Avoiding The Prying Eyes Of The State.

         We all know that the state loves to stick its nose into our private affairs, it is important for control of the population that it knows what you are up to, where you are, should you be there, and why are you there. Our towns and cities are festoon with CCTV cameras, shopping malls, pubs, bus and railway stations and on our public transport vehicles, if you carry a mobile phone, you are being tracked, their eyes and ears are everywhere. They are sweeping up every aspect of your life, profiling and storing it for future use. However it is not just when you are out and about that you are being targeted, as you sit at your computer, you activity on the internet is being logged stored and sifted through by the prying eyes and ears of the state.

      Short of spray painting CCTV cameras, leaving your phone at home, or always wearing a mask when out and about, there isn't a lot you can do about the outside surveillance by the state. However there are lots of ways to make it much more difficult to be logged and profiled while on the internet.

      There is an excellent guide to making yourself more anonymous while at the computer, it is called The Ultimate Guide for Online Privacy, and is freely available on vpnmentor. It covers everything from encryption to antivirus, malware and firewall and much more. 

     Below is a short extract:

What Can You Do To Improve Your Privacy?
         Knowing that nearly all types of encryption can be broken if someone was motivated enough, we can better protect our privacy. Even though not all the recommendations will work perfectly every time, they will improve your online privacy overall.

Anonymizing Internet Use
         There are two popular ways in which you can anonymize your use of the internet: using a VPN or using the Tor network. Both hide your internet use from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the government. They also hide your location and identity from the websites and services that you visit and use.
         While these technologies sound like they serve similar purposes, there is only a tiny amount of overlap. They are used for very different purposes and are coded very differently.

VPNs
        Most people use VPNs to hide their internet usage from their ISP and the government. They can also be used to avoid censorship, to “geo-spoof” in order to access the websites of other countries, as well to protect you from hackers when using public Wi-Fi hotspots.
       Depending on the VPN that you are using, you may have to sign up and pay for the service, most setting you back about $5 to $10 per month. While a VPN provides you with a high level of internet privacy, they do not provide any level of anonymity, reason being that the VPN provider knows what you are doing online.

Check out VPNMentor’s top VPNs here.

Tor Network
        If you require a high degree of anonymity online, the Tor network is a great option. However, you lose a lot of the usability of the internet that we use daily. The Tor Network is free to use and is a useful system, as you do not provide your information to anyone. This has made it a popular anti-censorship tool. There are governments that have tried to block the Tor Network, but they have not always been successful.

Using VPN and Tor Together
        If you are willing to do some work, you can use Tor and a VPN at the same time. You will need to find a VPN that supports Tor and install the VPN using their guide.

Read the full text HERE: 

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

Bad News And Angry Voices.

           B(A)D NEWS – Angry voices from around the world“ is a monthly news program from the international network of anarchist and antiauthoritarian radios, consisting of short news segments from different parts of the world. As an international network of radio projects, we believe in the importance of international solidarity. And we also recognize the importance and the need to create and disseminate our own media and counterinformation. We hope, with this effort, to reach out to other anarchist and antiauthoritarian projects, groups and individuals, and to strengthen our connections and our struggles in sharing our stories. Although this program is in English, we recognize that even this ‚international‘ language can be alienating to some and we want to encourage others to create and share similar content in their own languages. We want to hear the Bad News first! Enjoy! And please feel free to share! 

         Our network website (http://a-radio-network.org) is not ready yet, but will be up very soon. You'll find the audio here:   http://aradio.blogsport.de/2017/07/17/bad-news-angry-voices-from-around-the-world-episode-2-072017/ 

         The first episode from June 2017 can be found here: http://aradio.blogsport.de/2017/06/16/bad-news-angry-voices-from-around-the-world-episode-1-062017/

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

What Could Be The Last Crime?

             I believe that it is true to say that practically every person out side the army of parasites that control this system, are dissatisfied with the present system, all desire change. The debate usually centres round what to change and how best to change things. What we should be aiming for is to change everything, over the centuries we have had a multitude of changes, all within the the confines of the existing system, and we have failed miserably to eradicate poverty, homelessness, deprivation, exploitation, repression and wars, freedom has become a commodity that can be purchased, and quality of life depends on wealth, It should be obvious by now that we can never find the answer to these problems within the parameters of the present economic system, the present system is incapable of delivering satisfaction to our desires, it doesn't function that way.

