History Remembered, A Future Glanced At.

                 Spirit of Revolt's event, on Saturday 10th of August, Spirit of Revolt-Showcase, in conjunction with Govanhill International Festival was a great success, a fair number of folks turned up and those who did were enthusiastic about our project and the material on display, also good to meet old friends. On display was lots of photos, posters, papers and rare pamflets, books CD's, plenty of material relating to the South side of Glasgow and further a field. Material from The Pollok Free State motorway battle, Castlemilk claimants union, poll-tax, Guy Aldred's The Word, and much much more, a grand slice of Glasgow's radical history. All the material is available for viewing at our Archive in The Mitchell Library, also we have put a considerable amount of the archive on line for easy access for the general public, just visit our website https://spiritofrevolt.info and browse your own history, not that of the kings of industry, monarchs, and military darlings of the the system.
                So a big thank you to all those who made it happen and a double thank you to all those who turned up, and a bigger thank you for your enthusiasm, you help us to realise we are doing the right thing in recording this part of history that is all too often lost and forgotten. For those who didn't manage to the event, you can still see lots of Glasgow's radical history by visiting our website, https://spiritofrevolt.info 

           

        Some photos from the event.

 

Great when old friends turn up.

 Two old codgers that just live for this stuff.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Reminder From The Not So Distant Past.

      Five years ago I wrote up the following piece, that's another five years of slow painful death to the people who live around the River Citarum, the world's most polluted river. There is a sort of attempt to clean this long channel of death and disease, but it will not put a stop to the polluters, there is too much money and profit involved. Western consumerism must still be fed, no matter the price to humanity, no matter the slow and painful deaths of the innocent who never see those luxury goods that poison their lives.

Friday 2nd May 2014,

Murder Withe Intent:

       "You walk through the air conditioned shopping mall and are surrounded by an array of colourful shiny shops, all displaying a kaleidescope of goods. They are all there, H&M, Gap, Adidas, and others, it all looks so innocent. However, a lot of the merchandise of these companies is manufacture in Indonesia, along the banks of the once beautiful River Citarum. A river that for centuries was the survival line for millions of people. They fished the river, they drank the water, it slaked the thirst of their animals, and it watered their fields of crops.

        Now thanks to the manufacturers of cheap goods for Western corporate names like the three mentioned above, the River Citarum is now a running sewer, as factories along its banks pour in a cocktail of toxic chemicals such as Mercury and other noxious poisons and waste. In spite of this the River Citarum, now among the dirtiest rivers in the world, is still drinking water to approximately 35 million people. Now the local trade has changed, instead of fishing, the local villages along its banks try to salvage rubbish from the river to sell, it's a living.

      Why should these people have to endure a range of horrific illness and the destruction of their way of life and livelihood, because corporations want to maximise their profits in the West? This is a form of slow mass murder, people will die from avoidable illnesses, others will live a life of poor and deteriorating health, all in the name of corporate profit. You kill somebody and steal their belongings, that's murder. You slowly kill thousands of people and steal their way of life, that's mass murder. It is not done through ignorance, these corporations are fully aware of the damage they are doing, fully aware of the consequences on the lives of those caught up in their greed driven quest for ever more profit. Not an impassioned murder, but cold blooded murder with intent."

       How long will it take us to accept we are complicit in this mass murder, our choices set the stage for the death of others, we can't continue with our capitalist dominated greed system and shrug our shoulders at the consequences to others. As we shape our lives, we shape the lives of those less fortunate. Under the present system our comfort and variety of choices, is dependent on the misery and death of others.. We can no longer say, we didn't know. We have to destroy the capitalist illusion that it brings prosperity to all, we know it doesn't and we know the results, unless we do something, we are complicit in this mass murder.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Freedom Means No Borders.

        Migrants, that group of human beings devoid of rights, demonised by the state, simply because they crossed those imaginary lines drawn across the planet by power mongers. Lines that mark the territory over which a small group of powerful and wealthy individuals claim sovereignty. They will defend this patch of the planet with their subjects blood, to ensure they retain their plundered lands or expand them. These lines, borders, are transient, they shift and move according to the dictates of power, without any consideration for those living between these shifting lines. A country can be on a map one day and then disappear on another day, for example Kurdistan, sliced up and divided among other countries, at the dictate of the European Imperialists. Palestine, rapidly disappearing in a deadly and bloody land grab by the Israeli state. Borders are an anathema of freedom, they place individuals under the tutelage of some fabricated sovereignty, demanding the people follow its drum beat and dance to its song, even to the extent of shedding their blood, the state demands we feed on that poison known as patriotism, which is the abandonment of your will to that of the state.
       Freedom is impossible as long as we have the planet divided into power blocks, states, each controlled by a small bunch of pampered and over privileged individuals competing for the worlds finite resources. No where in this grand scheme of things, is there room for the freedom of the individual, no possibility of equality, the system, to survive, must have leaders and followers, otherwise it collapses. If we desire freedom, justice and equality with a sustainable existence, all borders must vanish and be seen for what they are lines in the sand drawn by the greedy and powerful to their own advantage. 

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. 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Why Are We Anarchists?

     A short extract from the writings of anarchist Élisée Reclus.

From Enough Is Enough, 

Why Are We Anarchists?

       The following lines do not constitute a programme. They have no other purpose than to justify the usefulness of elaborating a draft programme which would be subject to the study, to the observations, to the criticisms of all communist revolutionaries.
      Perhaps, however, they contain one or two considerations that could fit into the project that I am asking for.
      We are revolutionaries because we want justice and everywhere we see injustice reigning around us. The products of labour are distributed in an inverse ration to the work. The idler has all the rights, even that of starving his neighbour, while the worker does not always have the right to die of hunger in silence: he is imprisoned when he is guilty of striking. People who call themselves priests peddle miracles so that they can enslave intellects; people called kings claim to be from a universal master to be master in their turn; people armed by them cut, slash and shoot at their pleasure; people in black robes who say they are justice par excellence condemn the poor, absolve the rich, often sell convictions and acquittals; merchants distribute poison instead of food, they kill in detail instead of killing in bulk and thereby become honoured capitalists.[2] The sack of coins is the master, and he who possesses it holds in his power the destiny of other men. All this seems despicable to us and we want to change it. We call for revolution against injustice.
       But “justice is only a word, a mere convention,” we are told. “What exists is the right of force!” Well, if that is so, we are no less revolutionary. It is one or the other: either justice is the human ideal and, in this case, we claim it for all; or else force alone governs societies, and in that case we will use force against our enemies. Either the freedom of equals or an eye for an eye [la loi du talion].
      But why the rush, all those who expect everything in time tell us, to exempt themselves from taking action. The slow evolution of events suffices for them, revolution scares them. History has pronounced [judgement] between us and them. Never has any partial or general progress been achieved by mere peaceful evolution; it has always been made through a sudden revolution. If the work of preparation takes place slowly in minds, the realisation of ideas occurs suddenly: evolution occurs in the brain, and it is the arms that make the revolution.
      And how to bring about this revolution that we see slowly preparing in Society and whose advent we are aiding with all our efforts? Is it by grouping ourselves in bodies subordinate to each other? Is it by constituting ourselves like the bourgeois world that we fight as a hierarchical whole, with its responsible masters and its irresponsible inferiors, held as tools in the hand of a boss? Will we begin to become free by abdicating? No, because we are anarchists, that is to say men who want to keep full responsibility for their actions, who act in accordance with their rights and their personal duties, who impart to a [human] being his natural development, who has no one as a master and is not the master of others.
      We want to free ourselves from the grasp of the State, no longer to have above us superiors who can command us, putting their will in the place of ours.
       We want to rip apart all external law, by holding ourselves to the conscious development of the inner laws of our nature. By suppressing the State, we also suppress all official morality, knowing beforehand that there can be no morality in obeying misunderstood laws, in obeying a practice which they do not even try to justify. There is morality only in freedom. It is also by freedom alone that renewal remains possible. We want to keep our minds open, amenable in advance to any progress, to any new idea, to any generous initiative.
       But if we are anarchists, enemies of every master, we are also international communists, because we understand that life is impossible without social organisation. Isolated, we can do nothing, while through close union we can transform the world. We associate with each other as free and equal men, working for a common task and regulating our mutual relations by justice and reciprocal goodwill. Religious and national hatreds cannot separate us, since the study of nature is our only religion and we have the world for our homeland.----

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Fire Ant, Solidarity With Anarchist Prisoners.

This from Act For Feedom Now:

     Fire Ant is a quarterly publication focused on spreading the words of anarchist prisoners and generating material solidarity for our imprisoned friends. Begun as a collaboration between anarchist prisoners and anarchists in Maine, Fire Ant seeks to raise material aid for anarchist prisoners while fostering communication between anarchists on both sides of the walls.
      Issue #4 includes writings by anarchist prisoners Michael Kimble (on the state of Alabama prisons), Noah “Kado” Coffin (on racial segregation & summer survival techniques), Thomas Meyer-Falk (in memory of his friend Willi), Sean Swain (on cannibalism), and Eric King (three poems). Additionally: a piece honoring Willem Van Spronsen, a rundown of this year’s June 11th Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners, and a call for August’s International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners. Plus original art by Noah Coffin, Marius Mason, Sean Swain, and Michael Kimble. 

Download Free PDF:
 

 BULK COPIES OF FIRE ANT.

      Do you run a distro, space, or project that would like copies of Fire Ant? Bloomington ABC will send bulk copies for free to anyone who wishes to distribute it . Please email us at bloomingtonanarchistblackcross (at) riseup (dot) net. (Note: United States only, for now. It may take a few weeks to ship out orders.) 

The Fire Ant collective can be contacted at
Fire Ant
PO Box 164
Harmony, ME 04942 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Free Event Spirit of Revolt Show Case.

      Wee reminder of Spirit of Revolt's next free outreach event. As usual the aim is  to bring the people to the archive, and to bring Glasgow's radical history to the people.

Spirit of Revolt - Archives of Dissent

Showcase

11am - 3pm

Saturday 10th August,

The Deep End, 21 Nithsdale Street Glasgow G41 2PZ.

      Spirit of Revolt will present a showcase of material from Spirit of Revolt -

Archives of Dissent.

      Come along to get a look at materials from our collections. There will be a focus on actions and campaigns connected to the southside of Glasgow including: Pollok Free State; Workers City (Farquhar McLay), Castlemilk Claimaints Union, housing campaigns and more from the John Cooper Collection.

https://spiritofrevolt.info/

      Part of Govanhill International Festival & Carnival

(https://www.govanhillbaths.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gifc_2019_programme_web_version.pdf

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Spirit of Revolt And Free Events In Glasgow.

        Spirit of Revolt prides itself in being the largest archive in Scotland of anarchist and libertarian-socialist artifacts, memorabilia,documents, etc. We record and preserve the struggles of the ordinary people's battles outside the party political and trade union circle, mainly from the Glasgow/Clydeside area. Though the contents cover a much wider area. Our aim is to make this often hidden history, easily accessible to the public at large. We work hard through a band of dedicated volunteers to get as much of this material up on line for easy access so that you don't have to visit a particular building. What is not yet on line you can access at the Mitchell Library through Spirit of Revolt.

      Two up and coming FREE events from Spirit of Revolt are:

    First: Spirit of Revolt - Show case, in conjunction with Govanhill International Festival and Carnival, Saturday August 10th. 11:00am-15:00pm. 21 Nithsdale Street Glasgow G41 2PZ. 

details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1920330724735435/

     Second: Spirit of Revolt regular Show and Tell, this one will be on that great series of Glasgow events known as "Workers "City", Monday September 16th. 12noon-2:00pm. held in the Blythswood room on the 5th. floor of the Mitchell Library

 

       All this requires money to sustain and grow this important archive. To this end we put on outreach events, exhibitions and pop-up displays when ever possible. This is never quite enough  to guarantee our financial security. We are extremely grateful to the small band of friends and associates who have signed direct debits, this gives us a guaranteed amount to work with each month. I should add that we are not attached to, nor receive any funding from, any political party or trade union.

     We are asking all those who are interested in preserving these struggles of the ordinary people, to look at our website, https://spiritofrevolt.info and who think we are doing a decent job to that end, to see  their way to donating a one of, or monthly direct debit of say the price of a couple of coffees. This would make a tremendous difference to the sustaining and ongoing building of this hidden history.

     To make our appeal a wee bit more alluring we will be offering a free CD and booklet, "Writers for Miners" post free with every direct debit.

      

Details of the CD and booklet:

The “Writers for Miners” Events, 1984

        In 1984-85 events known as “Writers for Miners” took place on consecutive Saturdays in Glasgow’s 3rd Eye Centre to raise funds for striking coal miners at local pits in one of the most significant industrial disputes in world history.

With 140,000 out on strike the Thatcher Government planned to break the power of the NUM union, the most well organised group of workers in the country. With 11,291 arrests and lasting 1 year it unleashed massive state repression, brutality and violence. The other unions largely did not show solidarity and the strike failed, opening the door to the destruction of working class communities, job insecurity and privatisation.

        Performers, poets, visual artists and others decided to support the striking miners in Scotland and formed artists-in-Solidarity which organised fundraising for the miners’ families by holding events. This CD is a recording of those events. James Kelman explains, “Radical history is marginalised by the State and events of this nature should be recorded otherwise they are forgotten. The STUC offered to part-fund the project but on this occasion failed to come up with the money. We still went ahead. It was hoped that a selection of songs, poetry and prose-readings might be produced eventually in the form of a couple of albums (all proceeds to the miners’ strike fund). It didn’t happen, for one reason or another…The original project was launched in support of the miners and their families. Those days may have gone but solidarity and comradeship haven’t. All proceeds from the sale of the Writers for Miners album will go toward the Spirit of Revolt (S.O.R.) Archive, in appreciation of the crucial work carried out by the S.O.R. volunteers in the preservation of radical history”.

      In 1984, those involved were,

Norman McCaig, Freddy Anderson, Hamish Henderson, Duncan Maclean,

Kathleen Jamie and Robert Alan Jamieson, Donald Saunders, Peter Nardini,

Rab Noakes, Nancy Nicolson, Alasdair Gray, Jeff Torrington, Agnes Owens,

Carl MacDougall, James Kelman, Archie Hind, Donald Saunders, Tom

Leonard, Edwin Morgan, Edward Boyd, Danny Kyle, Tom McGrath, Jeff

Torrington, Agnes Owens, Archie Hind.

       There are 20 tracks on the CD, Where will you get such a fabulous collection of performers on one CD?

      You can contact us at our donate page, https://spiritofrevolt.info/donate/ or contact us at   info@spiritofrevolt.info Set up your Direct debit, send us your address and we will forward the CD and booklet. In anticipation we thank you for your support.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Deliberate Avoidable Cruelty Foisted On The Poor And Vulnerable.

     How many facts have to be revealed showing that the inequality and exploitative nature of this capitalist system is also avoidable, cruel, inhumane and downright vicious, before enough of us stand up and state, enough is enough, and bring the whole rotten edifice down.

     Every so often we get little parcels of information of the cruelty built into the system, but they are never brought together to paint the full picture of a society built on avoidable poverty and deprivation with an ongoing attack on the poorest and most vulnerable.

 The following facts gleaned from--

 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/life-expectancy-poor-rich-poverty-death-health-lancet-imperial-college-london-a8646946.html

and 

 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hunger-food-poverty-insecurity-uk-significant-growing-ministers-mps-dwp-environmental-audit-a8719176.html

 

     Fact, if you live in a poor area of society you are likely to die anything up to 10 years earlier than someone living in a more affluent area.

     Fact, life expectancy among the poorest is declining, contrary to the trend in the more affluent areas.

     Fact, children in the poorest areas are two and a half times more likely to die as children then those from the more affluent areas.

     Fact, there are 2.2 million people in the the UK living in severe food insecurity, the highest reported in Europe.

      Fact, recent Unicef data shows one in five children under 15 live in a home with severe food insecurity, stunting the lives of the poorest children.

      Fact, Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said policies and drastic cuts to social support were entrenching high levels of poverty and inflicting unnecessary misery in the UK, and that Brexit was exacerbating the problem.

      Fact, Emma Revie, chief executive of The Trussell Trust, said: “A failure to address the root causes of poverty has led to soaring need for food banks, with more than 1.3 million food parcels provided to people by our network last year.

       Fact, high living costs, stagnating wages and the rollout of universal credit has led to a steady rise in food insecurity.

       Fact,  The findings, published in the journal Lancet Public Health, also reveals that the life expectancy of England’s poorest women has fallen in the last seven years – having dropped by three months since 2011.

       Fact, findings show that people in the poorest sectors died at a higher rate from all illnesses – but that a number of diseases showed a particularly stark difference between rich and poor, notably respiratory diseases, heart disease, lung and digestive cancers and dementias. 

       Fact, Professor Majid Ezzati, senior author of the research from Imperial’s School of Public Health, said: “Falling life expectancy in the poorest communities is a deeply worrying indicator of the state of our nation’s health, and shows that we are leaving the most vulnerable out of the collective gain.

       Fact,  Researchers said this showed that poorer people in England were dying from diseases that can be prevented and treated, and that greater investment in health and social care in the most deprived areas, as well as industry action to make healthy food choices more affordable, would help reverse the trends.

       Fact,  “Working income has stagnated and benefits have been cut, forcing many working families to use foodbanks. The price of healthy foods like fresh fruit and vegetables has increased relative to unhealthy, processed food, putting them out of the reach of the poorest.”

      Fact, “The funding squeeze for health and cuts to local government services since 2010 have also had a significant impact on the most deprived communities, leading to treatable diseases such as cancer being diagnosed too late, or people dying sooner from conditions like dementia.”

        All of the above facts are happening in one of the richest countries in the world. All of the above facts are avoidable. All of the above facts are created by deliberate ideological strategies. None of the above facts are unavoidable accidents. Put all these facts together and ask yourself, is this system worth persisting with, or should it be brought down and replaced with a system of equality, justice and sustainable co-operation that sees to the needs of all our people, a system freed from the corrosive and exploitative motive of profit that benefits a small bunch of pampered and privileged parasites? What does your humanity and intellect tell you?

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Distorted History.

      Anarchism means freedom, liberty, co-operation, of course these come with responsibility for your actions and respect for others. In today's society none of these bricks of a civilised society exist to any real extent. nor can they as long as we have a patriarchal foundation to the society. In this society power and wealth brings privileges and most of that power and wealth is in the hands of the males of society. And so it has been for countless centuries, anarchism is the only system that will remedy this inherent flaw in our society.

     Despite the shackles that have bound women for centuries there have been women who have stood tall and defied the norms of this distorted system, sadly history tends to bury their deeds and efforts. We should do our best to resurrect their history and put it in its rightful place along side all those who who struggled to make the world a better place. Men alone will not change the world, people will.

     This from crimethinc:

 The younger Bakunin daughters, Aleksandra and Tatiana.

    To observe the 204th anniversary of her birth, we remember Tatiana Bakunin, sister of the revolutionary anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. On the basis of all the available information, Tatiana and her sisters were as courageous and creative as Mikhail. Tatiana repeatedly played a pivotal role behind the scenes in her brother’s life and in the intellectual development of several other important thinkers. The fact that her name and ideas are not widely known today attests to the barriers she faced and the deficiencies of the “great man” model of history.
       Nearly all of what we know about Tatiana appears in the margins of stories written about men. She is one of the countless people who remain invisible through the lens of patriarchal memory, which conceals both her contributions and the things she could have accomplished if the institutions and conventions of her time had not denied her personhood. Her correspondence and writings have yet to be translated.
       Tatiana and her sisters grew up in the Russian countryside studying literature, music, and history. Their father raised them to speak several languages, bringing in tutors from Western Europe; he had picked up liberal ideas during his youth working in Italy as a diplomat, though his politics shifted to the reactionary end of the spectrum as he aged. In this environment, Tatiana Bakunin distinguished herself for her love of reading and writing and her reflective spirit.
        While her brother Mikhail left home at the age of fourteen to attend military academy, Tatiana and her sisters continued their studies into adulthood. They developed a private mysticism based in poetry, powerful feeling, and asceticism, which they referred to among themselves as la religion. The sisters were the first ones in the family to rebel, revolting against the role prescribed for women in 19th-century Russia as wives and mothers. When their parents pressured the eldest daughter, Lyubov, to marry a military officer, the sisters opposed this choice and eventually forced their parents to let her break off the engagement. Tatiana herself never married.
        In 1835, Mikhail was serving as an artillery officer in the Russian occupation of Poland. Likely inspired by his sisters’ rejection of their socially ordained role, Mikhail went AWOL and left the military. When he arrived home, Tatiana and Lyubov took him to Moscow to introduce him to their friends, including Nikolai Stankevich, a student of philosophy and the organizer of an independent reading group. Together, Nikolai, Mikhail, Tatiana, and the other Bakunin sisters studied, Kant, Fichte, and Hegel and began to develop the ideals for which Mikhail later became famous.
      Tatiana also maintained passionate intellectual relations with Vissarion Belinski, one of the most influential critics in the history of Russian literature, and later, Ivan Turgenev, the author who popularized the concept of nihilism with his novel Fathers and Sons.

      “My love does not fit in any of your categories. Call it folly or what you will. I was simply in love; and before I had realized it, I spent days which it is even now joy to remember… I lived with my whole heart and soul, every vein in me throbbed with life, everything around me was transfigured. Why must I now renounce all this?”
-Tatiana Bakunin, reflecting on her relationship with Turgenev in correspondence with her brother in the 1850s 

The elder Bakunin daughters, Varvara and Lyubov.

     After the repression of the revolutions of 1848, Mikhail Bakunin was captured and sentenced to death in three countries, then condemned to life imprisonment in Russia. Defying the hostility of the Russian government, Tatiana repeatedly visited him and smuggled secret messages out of the prison at great risk to herself. Petitioning the authorities, she and her mother and siblings eventually managed to effect Mikhail’s transfer to Siberia, from which he was ultimately to escape and resume his revolutionary activities. If not for Tatiana, Mikhail Bakunin’s name might also be unknown to us today.
       In his contributions to the development of contemporary anarchism, Mikhail always emphasized the importance of women’s liberation. The credit for this is due to Tatiana and her sisters, who set an example by advocating for themselves and teaching him much of what he knew about self-emancipation. The best way we can honor Tatiana is by recognizing the important roles that all those whose names are unknown to us—the majority of them women—have played in history.

       “Women almost everywhere are slaves, and we ourselves are the slaves of their bondage; without their liberation, without their complete, unlimited freedom, our freedom is impossible; and without freedom, there is no beauty, no dignity, no true love. We love only to the extent to which we desire and call for the freedom and independence of the other—total independence in relation to everything and even and especially in relation to ourselves. Love is the union of free beings and only this love uplifts, ennobles us. All other love disgraces the oppressed and the oppressor and is a source of depravity.”
-Mikhail Bakunin, letter to his siblings, May Day, 1845

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Anger At Warped Justice Of The Corrupt State.

        It seems that the early release from prison of murdering cop Epaminondas Korkoneas, the cop who shot dead in cold blood the 15 year old youth Alexis Grigotopoulos, who was out for a coffee with his friend on that fateful Saturday night, in 2008, didn't go down to well with some of the citizens of Athens.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

        The release of Epaminondas Korkoneas came after a court on Monday 29 July 2019 reduced his term from life imprisonment for premeditated murder to just 10 years, on the sole basis of good behavior prior to the murder, meaning it is ok for any Greek policeman to fire, shoot and kill children because they haven’t killed anyone before. Another outrageous aspect of the case is that the life sentence was reduced to 10 years despite the fact that few years ago during a trial he publicly said in court that “he will not ask for forgiveness from a 15 years old boy for shooting at him”. At the same time, Vasilis Saraliotis, his policeman partner in crime that was on patrol with Korkoneas on the night of the murder was found innocent of any crime, despite the fact that he did nothing to stop his partner next to him from shooting.

    The murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos that sparked the 2008 December Revolt
6 December 2008, few minutes after 9 pm – Time Zero of the December Revolt. Two policemen draw their guns and one of them shoots against a group of youngsters hanging out on a Saturday night, at the heart of the Exarcheia district of central Athens, an area with a long history of insurrection against authority and riots for socio economic and political grounds, inhabited mainly by anarchists, anti-authoritarians and liberals. The police bullet finds in the heart and kills 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.
      As soon as the news of Alexis’ murder spreads, mainly through the internet, hundreds of people from the rest of Athens gather at Exarchia, which is circled by hundreds of riot policemen, that in turn infuriates people furtherand the neighborhood quickly goes “on fire”, with flaming barricades and stone attacks against the police, that lasted all throughout the night.
     Almost from the same night, the Exarcheia riot spreads all over Greece, with attacks against police stations, even in greek villages. Protests and demonstrations, which escalate to widespread rioting rock Greece every day and night for the weeks to come, while public buildings are being taken over and occupied by protesters in dozens of cities and towns around the country.
      Outside Greece, solidarity demonstrations, riots and clashes with local police also take place in more than 70 cities around the world, including London, Paris, Brussels, Rome, Dublin, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, the Hague, Copenhagen, Bordeaux, Cologne, Seville, Sao Paulo, as well as Nicosia in Cyprus, and Paphos proving for the first time before the “Arab Spring” that people can spread the news and react through protests for the same matter around the globe, from San Francisco to Wellington and Buenos Aires to Siberia.
       While the unrest was triggered by the Alexis Grigoropoulos murder by police, the reactions lasted for so long simply because they were rooted in deeper causes, like the coming financial crisis a year later, which was already being felt by poorer classes and younger generations through rising unemployment rate and a feeling of general inefficiency and corruption of the authorities, institutions and right wing politicians of the Greek state (mainly New Democracy and PASOK political parties).

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Spain And Lesson For Today.

         From Its Going Down, the film Living Utopia is well worth watching, an informed insight into the working class struggles in Spain in the early 20th. century

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

        In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak again with historian Mark Bray about the anarchist movement in Spain as well as the Spanish Civil War and Revolution that broke out in 1936 against a fascist coup. We discuss how the movement grew, in all its complexities, and Bray describes the discussions and tensions over tactics and methods of struggle contemporary anarchists with find many similarities with. We then discuss what was achieved during the period of the revolution, from the taking over of industry in some cities, to the communization of land and agriculture in rural areas, to attacks on patriarchy and class society within everyday life.

      We also discuss the betrayal of both the revolution and the antifascist resistance to Franco, not only by the major world powers in the face of a fascist coup by general Franco which was supported by Hitler and Mussolini, but also by the Stalinist forces who destroyed the revolution and literally attacked the anarchists.

