Black Books.

       This is what I call good news, and that is always welcome, so let's wish them all the best.

New Anarchist Infoshop at the Klinika squat in Prague…

        is primarily a free place where everyone should feel safe. Because we know that safe area in this world based on exclusion and domination, is only illusion, we want to focus on topics and activities geared towards horizontally structured society.
       In infoshop you can find interesting books/magazines, pamphlets, zines, etc. from various areas. Black Books is for lectures, workshops, screenings, discussions, but also for meetings with people, on the program anyone can participate.
      “Anarchist Infoshop” does not mean a closed space only for anarchists, but a place where diversity is welcome. What is definitely not welcome is any manifestations of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, colonialism and other forms of oppression.

Let’s start by imagining the world differently.

opening times:
     From January 23rd, Black books infoshop will open 2 times a week.
Open will be on Monday and Thursday from 16 to 21 hours.

        May places like this bloom like wild flowers in a meadow, where the people run free among them.

        My last post for a few days, we are off for a long weekend to escape computers, facebook, blogs, etc. for a wee while. Speak to you soon.

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

Roamin' In The Gloamin'.

 The lights on the shore are the Lodge on Loch Lomond Hotel.

        At the week end we took a wee trip up the Loch to Luss, the scenery was spectacular with most of the surrounding hills capped with snow, forgot to take some photos. In the local hotel I enjoyed a plate of Cullen Skink, (A fish soup, from a fishing village on the east coats of Scotland, called Cullen, where, like most poor areas, food was simple and local. The soup is made from haddock, potatoes and cream or milk, the word for soup in that area was "skink" hence Cullen soup, Cullen Skink.) Later we went for a walk in the "gloamin'" (For those not familiar with the Scots tongue, Gloamin' is just as the light is fading.) Some may remember the Scots singer/comedian Harry Lauder, whose famous song was "Roamin' in the Gloamin'. A popular guy who went on to become a recruiter for WWI, and learnt the hard way the brutality and stupidity of war, as his son was killed in battle. Our wee roamin' in the gloamin' took us down to the Luss pier and in that fading light the view was something to behold, and I did remember to take a couple of photos.

 A wee zoom in.

Quiet and still.

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

Until We Win,Victories Borrowed From The Exploiters.

      One lesson that is important to learn in this capitalist world is that each and every victory we win has to be guarded vigilantly and determinedly, or our lords and masters will take it back. Generations of workers rights gained through struggle are rapidly disappearing and being replaced with zero hours contracts and "self-employed" status and other schemes of exploitation. The social care aspect of society is being removed under the banner of austerity. No gains in this society are permanent, it is a perpetual struggle to just stand still and hold onto what we have.

       Some months ago the Dakota Access Pipeline was halted by determined and brave direct action of thousands, and there was considerable jubilation. At the time I stated that this was not the time to have a victory parade, as it had not been cancelled, just stopped to consider the best route. Well now those water protectors are being pushed from the area by the heavy repression equipment of the state. The hard won victory is being swept away by brute force. That is how this system of exploitation works, it is a war between two irreconcilable sides, won aiming to plunder the Earth's resources for wealth and power for the few, the other side, struggling for a better life for all. Only our victory over capitalism will guarantee that better world for all.

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

Religion, That Poisonous Snake.

       One of the many poisonous snakes in our society is religion. It slithers its way into all aspects of our life, seeking to control our thoughts and actions, based on weird and bizarre fairy tales from a bygone age. Because, through the generations, religion has been the handmaiden of established power, it is gifted a badge of special privileges, by that power, so it sees itself beyond criticism, and the guarantors of morality, despite its own litany of centuries of scandals, corruption and frauds. It will always attempt to capture our children and soak their forming minds with their man in the sky bullshit, distorting their value structure to suit the church's aims of control, and to stifle their ability to think for themselves.
       Recently, in Glasgow, there has been another case of the Catholic church surreptitiously feeding its anti-abortion dictate into the minds of young pupils.

“The really concerning thing is that the pupils in question weren't told the nature of the Mass - a ‘gathering’ to condemn the 50th anniversary of the Abortion Act - until they were en route to the Mass.” St. Benedict's High School pupil.

