does poverty continue to linger?
Why such need in a world of wealth?
Why put a price on a child's health?
Confused and angry the public stand
gazing in disbelief at this pathetic band.
Those shiny politicians designed by spin
their street credibility paper thin
the great persuaders looking the mood
struggling so hard just for our good!!
Masters of the art of wheeling and dealing
exceptional experts at legal stealing.
Enter the media, drowning us all in trivial text,
everything you need know
of scandal and sport, crime and sex.
Together they create a world of confusion
all fashion and style, a vicious illusion.
So no matter how often we point at need,
we always drown in a sea of greed,
no debate entered into, no answers found,
the waffle the babble goes round and round.

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

Insanity Reigns.




        I don't suppose you would get this information from your morning feed from that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. People are rightly concerned about our local area being the cesspool for dodgy nuclear weapons of mass destruction, that don't work properly. Apart from these monstrosities going off on their own whim to where ever they please, they are not even under our control, we are just storing them, manning them, and paying for them, to help the Americans attempt to control the world. On top of this fiasco of nuclear weapons that go off in the opposite direction from their instructions, we have just received the information that a number of years ago, a Russian nuclear submarine and an American nuclear submarine collided in the waters of the River Clyde. A incident that could have reaped disaster for the whole of the Clyde estuary and beyond, but was signed off to the secrecy file. Where will this madness end, especially now we have a weirdo, maladjusted, mentally unstable, narcissist, sitting on  the throne of the American empire.  

From 325:
Anti-nuclear activists interrupt the routines of HMNB Clyde (UK)
UPDATE: 07.45 AM
        The two remaining anti-nuclear activists have now been removed from the road leading to the south gate of HMNB Clyde and arrested by the MoD police. As far as we know, all three arrested activists are being taken to Clydebank and expected to be released later.
       This morning, (25th. January) at 06.45 AM, four anti-nuclear activists blocked the ongoing morning traffic at the south gate of HMBB Clyde in Faslane. Action was recorded by activists from the nearby Faslane Peace Camp, a protest site dedicated to campaigning against nuclear weapons since 1982. The protesters interrupted the morning routines by walking into the line of traffic and pulling a banderol over the road.
        Three activists formed a sit-in blockade, shutting the entry and soon causing a traffic jam of estimated 300 cars. The undercover MoD police car and a regular police vehicle arrived to the scene soon. The protesters are being cleared from the road. Three arrests are to be expected.
         The action is in response to the revelation of the Royal Navy misfiring of a Trident II D5 ballistic missile from the HMS Vengeance last June. Several sources reported that the missile, rather than heading towards Africa as intended, veered towards the Florida coast. There was also a discrepancy in the awareness of the event among elected officials who weeks later, voted in favour of renewing the missile defence system. It also emerged that Prime Minister Theresa May was briefed about the test and its results and did not inform MP’s.
        Besides the political issue, there is also a technical issue as the Trident missile is identical for both the US and UK. In turn, most of the tests are carried out by the US Navy.
       “How can UK’s nuclear destiny be claimed to be in safe hands when the country is surrendering its power structure to the Chinese, allowing the Americans to build these haphazard missiles and freely sharing vital secrets to a President whose views and opinions are as vague and inconsistent as they are bizarre and provocative”, says the activist Nick Timer, participating the action.
      As a result of the parliamentary vote last July, the decision was made to spend £40 billion to renew Trident. According to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the figures could well be in excess of £200bn.
      “With austerity hitting the majority of UK citizens, it causes immense concern that such sums of money continue to be ploughed into this bloated, ineffectual and unpopular white elephant. Indeed, we have to ask how effective a deterrent Trident is when the world’s superpowers can’t be assured that any retaliatory strike would even reach its intended target. Instead of heading towards a new arms race we need to simply find a way to scrap the nukes: and getting rid of Trident would set a good precedent“, says another activist Molly Garfield.
      The Faslane Peace Camp is a permanent protest camp dedicated on campaigning and protesting against nuclear weapons. The camp, located next to the HMNB Clyde, is celebrating its 35th Anniversary this year.

Contact:
faslanepeacecamp@protonmail.com
07376 188216
https://faslanepeacecamp.wordpress.com/
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk


Wednesday, 25 January 2017

Protectors Of Unearned Privileges



         Is it justice when the prosecution withholds material from the defence, stating that it is not relevant to the defence. Of course the prosecution is making that decision, not the defence. Is it justice if even the judge admits that he hasn’t seen all the relevant material. Well I suppose that is what we should expect from a judicial system that is there to protect the establishment’s power and privileges. 
  [update] Aachen: short report from the first day of trial           Today, 23rd of January, the first session of the trial took place against our anarchist comrades accused of robbing a Pax Bank branch in November 2014 in the city of Aachen.
         In the room there was the representative of the Prosecutor’s Office, the judge, the defendants with their respective lawyers, a “people’s jury” (which does not take decisions), journalists, who were not permitted to record inside the courtroom in compliance with the request of the defense lawyers (although their cameras were rolling outside the courtroom), and the public composed of family, friends and comrades of the defendants, who occupied the 30-40 seats available.
       After the procedural formalities and the reading of the accusations by the prosecutor (armed robbery and illegal weapons possession), one of the defense attorneys requested a deferral of three-weeks of the trial on the grounds that they did not have access to a part of the investigation files because the prosecution had not yet provided it. The lawyers argued that this hindered their ability to give a full and fair defense to their clients.
         After hearing the arguments of both the prosecution and the defense, the judge ordered the audience to leave the courtroom a total of three times to deliberate in private with both parties before rejecting the postponement.
       Among their arguments, the prosecution alleged the non-relevance of such documents for this case. Only in the end did they admit that there was an other part of the files that is related to the ongoing investigation, which they will not reveal.
       Even the judge acknowledged that he did not see a big part of the files that the defense demanded, but countered this by noting that this is common in many trials. However the lawyers insisted that the relevance or not of these documents should be decided by the defense not by the prosecution.
        Finally, the judge rejected the three-week deferral, but suspended the session on Thursday, January 26, to give the defense time to read the part of the investigation files to which access was granted (which is not all). The next session will be on February 9th, in principle the program of this day already includes some witnesses taking the stand, including a police officer of the Spanish state.
        Several supporters of different countries were present to show their support during the 4 and a half hour session. Our comrades received our warmth in cold Germany, while an exchange of glances and gestures of complicity were passing back and forth all morning, transmitting force, demonstrating once again that in the face of repression and confinement, solidarity among those in struggle defies walls and borders.
[found here: https://solidaritatrebel.noblogs.org
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk



Tuesday, 24 January 2017

The Eyes, And Voice of Jusrtice.


           I have always believed that those who have any talent such as a poet, musician, artist, actor, writer, have a duty to use that talent to record, display and highlight the truth, to inform and take sides on the side of justice and freedom. To do other, seems to me to be a waste of that talent, a dereliction of our responsibility to others.



We The Poets.

We the poets
must rise to hold the mirror,
not at romantic moon
dressing trees in silver web
but, at sadness in a child's eyes
helpless face festooned with flies,
the listless look of hunger.
We the writers
must rise to hold the mirror,
not at hopes of super stars
pandering to an ego of selfish greed
but, at misery of the world's maimed
duty done by smart bombs, computer aimed;
peoples crushed by pitiless power.
We the artists
must rise to hold the mirror
not at views from penthouse windows
of meadows green and lush
but, at peoples broken by starvation,
at war, its brother deprivation,
capitalism's bastard twins.
If across the planet as a whole
we don't stand up and play our role,
poet; heart of compassion,
writer; voice of conscience,
artist; eyes of justice,
we've cheated tomorrow's generation,
hurried the planet to extinction. 
 
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

These Dangerous Women.

       Because of the male dominated political parties and the male dominated babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, women have often been airbrushed out of history. However if you ever poke your nose into the history of working class struggle, you'll find that, not only were women there, but often they were major players at the forefront of that struggle. Women played a major role in the WWI peace movement and continue to be a force in the peace movement of today. In the struggle to improve working class conditions women have stood tall. We in Glasgow have a legion of women working class warriors that of which we can be very proud. Names such as Mary Barbour, Helen Crawfurd, Ethel MacDonald, Rita Milton, Jane Hamilton Patrick and too many to mention here. So any exhibition that highlights these women warriors and helps to redress the position, is worth supporting.  

Subject: Audacious Women festival:
Scottish WILPF Exhibition at Ocean Terminal

Dear All,
       If you haven't seen the Exhibition yet it will be at 'The Little Shop of Memories' Ocean Terminal 1st February to 3rd March.
      Please share the attached flyer with your friends and encourage people to go and see the exhibition.
       If you are not in Edinburgh and would like the Exhibition for a local venue please contact Scottish WILPF.

In peace
Anne Scott, Secretary Scottish WILPF



































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

Monday, 23 January 2017

The Mainstream Media, Weaver Of Illusions.

 
         Our perceptions of the world around us, our value structure, our vision of reality, is built on the information we receive. What happens if that information is false? If you rely on the bulk of your information from that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, the chances are that you will have a false vision of the world around you, a distorted view of reality. The babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is no more than a propaganda machine for the establishment. It is owned and controlled by a handful of very rich conglomerates, who obviously have a vested interest in protecting their wealth and power. For almost  the last couple of centuries, it has never been a source of accurate information, and it never will be. Those who own the babbling brook of bullshit have an agenda, apart from making money, and that is to shape public opinion, to shape it in favour of their idea of how the world should be run, and to protect that wealth and power.
In the following video, John Pilger lucidly points this out, quoting obvious lies that flourished as "news" and by disclosing facts regarding that babbling brook of bullshit.
Thanks Loam for the link. Just click on the "Watch on Vimeo" button below.


John Pilger at Off The Shelf Festival of Words, Sheffield, 27th October 2016 from Dartmouth Films on Vimeo.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk


Sunday, 22 January 2017

Stay With Us, On The Streets.

 
         It was very heart warming to see the hundreds of thousands of women from across the UK marching against Trumpism. The coming together of all those of different backgrounds to voice their anger at the vicious danger in this new wave of far right authoritarianism. My only concern is, where were you when Libya was being pulverised, where were you when the government was attacking, and still is, the disabled with its "assessment" scheme, where were you when benefit sanction drove people to suicide, and still does, where were you as hundreds of thousands of migrants, men, women and children, fleeing death and destruction, were being herded like cattle all across Europe, and still are. These injustices, and many more, are still with us, now that you have found your voice, please, stay on the streets, please, stay with us, we need you.  
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk