Those Dark Rooms, Behind The Smiling Face Of The State.

 

 

        I post this article not because I believe Russia  is a particularly brutal regime, but because I believe that all states will, and do, resort to this type of treatment against those it feels are a threat to its power. After all the American state didn't think that water-boarding was torture, are we to believe the pumped out excuses, that Abu Ghraib prison was some sort unknown form of treatment dreamed up by a couple of low ranking bad apples? Let's not forget Azerbaijan. Every state has its clandestine chambers, where its misguided minions do its dirty work, to root out any resistance to its power over the people. No state could exist without its punitive judicial system and its clandestine back-room enforcers.

 

 

This from Network Underground:

Testimony
          The main evidence are the testimony of the detainees. Unfortunately, among of 9 people, only Vasily Kuksov and Julian Boyishin refused to speak. All the others gave testimony about themselves and comrades.
“A masked man came in, he had a handkerchief in his hand covered in blood, that’s when I heard the name of Kuksov. It was then that I realized whose moans came from the next room”(Shakursky)
        Operatives of the FSB immediately, along with classical beatings, began to use torture by electric shock. Usually, operatives used electric shockers, but in some cases they used electrodes.
        “They blindfolded me and stuffed my mouth with a sock. But then to my thumbs on my feet some sort of wiring was attached I felt the first charge of the current, from which I could not restrain moaning and trembling. They repeated this procedure until I promised to say what they would tell me. Since then, I forgot the word “no” and said everything that the operatives told me. ” (Shakursky)
       Electric shocks were applied dozens of times, throughout the body, including genital area.
     “He alternated impacts in the leg with electric shocks in handcuffs. Sometimes beat in the back or neck … I gave up almost immediately, in the first ten minutes. I shouted: “Tell me what to say, I’ll tell you everything!” – but the violence did not stop. “(Filinkov)
      It is important to note that the operatives used torture even after the arrested were visited by Public Supervisory Commission (PMC). During the visit to Filinkov, human rights watchers found fresh traces of beatings, bruises, traces of burns from electrocution. But it didn’t stop tortures.
       The operatives forced them to learn “the testimony” they wanted, the wrong answers led to new impacts. They distributed the roles themselves and selected the facts arbitrarily, rewriting them many times.
      “I was asked questions, if I did not know the answer – I was hit, if the answer did not coincide with their [expectations] – I was hit, if I thought about or formulated [for a long time] – I was hit, if I forgot what they said – I was hit. “(Filinkov)
        “The investigator few more times took sheets with my “testimony” out from the room. It became clear that this whole story, sponsored by FSB officers, has editors-in-chief who are watching that nothing comes out of the general canvas."
       Not only the accused but also the witnesses were tortured. The operatives seized Ilya Kapustin a work mate of Shishkin.
      “I want to bring the deepest apologies to the people whom my problem touched, sorry, guys!” (Shishkin)
        “When I didn’t know the answers to some questions, for example, when I did not understand who or what I was talking about, they beat me with an electric shock to the groin area or to the side of my stomach. I was hit with an electric current to make me say that this or that friend of mine is going to arrange something dangerous.” (Kapustin)
       Pchelintsev Dmitry was hung upside down with a dynamo attached to his fingers. He was brought to such an extent that “they touched my neck and checked that I did not die from …”. Later Dmitry announced the torture with a lawyer. Then he was tortured again, and got warning that if he again “turns back”, then repressors will imitate his suicide and show a video recording to relatives.
       Andrei Chernov, in addition to torture, was also threatened with the fact that his brother would be imprisoned too.
        Boyarshin was beaten after being detained for refusing to speak. Later, he was transferred to the detention center “Gorelovo”, where he was beaten straight in the cell by prison activists of the administration. This prison is notorious for its outrage, at the behest of the authorities, prisoners are beaten, raped, tortured. The torture process is controlled by FSB operatives. They come and demand that Julian testify, but for now he keeps strong.

Read the full article HERE:

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DIY Medication!!

       Something anarchists should always remember, "great oak trees from little acorns grow". Your little project, could catch on and become a mighty oak tree. One such little acorn that I dearly hope will grow into a mighty oak tree is the project being built by a group called Four Thieves Vinegar Collective. This valiant little group are taking on the giant pharmaceutical companies, the large beast that prompts itself as the saviour of lives and curer of disease, but at a price. Big Pharma makes billions from your ill health, and other mental and physical problems, but first and foremost, makes sure that it keeps its shareholders fat at your expense. When a giant like our NHS can state that some drugs are too expensive, then you know that you are being ripped-off.

        Making medication cheap and easily accessible must be applauded and pursued, anything that can short circuit the pharmaceutical giants and their greed driven overriding desire for profits must be encouraged.   

       Please read the full article and share as widely as possible, let this little acorn grow into a mighty oak tree

This from Motherboard:

 

 Michael Laufer with the $30 DIY “epipencil”. Image: Four Thieves Vinegar Collective

     I met Laufer at a bar across the street from HOPE after he finished his talk on DIY medicine. He was meeting with his Four Thieves collaborators who had flown in from all over the country to attend the conference and unveil the new medical technologies under development by the collective. Laufer kicked off the celebration with a toast.

       “A toast to the dead, for children with cancer and AIDS,” Laufer said, raising a glass of bourbon and quoting the hip hop artist Felipe Andres Coronel, better known as Immortal Technique. “A cure exists, and you probably could have been saved.”
       In the last decade, Four Thieves has run afoul of the Food and Drug Administration, billionaire pharma executives, doctors, and chemists at some of the United States’ most prestigious universities. Indeed, Laufer and his collaborators can’t stop pissing off powerful people because Four Thieves is living proof that effective medicines can be developed on a budget outside of institutional channels.
          At the pharmacy, a pair of single use Mylan epipens can cost over $600 and the company’s generic version costs $300 per pair, but an ongoing shortage means you probably can’t find them, even if you can afford them. In response, Four Thieves published the instructions for a DIY epipen online that can be made for $30 in off-the-shelf parts and reloaded for $3. Shkreli drove the price of the lifesaving HIV medicine Daraprim sells up to $750 per pill. So Four Thieves developed an open source portable chemistry lab that allows anyone to manufacture their own Daraprim for just 25 cents apiece.
         The pharmaceutical industry is valued at $446 billion in the US and its walls are tightly policed by regulatory agencies like the FDA and Drug Enforcement Administration. By freely distributing plans for medical devices and pharmaceuticals, a loose collective of anarchists and hackers is threatening to pull the rug out from under one of the most regulated and profitable industries in the world. And they’re just getting started. 

  FREE DRUGS
           Four Thieves claims to have successfully synthesized five different kinds of pharmaceuticals, all of which were made using MicroLab. The device attempts to mimic an expensive machine usually only found in chemistry laboratories for a fraction of the price using readily available off-the-shelf parts. In the case of the MicroLab, the reaction chambers consist of a small mason jar mounted inside a larger mason jar with a 3D-printed lid whose printing instructions are available online. A few small plastic hoses and a thermistor to measure temperature are then attached through the lid to circulate fluids through the contraption to induce the chemical reactions necessary to manufacture various medicines. The whole process is automated using a small computer that costs about $30.
          To date, Four Thieves has used the device to produce homemade Naloxone, a drug used to prevent opiate overdoses better known as Narcan; Daraprim, a drug that treats infections in people with HIV; Cabotegravir, a preventative HIV medicine that may only need to be taken four times per year; and mifepristone and misoprostol, two chemicals needed for pharmaceutical abortions.

Please read the full article HERE, and share widely

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

 

The Power Of Humour.

       Humour can often explain reality in a simple and explicit manner. Like argument, debate, example, solidarity and direct action, it should be a well used tool in our armoury against the savage brutality and injustice of the present insane economic system. This is from Existential Comics.

        The term "anarchy" is often used to mean general lawlessness and chaos, invoked positively by people like the Sex Pistols, and as a sort of boogeyman for wealthy property owners who apply it to anyone who is disruptive to society and the status quo. In philosophy, however, the concept of "anarchism", as laid out by people such as William Godwin, Peter Kropotkin, and Mikhail Bakunin, is a society without classes, or any other hierarchical structures where people on the bottom are expected to obey those at the top. Instead, property (such as factories, farms, and infrastructure) is communally owned, and work is done in a cooperative fashion to meet everyone's needs.
          Despite calling for peace, cooperation, and equality, Anarchism is treated as a violent ideology by the wealthy property owners of "civilized" society (not entirely without reason, of course, as there have been many anarchists who have called for bombings and assassinations as a tactic). If history tells us much, it is that the wealthy elites in any society are typically rather disinclined to give up their property and power, and generally hold unfavorable views of those calling to change the system. Anarchists have been brutally suppressed throughout history by both capitalists, and state socialists such as the Soviet Union. In fact, in an ironic sort of way, they are far more stigmatized and suppressed than "anarchists" like the Sex Pistols who call for aimless violence and disobedience, for obvious reasons.

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America, Land Of Slave Labour.

         Slave labour is alive and well in 21st century capitalism, captured in camps and forced to work for little or nothing is a way of life in that so called "leader of the free world" America. The country that marauds around the globe bombing other countries into oblivion while stating it is "liberating" them. It certainly is the world's leader in destruction abroad, and slavery at home. 

Wikipedia:

Incarceration in the United States is one of the main forms of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceration rate.^[3][4] In 2016 in the US, there were 655 people incarcerated per 100,000 population. This is the US incarceration rate or adults or people tried as adults.^[5][3]

        America accounts for approximately 25% of the world's prison population while accounting for only 5% of the world's population, and this gigantic prison population is milked by the American corporate world. Slavery on a massive scale, legitimised by the supposed leader of the "democratic" world. The word "democratic" sticks in your throat when mentioned in the same breath as capitalism. At the moment, approximately 2.3 million people are locked up in American prisons.

        Influenced by enormous corporate lobbying, the United States Congress enacted the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program in 1979 which permitted US companies to use prison labour. Coupled with the drastic increase in the prison population during this period, profits for participating companies and revenue for the government and its private contractors soared. The Federal Bureau of Prisons now runs a programme called Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) that pays inmates under one dollar an hour. The programme generated $500m in sales in 2016 with little of that cash being passed down to prison workers. Stateside, where much of the US addiction to mass incarceration lies, is no different. California's prison labour programme is expected to produce some $232m in sales in 2017.
       These exploited labourers are disproportionately African American and Latino - a demographic status quo resulting from the draconian sentencing and other criminal justice policies ransacking minority communities across the United States. African Americans are incarcerated at a rate five times higher than that of whites. In states like Virginia and Oklahoma, one in every 14 or 15 African American men are put in prison.  

 
        “Militant actions in support of the prison strike will send a powerful message of defiance to the American state and solidarity to rebels inside prison walls.”

From Revolutionary Abolition:

        On August 21st, people locked up in prisons throughout the United States are set to go on strike, calling attention not only to heinous abuses and inhumane conditions, but also to the ongoing enslavement of millions of people inside American prisons. After the Civil War, slavery remained institutionalized in American society through the constitution’s 13th amendment, which allows slavery to remain as punishment for a crime. In America, black people’s criminalization is enforced by police who frequently shoot black people with impunity and by judges who sentence black people to draconian sentences, ensuring their enslavement in modern-day plantations.
        Facing a situation meant to stifle any glimmer of joy and humanity, people in prisons across the United States are calling attention to the “lack of respect for human life that is embedded in our nation’s penal ideology” by courageously going on strike from August 21st to September 9th.
       The dates, chosen by prison organizers, signify the strike’s continuation with the legacies of Nat Turner, who began his rebellion on August 21, 1831, and the Attica Uprising, which began September 9, 1971. Nat Turner, who was born into slavery, took part in a major insurrection, freeing slaves from plantations and executing slave owners. The Attica Uprising, an important milestone for prison resistance in the United States, took place following the shooting of black revolutionary George Jackson by a prison guard during an escape attempt. Like Nat Turner and the Attica rebels before them, prison strikers today are fighting for black liberation and the abolition of slavery.
       Revolutionaries around the world should be aware of the struggle against slavery in America’s prisons. The Trump presidency is one of the most barbaric regimes in the world today, continuing a long legacy of racism, exploitation and genocide engrained in the American state. People in prisons rising up to regain their humanity are providing some of the most inspiring resistance of the Trump era to the horrifying, dehumanizing policies of America’s judicial system.
        We call on comrades around the world to join in solidarity actions with the prison strike in the United States. The American state and corporations that benefit from prison slave labor must be held accountable for their atrocities by revolutionaries through direct action in locations around the world. Actions targeting American consulates and companies benefiting from slave labor, and destroying symbols of American prison slavery will draw the world’s attention to the struggle taking place within the prisons.
        Militant actions in support of the prison strike will send a powerful message of defiance to the American state and solidarity to rebels inside prison walls.

Burn the prisons!
Support the prison strike!
Long live international solidarity!

revolutionaryabolition.

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

Learning From The Past.

 

        At Spirit of Revolt, we are always trying to bring the history of the people's struggles to a wider audience, we select pamphlets and articles from our archive and put them up in our "Read Of The Month" for all to enjoy and perhaps learn from. This month we have chosen and small booklet, which is part of The John Cooper Collection, published by Cienfuegos Press and edited by that well know anarchist Albert Meltzer, The International Revolutionary Solidarity Movement, "A study of the Origins and Development of the Revolutionary Anarchist Movement in Europe, 1945 – 1973, with particular reference to the First of May Group."

Read on line:

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This Land Is Their Land, Unless We Fight.

 

      The following piece was penned by my friend and comrade Bob, I share it here as I think it extremely important that the public at large wake up to the fact that we, the ordinary people, are losing a very important part of our community life, our right to roam our public spaces. Unless we come together to defend these parks and commons and attempt to take back what we have had stolen from us, they will be gone, for ever, leaving future generations with an impoverished environment.

     It also gives me another opportunity to raise the matter of the sell-off of a part of OUR Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Yes, another petition, the more people that get involved, the louder our voice. So please sign and circulate, then when possible, get involved.

 

Some people think this lacks fastfood outlets, amusements arcades and plastic Flamingos.

 

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/say-no-to-the-proposed-changes-to-our-national-parks

 

      Recreational time particularly in a public park is personal and shouldn’t be defined or dictated by the state or held ransom by profiteering and commercial interests.
      Fences have become topical these days from the mighty versions planned in the head of the president of the united states, to the barriers of asylum, the psychological, as well as physical barriers of class, race, gender and commerce. The first thing we should think about in coming across a wall or barrier of any description is what is its purpose? For whose benefit?
      The Radical Imagination Project tries to encourage folk to become  involved in public life, because we believe it is the only hope we have for stopping the neoliberal project that has infiltrated every aspect of our private and public life. To a point which exposes just how lax our government has been that we now find ourselves subservient to possibly the worst and most dangerous western government administration in history.
     The above may seem to many a bit OTT with what we want to discuss here. But on the contrary, we need to use local threats on our door steps as lessons of understanding the ways of how the world works and the bigger challenges we will inevitably face now and in the future. Particularly for the benefit of our young and also to reinvigorate our jaded spirits for the rest. If we fail to do this we are dooming our children to the consequences of one generational thinking.
     We owe the present generation an opportunity to break with the tyranny and propaganda of an abusive system that processes them through an education ideology in order that they become good servants to that system. And now is attempting to destroy their innovative spirit through debt and even their basic right to the wider commons through commercialisation, particularly of green space. One of the last frontiers of the neoliberal project.
      Our city parkland in our dear green place is also the last bastion of a fading communal spirit that is in need of revitalisation. A parklands benefits are based on the value to the whole community not on the cost to the administration as an excuse to privatise them. We have the right to roam and enjoy the quiet with our kids, our friends, our dogs, or our imagination.
     When the parks are fully commercialised and turned over to the profiteers by our council, we will never get them back out. Because commerce is about expansion not conservation. There can be no “finding a balance” with aggressive commercial enterprises, who if need be, will criminalise, vilify and litigate against communities to protect “their” parkland developments and the profits gained from them.
      Think about it. What has been developing over the last few years in our parks is pretty much intolerable and the parasites (events managers) are only getting started. Bellahouston, Glasgow Green, Kelvingrove, Queens Park and more are now being described by administrators and asset managers as commercial entertainment venues. Ticketed for profits, not for normal use for people. In protecting our parks for future generations we need to make sacrifices. We need to give up some ruckus pleasures for the common good. Even the young will need to start thinking about where their own children will play and how much it will cost in social impact and financial disadvantages if we continue to give in to promoters of entertainment, alcohol and junk food. Remember the young are not young forever and we can not leave this for our children to sort out.
       Example: Since 2011 or so we have had a school built in Kelvingrove park (which is we need to remember is a commercial enterprise) a bandstand that has been commandeered from social use to commercial use, two cafes and recently permission given to events agents by council administrators to invade, colonise and fence great swathes of our parkland throughout the summer. Mostly to sell alcohol and expensive events tickets.
      Commercial creep doesn’t take long to establish itself. For instance in the introduction to Hillhead primary, on the school website, the head teacher finds it “very fortunate to be located next to Kelvingrove Park”. But the school is not located next to Kelvingrove park. The school is “in” Kelvingrove park. Our commons and common good fund assets are continuously eroded by these miss-interpretations of geography and public land use. Maybe a future head teacher, if things go on the way they are, will be explaining to the future parents, i.e. those attending the school at present why there is little free un-commercial space in the park for there kids to play.
      Parks administration are not facilitating the use of these services, (parks) but dictating how they should be used. What they, wish to see in them. That is not their job, that is our job. Their job is to do what the “public” have asked them to do, not what business suggests. We employ public servants for their skills in first accounting to the public will and using their imagination in promoting ideas that are conducive to and may be of some social and cultural sustainable value.
     What is happening in Glasgow’s parks is a microcosm of what is happening all over Scotland. Like the selling off of the shores of Loch Lomond to private investors. (Flamingo Land) According to the academic and land reformer, Jim Hunter, speaking about land sales in Scotland. “this equates to the most concentrated pattern of land ownership in the developed world". What is the government doing about it? Nothing. As is Glasgow City Council in the privatisation of our commons and commercialisation of our parks.
      But as has been said many times from these quarters. It is not the council or parliament or Westminster that is the problem in the inverted colonisation of public space. That’s just what most of these administrators do, make it easier for business to take over, because it makes it easier for them to make us believe that they are doing their job. It is not because we do not have the knowledge of the illegality of the sale of land and the commons, nor the experts who can testify to this, nor enough people complaining. We do. The problem is, for many reasons, is in the frustration of the public to do anything about it. We are still complaining. When we need to be organising. We are still pontificating. When we need to be educating.
     Their is a hard core of dedicated people in the background who have given up their time and energy and still do to to protecting our commons from investors, to keep our parks user friendly, open and autonomous, for the use of all. We can share in that knowledge and these connections to continue to build a sustainable vision for our parks.
        Join us soon for a Parks and the Common Good exposition/workshop. Date, late August to be confirmed.
       If you are interested, have something to say/share, want to help organise in any way, or just need some information. Email Bob at:
info@inthecommongood.org

Useful links Parks/Commons
citystrolls.com Search parks
commongoodwatch.wordpress.com
kelvingrovepark.com
radicalimagination.co.uk/commonweal.html

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

 

Pan-European State Repression.

 

        While the system produces "bread and circuses" for the masses, World Cup, Olympics, Wimbledon, etc., the various states are working hard at attempting to kill off any resistance to their insane, unjust, exploitative system. Behind the many scenes of pomp and ceremony, there to make the public feel everything is just wonderful, the states' policing agencies are working hard to track down and silence those most active in trying to bring about a fairer and more humane world. Anarchist are at the forefront of this savage state onslaught of intimidation, they are seen as the greatest threat to the corporate world's freedom to plunder the planet for corporate wealth and power. 

       Of course there will be those who say that this is just paranoia on behave of those wishing to end this insane cancerous economic system. However the facts are there if you wish to check them out. Perhaps you may see it differently after reading this extract from an article from Civic Critic:

        A process of ongoing high-level cooperation between European governments following the G20 in Hamburg this time last year has led to the creation of a "black bloc task force," as well as what appears to be a Europe-wide digital database of so-called "left wing extremists" based on a dubious and toxic ideological framework, according to a series of articles, activist commentary, and government documents.
        Over the past few months, a huge number of activists from Switzerland, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Austria, France and Germany have been arrested by police in conjunction with the G20 protests. The raids in Italy, Spain, France and Switzerland were conducted by a "black bloc task force," according to DW.
        The black bloc task force, DW says, has been "combing through terabytes of police footage, CCTV recordings, and private videos with the help of facial recognition software and geolocation data." It has been disclosed also that police infiltrated many of the G20 protest groups with informants. Meanwhile, police in France (the CRS) have discussed experimentation with "chemical, invisible, and remote markers" of "antifas or other black blocks known for their violence."

And:

       In 2001, just a month before the Genoa G8, member states agreed to pursue "violent troublemakers," and collect data on those "notoriously known to the police," while in 2007, Wolfgang Shauble demanded the pursuit of "Euro Anarchists." Ministries of police told their officers to act "internationally and conspiratorially" in tracking and infiltrating "Euro-Anarchists" and "left extremists," while claiming that the "anarcho-scene" was highly internationalised, with cooperation with leftists from the United Kingdom to Greece. Ahead of the G20, it was announced that robots would be installed to crawl through the sewers, without explanation of their function.
       While these prior declarations could be seen by some as flashes in the pan (although the British spycops experience sheds doubt on this), calls made after the G20 last year appear to have developed into action at a frightening speed.
      On the final day of the protests, then-minister for justice Heiko Maas expressed in BILD, an extreme-right Atlanticist tabloid, the need for "a European-wide database of left-wing extremists" to stop them from crossing the borders. Since that date, BILD itself has seemingly played an important role in this process, asking readers to identify and reveal protestors, and releasing their photos to the police. In addition, at least two G20 activists have been included in the SIS II Schengen blocking system.

         It is interesting how that ambiguous word "extremist" gets attached to anybody they don't like.
Well worth reading the full article HERE:

 All very, very rich, and only thinking of your welfare!!!!

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

Another Corporate Grab For Our Public Spaces.

           I'm not a lover of petitioning our lords and masters, asking them to "please do this or that", or "please don't do this or that". However, to emphasise the point I keep making, that the aim of this corrupt system we are burdened under, is to end all public spaces and public services, I sometimes make exceptions. Bit by bit they slice and gobble up pieces of public spaces and syphon of part of our social services. moving ever towards that day when everything is "private" owned by the greed driven corporations. You pay what they ask, or you are excluded.

Loch Lomond.

 

       Here in Glasgow we have seen slices of public spaces disappear into the grasp of the money Mafia. The latest greedy grab is for a slice of Loch Lomond, part of the The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, to develop a money making "leisure park" named Flamingo Land. As long as you come with your credit card or wallet, you will be able to enjoy parts of the National Park that you once could enjoy for free. The Loch Lomond area is a place to relax, explore the hills and/or cycle its roads, Loch Lomond is a world renowned beauty spot, and a place of wonderful scenery and walks that you can enjoy for free. This greed driven "Flamingo Land" fantasy, gives no thought to what the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is, their idea is to snatch a slice of the National Park and milk the hundreds of thousands of people who come to enjoy, in many forms, its spectacular beauty. Do you wish to see, piece by piece of our national parks become money making enterprises for the corporate greed machine, excluding you, unless you pay their price? Let's make sure the "flamingos" take flight and leave Loch Lomond.

 Luss, on Loch Lomond shore.

       With anger and disgust, I've just signed the following petition "Scottish Government: To The  Scottish Government - Stop The Sale of Loch Lomond" and hope you will join the growing group of angry concerned folks, and turn this into an almighty roar of real anger. However, until we dismantle the capitalist economic system we live under, we will have to continually fight these money grabbing exploits of the corporate greed brigade as they continue their onslaught to disposes the people of all public spaces and public services.

      The goal of the petition is to reach 25,000 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here:

https://chn.ge/2KUfJB8

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

Cycling Shoe To Moon-boot.

         Last week Stasia and I decided we would head for the Isle of Bute with the bikes and enjoy a few days cycling on the island. We booked into a wee cottage in Rothesay. Unfortunately the day or so before we left for the Isle, while doing some DIY in the garden, I dropped a rather heavy piece of teak on my left foot. I didn't think much of it at the time, but when we arrived in Rothesay, my foot was "loupin", (throbbing with pain). So it was a visit the the local Accident and Emergency unit, efficient examination, Xray, and told I had three small fractures on my foot, fitted with a "moon-boot" and handed a walking stick. Back at the cottage I thought, the "moon-boot" is to hold the foot firm and support the bones, well, a cycling shoe with its solid sole and tight Velcro straps would do just the same. Undaunted, off we went for a short cycle along the coast, stopping at a quiet spot, I sat and admired the view, while Stasia wandered along the beach. After a while it was a pleasant cycle back to the cottage. However by this time my foot was complaining something terrible, so it was back on with the moon-boot and that was the end of our cycling around the Isle of Bute. Now home and the foot is still "loupin". 

Enjoying Isle of Bute sunshine.

Stasia doing her walk-about.

Not the ideal cycling shoe. 

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

The Future---Anarchism.

 Taken from Radical Glasgow's Anarchist Critic.

 Why Anarchism?

Freedom and Equality

       Fundamentally, anarchism is the struggle for freedom. Freedom from rulers and corporations who dominate our lives and are destroying our earth. Freedom for workers, women, and all oppressed people in all parts of the world. We believe that this sort of freedom can only be achieved together with equality and a fair distribution of resources.

Individual and Collective

        Anarchists believe in the inherent dignity and humanity of the individual. But this dignity and humanity can only be fully realised in a co-operative, egalitarian society. This is why we are in favour of working together collectively and being organised. It is incorrect to equate anarchism with individualism or chaos.

Revolution

       Anarchists understand that this truly free and equal society can only be achieved through revolution – meaning a complete transformation of society. This society cannot be ‘given’ to the people by politicians or bureaucrats. It must be built by people from below.

Change by Direct Action

          Anarchism opposes the violence which is an integral part of capitalism and the state (this violence comes in many forms: war, patriarchy etc.). We believe that means shape ends – in other words, the way we struggle will shape the outcome of the struggle. This is also why we do not support the seizure of State power by authoritarian political parties. However, anarchists do believe in direct action – action taken by everyday people to address the power imbalance in present day society. This includes strikes, boycott’s, work-to-rule’s and occupations.

The Past

         Both authoritarian communism (as in Russia, China etc.) and ‘labourism’ (ie. The labour parties of the world), have failed to solve our global crisis. We need a different path to a better world. Anarchism offers itself as a guide on that path.

What Might an Anarchist Society Look Like?

1.

       The world’s resources would be held in common and shared with all the diverse life on Earth.

2.

       People would manage their own lives, work and communities, and everyone would have a say in decision making through decentralised forms of organisation.

3.

      Relationships in all areas of life would be based on mutual respect and equality regardless of gender, skin colour, sexual orientation, disability, age, culture etc.

4.

      Work wouldn’t be boring and repetitive, but instead would be a means of voluntary self expression and fulfilment; unpopular or difficult jobs would be shared.

5.

        Education would be integrated into daily life to produce free individuals who think for ourselves.

6.

          Goods and services would be produced ecologically for human needs based on the principle “from each according to ability, to each according to need”.

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Acceptable Deaths.

          How the state spends your money gives an indication of its priorities. Here in the UK, and I don't think other states are much different, counter-terrorism is a top priority, there will always be more money for that particular state fear. A recent Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, raised the counter-terrorism budget to £757 million, with a more recent increase of £50 million on top of that. The counter terrorism budget has increased by more than 30% since 2015.
       The likelihood of being killed by a terrorist in this country is approximately 1-in 2.2 million. Compare this with number of people killed on our roads, approximately 2.8 deaths per 100,000, has road safety seen a 30% funding increase recently?

 

       Another source of deaths in this country, and other developed countries, is air pollution. Each year, inhaling particulates causes around 29,000 deaths in the UK, which, on recent evidence, may rise to around 40,000 deaths when also considering nitrogen dioxide from diesel engines. 

 

       Then there is the humble cyclist, in 2016, 18,477 cyclists were injured in reported road accidents, including 3,499 who were killed or seriously injured. Where is the 30% increase in funding for safer cycle lanes?

 

 

       Why the lavish 30% increase in funding for counter-terrorism, but no similar increase for other forms of avoidable deaths? Could it be that the powers that be see terrorism as a threat to the state, while the other causes of avoidable deaths simply affect that disposable product, the humble citizen?

      We will only get our priorities right when we take control of our lives, our communities, and our work places. Only when we wrestle control from the hands of that cabal of leeches and parasites who are steeped in their vested interests and ill-gotten wealth, will we be able to create that society that sees to the needs of all its citizens, freed from the vested interest of privilege and power. 

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Have You Got Permission???

         I think this wee video shows the stupidity of the system as it tries to control your every move and action, and how it manages to get ordinary people to attempt to implement its control system. How it seeks to get you to ask permission for your ever action. Well done Danny, handled beautifully, with dignity and humour, you put the suits in their place. Thanks Loam for the link.

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Co-ordinated State Repression, A Sign Of Their Weakness.

      Repression against anarchists by the various states, is nothing new, but what we can say is in recent years the various states have increased this repression. From America, to Indonesia, from Russia to Europe, there appears to be a more co-ordinated attack on anarchist individuals and groups. We can take it that the more severe the repression, is a sign that the various states feel more threatened and vulnerable. All the more reason to increase our presence by increased actions and literature, to bring awareness of anarchism to an ever widening section of the public at large.

 

Mass repression in Russia against anarchists
From naroborona.info

      During the last six months in Russia there have been mass repressions against anarchists – in Penza and Petersburg, Moscow and Chelyabinsk, and in the Crimea. At the same time, in prisons there are still anarchists, repressed earlier, a few years ago. Often, information about repressions against certain anarchists is lost against the background of more high-profile cases, and actions against repression are reduced to actions for the release of specific anarchists accused of individual cases. We believe that this is wrong – you can resist repression only together. It is necessary to fight against the repressive policy of the state towards anarchists in general. Therefore, we have collected here information about all Russian anarchists being repressed today. Read the rest of this entry »

Armed political police attack an informal anarchist gathering in Belarus

         Several people were charged with illegal usage of forest resources and distribution of extremist materials after political police with support of task forces attacked an informal anarchist encounter. Around 20 participants were at the camping site at that point.

         On Saturday 30 June special task force of police attacked the camp shooting into the air. After a few minutes all the activists were forced on the ground by a crowd of people armed with machine guns and shotguns. They were accompanied by chiefs in plain clothes but wearing masks. When anarchists started asking about the reasons for this circus one of the cops said that they had a report that somebody was illegally cutting trees in the area and shooting in the forest. Other cops were answering, “you are not stupid, you understand yourself why you are here”.

       Tents were searched for illegal materials. Merchandise from several groups was confiscated under the pretext of distribution of extremist materials. All activists were put on their knees and filmed by the cops. Read the rest of this entry »

Concerning the Recent Raids across Europe

           The ongoing repression linked to last year's G20 summit in Hamburg has not been much discussed outside of Europe. Mobilizations against global bodies like the G20 are international traditions (whether or not we consider them to be wise), beyond the sense of international that exists in Europe where borders are less stark. These summits exist as heightened moments of repression that shift around globally, providing local police forces and their masters with enormously enhanced resources to crush anarchists, non-electoral leftists, and others who persistently oppose them locally. The G20 as a policing operation is carried out by different police forces around the world, but the phenomenon is international in scope and recognizing it is a necessary first step in linking our struggle through solidarity. Read the rest of this entry

Solidarity with Ucil – imprisoned anarchist comrade Brian Valentino (Indonesia)

           Our comrade Brian Valentino is being held in Polda prison Yogyakarta, the main police headquarter of Yogyakarta (special feudal region within Central Java territory)

          Since the day of his arrest, May 1st until May 16th 2018, our comrade, who were beaten and tortured, have been denied of his rights for legal advocate or lawyer. Ever since he was arrested it’s already 15 days of interrogation without the company of a lawyer or advocate.The police or the legal aid haven’t gave us a clear reason about this, therefore we are not sure that whether the police or the legal advocate who refuse to help him.

        To be clear, we received information from Brian Valentino’s dad who have just visited him after a week and he make sure that Brian was the only of the arrestees who haven’t given any legal aid for 15 days since arrest.

       Therefore we urge to the comrades national and international to strengthen solidarity with Brian Valentino, our dear anarchist friend, who have been refused of his rights for legal aid. We are not limiting the solidarity, it can be legal or whatever. Read the rest of this entry »

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Victory To People Power.

 

        The blood dripping, war mongering, arms industry leeches have left our fair city of Glasgow, but their foul stench will linger for a while, as a stain on the city council for their decision to allow this cancer into our city in the first place. For that action, they are still marked with the disgust of the people.
       However a big thank you to all those determined citizens who turned up to protest this insult to to Glasgow's long anti-militarism tradition. Their efforts prove once again that the solidarity of people on the streets can bring victories. In this case the Glasgow City Council has stated publicly that there will be no more arms fairs in our city. Here's hoping that other cities have the same success and give these purveyors of death and destruction, no where to display their blood soaked merchandise. Well done Glasgow.

CAAT Scotland posted in Glasgow Against The Arms Fair.

         Thanks to everyone who has supported and came down to the demos, the council has said there will be no more arms fairs in Glasgow!
        The deputy leader David McDonald said... "you can be sure this is not the kind of event that comes to Glasgow in the future".
         Unfortunately it was too late to stop UDT but it is great news for the future. This would not have happened without people coming together and voicing our opposition. Glasgow does not welcome warmongers and arms dealers. Hopefully other cities will now follow!
People power works.
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/12962/people-power-works-peace-campaigners-welcome-glasgow-council-announcement-no-more

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Give And Take, Community.

      Consumerism is the backbone of this capitalist system, we have to consume the plethora of crap the system produces or it grinds to a halt. So if we want to get rid of this exploitative greed driven system of capitalism we have to drag our minds away from consumerism in the capitalist sense of the term.

Skoros Athens

Published on Jul 27, 2015

        This collaborative ethnographic film is about Skoros, an anti-consumerist collective in Exarcheia, Athens, that run a space where people could come and give, take, or give and take, goods and services without any norms of reciprocity. Soon after came the Greek "Crisis", a new kind of "here and now" focusing less on trying to do things differently and more on urgency, a need to provide solidarity to an increasing number of people that were nearing and falling below the poverty line.

        Could you do this in your community? It only takes a few people and a space to get it started.

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Tomorrow Swell Their Numbers.

         Glasgow and the rest of the country owe a debt of gratitude to all those how turned up at Glasgow's SEC centre, to let the blood sucking parasites and war mongers know that Glasgow does not want these purveyors war, death and destruction anywhere in our city. There is still time tomorrow to join these dedicated citizens and show your anger at this show of brutal citizen control, war, death and destruction. The city council should be held to task for allowing this market place for death and destruction anywhere near our city. When the blood dripping leeches leave our city, our anger should be turned on the hypocrites in the city council. They, by their action have tried to give the war mongers a stamp of legitimacy. Purveyors of death and destruction can never have a shred of legitimacy in any civilised country.

       Thanks Bob for the video:

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