Two In A Row.

        What a glorious weekend, difficult to believe, several days with glorious sunshine, and this is Scotland. We have to grab it when it happens. So Saturday saw my first run up the Loch this season, (Loch Lomond), the sad thing about a beautiful sunny weekend in Scotland, everybody else also grabs it. So everybody and their grandmother, jumped into their cars and also headed up the Loch. Massive tailbacks and slow moving monster queues, then endless convoys of speeding vehicles doing 60-70mph and in some case, more. Never the less, it was a great run, up through Tarbet, round to Arrochar and stopped at the head of Loch Long. Loch Long is an sea loch, the other end opens out to the Firth of Clyde, so it is tidal and you get the salt air smell as you pass. The sad bit about it that taints its beautiful vista, it was for years a torpedo testing range. These photos were taken at low tide, so you see the long flat beach covered in different colours of seaweed.

       In this other photo you can just see the craggy Cobbler showing is jagged top. A favourite for climbers and walkers alike. In my younger days I spent many an afternoon admiring the magnificent view from the top. Most people start the ascent from the side of Loch Long but you can start at the other side from a small car park at the start of the "Rest-and-be-thankful". having done it both ways, I can vouch for it being equally beautiful from either point.

       Being an old wrinkly, I no longer do two runs on two consecutive days, I usually like a wee break in between.  However, Sunday being as beautiful a day as Saturday, I decided to head up my familiar territory, the Campsie area. Fate was not kind to me, arriving at the Clachan of Campsie tearoom, I was greeted with a notice which read, "Closed until May 15th." so no soup. My partner Stasia arrived at the tearoom by a different route, both eager for that plate of soup we decide to go back the way to Lennoxtown, to the café Barga, only to be greeted by the words, "we're shut". Only in Scotland would a café close its doors in early afternoon on a sunny weekend. So it was home without the obligatory plate of soup. Never the less, a couple of great days.

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

Police Violence, The Bedrock Of A Fascist State.

          The May Day riots in France have a more sinister undertone than just police beating up "hoodies" and intimidating people so as to prevent further protests. The police in France like those in Greece, and probably elsewhere, practically vote en-mass for the far right. This is the foundation of a police state, the bedrock for a fascist establishment, irrespective of how you vote.

       Those who fear the election of Marine Le Pen must understand that the French police are already carrying out an effectively fascist program. Not only do the majority of policemen admit to voting for the extreme right, but the state is already employing them to implement totalitarian conditions. Migrants and refugees can tell a lot about this.
       In this two-week interval between the two rounds of the election, it is becoming clear that the real seizure of power is not taking place through the election, but at its borders, more or less concealed, in the increasing autonomy of the police force. In our last report, we explored the ways that extending the state of emergency has both paved the way for the police state and rendered it invisible. Since the arrival of Le Pen in the second round of the elections, we see the police behaving as if she had already won the election.

      Here in the UK we are having a slowly-slowly approach to arming the police, a policy that will accelerate as protests and unrest increases. After all, do you need armed police to tackle 99% of the crime in this country? They are there to control civil unrest, which the establishment see on the horizon, as their policies start to inflict ever more misery on the population.
     The swing to the far right is not just in those countries "over there", it is here, and across Europe and elsewhere. Prepare to sentence future generations to the harshness and divisiveness of an ever increasing right-wing establishment, or organise to resist this cancer that is eating our society. At the heart of this march of authoritarianism is capitalism, a capitalism that has the state apparatus in its pocket, and uses it to implement its desired policies, of increased profit at the expense of the people. This will not end when their coffers are over flowing, as they are at the moment, their greed is insatiable. They will continue to plunder the planet and decimate its population to the point of total destruction. They need an authoritarian state to protect them as they drag us to that destruction. Only we the ordinary people, can stop this death march, those in power are blinded by their avarice.  

        The evening of the first vote was the occasion of an anarchist-organized call to gather at the Place de la Bastille for a “Night of Barricades.” Dozens of people were wounded by police that evening, humiliated, undressed in the street. Journalists were beaten up with their own cameras.
      Two days later, statutory refugees (who are officially supposed to benefit from “state protection”) were expelled from their homes and thrown into the streets by police, for no reason, out of pure racism. The next day, a friend’s squat was attacked by the police. Our comrades were tackled to the ground with a Flash-ball on the temple. One of our friends was subjected to sexual assault in the car that took her to the police station. Coincidence or not, a few days prior, that squat had hosted a projection of videos we have made in Paris over the past few months documenting police violence against migrants.
       All this is further evidence, should more evidence be necessary, that fighting against the extreme right means fighting against the State. It is something we must make a daily practice.

        The police violence was some of the worst seen in Paris recently. and is a policy that is being refined to intimidate people from any form of protest. After all all those armed to the teeth police didn't just materialise out of nowhere, they are recruited, armed and trained in establishments all over the country and are paid for by the public. They same is going on here.

        In response, some people throw stones. Fireworks too. Some Molotov cocktails. The police pushed us relentlessly towards the Place de la Bastille, shooting at us without pause. Once there, they formed a trap at the foot of the steps of the Opera Bastille with perhaps two hundred people inside it. For those people, it turned into a scene of tragedy worthy of The Battleship Potemkin. The police pushed people on the steps while soaking them in tear gas. We could see nothing, there was no place to escape, people crashed against the steps, jostling and falling on top of each other like in the Odessa Steps Sequence.
         Fortunately, we were not in this group. The police pushed us onto Avenue Daumesnil, then Boulevard Diderot.
Picture yourself in this scene. Tear gas grenades are exploding incessantly. Sometimes you think you can escape by a street, so you run there—in any case, you have no choice, because you need to breathe—but the police are waiting for you on every street. As soon as you pass the street corner, they kettle you in, shooting concussion grenades into the middle of the crowd, knowing perfectly well that there is no space to avoid them.

Read the full article HERE:

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Red And Black Song Club.

        There's a new voice in town, at the moment I believe it is just a whisper, but has the potential to become a roar. When I say  a "new voice", well really it's an old voice, it's a voice of struggle, a voice of people's desire for freedom and equality, a desire for justice. It is in fact the Red and Black Song Club, they will be trying to fill your hearts with tales of past struggles, with hope, with solidarity and camaraderie. So pop along and have a listen, or better still, lend your voice, join in.

      You'll find them every, 1st. and 3rd. Thursday of the month, at 7pm. in the Glasgow Autonomous Space, Kilbirnie Street, (near West Street subway).

         The Red and Black Song Club is exactly what it sounds like- a song club for the radical left. We meet up on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month to sing, celebrate and keep alive radical left-wing music from the past and present.
       You don't need any musical experience- just a love of radical songs of working class struggle, anti-fascism and solidarity.
        Other musical instruments are more than welcome too!

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

The Divieded Self.

 

          I retired some 24 years ago, but I still bear the scars of years of pointless tasks being foisted on me by single minded authority. I lived those two lives for years, the dead world of employment and the living world after of work. The one world where I must perform in a particular laid down manner, and the world where I had choices, some what limited by the system, but choices, to dream, to mix with who I choose, to move alone, and at my pace. Living in two diametrically opposed worlds, is destructive and saps your energy, destroys dreams, stunts creativity, and breeds alienation. When will we enter the healing process? When our tasks will be for the benefit of ourselves and our community, creating that better world for all, one in which we choose the direction, we choose the shape of that world, where we mutually agree to see to the needs of all our people. When do we leave alienation and the divided self behind us, and return to a whole being, to being human?

 This from Running Wild:

A MEMO FROM THE OFFICE
(Contributed by another comrade in So-Called Australia)

Jobs Destroy Our Dreams

         When I’m not at work I study the world. I read news articles and books, I listen to podcasts and I write my own articles and reflections. I practice music and I share music. I exercise and I go outside. I volunteer and try to help build a different world with other people. I dream of new possibilities for everybody and for myself.

      When I go to work, I stop dreaming. I think about what I’m wearing and whether it’s appropriate, I worry about my hair and the paint stains on my shoes, I hide who I am and make small-talk. I become somebody else and find energy in this adopted personality so I can comfortably call strangers and convince them to buy expensive tickets. I spend hours doing something that doesn’t interest me and that I don’t care about.

       I do this because I need to pay for rent, food and transport and other bills like electricity, internet and phone credit. I also do it so I can save money to travel and so I can have drinks with friends now and then. It’s not like I’m in financial hardship, I am far from it. But I do need to work for my “daily bread”.

Jobs Define Us

      We live in a society where the question asked when meeting new people is often “What do you do?” For some reason, the answer “I work part-time as a telemarketer” is the fitting answer while “I’m a musician and an anarchist” never comes to my mind, even though these are the things I devote most of my time, energy and spirit to. We are first of all summarised by the thing we do that pays our bills, the thing we do that stops us dreaming.

       This pressure feeds into a desire to build a career we are proud of, to fight for the best jobs, to compete with our neighbours and friends. Our means of survival becomes our personality and our definition. Eventually we build a pride around selling our time and skills to build somebody else’s dreams and somebody else’s profits.

Jobs Disempower Us

       Office workplaces like mine are usually very hierarchical spaces, with a series of big bosses and little bosses and little branches of workers bundled in between them. In my workplace, my co-workers and I are at the bottom rung of the ladder. When a change is made that affects the way we do our jobs or the way we interact with and in our workplace, it’s because suggestions and decisions for improvement of the company overall have filtered down this chain, finally splashing us in the face with a new rule or system to follow. Often these decisions do not actually offer the best solutions, but the workers who understand their jobs best of all are rarely included in discussions about these roles and changes.

The Modern Office

       When I first started getting involved in anarchist groups there was a lot of talk about workplace organising, especially when May Day came around. The classic union movements of workers striking, walking off the job united, holding meetings and giving a voice to all seemed so impossibly far from reach in the modern office I work in. My workplace is so intricately divided up into departments and sub-departments, we rarely talk to others outside the team of telemarketers and they barely even look at us. How could the people occupying this office on weekdays ever walk off the job together? How could they ever be united when they are, by design, so divided and so competitive?

      The unification of the workplace is one thing, the other is the absence of very tangible or urgent issues within the workplace. We aren’t having our workmates killed when forced to fix a roof without safety gear, we aren’t being paid less than a living wage or being denied sick leave (well… we telemarketers, as casual labour, are!)

      What is suffered in office jobs seems to be a much more subtle, slow-working pain. Whether it is boredom from doing tasks that are disconnected from our passions or that are controlled and managed in a way that doesn’t suit our individual pace or processes; or stress from unmanageable workloads, the requirements to dress and behave a certain way at work or the simple reality of working under bosses with limited job security.

       In various ways these jobs eat away at our minds and souls while we feel it’s impossible to complain when our conditions are so seemingly good, with modern offices, well-mannered colleagues and occasional perks like social clubs and company drinks.

Continue Reading:

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Has Summer Arrived???

        Well, well, whatever happened to our weather, blue skies and 16 degrees, pity about the 16mph wind. The sun made me think of Aberfoyle, so that's where I headed, it is an easier ride home that it is on the outward journey, more long incline drags, as you gain height to about Ward Toll, then you get some nice runs down towards Aberfoyle. So naturally that 16mph wind was in my face on the run out, but gave me a wee push back home on the easier stretch. Still a wonderful afternoon. The sun brought out all manner of cyclists in all shapes and sizes of bikes, but the Lycra clad brigade in their light weight bikes, out numbered the rest. I now accept that they will pass me at regular intervals, usually with a "Hi" as they with their young legs and lungs zip along the road.
       Last year after a run that was meant to end in Aberfolye, but was foiled, I posted about the pipes that run from Loch Katrine to supply Glasgow with its fresh water, and how the road at Ballot Toll  was closed, as where the pipes cross the road at that point, there seemed to be problem, as it was all supported by steel columns across the road. Well it seems that it is still a problem, though the road is open in a controlled single line traffic arrangement, with height restrictions on vehicles, the pipes still look in a precarious condition. Perhaps the fresh water supply to a major city is not a priority.

        Liz MacGregor's is a pleasant watering hole when visiting Aberfoyle. Good soup, nice cakes and not expensive.

        The might River Forth that ends up entering the North Sea on the east coast at Edinburgh, starts its life in these parts. Here it is, just a little river, as it winds its way through Aberfolye. 

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

Photos On The Green.

          I said there would be a few more photos of the May Day Picnic on The Green, well here they are. Thanks to all the friends, and comrades for all their very positive feed back, lets hope we can keep up the connections and build some positive events.

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

The Magic Of May Day.

          Did you experience it? The magic of May Day, a day that can shape our world, a day when our dreams can take root, a day when we are swayed by that inner feeling of humanity and a burning desire to destroy all that taints and poisons that humanity, a day of love and fire.

      The following is an article from Gods And Radicals, by Rhyd Wildermuth.

        ------ We are not the first to hold aloft the standard of the land and the people against the soldiers of Profit and Oppression, only another front in the struggle enjoined everywhere on the earth. Holding in our hands the threads of anarchist, Marxist, anti-colonialist, druidic, feminist, occult, environmentalist, and esoteric thought, we began a dance around a center constantly plaiting, constantly weaving in fierce celebration of all that makes the world beautiful and all that we refuse to let be taken from us.
      The forests are dying, but we join those who refuse to let them be killed. Water and air are being poisoned, but we hold in our own hands poison which can stop those who have done so. The poor and dispossessed of the world are ground in the works of Empire’s machines, but like the saboteurs of old we know how simple it can be to stop those gears from turning forever.
      We know the power of mead and molotov, the beauty of ancient forest and shattered window, the sacred celebration of spiral dance and protest march. We speak in the quiet whispers of conspiracy and graveyard, swim in the currents of tumultuous ocean and political dissent, read the future in the bones of animals and the pale faces of politicians.
       We know our human and non-human comrades die daily on the bloody altars of finance and war, and we also know we are no comrades to them at all if we do not rise up with sharpened blades and whetted minds against the priest and police who preside over such foul sacrifice.
       It is the first of May. Beltane to some, a day a resistance to others, and both to us.
       May the scent of hawthorne blossom and tear gas be the incense we offer to the earth, the laughter of children around maypoles and the chants against police be the melodies which wake the summer, may the light from burning bonfires and barricades greet the strengthening sun, and may this be the Beltane upon which we look back and smile, remembering what new world we woke with our endless dance. 

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

The People's May Day Picnic On Ther Green.

         Well we had our May Day Picnic on The Green, and what a great afternoon it turned out to be. Last year was our first attempt to get May Day back on the Green as a people's affair, and it was a success, this year we more than trebled our performers and more than doubled the turnout. So a big thank you to all the performers and those who behind the scenes worked hard at organising the event, and a special big thanks to all those who turned up to enjoy our May Day Picnic on The Green. Here's to a bigger one next year.

      These are just a few of the photos from the afternoon, there will be more posted tomorrow when I have a bit more time to sort them out.

        Once again, thanks to all for making this the best May Day Picnic on the Green, and a real, people's affair.

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

The Ochestrated Genocide Of The Palestinian People By The Israeli State.

          The Israeli State is a non-state, it is the Western imperialist's policeman in the Middle East. It was created by the West to gratify the whim of a handful of Zionist fundamentalists. Like all policemen, they get out of control, and now that policeman is hell bent on the genocide of the Palestinian people and the seizure of their lands. A glance at the changing map of Palestine over the years is irrefutable proof of this cruel and bloody land grab. Apart from the theft of their land by the Zionist state of Israel, the Palestinian people have to contend with bombings, tanks, and aircraft bombardment, they continually face harassment and imprisonment backed up with torture, on a daily basis. This treatment is inflicted on every family of the Palestinian people living in that area.

       The following article from 325, is a letter of support from anarchist prisoners in Korydallos Prison in Athens, Greece, to the Palestinian hunger strikers.

      The struggles of the Palestinian political prisoners are directly and inextricably connected with the overall struggle of the Palestinian people. 70 percent of the Palestinian families have at least one member that has been imprisoned for action against the state of Israel. 20 percent of the total population has been imprisoned at least once in their life while according to other estimations 40 percent of the male population has been imprisoned at some point in their life within the past 30 years.

      Another revealing manifestation of the situation the Palestinian strugglers find themselves in while inside the Israeli prisons is the fact that until 1999 “mild torture” during interrogation was considered legitimate practice by law. These tortures included- among others – deprivation of sleep, immobilization in an uncomfortable body posture, loud music, exposure to extremely cold or hot
temperatures, placement of malodorous cloths over the face etc. In 1999 the supreme court of Israel upheld that in certain cases these practices were illegal and thus imposed some restrictions. These restrictions did not, however, rule out force-feeding as illegal in accordance with the UN provisions.

      On the 1st of May 2000 almost 1000 out of the 1650 Palestinian political prisoners participated in a large-scale hunger strike that lasted one month, demanding better living conditions, better treatment by the guards, family visits, abolition of the solitary confinement, access to healthcare and release of political prisoners. During the solidarity demonstrations seven Palestinians lost their lives while one thousand got injured. Meanwhile, sixty Israelis got injured, too. On the 31st of the same month the government of Israel satisfied some of the demands.

      In February 2012 around 1800 Palestinian political prisoners started a hunger strike against the regime of administrative detention. That is, incarceration without evidence to back a charge, without specific accusations, without trial and without sentence, meaning they would remain detained for an indefinite amount of time as ordered by the military authority of Israel. Out of the 4500 prisoners in total, 310 remained in prison under the status of administrative detention. Among their demands was the ability of those family members who resided in Gaza to be able to visit their relatives in prison- a fact that was impossible since, as residents of Gaza, they were not allowed by the state of Israel to leave Gaza-, the termination of solitary confinement and the release of those kept under administrative detention.

      On the 24th of May of the same year and after a several-day huger strike, the strugglers managed to strike a deal with the state of Israel, which pledged to bring the maximum duration of administrative detention down to 6 months if sufficient evidence were not provided in between. Moreover, the family visits expanded and those in solitary confinement returned to the regular blocks.

       Today, 1500 Palestinian political prisoners have been on hunger strike since the 17th of April and their number is expected to climb up to 200 within the following days. United in a single battlefront and despite their internal disputes and confrontations, members of Fatah, Hamas, PFLP and Islamic Jihadists participate in a common struggle as political prisoners.

       Their demands resemble those of the previous mobilizations and have to do with the prisoners’ access to telecommunication and the placement of payphones in every block, in particular. Also, they demand that they have visits from their relatives, who must get a permit to enter the occupied territories –applications for such permits are usually rejected and the visits are, in reality, impossible
since the prisons are located inside the occupied territories. Finally, they demand access to healthcare, the abolition of administrative detention and solitary confinement. The state of Israel has so far reacted with unannounced transfers of the prisoners and their placement in solitary confinement.

        We, as anarchist prisoners of the Greek prisons, can only join our voices with the voices of the Palestinian strugglers. Beside our straightforward and unconditional solidarity with the forces of resistance against the forces of imposition, with the forces of slings and knives against the forces of bombs and tanks, the forces of the oppressed against the forces of state brutality, the forces of the Palestinian people against the forces of the Israeli state, we also express that we have yet another reason to support every act of resistance against the state of Israel. The technology of surveillance, the apartheid know-how, the derogation regime, the interweaving of social and geographical marginalization, the imposition of militarized control upon whole populations, the administrative detention -which makes a come-back in Europe as a tool to manage migration- and the overall dystopian reality that the state of Israel imposes upon the people of Palestine constitute a compass for those in power as well as an experimentation that the rest of the states will eventually be called on to implement elsewhere.

Victory to the struggle of the Palestinian political prisoners

Victory to the arms of the Palestinian resistance
Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos,
Antonis Stamboulos,
Argiris Dalios,
Dimitris Politis,
Fivos Harisis,
Giannis Michailidis,
Giorgos Karagiannidis,
Grigoris Sarafoudis,
Tasos Theofilou

Korydallos Prison, Athens

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

Cold, Wind, Rain And £2 Down.

 

       Today, Saturday, was not my type of cycling day, but cabin fever is a dreadful affliction. So, despite the forecast of 16mph cold wind and max. 10 degrees, I set off on my usual route. As I approached Auchenreoch I could see areas of sky that had white clouds, and the odd blue area, but not my patch, I felt a bit hard done by, above my head was low dark foreboding clouds, and that 16mph wind was cold, then to really upset me there started a smirl of light rain. So I cut it short, called it a day, and headed for Milton of Campsie, birth place of Thomas Muir. There to partake in the hospitality of their local café, though I must add, for the same soup, cake and coffee, it was £2 dearer than the Clachan of Campsie tearoom. Should have cycled the extra six or seven miles and saved a couple of quid, but alas, too late, I had ordered and eaten. 

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

Glasgow's May Day Picnic On The Green.

 

       Well here we are, Saturday 29th. May, on the eve of Glasgow's STUC sanitized and choreographed sedate May Day march through the city. Naturally it will not be on May Day as our political parties and trade unions usually avoid celebrating on that particular day, so as not to disturb the consumer process. This year by a drastic blunder, in the plans of the STUC, their slow trudge through the city will start at George Square, 11:30am but because they failed to book a suitable venue in time, it will end up, against their better wishes, in the open air, at the bandstand in Kelvingrove Park. However there is a group of Glasgow's fair citizens who feel that May Day should always be celebrated on May Day and in the open-air, in a free come as you please, friendly fashion. So to that end there will be a May Day Picnic, on The Green, on Monday, May 1st. May Day. It should kick off at around 2pm, so bring what you expect to find, and enjoy songs, music, poetry and friendly chat. May Day on the Green, by the people, for the people, free from our political messiahs, and their vacuous promises to lead us to the promised land.

Glasgow's May Day Picnic on The Green, 

Monday May 1st. 2pm.

at the east end of the Green, 

along from Templeton's factory, 

next to Free Wheel North 

See you all there.

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