Read the full article HERE:

(I call that lying and cheating)

        The purpose of education is to try to teach our kids to think for themselves and come to rational decisions based on evidence. No where in that is there any room for trammelled thinking based on magic, miracles and myths. There is no way that religion should be allowed to interfere with the forming minds of young children. If their invisible man in the sky, is so powerful and all seeing, why do his minions on earth need to indoctrinate the minds of children? Can't he sort it all out by himself? Or does he always need the assistance weak, confused mortal earthlings, who can't even agree among them selves what is really the true interpretation of their invisible leader in the sky's words.
        If you love kids, and you want to see them grow into happy and freethinking individuals, then you must fight to remove religion from contaminating their education.

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

Who Are They?

          There is an ever increasing number of people who knowingly and deliberately break the rules, ignore the dictates of political party leaders, occupy buildings, turn up at protests, and who at times, according to the establishment, create "mayhem". They go under different banners, but have one aim in mind. The babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, condemns them, and writes a false history regarding them. It paints them as hooligans, bomb throwing thugs, assassins, and worse. Who are they?

The Rebel

Rebel rebel break the rule,

What does it matter that a “wise” man sees a fool.

Not for you the herd’s dull beat

Making tomorrow, yesterday’s repeat,

Living out the life of a clone

Marching with the crowd but always alone.

Shaping your life from some dusty tome

Playing it safe, staying at home.

Rebel rebel break the rule

Swim in the sea, never the pool.

Live your emotions, feel the surge

Follow your dreams, chase the urge.

Make life though short, an exciting game

Not a mad march for fortune or fame.

Capture the moment, live it now

Being alive your only vow.

Rebel rebel break the rule

In the end, you’re humanity’s jewel.

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

Deaths In European Concentration Camps.

 

         The horrifying plight of refugees trapped across Europe, in nothing short of cattle pens, is blatant racist state sponsored torture and murder. No where in Europe is this brutality more evident than in Greece, with its concentration camps dotted around the country. If you think concentration camps in Europe are a thing of the past, think again. There is no rational explanation for treating suffering and vulnerable people in this savage fashion, Europe is awash with wealth. It is deliberate state policy that is traumatising and killing these unfortunate humans that are fleeing death and destruction, planned and implemented by Western imperialism's greed driven foreign policy.  Obviously, free movement of people across Europe is an illusion, a fallacy, only for the chosen few.

This from Freedom:

        A barbarity against human existence itself is evolving in Greece. A serial crime, orderly by racist policies of the Greek Government. Refugee camps located throughout the country are structurally linked to the devaluation of human life. Deaths which have occurred within them are not coincidences or bad luck, they are the murderous effects of State racism. Every day that passes and concentration camps remain open finds refugees imprisoned in them, death gaining more and more space among the living — it becomes a banal daily routine. We must fight for the contrary: such death must not become normal.

Amid the hardest winter of recent years, thousands of people sleeping in summer tents, without access to clothing and medical care. Over the past ten days three refugees were killed in the camp of Moria bringing the total number of deaths in the camps in five. Among those who lost their lives was an infant, and there have been and another seven suicide attempts. The murderous nature of the camps is more than obvious.

        When the living conditions in the refugee camps cost human lives, official authorities remain publicly silent, and when forced to say something make qualifying statements, that they have “not yet identified the cause of death.” Their clumsy attempts to insinuate that the deaths are merely from natural causes and that there ultimately might not be a real issue simply confirms the size of the devaluation of human life taking place in the camps. Living in a condition where everyone can die and the reason never made known transforms prevention into a mere fiction.

      Despite the efforts of the government to convince us to the contrary, nothing can humanise the existence of the camps. Our struggle against them, worldwide, must be intransigent.

      The solidarity movement to refugees, the class forces in society, everyone who from the summer of 2015 until today has stood at the side of refugees and have turned solidarity in a public, open and social power, must join forces to create a major pole of social confrontation against the Euro-Turkish migration agreement, and eventually, to overthrow it. It is our duty towards human lives threatened by the racist policies being imposed. It’s the debt of life against death.

