Paper Chained.

        We all know, or should know, that prisons are not there to protect us the general public, but are there to protect the wealth and privileges of those who govern us in this unequal and unjust society. When an individual is locked up in one of the state's many cages of repression, it is not just one person suffering, it is a chain of individuals and families that suffer stress, trauma, and in many cases increased poverty and deprivation. despite the fact that the state's cages of repression are full to bursting with human suffering, we seldom hear the voices of those at the receiving end of this inhumanity.
        The Running Wild Collective of Australia, has put together a journal  called "Paper Chained" comprised entirely of works by those who are, or have been, victims of the state's incarceration policy. It is available free.

       The first issue of “Paper Chained: a journal of writings and artistic expressions from beyond the bars” has been published with contributions from individuals who have been affected by incarceration in Australia and overseas. You can access this journal for free online, download a PDF, and print your own copy. If none of these options are accessible for you, you can request a printed journal.

All this information is available on our website, please feel free to share the link! https://runningwild.noblogs.org/

NOTE ON PRISONS
        Suspended over our everyday lives are the shackles and cages that could be
forced on us if we offend the rule of law. Law which exists to control the intricate details of our lives, from what we consume, to how we can live and love with others.
       These are laws we never consented to being governed by, laws that were written before we even had voices to raise, which we cannot easily (or, arguably,
meaningfully) change and which do not protect us. If we offend the rule of law by “breaking” one of these codes of conduct, we then face the brutality of the justice system. A system that again was formulated without our contributions or consent; that hurts and punishes those who offend and those who love them and leaves the greatest criminals of all, the politicians, bankers and CEOs, untouched and unexamined.
       We firmly believe that with the destruction of systems of oppression such as
state and capital, “crime” as we know it would largely cease to exist. We believe
that if people were empowered and free to live under principles of self-determination and mutual aid, they would naturally work together to address conflict and threats against their own and others’ safety and wellbeing.
     We call for the abolition of all prisons and detention centers. None are free until all are free.
      I hope this journal gives you understanding, hope and a glimpse of freedom.

“Editor”
Running Wild Collective

HOW TO ACCESS
View online here.
Download PDF

Print Your Own:
       If you would like to print your own copy please follow the instructions below:
1. Download Covers
2. Print with the following settings: Booklet print, 2 sided – flip on short edge, colour, A3 paper size
3. Download Inner Pages
4. Print with following settings: Booklet print, 2 sided – flip on short edge, black and white, A3 paper size
5. Put your inner pages inside the cover, staple or tie together with string and enjoy!
Request a Printed Copy
       If you would like to request a printed copy of the journal, you can email us at runningwild@riseup.net or send a letter to PO Box 1989, Armidale, NSW 2350. Please note – if you can print your own or read online, please consider these options. We have limited funds and would like to prioritise printing for those who cannot access the journal through other means.

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

Transformation From A State To A State!!

 

         What we are witnessing in Spain is the state bludgeoning of any area, territory, that wishes to remove itself from its authority. The state's survival depends on complete control over its fiefdom, it will not accept lightly any eroding of that fiefdom. What we are not seeing is a different entity being born, but just another state under the same yolk of capitalism and exploitation, a shifting of power between elites, not the emancipation of the people. In the new "Republic of Catalonia" workers exploitation will continue, power and wealth will still call the shots and cream of more and more from the efforts of the workers. The King is dead, long live the King, well the state is dead, long live the state, and so the sorry mess continues.

This from arrezafe: (not the best translation, but you get the meaning)

 Joint Statement CGT, CNT and Solidaridad Obrera on the situation in Catalonia

        The undersigned organizations, unions at state level, we share our concern about the situation in Catalonia, by the repression the state unleashed by the loss of rights and freedoms that this entails and will assume and the rise of a rancid nationalism It is appearing again in much of the state.
       We defend the emancipation of all working people of Catalonia and the rest of the world. Perhaps, in this context, it is necessary to remember that we do not understand the right to self-determination in statist key, as proclaimed nationalist parties and organizations, but as the right to self-management of our class in a given territory. Thus understood, self-determination spends more for control of production and consumption by workers and direct democracy from the bottom up, organized according to the federalist principles, the establishment of a new frontier or creating a new state. As internationalists, we understand that solidarity among working people should not be confined to state boundaries,
      What does seem very disturbing is the reaction that is being experienced in many parts of the rest of the state, with the exaltation of a rancid españolismo, more reminiscent of the past, cheered from the media and in tune with the authoritarian drift government, patent following the imprisonment of people for convening acts of disobedience or Article 155 of the Constitution. We are aware that this nationalist outbreak lays the foundation for further cuts of rights and freedoms, against which we must prevent. Sultry unit called "democratic forces" in justifying repression, portends a bleak picture for all future disagreements. It seems that the post-Franco regime that governs us for 40 years, close ranks to ensure its continuity.
        Such a regime that has existed and exists in both Catalonia and the rest of the Spanish State feels that their own survival is at stake. Widely questioned and plunged into a deep crisis of legitimacy, it is alarmed by how you build up the fronts. The threat to the territorial integrity of the state adds to corruption scandals, the discrediting of the monarchy, the question of bailouts and cuts that have been applied to the population, discontent with slavery in the workplace derived latest labor reforms, by lengthening the retirement age and economic Deduction of pensions, etc ... the constant calls to defend the Constitution should be understood as touches the tocsin to tackle this real existential crisis besetting. The danger is that in the process and sanction repressive rule as those seen recently in many Catalan cities behaviors become. Or worse ...
        Obviously, we do not know in which direction the events will choose. We remain attentive to what happens, willing to defend the interests of working people throughout the state. We will oppose with all our strength to repression and normalization of far-right attitudes, already perceived. Of course, let us not use the strategies of political parties whose objectives are foreign to us. At the same time, we will not stop encouraging the mobilization of the working class when it decides, by fi that it's time to shake off the dictation of a political and economic elites that take too much time managing control of the territory to serve, exclusively, their own interests.
          As combative class unions, libertarian and we will be at street level, in the mobilizations, as we have demonstrated on many occasions, against repression, cuts rights and freedoms and corruption.
        Perhaps the crisis Catalunya is the lace of a dying state model. Decant this change in one way or another depend on our ability, as a class, to take the process in the opposite direction to the repression and the rise of nationalisms. Trust make the end result more freedoms and rights, and not vice versa. We played a lot.


By RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS!
AGAINST REPRESSION the working classes!
CGT - CNT - Workers Solidarity

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

London Anarchist Bookfair, 2017.

        This year’s London Anarchist Bookfair will be on Saturday 28th October from 10am to 7pm.

Venue: Park View School
West Green Road, London, N15 3QR

         The Bookfair is open to the public and free to attend. There are no tickets and no need to book, just come along. Progammes will be available at the door, suggested donation £1.
       Unfortunately, all the stalls and meeting spaces have been booked. If you look at the Meetings page you can see all the meetings on the day, so you can start planning early what you want to go to. The Film room is slightly different this year in that it will be both films and live entertainment in room P5. The Other Events page has other activities going on during the day and also gigs we know of after the Bookfair is over. The gigs are not organised by the bookfair collective but they are raising money to support the day’s activities.
          If you have any access requirements, please check out the Access page. Free child care is provided from 10am to 6pm for kids from 2 to 12.
         The Bookfair is an event for those that think they know everything about Anarchism to those that know they know very little. It would be great if you can help us publicise the Bookfair on all forms of social media. But we also need you to talk to friends, family, workmates, people you see when you are signing on or in the school playgrounds, at Uni, college or school or anywhere else you happen to socialise about the day. We still have leaflets so leave them around anywhere people mingle. We are a small group who organise the Bookfair and rely on others to help us publicise the event. In good old anarchist tradition we hope people will self organise with publicity. We organise it, but it’s your Bookfair. 

What is anarchism?
          Like all really good ideas, anarchy is pretty simple when you get down to it. Human beings are at their very best when they are living free of authority, deciding things among themselves, rather than being ordered about. That's what the word means: without government. Read on...

See a map of the venue and surrounding area.
Directions to venue
From Seven Sisters
         Come out of tube and walk down West Green Road. Either get 41 bus down the road to Philip Lane stop (3 stops) or walk along West Green Road (15 minutes).
From Turnpike Lane
       Come out of tube and get 41 or 230 bus from stop outside the florists towards West Green Road (4 stops) and get off after KK McCools pub. Or 67 bus from same stop but get off before mini roundabout (again 4 stops) and walk along West Green Road a couple of hundred yards. Or walk from tube along West Green Road (15 minutes)
From Manor House
       341 bus (towards Turnpike Lane). It’s about 9 or 10 stops. Or overground to Seven Sister and then get bus or walk. Look for the Anarchist Bookfair banners on the blue metal fence outside the venue.
        It is a 20 minute walk from the nearest tube to the venue. There are buses that go from the tube station to the venue, but if you have mobility problems and have difficulties making this journey please email us at access@anarchistbookfair.org.uk and we will see if we can help with transport. 

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

All Guilty In The Eyes Of The State.

         Guilty, guilty, guilty, yes, you are all guilty. We no longer live in a society where, if you have done nothing wrong, you can go about your business free from surveillance. It is no longer a matter of the state watching the “bad guys”, you are all suspects. The minute you walk down the street, wait for a bus, buy a train ticket, walk into a pub, you are monitored. Stay at home, surf the net, follow social media, they know what your looking at, use your mobile and they know where you are, who you are contacting and when. The state and its institutions are working at total control, control over your every movement, why you are there, who are you with, should you be there, you are all suspects, to be watched and profiled. Let's not forget "stingray", a mobile or fixed apparatus that can suck up information from up to 10,000 mobile phones at one fell swoop, without you being aware. Your crime, moving about and interacting with people.  

       The state is always expanding the breadth and depth of its intelligence agencies, they are able to expand their information collection beyond actual suspects, to mass surveillance. Yes, no matter your life style, you are a suspect. DNA and other information can be shared between agencies, foreign and domestic, without you being aware, without you having done anything wrong. We live under a regime of stop-and-search, camera surveillance, face recognition, and profiling, at every turn. National security is used to put an ever more heavily armed presence on our streets, once there, they don’t ever go back in the box. Here in the UK, we now accept heavily armed police parading parts of our cities. Of course all the information collected by this stop and search, monitoring, profiling and camera surveillance and other spying techniques, will be used against those people who resist this growing strangle hold of the state over the population. The growing repressive state, spawned from the "national emergency" does not guarantee less terror attacks, quite the contrary. What it does guarantee is innocent sections of society excluded, and the protection of those with large financial interests, big business and government institutions. 

          Who can blame an entire population that is classed as suspect, to turn from passive bystander to perpetrator. I carry the blame, therefore, why not the spoils of the crime?

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

 

"Capitalism".

        “Capitalism”, a word that means many things to many people, but what is the actual manifestation of the word in our world? It means the expanding transnational corporations concentrating the largest slice of all the social wealth in fewer and fewer hands. This in turn, results in ever expanding impoverishment among the many. Its incessant drive for profit creates endemic job insecurity, and the persistent threat of unemployment, with the resultant deprivation. Another of its features is the inherent corruption that perpetuates the privileges of the ruling elite, wealth buys privileges. The bedrock of "Capitalism" is a banking system that accumulates vast mountains of capital that in turn, fosters the growth of financial predators slashing their way through societies, creating human misery in an endless endeavour to increase that mountain of capital. A banking system that has the power to create homelessness by means of evictions, and by its ruthlessness fosters misery and suicides. 

       “Capitalism” in its drive for perpetual growth creates a world of endless wars, wars for resources, wars for markets, resulting in destruction across vast swathes of our planet, bringing death, misery and deprivation to countless millions of innocent people. These wars give birth to racism, and the vile poison of xenophobia, and the persecuting of minorities of all shades. In “Capitalism”, money is the governing factor in the quality of your life, which opens the door to organised crime, this in turn allows the state, in the name of “law and order”, to move towards ever increasing authoritarianism, eventually criminalising political dissent. 

        Because “Capitalism” is a system based on cost and profit, we are witness to thousands of displaced individuals and families, fleeing death and deprivation, being abandon on the shores of Europe to survive or die in appalling conditions, the system can’t find a way of profiting from their presence, so there they will rot. The worst form of hedonistic individualism is fostered as success, inequality is accepted as inevitable. These are all manifestations of “Capitalism”, I’m sure you can come up with more of its inhumane and unjust qualities, but with a track record like that, why do we tolerate this man made economic system? It is after, just a product of man’s mind, not a system set in tablets of stone by some higher being. Do we lack the imagination to see a better fairer system. I’m sure all of us ordinary people can visualise a system of fairness and justice that would see to the needs of all our people. The resources are there, our ability is there, the vision is in our hearts, it is just the will to start to tear down this stinking edifice to greed that is lacking, and time is running out. 

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

The Non-Story Of Desperate People.

          We all know the flights of fancy taken by our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. They flit from shock, horror, spectacular, amusing, to sex, fashion and celebrity parasites, with complete lack of empathy, and little thought for the whole story or the real truth.
       For a while they flooded our minds with images of drowning refugees fleeing death, deprivation and violence, of large trails of men women and children being herded like cattle, in appalling condition, a vision of a monumental humanitarian crisis. Now, to them that storey is boring, so no need to bother with that particular tragedy.
        However, has the flow of desperate people ceased, are thousand no longer risking death to cross the Mediterranean, are they no longer being herded like cattle in appalling conditions, has that particular humanitarian crisis been solved? Of course not, it is out of sight, out of mind, and left to fester, bring misery, deprivation and death to countless innocent people.
        Desperate people are are still, after a death risking journey, landing on Europe's shores, adding to the thousands already denied dignity, humanity and freedom.
        Since Europe's deal with Turkey, the flow of desperate people fleeing the results of the West's foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa, get no further than Greece, so just keep piling up on the Greek islands. Picturesque Greek islands are now a dystopian world for thousands of unfortunate and desperate people, who according to their treatment by European governments, are "non-persons" on the shores of Europe.
        This report from Medium, helps to tell the true story of Europe's treatment of desperate refugees, the story that our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media has deemed "not worth reporting", after all they have royal babies and celebrity sex scandals to cover.

         The Aegean islands are at breaking point. Spread across five islands — Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Kos and Leros — over 11,000 asylum-seekers wait to be transferred to mainland Greece. They wait in detention centres, ‘hotspots’ and make-shift camps, afforded only restricted access to transport, sanitation, food, medical support and their dignity.
         On returning to Chios after 3 months away, the changes are stark. My own return coincides with the final eviction of Souda Camp, a non-governmental camp situated in the centre of the port town of Chios. At times, over 1000 asylum-seekers lived beneath the shadow of the town’s castle walls. With the final eviction of its last 60 residents early in the morning of 21st October, this port town might now claim itself ‘free’ from the perceived nuisances of such embarrassingly close proximity to the continuing humanitarian crisis.
         But out of sight is not out of mind. These residents, along with the 435 refugees that have arrived in the last 72 hours now find themselves crammed into Vial Camp, the governmental, army-run facility 10 kilometres away. Hidden in the mountains, access is controlled and most NGOs are not permitted to enter. With an intended capacity of 1100, Vial Camp currently contains close to 2000 asylum-seekers. Recently, video footage shared by Chios Solidarity exposed the horrendous conditions of the camp. You can watch it here.
       Earlier this week, one young woman gave birth. With no ambulance available, she delivered her baby on the floor of her tent, without any medical aid or attention.
         But in Moria Camp, Lesvos, and in Vathy, Samos, the situations are even worse. On these islands, such were the abominable conditions that the Greek government this week announced plans to transport 2000 of the most vulnerable asylum-seekers on Lesvos and Samos to the mainland. This mass movement of people is a much-needed step in the right direction.
       Since the EU-Turkey deal of March 2016, the Aegean islands have been prisons for the thousands trying to reach Europe. These prisons witness suicides, riots, mental health crises and a fundamental retraction of basic human rights. Last winter, efforts to ‘winterise’ the camps failed systematically, with young and old dying from hypothermia in the camps. As winter approaches once again, last Sunday, the body of a 5-year-old girl was found in Moria Camp, Lesvos. She died from underlying medical conditions aggravated by the cold, the damp, and the denial of access to the medical attention that was the very reason her family came to Europe.
        As the weather turns, over 100 solidarity groups and NGOs on the Aegean islands have signed an open letter calling upon the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras to take steps, transparently and immediately, to avoid a repeat of last year’s horrific winter conditions. The campaign #opentheislands is signed by a powerful force of actors across Europe who have worked to fill the gaps left by governments and the EU.
       As I walk around the town of Chios, streets, sidewalks and cafes that have been the haunts of asylum-seekers for many months are rediscovered by Greek locals. Today, old men shuffled back into the plastic chairs outside the bus station on the port, opening backgammon boards hidden away whilst refugees spent the day in the cafe’s inexpensive shade.
       But the new lease of life this town might feel at having Souda Camp finally closed comes at a great cost to those suffering in the mountains a short drive away.
       Meanwhile, vast swathes of UNHCR canvas have appeared in Vial Camp as its newest residents fight for room. Around me, shocked volunteers cry, ‘How can this be happening in Europe?’ We have sold ourselves a lie. This is the reality. It is this frayed border of Europe that reveals the truth. #ThisIsEurope.

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

A Day In A Greek Court.

 

         Greece with its supposedly "left-wing" socialist government, displays all the usual signs of fascism. Its institutions lined by riot police, armed to the teeth with batons and body armour, special protective treatment for fascist groups and fascist individuals. However, the people of Greece don't let this pass unchallenged, physical and relentless solidarity against the fascists in the country is the norm. From the streets to the courts, the anti-fascists turn up in numbers to confront and defeat this vile poison that is seeping through the fabric of their country. This fascist poison is also tainting the lives of millions throughout Europe and America, perhaps we could take a few leafs out of the Greek anti-fascists' book.

        Update from the trial of the antifascist centre Distomo in Athens – Greece

           The hearing started with the clashes between antifascists and the Y.M.E.T squad which had the task of private security for the parastate gunman Perrakis inside the court, during his testimony. During his testimony the squad had raised its shield against the defendants and their supporters who showed up in solidarity, creating a protective wall in front of him.
          During his exit he was again escorted while the people threw coffee and spat on him. During the effort of the police to guard Perrakis a riotcop pushed down a comrade and an elderly person who fell down from 1,5 metre height causing him head injuries and a broken arm. In the meantime we managed to achieve that the trial would continue without the presence of Y.M.E.T. and the riot police, the second round of testimonies began.

         That’s when Panayotis Rakovitis and Demetris Tzavellas were humiliated by the antifascists. They were so afraid they kept contradicting themselves. After their testimonies they tried, unsuccessfully, to leave unscathed through the crowd.
Then spoke the owner of the building where the office of the Golden Dawn is housed, who, pressurized by the climate in the court room and the defeats the party has had through the years, said openly that he wishes for the closure of the office. As AntifascistCentre Distomo we openly defended the choice not to leave any space for fascists and the possibility every antifascist has, to be outside the Golden Dawn office at any time.
          We carried this understanding in action inside the courtroom by reversing the role of defendants into accusers.
         Antifascist unity is the only way toward a toward a militant and physical attack against fascism.

 via: Athens Indymedia
Translated by Radio Fragmata.

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

From The Streets Of Catalonia.

          The stories are many and varied on what went on in Catalonia when the state's bully-boys, the police, started their crack-down on the voting in the Catalonia referendum. To get a full span of the police violence, here are a collection of videos from the streets of Catalonia. Again, I'm not putting my voice behind the nationalism in this case, but highlighting how the state behaves when its people do something it doesn't like. Thanks Loam for the link.

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

The Puppeteer And The Populace.

         When political scenes bubble up to large protests and uprisings, it is difficult to grasp the truth of the situation, mainly due to the propaganda and vested interested vomit, the flows from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. Of course this is what is happening in Spain at the moment, protests must be smothered or at least controlled, and must never become a threat to the existing power of the established power elite. This is in no way me throwing my voice behind the nationalist ideology, which is just the restructuring of a new state, a shifting of an imaginary border and a re-adjustment between the power elites. Nationalism can never be the road to the desired emancipation of all people.

      So to understand why the Spanish state is now openly displaying its true fascists colours, by dissolving a functioning parliament and forcing direct rule, you have to follow different threads. 

       This thread from Tarcoteca is very informative. I particularly like the metaphor of the puppeteer and his two puppets. This could equally apply to any developed world state. Democrat and Republican, Labour and Tory, etc. keeping the populace all baying for their particular puppet, but leaving the puppeteer to dictate the story line.

          And here is where we find the great metaphor of what the Regime’s reality is. Its authentic nature.

             Before us, the look of the left wing and the right side politically confronted, reflected in two masses TV channels apparently ideologically opposed which belong to the same Elites of the Regime.

         The best way to visualise it is imagining a puppeteer entertaining us with fights and confrontations between two puppets, one in each hand. And underneath the puppet theatre, a group of children shouting (us the population) submitted and stupefied masses standing up for one or another puppet, the ‘blue’ or the ‘red’.

The puppeteer doesn’t mind the children shrieks, neither which of the puppets have to win at ‘today’s function.’ The puppets and the puppet theatre are his belongings and this is the only thing that matters.

        In fact, seen that the children have begun to get bored of the ‘blue’ and the ‘red’ puppets, the puppeteer created two new puppets: the ‘orange’ and the ‘purple’. Within the Spanish reality, those two new puppets are the new political phenomena parties: Ciudadanos and Podemos whose their only task is to keep the function going and continue entertaining the stupefied masses.

        Either Ciudadanos and Podemos were launched at TV channels and media property of the Regime Elites. Do not doubt about both puppets being created to perform a specific role-play.
        Basically, Ciudadanos is in charge of accelerating the repressive timings of the Regime as well as helping to reinforce and support it. While Podemos focused on gathering all the unhappy ‘revolutionaries,’ to make them waste time on an endless blah, blah, blah. Preventing them from tearing down the Regime under the promise if people vote them (during the next polls in few years’ time) when they reach power (so never) they will change everything.

        Therefore, it doesn’t matter which puppet children stand for the red, blue, orange or purple. They all speak through the puppeteer’s mouth and comply with the mandate’s roleplay…

      Here is where the Popular Rebellion we are living in Catalonia comes into context. The independence process changes everything because it doesn’t circumscribe at the fake democratic conflict but it directly attacks the Regime’s existence.

      We will see it clearly if we continue with the puppeteer and the puppet theatre metaphor. It turns out that suddenly, in the middle of the play of this puppet theatre, a rebel child has stood up and said: ‘I am fed up with this puppet show; I want to leave and play with a ball.’

      Damn child!

He is not supporting any puppet… he wants to leave! This is what Catalans did when they said that they liked to vote to decide their future. They have warned that they are keen to stand up and leave the function because they are fed up with the pantomime and the bloody puppets. They are fed up with the Regime.

           What has the answer of the puppeteer been?

         So, we have all seen it: facing the child’s protest both puppets, the red and the blue, gave up the ridiculous role of fighting between them and have started to insult the child, to ridicule him in front of other children trying to get his colleagues to oblige him to sit back and continue watching the play.

          Above everything else the most important is to prevent this rebel and insolent child from standing up and going to play with the ball; as others could go with him and the puppet show would finish. The control among children would be over, therefore, the business too. The Regime would come to grief and it would blow away all the bloodsuckers that live in it.

         In fact, this puppeteer sees his business at risk and has converted his puppets in fists and angered left the puppet theatre going after the impertinent child forcing and obliging him to stay.

        This is EXACTLY what is happening in Spain at the moment. And that is EXACTLY what the media at the Regime service did. All of the sudden, they have stopped being ‘left wing’ or ‘right wing’ and they have started to work in unison saying the same things about what is occurring in Catalonia, spreading the same insults, manipulations and lies.------

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Nationalism, Divider Of People, Cementer Of Submission.

 

       Why is is it that there are people how still think nationalism is a way of bring people together across the globe? Or is it that they don't give a shit about other people, but somehow believe that their own national parasites will take better care of them than parasites from further afield? This illusion that nationalism is somehow a flag worth waving, has been responsible for countless years of bloodshed, savagery, and the needless killing of our brothers and sisters, who happen to be born on a different spot on the planet. All for the protection of the wealthy and powerful, who hold the reins that control the various repressive societies, we at present, live under. Those with this divisive "National Pride" delusion, should accept that it is only by pure chance that they were born in a particular patch of soil on this rather small planet, and it is only by co-operation, solidarity and mutual aid, in a border free world, that we can hope to improve the lives of all our people.

 

Patriotism.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

           Note from Insurrection News: The following text is a translation of a leaflet that is being distributed by the comrades at Contra Madriz along with a series of posters, pamphlets and stickers that denounce all expressions of nationalism. The material will be distributed throughout the territories currently ruled by the Spanish State. You can read the original text in Spanish and download PDFs of the material HERE.

NO STATE WILL MAKE US FREE

      No State, Spanish or Catalan, will give us any kind of freedom. Because the reason of being for every State is to subject the exploited and to guarantee the privileges of the ruling classes. The state regulates exploitation via the law and is responsible for ensuring that the oppressed never rise up against an order that exploits, humiliates, evicts, steals, murders and creates misery throughout the length and breadth of the planet.

      No police, Mossos (Catalan police), Civil or National Guard protects us. They are the shock force of the state that protects private property and are responsible for repressing and persecuting those who do not kneel and decide to fight against their rotten world. There are no good police or bad police, all repressive bodies obey a very specific logic: maintain order. Let’s not forget the actions of all police forces in general strikes, demonstrations, neighborhood raids, racist controls, surveillance of prisons, evictions and even as a force of foreign occupation (remember the number of police officers deployed for international missions). They obey and serve their masters.

       Democracy, parliamentary institutions and politicians do not look after our interests, but their own interests. No one but ourselves should look after our interests. Electing our masters, voting, submitting to majorities and / or minorities, acting within democratic frameworks…makes us complicit in our own domination and establishes in us the spirit of delegation in officials. We put our lives in their hands. Relying on politicians who only seek (as they all do) to profit from our struggles and our feelings, while submitting us or aspiring to submit us, makes us become a servile mass ready to mobilize or demobilize according to their electoral interests and their struggles for power.

       No nationalism or flag should represent us. As the oppressed and exploited we should understand that we have more in common with the other oppressed and exploited than with an entrepreneur or politician who was born in the same place as us. Nationalism and patriotism are tools of power which infect and manipulate the oppressed and make them dance to the tune of the oppressors and bond with our class enemies and their constantly changing projects and needs. The affection for the land in which we live or our language are taken away to justify the creation of new states. Obviously, culture should be something living, in constant evolution and free development between individuals and communities. The state is the death of all free development, building borders and sowing the seeds of racism and xenophobia.

        Under capitalism, the state and any form of authority, we will never be free. Let us build a new world on the ruins of authoritarian and state society. Let us build and fight for anarchy, as a constant struggle against all forms of oppression and exploitation, in solidarity and mutual support with our equals, no matter where they come from.

NO NATIONS! NO BORDERS!

(via Contra Madriz, translated by PDF)

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

A Moderniser!!

           Sitting in a bookshop café, the other day having a chat with a couple of anarchists comrades, the conversation rambled from football to travel on trains and buses, the horror of airports, and a host of other equally important subjects. Then the matter of Jeremy Corbyn came up, to which I said he was the new Messiah that would lead the people to the promised land, only to find they were back where they started in the desert. Then other UK Messiahs came up, Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair, and the difference between them, though I think the difference is illusionary, to my surprise one of my comrades referred to Tony Blair as a “moderniser”. The reason for my surprise is that I consider this as 100% mainstream media propaganda language. Tony Blair was one of a bunch of careerist who decided, for their own ends , to move the Labour Party even more to the right, and to blatantly admit that they would do business with large corporations and the financial Mafia, this is modernising if you are a rabid neo-con, where the previous Labour Party hid behind the illusion that it opposed such institutions, only when in power to sit down and do business with them to “grow the economy”, which is a euphemism for improving the profitability of big business and the financial Mafia. If and when Our Saviour Jeremy Corbyn, comes to power, there may be a few slices of bread thrown our way, in the shape of improvements to social services and help for the NHS. These will not even make up for the ravages of the last decade of “austerity” and “balancing the books” ideology of the present political ballerinas. I know both my comrades agree, as long as we hold to the party political system, we will live in a system where big business and the financial Mafia will continue their efforts to turn every human action and activity into a profit making endeavour. The Messiahs will come and the Messiahs will go but exploitation will continue. 

        However, I think my comrade should find another label for Holy Tony, perhaps something along the lines of arrogant, right wing, careerist, lost in an illusion of grandeur and his dream of the Phony Tony legacy, a hollow shell of a self-centred fantasising dangerous dreamer. A moderniser, never.

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

 

The West, The Bringer Of Peace!!!

          These little extracts explain how the "free democratic West" with its "peace loving" leaders plan the future. Wars are part of its strategy for world domination, simply to control the world's resources, all for profit and greed.

        In his book, A Time To Lead, General Clark states: (Wikipedia)

 ------a conversation Clark had with Paul Wolfowitz in May 1991 after the Gulf War, quoting Wolfowitz as lamenting the non-removal of Saddam Hussein, but also telling him that "...we did learn one thing that’s very important. With the end of the Cold War, we can now use our military with impunity. The Soviets won’t come in to block us. And we’ve got five, maybe 10, years to clean up these old Soviet surrogate regimes like Iraq and Syria before the next superpower emerges to challenge us...".^[133]

        Retired four-star General Wesley Clark has given a number of interviews over the years in which he has revealed a covert plan whereby the “US will attack 7 countries In 5 years”. The context was always the Middle East and the seven countries were “Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” In each case Clark appears to be unaware that he was unwittingly exposing the essence of a clandestine scheme known in some circles as the Greater Israel project.
         Gen. Clark has performed a great service to the nation, and the world, by disclosing this crucial insider info. His public sharing of this critical piece of the Mideast puzzle has probably had an adverse effect on his post military career. Unfortunately, Clark’s forced retirement by the U.S. Army has likely made it much more difficult to acquire similar types of extremely valuable intelligence.

     
What follows is General Clark’s stunning revelation word for word:

          So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”[1]
— General Wesley Clark

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

Glasgow Stands With Catalunya Against Police Brutality.

     A couple of days late with this post, but still worth displaying. Glasgow shows its solidarity with the people of Catalonia who sufferer some of the worst police brutality seen in Europe for a considerable time.

       Solidarity banner drop today in Glasgow, in support of the October 3rd General Strike called by the CGT, CNT and many other anarcho-syndicalist unions in Catalonia protesting police violence and repression. The text reads: "GLASGOW STANDS WITH CATALUNYA AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE. SUPPORT THE OCTOBER 3RD GENERAL STRIKE." ¡Vamos!

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

Choose Only From The List.

        A vision of how representative democracy works in modern civilised Europe, where people are free to choose. As long as you choose from the offered box of sweeties. Don't try to choose from anything outside the state's offered box. To draw up a choice list of your own is considered a crime, and your chosen list will be brutally erased. To expect anything different is to be blind to history, the story is all there, written in the blood of ordinary people who have decided they want a different choice. The state is an antithesis of freedom, you choose one or the other, you can't have both. 

This video was lifted from arrezafe. 

A wonderful response from the people to the state's brutality.

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