      We also talk about the various groups, tendencies, and formations that existed throughout the Spanish anarchist movement, from the labor union the CNT, the insurrectionary anarchist federation, the FAI, the Libertarian Youth movement, the role of anarchist infrastructure and press, and the anarcha-feminist group, Mujeres Libres.

       Beyond just a blow by blow of the revolution, we spend a lot of our time talking about how the Spanish anarchists organized and built a counter-society that existed and in many cases still does, for generations.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Vote: What For?

        It becomes more and more glaringly obvious that voting for any one of a bunch of self opinionated politicians is a pointless exercise. History throws this in our face generation after generation, but still there are those who persist. It's not that there haven't been people pointing his out throughout those generations, and anarchists have always been there at the forefront, raising the banner of self determination  among communities, in co-operation with other communities, rather than this self enslaving capitalist orientated party political system that has dominated and enslaved our lives for generations.

        An excellent little booklet, by a well know Glasgow anarchists, Bobby Lynn, "Vote: What For? explains clearly the futility of this voting system. Bobby was a Glasgow anarchist, 1924-1990, born and lived in Calton Glasgow, one of Glasgow’s many slums. Started work as an engineering apprentice in Yarrow’s shipyard, became involved in working class struggle and remained committed to that struggle all his life. A copy of his booklet is held in the Spirit of Revolt Archive and can be read on line HERE,

      The futility of voting was also a point powerfully made made by that great American comedian George Carlin:

       Perhaps by intellect and humour we will finally all see the futility and the damage done by this dangerous and destructive process of handing our power to a few wealthy careerists, who will use us and abuse us, to their own ends and that of their wealthy cronies.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Your Choice, inevivable Fascism, Or A Fight For Freedom.

     Today freedom, justice, equality and democracy are fast becoming a chimera, a distant illusion on a far horizon. There has been talk of America being a state governed by the secret police, the FBI, that answers only to itself, and allows the corporate world to function untrammeled by public interference. The UK is now a well developed Big Brother state, where the population is monitored in its every move and sorted out into who merits further surveillance who should be arrested on the assessment of what facial recognition and computer profiling suggest. Both systems being a draconian nightmare for the population, where the word freedom is regarded as a terrorist expression and a desire for privacy is seen as a cover for devious activity. Further to this, there is something rotten at the heart of Europe, here Fascism spreads like some poisonous deadly epidemic. Unchecked and backed by other states in Europe, states who see nothing wrong in Fascism as it keeps the population on tramlines that allow the capitalist system to flourish. The only resistance to this nightmare must be the people themselves, their is no messiah or knight in shining armour standing in the wings ready to lead us to the promised land. We the people will have to find our own way out of this nightmare of corporate and state bondage. We have to take on the whole rotten system head on, with no illusions the the powerful and wealthy who control this festering cancer will abandon their powerful and privileged positions without a bitter fight. That is the only way out of this road we are walking, a road to human bondage and destruction of humanity.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Deprivation And Opulence Two Sides Of The Capitalist Coin.

       Not a new poem of mine, one from a my wee collection of poems on the subject of "that crazy ape", but still how I see the world.

My Window With A View.

From my TV window on the world

I see the crazy ape

build mountains of meat

while, an arms length from my heart

a host of children die of hunger.

We with guilty silence play our part

deaf to tears that drop like thunder.

The crazy ape

casts fish back into the sea

not a length of a sigh from swarms

grovelling in rubbish tips.

Can't we hold our brothers dear,

why no righteous anger from our lips?

Now the crazy ape

hoards fields of wheat

yet, the distance of a tear-drop

hands beg a simple crust of bread,

a ritual only death will stop;

must justice wait 'till all are dead?

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Many Eyes And Ears Of Big Brother.

       Ah democracy, that illusion that persists in the West, and probably elsewhere in the capitalists world. America, that defender of the free democratic world, has probable moved further from democracy than any other country in the West. And without a doubt is the world's most avid and brutal crusher of any semblance of  democratic awakening, any rise of social conscience and co-operation among the people. It is in the eyes of those who can see, the Fourth Reich. In the US of A, the FBI rules, given free reign and unmanageable power after the 9/11 event. America is policed above the beyond the machinations of its legislators and its legal system by the secret uncontrolled power of the FBI.