• Stop the shameful agreement between Europe and Turkey.
• Brook no more deaths in the hell of the refugee camps.
• Offer accomodation of refugees within our cities, offer asylum and equal rights for health, education and work
•  There must be free movement in Greece and the European Union

Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative Rocinante

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

Seeds And Syllables.

        For those who don't read the comments on a post, these words of Gerry Loose were left as a comment by my comrade Loam, on the previous post about the Faslane protest. I found the words beautiful and inspiring and in my own small way thought I would try to scatter these, "seeds and syllables" a little bit further. Words are tools and can be used to fight our battles, help our ideas to grow, inspire others to action, comfort us in hard times, show others our dreams, link us in camaraderie.

      "Of course, I am a poet, not a fool. I do not think a poem will defeat a bullet; But it can affect the thinking of the man whose finger is on the trigger. I have read my work at the gates of Faslane, home to the British fleet of submarine nuclear weapons. There, among crowds, there are soldiers and policemen who stop and listen. Where could my words end up in their heads? When your loved ones approach, afraid of the darkness? I have toured the atomic weapons testing sites of the US deserts, leaving seeds and syllables - seeds of peace, and again, where those weapons were used in Japan. It is not because I am brave (I am not), but that I am human and like everyone I have met, I deplore war and do whatever is in my power, as a person of peace, as a poet, to speak against her and make people gather, to act in reconciliation".

Gerry Loose

 

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

The Longest Running Peace Camp In The World.

 

         A couple of days old, but well worth publicising as much as possible. For those who don't know, the Faslane Peace camp, on the shore of Gare Loch, outside the gates of the Faslane nuclear submarine base is the longest running peace camp in the world, 35 years on site protesting, organising and keeping alive the anti-nuclear battle in Scotland. More steam to your elbow.

From Contra Info:
 Faslane, Scotland: 
Lock-on blockade at UK nuke sub base in Scotland:

         On 2nd of February, starting 06.30 AM, five anti-nuclear activists blocked the pleasantly busy morning traffic at the south gate of Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde (yes, they’re still having this monarchy thing going on) in Faslane, Scotland. South Gate is one of the two main entrances to the base and open under a certain schedule: it doesn’t take all that much to clog up their routines. Base staff did its best to direct the traffic to the North Gate, but soon enough the tailback stretched from the North Gate to a distance of over two miles: we climbed on our caravan roofs and tried to cycle down the line to see the end of the traffic jam, but no chance.
         “I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit! It’s a cliché, but true! The struggle against nuke weapons should be as out of fashion as other 80’s monstrosities, but now with the likes of President Trump or Prime Minister Theresa May it seems we’re headed towards a new arms race”, says activist Molly Garfield. “May has stated ‘I think we should defend our country, I think we should play our role in NATO with an independent nuclear deterrent’, so there you go. Nationalism, militarism, WMD’s. Down with all that, I say.”
        The lock-on crew was accompanied by three legal supporters and a photographer. The Ministry of Defence police arrived to the scene in some 20 minutes. Around here, the legal supporters are supposed to have the right to snap photos, feed bananas to protestor’s and observe that the cops at least try to behave. This time MoD’s were having a rotten day. PC 470 (they just like to be identified, don’t they?) tried to bully the photographer off by threatening to “smash that camera if you don’t stop taking photos”, while other simply pushed two observers some 20 metres away, well behind a barrier of uniforms.
       Not that we would’ve minded much. We were busy being amused by their continuous mishaps. At 07:00 AM, the hobby level cutting team from the base arrived, asking for the suitable camera equipment: only to find out their colleagues couldn’t find any. Next thing you knew was that they’ve managed to get a bolt cutter stuck on somebody’s lock-on, unable to continue. Thus, the traffic jam kept building up and road was nowhere close to get cleared before they managed to bring in the actual cutting team. On their arrival, the photographer was also tossed from the scene and view to locked-on activists blocked with police vehicles.
        By 09.20 AM all five activists were arrested and transported to the nearest cop shop. The South Gate was closed for approximately two and a half hours. The action was conducted by hippies from the nearby Faslane Peace Camp: thanks for support, one struggle!
       “On times when taking a stand or expressing one’s opinions gets you ridiculed, labelled as a terrorist or lectured how protesting of any sort is futile, do the bloody opposite. Faslane Peace Camp is rolling on to its 35th year, but seemingly the world leaders and arm dealers are not allowing it to retire any time soon. You could imagine that a nuke sub base would a tricky or dangerous location, but this seems more like a sitting duck for anyone up for a little direct action”, Roxy Newton, another activist, emphasises.
         The action is the second protest to take place within a short time. Both sparked by the revelation of the Royal Navy misfiring of a Trident II D5 ballistic missile from the HMS Vengeance last June and questions surrounding the cover-up of the test results and general madness of nuke weapons. Activists were also keen to express their solidarity with the Put Down the Sword crew who’ve ably demonstrated that for all the hyperbole espoused by polemic, self-professed Christians, the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” ethos remains the central tenet.
       The Faslane Peace Camp is a permanent protest camp dedicated to campaigning and protesting against nuclear weapons and related madness since 1982. The camp, located next to the HMNB Clyde, is celebrating its 35th Anniversary this year, and it’s welcoming all interested individuals to participate the fun and games available. No racism, no homophobia, no sexism: just direct action.

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

Workers Know Your History, Spanish Civil War.

 

         It is always important that our history is recorded for future reference and learning, and also made easily accessible to the public at large, so it is great news I have just received from Anarchist Studies Network, (ASN)

Dear comrades,

      The last newsletter of the International Institute of Social History that a significant part of the CNT-FAI Archive (1934-1939) will be digitised, thanks to a grant given by the Dutch organisation Metamorfoze. That means that the digitised part in due time will be open to everyone in the world interested in the CNT during the Civil War.

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

The Rebirth Of Christian Fundamentalism.

         While the new face of the establishment in America spews out bile about fundamental Islam, that other disease that destroys thinking, Christian fundamentalism, is being cemented in that country by Emperor Trump. The power base of those dangerous, blinkered deluded people, who talk to their friend in the sky, god, are being handed the levers of power, and though an atheist, because of this, I am now beginning to conjure up visions of hell. This US victory by the god people has emboldened their equally dangerous, deluded feeble minded members over here. They now crawl out of the cracks in the altars of the established church, to spread their own brand of trammelled thinking. Because established power has, for centuries, used religion to bolster its control over the people, religion is handed special protections, powers and privileges by the establishment. We must not let this prevent us from taking, head on, the battle for freedom of thought, and the right to make our own decisions, without threat, coercion or consultations to some mythological story book. The moment someone comes to you and says that they were called by god to some action or other, you should remove them for any form of decision making, and gently guide them to a psychiatrist. 

        Here in Scotland this Christian fundamentalism psychological problem, is now planning a concerted attack on the right of a woman to make her own decision over her own body. They have found a messiah on earth, Emperor Trump, and they are on another crusade to banish all alternative thinking. They are extremely dangerous and they must be stopped, before the become dizzy and even more crazy with the power of their new found banner carrier, Emperor Trump and his Christian fundamentalist entourage. Scotland has had enough of the misery and bloodshed caused by the various Christian religious factions, that have done nothing but divide or cities for generations, don't let another form of this poison spread through our country.  

       The images here might be accurate but humorous, but there is nothing humorous about religion, it is enslaving, dangerous, and has a history of brutality and savagery.  

This from The Herald:

        CONTRAVERSIAL US-style anti-abortion protests will be staged at four of Scotland’s busiest hospitals in an escalation of the pickets first staged last year in Glasgow.
        Pro-life group Forty Days For Life will target the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow to Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital and Ninewells Hospital, Dundee across three months as part of a worldwide campaign running during the Christian season of Lent.
         The group, founded in Texas in 2004, launched its first Scottish campaign last year, insists it will be conducting prayer vigils and would not harass women seeking abortions but has sparked allegations of intimidation being compared with practices outside many US clinics.

Read the full article HERE:

 

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

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.

 Contributions for Avalanche 10:

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

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 states – a 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!!

 

Mark Kennedy, outed undercover state scumbag.

          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. 

This from Act For Freedom Now.  

 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
 

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