                To limit the debate on change to economics, growth, the markets, and GDP, is to perpetuate the existing failed system, and more or less agree that the present system of exploitative capitalism is the only model possible. It places us in the position of believing that capitalism is the pinnacle of human imagination and ability. We would be indeed a race devoid  and barren of imagination if this were the case. We are capable of imagining a far better, far fairer world, we are capable of changing that imagined world into reality, but we have to change the system, we have to change everything.

            Below are a few comments from the Crimethinc article, To Change Everything: 

             Every order is founded on a crime against the preceding order—the crime that dissolved it. Afterwards, the new order comes to be perceived as legitimate, as people begin to take it for granted. The founding crime of the United States of America was the rebellion against the authority of the king of England. The founding crime of the society to come, if we manage to survive this one, will do away with the laws and institutions of today.
            The category of crime holds everything that exceeds the limits of a society—its worst and its best. Every system is haunted by all that it cannot incorporate or control. Every order contains the seeds of its own destruction.
             Nothing lasts forever; that goes for empires and civilizations too. But what could supersede this one? Can we imagine an order not premised on the division of life into legitimate and illegitimate, legality and criminality, rulers and ruled? What could be the last crime?
            Anarchy is what happens wherever order is not imposed by force. It is freedom: the process of continually reinventing ourselves and our relationships.
Any freely occurring process or phenomenon—a rainforest, a circle of friends, your own body—is an anarchic harmony that persists through constant change. Top-down control, on the other hand, can only be maintained by constraint or coercion: the precarious discipline of the high-school detention room, the factory farm in which pesticides and herbicides defend sterile rows of genetically modified corn, the fragile hegemony of a superpower.
          Anarchism is the idea that everyone is entitled to complete self-determination. No law, government, or decision-making process is more important than the needs and desires of actual human beings. People should be free to shape their relations to their mutual satisfaction, and to stand up for themselves as they see fit.
              Anarchism is not a dogma or a blueprint. It is not a system that would supposedly work if only it were applied right, like democracy, nor a goal to be realized in some far-off future, like communism. It is a way of acting and relating that we can put into practice right now. In reference to any value system or course of action, we can begin by asking: How does it distribute power?

         Anarchists oppose all forms of hierarchy—every currency that concentrates power into the hands of a few, every mechanism that puts us at a distance from our potential. Against closed systems, we relish the unknown before us, the chaos within us by virtue of which we are able to be free.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Solidarity Is A Weapon.

          A call for solidarity from that "Land of the Free" the good ol' US of A. A country that locks up more of its citizens than any other country on the planet. In this case protesters at the inauguration of the dysfunctional, homophobic, twitter syndrome Trump are facing 75 years in prison, after a mass arrest at that protest. Solidarity knows no borders and is one of our powerful weapons, let's use it now and often.

This from Crimethinc:

       We are calling for a Week of Solidarity with the J20 defendants from July 20 to 27, 2017. July 20 marks six months from the initial actions and arrests during Donald Trump’s inauguration, and on July 27, a motion to dismiss the charges will be argued in court. The case has finally begun to receive the media attention it warrants; with this court date approaching and the cases underway, this is a crucial time for a second Week of Solidarity. Send reportbacks, photographs, and inquiries to J20solidarity@protonmail.com.
       On January 20, 2017, thousands of people came to Washington, DC to protest the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. In the early morning, blockades shut down security checkpoints and discouraged people from attending the inauguration itself, while impromptu marches and direct actions occurred throughout the day. There was a spirit of defiance in the air.
       Iconic images circulated almost immediately, from the punching of white supremacist Richard Spencer to pictures of a limousine on fire. These were only the most spectacular images, however, of a day that was characterized by generalized disruption.
       Midmorning, an “anticapitalist and antifascist” march of several hundred people made clear its opposition not just to Trump but also the system that made Trump possible. Led by banners reading “MAKE RACISTS AFRAID AGAIN” and “TOTAL LIBERATION FROM DOMINATION,” the disruptive march took the streets of DC to the sound of fireworks and anticapitalist chants. After about half an hour, the march was brutally attacked by police, who used chemical and crowd control weapons along with physical force, then boxed in (“kettled”) and mass-arrested people. Everyone on an entire city block was arrested and given the same charge of felony rioting. Approximately 214 arrestees now face a total of eight felony charges, including conspiracy and destruction of property. All of the J20 defendants are now facing up to 75 years in prison.
       A great deal has happened in the six months since the inauguration. Confrontational protests have taken place across the continent, challenging the political landscape shaped by Trump’s election. Participants have stood up to emboldened white supremacists, disrupted airports in the face of anti-Muslim bans, blockaded proposed pipeline routes, set up sanctuary spaces and rapid response networks against ICE deportations, and much more. In turn, states are passing legislation aimed at further criminalizing protest and limiting resistance.

Read the full article for contact details and further info HERE:

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

How Much Profit Can Be Made From Your Child's Illnes?

         Our political ballerinas who all worship at the alter of the God "The Market" are hell bent on taking every fibre of our society into the magic world of "The Market". That land of deregulated greed where profit is the only acceptable criteria. We are already well down the road to total immersion in the mysterious and whimsical world of "The Market", our health service is quivering on the brink of conversion to the faith of "The Market".

 Peter Radford explains it thus:

       “Markets, you see, are wonderlands that always and inevitably lead to efficient outcomes. And it is no good any starry eyed liberal tinkering with those outcomes. They are magically correct. By correct we mean that they cannot be improved upon. Economists have this vice like attachment to certain core beliefs. One of those is that, if left unfettered, markets will zero in on an allocation of stuff that can never be improved, especially by meddlesome governments.
       The way you get to this particular promised land is by letting the great forces of supply and demand batter away at individual preferences and budgets until all the trading and so on ends with no one able to make another trade without such a trade making someone else worse off. It sounds wonderful. Now to make this all work we have to believe in magic. We have to suspend our intelligence and imagine a world where everyone knows exactly what everyone else is doing, where no one cheats, where everyone is marvelously rational, where they don’t suddenly change their minds, where they can calculate at the speed of light, absorb vast amounts of data, and always — yes always — arrive at precisely that combination of stuff they wanted. Within the constraints of their budget of course.”

         This magical system is how the American health care works, and it is the desired aim of of our political ballerinas, to make our health service a replica of the American market controlled health care system. Only idiots who are blind to everything in the world except profit, would contemplate such a disaster being foisted on the people of any country.

 From Pete Dolack:

       You could not devise a worse health care system than that of the United States if you tried. By far the most expensive, with among the worst results.
       Perhaps saying “among” the worst results is being too kind. That is an accurate statement if we are simply measuring metrics such as mortality rates and other medical outcomes. But if we consider that tens of millions of United Statesians go without health insurance while none do in any advanced capitalist country (or most any other) — and that tens of thousands annually die because of that lack — then we must reasonably assess the U.S. health care system as the worst.
       This is the high cost of private profit in health care. How much? The United States spends more than $1.4 trillion per year than it would otherwise if it had a single-payer system. Such is what happens when a service is left in the hands of the private sector, and allowed to be bent toward profit rather than human need.
       To calculate that figure, I took the average per capita health care spending of the three largest EU countries — France, Germany and the United Kingdom — and the neighbor of the U.S., Canada, and compared that average to U.S. per capita spending. The composite average for Britain, Canada, France and Germany for the years 2011 to 2016 is $4,392 per capita per year, converted to U.S. dollars adjusted to create purchasing power parity as reported by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Per capital health care spending in the U.S. for 2011 to 2016 averaged $8,924 — more than twice as much! Taking that difference and multiplying by 317 million, the average U.S. population for the five-year period, and the total annual excess comes to $1.44 trillion.
      That excess has been steadily increasing. Doing these same calculations for earlier periods found that for the period of 2001 to 2010, the annual average of excess spending was $1.15 trillion. The annual average for the period of 1990 to 2000 was $685 billion.
       For 2016, the OECD reports that only nine of the 35 countries surveyed spent more than half of what the U.S. spent on health care, and the second highest spender, Switzerland, spent $2,000 less per capita than did the United States.
        Can this astounding amount of spending be accounted for by more health care? Nope. The average length of a hospital stay in U.S. in 2014 was 5.5 days, seventh shortest of 35 countries surveyed by the OECD. The average hospital stay in each of the four core comparison countries (Britain, Canada, France and Germany) was longer — a composite average of 7.6 days.
      Paying more for less
      So it really comes down to inferior results. The U.S. does well in combating cancer, but poorly in almost every other category of health care measurement. And people in the U.S. pay dearly for the privilege of health care, if they are lucky enough to have access to it. The cost of health insurance continues to rise, and the amount a patient must pay out of pocket before insurance kicks in (the “deductible” in U.S. lingo) is also steadily rising as employers push more of the cost of health insurance on to their employees.

From Pillip Longman, another comment on "The Martket" controlled American health care system.

       “Indeed, the inflating cost of health care is the overwhelming reason why most Americans haven’t received a raise in years, and why employers increasingly make use of contract workers rather than taking on new employees that would receive benefits. This year, the total annual cost of health care for a typical family of four covered by a typical employer-sponsored plan surpassed $25,000, according to the actuarial research firm Milliman. Such a family will typically pay more than $11,000 of this cost directly out of its own pockets, through payroll deductions, copayments, and deductibles. They will also pay much more indirectly in foregone wages and other forms of compensation, and quite possibly more yet in the form of unemployment, as employers seek to escape their share of the mounting cost of providing health care for their employees.”

         Is this the health service you wish for, is this in any way acceptable to you? If you think you can preserve our National Health Service by appealing to our political ballerinas, many who have shares in health care companies, or receive payments from health care companies, you are naive in the extreme. The political machine is in the pocket of the corporate juggernaut and it is driving at breakneck speed to total conversion to the faith of "The Market". Our only hope of every having health care and social services that are desired and required, is by the total demolition of this insane system of capitalism. Not tinkering with its inners in an attempt to make it a more humane and compassionate system, it is a greed driven profit oriented ruthless system, that cannot function other than it does.

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

"That Better World".

          Within all the hearts of the ordinary people lies a blueprint of “that better world”, however, to most, the system under which we live is so entrenched, change seems impossible, and will always be met with strong repression, so the struggle for that “better world” is not for the faint-hearted. The state system has a long proven history of domination, repression, exploitation, manipulation and a ruthless ability to enforce its pattern on all aspects of our lives. Its pillars of dominance are cemented with the blood of ordinary people, its institutions are backed up by force via its militarised police, its biased judicial system and its chain of prisons. These departments of enforcement are always on hand to stifle the rise of any dissenting voices. The more successful your collective action for change, the more the institutions of state will be brought to bear on your venture. 

       Today we see the far-right movements raising their vicious heads above the parapet, emboldened by that babbling brook of bullshit, the corporate media, and nationalist, fear-mongering state propaganda. To a degree we can take some encouragement from this, as this can at times be taken as a sign that institution of the state is feeling threatened. Why should the state feel threatened? Simply because across the globe people are challenging its structures, people are organising against the continuous exploitation and endless wars, people are building solidarity across borders, developing strategies to counter the power of the state, coming together to control their own lives. However, there is a long and fierce battle ahead for that better world, there will be set-backs, there will be tears, but solidarity and perseverance will bring victory. We have to accept that the state and its master, corporate capitalism, will not “go quietly into that dark night”. History tells us, that the state will sacrifice the lives of millions to protect the privileges of the few. That is the battle we face.

 

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

 

A Wee Bit Of Cycle Track.

 

      I have been silent for a while, some might rejoice at that and hope it continues, others may have missed my mouthing off, to them, a thank you. Circumstances have made it difficult to carry out my usual routine, but things are beginning to fall into place again. My silence is in no way an indication that the hatred and anger that I hold for this exploitative greed drive system of capitalism has diminished, on the contrary, reflection has only strengthened my desire to do what I can, in my own humble way, to help bring about the demise of the capitalist system and with it, all its injustices, inequalities, exploitation, misery, deprivation and of course its endless wars for power.

      However, I thought I would make my first few lines on another subject, that love of mine, cycling. Wednesday was probably the best day we in Scotland have had for a while, around 17 degrees, blue sky and a not too nasty a wind, about 12 mph, so it was a little circle round my usual Campsie area. One peculiar aspect of Wednesday on the outward journey, was the absence of motor vehicles, a rare occurrence on our roads nowadays, making the road a very pleasant place for cyclists. The return journey was back to the usual speeding tin boxes, screaming past in both directions. Again there were lots of cyclists out on the road, usually passing me with a friendly "Hi", I'm getting used to them passing me, and as they do, I usually murmur to myself, "ah, those were the days my friend, we thought they would never end--".   I have always been a road cyclist and have very, very rarely ventured onto cycle tracks. However I thought I would give the one that runs through the Campsie area a wee try, and joined it before it reaches Lennoxtown. I can recommend it, well the short patch that I followed. It was a pleasant ride on a smooth tarmac surface, and no worries about HGVs and speeding off-roaders.   

Cycle track just before it ends as you enter Lennoxtown.

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

For Their Sakes, We Must Do Something.

Figures for 2014.

      The never ending downward spiral of poverty continues at an ever increasing rate, and still our political ballerinas spout their crap about a strong economy. Figures from the Office of National Statistics, (ONS) show the extent to which we in this country are sliding down the toilet, though I have no doubt, under the insane capitalist system, the picture is repeated in countries across the globe. According to the ONS figures, in 2015, 7.3% of the UK population, approximately 4.6 million people were living in persistent poverty, (Persistent poverty described as living in relative poverty in the current year and at least two of the three preceding years) this is an increase of 18% on the previous year 2014. In human terms, this means an extra 700,000 individuals joining the ranks of the misery and anxiety of persistent poverty, in the 6th. richest country in the world.

       With this insane capitalist system, of those in poverty some groups are hit harder than others, women are showing a more rapid increase in persistent poverty than men. Women in persistent poverty, 2015, registered 8.2%, as compared to men which was 6.3%, the biggest gender gap since this data was first gather in 2008. Everywhere we look, we see inequality, and policies that divide. 

       We the ordinary people continue to generate wealth on a massive scale, keeping the UK ahead in the league of wealthy nations, but we never see any of that wealth. By sleight of hand, and a loaded system, the largest slice, by far, of that wealth ends up in the hands of a small powerful cabal of parasites. While we the real wealth creators, continue our grinding path down the dark corridors of poverty and deprivation.

         Does anybody honestly believe that this system of capitalism will ever remedy this mass poverty in the midst of opulence? History tells us, the system has failed miserably to come even close to eradicating poverty and deprivation, but has produced an over abundance of wealth for the small band of parasites who control the system. How much longer will we condemn our children and grandchildren to a life of wrestling with poverty in the midst of abundance? For their sakes and for justice and equality, we must destroy capitalism, the system that creates mass poverty, deprivation and wars. 

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

The Savageness Of Full Spectrum Dominance

       Only an idiot would believe that the brutal bloody disaster that is the Middle East is not a direct result of American lead Western foreign policy. We are asked to believe that the endless wars, the slaughter of millions of innocent people, the destruction of entire countries, is all for the benefit of the people of those countries. How much longer must we maim, traumatise and brutally kill the civilian population of that area to make their lives better? We have been in Iraq since 2003 and still the brutal slaughter goes on and on, that is almost three times longer than the second world war. It is the thought process of the insane, or devious, corrupt, ruthless power mongers, but not the actions of rational humane beings.

        The charade of the civilised West putting its self in harms way to protect the ordinary people of the Middle East, is created by the propaganda wing of the established Western power structure. With limitless finances the babbling brook of bullshit that is our mainstream media, spews out the toxic vomit of the West as the world's knight in shining armour, while in fact it rides blood stained and mercilessly tramples innocents across the globe, all for its own wealth and power.

      In a mad insane world of lies, subterfuge, double speak and spin, the truth will sound insane, but the truth is the only weapon that will bring an end to this carnage of people for the purpose of power.  

      Thanks for the link Loam.

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

There's Trouble Ahead, How Do We Solve It?

        As anybody who has had a look at how the capitalist system works, is well aware, it is a system with inherent flaws. It inevitably goes into convulsions, as those with the money look like losing lots of it. This happened in the pre thirties, giving us the hungry 30's, it happened again in 2008, giving us a decade of austerity. When these convulsions happen the way the system "corrects" itself, is by plundering the public purse, giving us bail-outs and austerity. The government hands the corporate juggernaut and the financial Mafia lots of public money in the form of "bail-outs" amassing mountains of debt, and then applying "austerity" to reduce that debt. Of course austerity only happens to the ordinary people, to those rich parasites, austerity is some kind of disease to which the ordinary people fall foul to periodically.

       Claudio Borio, the head of the BIS monetary and economic department, said a new recession could come “with a vengeance” and “the end may come to resemble more closely a financial boom gone wrong”. The BIS, which is sometimes known as the central bank for central banks and counts Bank of England Governor Mark Carney among its members, warned of trouble ahead for the world economy.

      We are not yet clear of the previous convulsion, and the gnomes of the financial Mafia are starting to shit their pants, as there appears to be warning signs that the next is about to hit them. No doubt, in their marble halls of greed and opulence, they will already be looking at how else they can plunder the public purse to retrieve their new massive gambling losses. They will be looking hard to see which part of the social fabric of the planet can they rip-off to recoup their greed gotten losses. This week Italy has been forced to bail out two of its banks to the tune of €5.2 billion, of tax payers money.

       Such luminaries as Mark Carney and other members of the BIS, (The Bank of International Settlements, sometimes referred to as the central bank of central banks. Though I like to refer to them as Bandits in Suits. ) are already ringing their alarm bells, and saying it could be worse than the last convulsion.

       While the vultures, and parasites of the financial Mafia will be preparing to grab what public assets they can get their hands on, to regain their gambling losses, what will we be doing? Will we accept another decade, or more, of "austerity", will we see ourselves pushed as far into deprivation as the people of Greece, with no end in sight? Or will we get serious about organising to bring down this flawed system of greed and exploitation, and put an end to capitalism, that is the root cause of the poverty and deprivation of millions of people across the planet?

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

Two Punctures And A Few Showers.

 Stathis preparing to cook the gourmet meal.

        On Sunday we had arranged with my daughter's family to have a barbecue at Firkin Point, it lies on the west shore of Loch Lomond between Invebeg and Tarbet. The plan was they would make their way there by car and I would cycle up the loch to Tarbet, turn and head back to Firkin Point to join them. Their part of the arrangement went to plan, my part of the plan however, was a little different. The day proved to be one of wind and some heavy showers, not my ideal cycling weather, so my wee yellow cape was on and off a few times. A short distance from Luss I got a puncture, normally not much of a problem, as I carry two spare tubes. However with my back and hip problems, I can no longer just sit on the grass verge and sort it out. If I sit down that low I have great difficulty in getting back up unassisted. If I stand and try to do things, my back aches something awful, so I walked up a farm path and found some large rocks I could sit on and get the job done. Back on the bike and about a mile further on, I got another puncture, now faced with the same problem, I decided to walk to Luss where I found a bollard at the entrance to to the village, where I could lean my back against as I stood at the side of the road and sorted the problem. Now well behind in time, another heavy shower, the wee yellow cape back on, I decided to skip Tarbet and just head for Firkin point and food. On arriving, I also decided to put the bike in the back of my partners car and abandon the run back, that's a first for me. 

One of the sunny spells between the showers and overcast sky.

     Never the less, the barbecue was a great success, even although it was punctuated by showers. It was also a wee birthday celebration for my grand daughter's 11th birthday, though that is in July, but she will be in Greece by then, so we had it a bit early.

During one of the dark overcast moments, my partners total failure to fly the kite.

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

Protest June 29th. at The Scottish Parliament.

        Lots of groups and individuals are coming together to protest outside the Scottish parliament this coming Thursday June 29th.. This will be the culmination of a week of  lobbying and protests, June 23rd. to June 30th. regarding the introduction of PIP and its assessment system, I hope it is a massive turnout. I'm all in favour of protesting and lobbying at the seat of power, but we should never lose sight of the fact that tinkering around the edges of this corrupt and exploitative system, will not end the struggles of the ordinary people, nor stop the plundering of the public resources. We have attack the root cause of our problems, capitalism, the need is to organise to bring the system down. We need to by-pass it, circumvent it, short circuit it, strive for control of our communities and workplaces. We don't need the boss class and their politicians, but they need us. 

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

Death At The Hands Of The Police.

          I suppose there are some naive people out there who still believe that the police are there to protect us from "bad guys", to make sure you don't steal something from your neighbour, or become drunk and disorderly. This is the wonderful illusion created by the propaganda spewed out from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. Make no mistake, the police are there to protect the established order of power and wealth, the main line of defence before the army takes to the streets, if need be. Yes they lock up the odd abuser, and rapist, but this is a spin-off not their main purpose. Killings by law enforcement officers in the UK from 1920 to 2000 is listed as 27, but that number rockets after the year 2000, from 2000 to March 2017 there are listed 42 such deaths. They act with impunity, and literally, "get away with murder".
       We now have another killing by those who pose as the protectors of the public, to add to those horrifying statistics, this report from Libcom, the details speak for themselves.

 

 

         Twenty five year old Edir Frederico Da Costa, known as Edson, died yesterday having sustained multiple injuries during a police stop in Beckton, East London. Update 23rd June - there will be a #JusticeForEdson demonstration this Sunday at Forest Gate station at 2pm.
       [content note: police violence, description of injuries]
        Edson was one of three people in a vehicle stopped by police in Beckton around 10pm on June 16th. Police used force to arrest him and pepper sprayed him at the scene, he had a heart attack and was pronounced dead. Edson was revived by paramedics on scene who put him into an induced coma, but he was brain dead. After being kept on life support, this was turned off Tuesday.
       The Newham Recorder reported that a post mortem has concluded there were no injuries to suggest severe force was used on Edson.
       In a statement on Facebook however, a family member wrote that his injuries included a fractured skull, fallen voice box and ruptured bladder amongst other injuries.
        A friend of the family on twitter mentioned that Edson's vertebrae had been snapped, and that while he was foaming at the mouth police had said he was 'OK'.
       Family have not been told the name of the officer involved. The case has parallels to the police killing of Freddie Gray in a police van in Baltimore in 2015, leading to mass protests over his death. Prosecutions of the officers involved in Freddie Gray's death did not result in convictions.
       Julian Cole was left in a vegetative state after being carried to a police car in Bedford in 2013. The CPS announced it would not be charging the police involved in Julian Cole's arrest earlier this year.
        Police brutality is a regular occurrence in the UK as well as in the US. The IPCC and CPS rarely prosecute police officers and there has been no conviction for a death in custody since 1969. This requires mass protests and organisation in order to gain even basic accountability of the police, but in the end the only accountable police force may be no police force. Movements towards complete police abolition are gaining pace as the limits of reform become increasingly stark.

Rising Homelessness In A Rich Civilised Society???

           There is something rotten at the heart of UK, and it is the economic system. While the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, attempts to get us all into a lather over Brexit spewing out how we must get a good deal for businesses, a smooth path for our corporate lords and masters, here in the lives of ordinary people we have seen conditions rapidly deteriorate. And that has nothing to do with Brexit, it is all down to ideological choices within the capitalist system. Apart from wages being ten years behind, social care disappearing, our health service cracking under the strain of under funding, homelessness is rocketing.
         A country that is the sixth richest on the planet and doesn't house its citizens adequately is obviously involved in a failed system, or is waging class war, or both. It is not by accident, nor is it inevitable, that thousands of people in this country are homeless, it is by economic choices. By deliberate government policy, the number of council houses in the UK has fallen by 165,000 since 2010, and while in the year 2014-15 the number of millionaires in the UK has grown by 12%, the number of homeless has grown by 34% since 2010. In capitalism, we live under a system of extreme inequality and injustice, it can't be remedy to improve the lives of all, it can't be modified to be compassionate and fair, it has to be destroyed for justice and equality to flower. 

 

 

        The number of families being declared homeless has rocketed by more a third since the Conservatives took power in 2010, analysis of new official statistics by The Independent has revealed.
      Between April 2016 and March 2017, 59,100 families were declared homeless by local authorities in England – a rise of 34 per cent on the same period in 2010-11.
        The statistics paint a bleak picture of the UK housing crisis and the impact a lack of decent, affordable homes is having on thousands of families.

        Obviously in a capitalist society, as opposed to a civilised society, a safe place to lay your head and raise a family, is not a right or even a priority. Your safety and comfort is solely dependent on the wealth you accumulate, and the system is loaded against the ordinary people. 

     Conservative housing policy since 2010 has prioritised the privatisation of social housing, both by extending the Right to Buy scheme and by forcing councils to sell off their most valuable council homes to private individuals and companies.
      At the same time, ministers have mandated that social homes available at heavily discounted rents should be replaced by a new type of affordable housing that has more expensive rents much closer to market rates.
      The newly released data shows a huge rise in the number of people being made homeless as a result of losing their social home. In the past 12 months, 4,010 families were declared homeless after losing a home rented in the social sector – a 56 per cent increase in six years.

Read the full article HERE: 

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