Extract from an article by John W. Whitehead  

     ------Indeed, with every passing day, the United States government borrows yet another leaf from Nazi Germany’s playbook: Secret police. Secret courts. Secret government agencies. Surveillance. Censorship. Intimidation. Harassment. Torture. Brutality. Widespread corruption. Entrapment. Indoctrination. Indefinite detention.
     These are not tactics used by constitutional republics, where the rule of law and the rights of the citizenry reign supreme. Rather, they are the hallmarks of authoritarian regimes, where the only law that counts comes in the form of heavy-handed, unilateral dictates from a supreme ruler who uses a secret police to control the populace.
      That danger is now posed by the FBI, whose laundry list of crimes against the American people includes surveillance, disinformation, blackmail, entrapment, intimidation tactics, harassment and indoctrination, governmental overreach, abuse, misconduct, trespassing, enabling criminal activity, and damaging private property, and that’s just based on what we know.
      Whether the FBI is planting undercover agents in churches, synagogues and mosques; issuing fake emergency letters to gain access to Americans’ phone records; using intimidation tactics to silence Americans who are critical of the government; recruiting high school students to spy on and report fellow students who show signs of being future terrorists; or persuading impressionable individuals to plot acts of terror and then entrapping them, the overall impression of the nation’s secret police force is that of a well-dressed thug, flexing its muscles and doing the boss’ dirty work of ensuring compliance, keeping tabs on potential dissidents, and punishing those who dare to challenge the status quo.
        Whatever minimal restrictions initially kept the FBI’s surveillance activities within the bounds of the law have all but disappeared post-9/11. Since then, the FBI has been transformed into a mammoth federal policing and surveillance agency that largely operates as a power unto itself, beyond the reach of established laws, court rulings and legislative mandates.
       Consider the FBI’s far-reaching powers to surveil, detain, interrogate, investigate, prosecute, punish, police and generally act as a law unto themselves—much like their Nazi cousins, the Gestapo—and then try to convince yourself that the United States is still a constitutional republic.-------

       Of course we would be rather stupid if we sit back smugly believing that we here in the UK are different, we are a democratic country. In Wales and in Glasgow there are demonstration planned concerning the introduction of a facial recognition system to our over abundant intrusive surveillance CCTV system. It is bad enough to have a photo of your every move taken and recorded for further use, but now your mood, demeanor and attitude to be analysed and assessed by a small group of "specialists" and then catalogued as a "person of interest" to be followed up by further more intrusive surveillance. So you will all be expected to walk in a similar manner and have a similar passive submissive facial expression, or you could become that "person of interest" to the surveillance Mafia.

     And let's not forget "Stingray" an electronic method of syphoning up thousands of individuals' mobile phone data at one fell swoop, to be recorded and then sifted through, looking for that "person of interest". All your personal details and text messages and photos examined by that small group of "specialists" trying to see if your are that "person of interest". Then there is social media, FaceBook etc. where you personal data is thrown around like confetti at a wedding. This is democracy western capitalist style. Be afraid, be very afraid, Big Brother is watching you, and empathy is lacking.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Ah, But He's One Of Their Own.

      The powers that be will always look after their own. In 2008 in the district of Exarcheia, in Athens a young 15 year old boy  was sitting having a coffee with his friend, two cops approached and a few words were exchange, then one of the cops drew his gun and shot dead 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos. This event lead to a massive uprising across Greece with support protests across the world. You might think that with time to reflect on his brutal cold blooded action the cop Epaminondas Korkoneas would show some signs of remorse, but no, at his appeal in 2016 he stated "I will not apologise to any 15-year-old". Despite his obvious lack of remorse, he has now been released early, free from any parole or other restrictions, you see, he is one of their own. 

The following from Freedom News:

 

Breaking: murderer of Alexis Grigoropoulos released from prison

World, Jul 30th

Epaminondas Korkoneas, a Greek cop and murderer of Alexis Grigoropoulos, was released from prison today. His release follows the verdict of an appeals court in Lamia, central Greece, delivered yesterday. The court upheld the conviction of Korkoneas for the deadly of shooting Grigoropoulos , but reduced his sentence from life to 13 years. He was released after serving the most of the reduced sentence. He is not a subject to a parole or any other restriction.
Korkoneas, then a police special guard, shot and killed 15-year old Alexis in Athens district of Exarcheia on 6th December 2008, following a verbal interaction. The shocking killing triggered a widespread uprising across Greece, with solidarity actions held worldwide, including in London.
During the first hearing of the appeal in December 2016, Korkoneas told the court in his opening statement that he was innocent, adding, “I will not apologize to any 15-year-old”.
Vasilis Saraliotis, the second police special guard officer involved in the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos, was released on bail in 2012.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk