Glasgow Climate Emergency Protest, 2019.

        Yesterday, Friday 20th. across the world people took to the streets in their millions, with one voice, "Stop The Destruction Of The Planet", Glasgow was no exception. I have always considered that the climate emergency call was necessary and urgent, their righteous anger too subdued and their target was wrong, they were aiming their anger at governments, asking them to legislate to make capitalism "green". Capitalism is the real reason the planet is burning and it is that system that has to be attacked and destroyed. What was encouraging, at least with the Glasgow protest, is the fact that, that message has started to appear in a greater number of banners and leaflets. The message is getting home, capitalism in conjunction with governments are the fire-raisers, and the reason the planet is burning.

Glasgow Video:

Some Photos From Glasgow Protest:

A leaflet from The Protest:

radicalglasgowblog.blogspot

 

SPACESHIP EARTH

HAS NO ESCAPE CAPSULE.

 

           The earth is burning, and we know who is responsible for this disaster, but it is pointless to ask the fire-raisers to be more careful with their matches. They live for and by their fire-raising activities, and gain immensely from their actions with their matches. It allows them to sail in multi-million pound yachts, buy tropical islands for their own selfish pleasure and gives them tremendous power over the rest of us, not something they will give up without a fight.

        Capitalism and states work hand in hand at this fire-raising, apart from the industrial pollution, they spawn wars, a major cause of world pollution and therefore climate change. So we have to attack the root cause of this human disaster. Appealing to them to modify their behaviour, may result in smaller fires here and there, but the earth will still burn, their ethos is continuous growth, an impossibility.

        Green capitalism is still going to extract ever more resources from the finite supply on earth, it will not end wars, leading to eventual environmental disaster of one sort or another. It is only the destruction of capitalism that we may stop this impending disaster 

capitalism is the enemy

https://spiritofrevolt.info

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

Where Will It All End?

 

        Where will it all end, assuming that we manage to stop the total destruction of our eco-systems in time. Artificial intelligence, wars carried out from the office monitor, genetic modification, policing by cameras and computers, a world where we have no control, it is all sorted out for us by scientists and computer experts, whose aims are linked to the demands of the capitalist economy/war machine and would aim to shape our desires in that direction. Obviously it will not be stopped by those involved and pushing for every greater advances in these fields, those who stand to gain most from this new hi-tec world. We become its pawns or we resist, subservience is surrender, it is handing your future and your grandchildren's future into the hands of the technocrats. We are still humans with a host of natural and human desires, there are ongoing plans to shape those human desires to suit the system, our aim must be to shape the system to suit those human desires.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 

SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY SUMMIT ITALY
GATHERING 8TH OCTOBER 2019
 From 7am to 2pm – Milano Congressi – Via Gattamelata 5
 

Trans-humanism is already here
         Trans-humanism is not some eccentric researchers’ marginal tendency or a side effect of technological development; it is the logical outcome of the techno-scientific system.
        The slogan of the meeting is: ‘Plan the future. Build the future. Be the future’. A future which is already becoming present. The logics of trans-humanism – overcoming all limits, making man better and more powerful, re-planning the living and making it artificial – are not mere abstract speculations, but they become researches, trans-genetic dreams, military drones, new apparatuses in smart cities, Medically Assisted Procreation and genetic editing.
Trans-humanism and the techno-scientific system produce imaginaries, desires, needs, they transform the world and our perception of reality.
       The most prominent world directors and researchers come from Singularity University, one of the most important expressions of trans-humanism; some of them go on to join the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), one of the most important research universities in the world, DARPA, a USA Defence Department government agency for the development of new technologies, Google, Microsoft, to mention only a few…Among the major financiers of Singularity University are companies such as Google, certainly known for information technology but less known for its investments in genetic research.
        Precisely in this convergence of high level sectors and research, a bunch of scientists, entrepreneurs, military men and politicians find their meeting point.
We don’t want to be machine men in a machine world!
Spazio di documentazione La Piralide
lapiralide.noblogs.org

Collettivo Resistenze al Nanomondo – www.resistenzealnanomondo.org

Translated by act for freedom now!

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

We The Labouring Masses.

         I recently received a comment from a comrade, Loam, on a piece I wrote, Organise, Prepare, Act. "Turn off the damn computers, phones and televisions. Turn off cars, turn off lights. Turn off everything ... Keep silent, stay still, invisible, uncontrolled ... The masses become invisible to their exploiters. The streets, the shops, the buses, the subway ... nobody. The system is nothing without us, the people." A fact that doesn't seem to come to the forefront of most people's minds, we are the power, we have all the power that keeps this stinking system alive, we have the power to shut it down. Without us the system wouldn't exist, we can stop it at will, and that's the point, we have to realise we can stop this insanity and summon up the will to do so. We should remember----

WE THE LABOURING MASSES.

We the people have, every brick laid,
have fed the world with sweat and spade,
every instrument played in every band
created by the skill of the craftsman's hand.
We made every truck and every load,
our toil our effort every winding road,
every ship that ever sailed the sea,
our power our imagination made it be.
Cities and towns large and small,
our labouring hands fashioned them all,
every home, every spire,
luxury mansion or humble byre.
No matter what dreams the mind might spawn
without labour's hand, never see the light of dawn,
without labour's strength and labour's skill,
we would be foraging beasts in a jungle still.

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

Organise, Prepare, Act.

         The state repression goes on, however the resistance grows. A short video from Exarcheia showing some of the preparation for the massive protest. that took place in central Athens on September 14th. which was attended by thousands. Of course this part of the preparations took place under the prying eyes of the riot police.

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

Are They Insane, Or Just Stupid? Whatever, They Are Dangerous.

       Looking around the world at all those autocratic entities that divide humanity, called states, you find several common features. One in particular that always seems to receive special protection is religion. Religion has its thumb in all manner of the states affairs, yet it  has been over the centuries the most divisive of institutions ever devised by the human mind. It has a history steeped in blood and persecution, as each holier than thou group maims, kills and tortures some other holier than thou group. Religion has spawned wars century after century, all based on some fairy tale of a super being somewhere in the universe that selects one particular group as special, all others as somehow inferior and to be converted or eliminated. One sect of this insane grouping believe that those who disagree with them should burn in hell for all eternity, hell being another fanciful place with some enormous fire, that doesn't seem to have any known location. The adherents to these various fairy tales, despite their abhorrent history, demand protection from ridicule, criticism and demand a place at the table in the corridors of power, what is more, they usually get that place.

     As long as religion survives we can never be truly free, religion is all about submission to some fanciful code of conduct supposedly handed down from the invisible being in the sky, and only a few are privy to its dictates, which we are meant to swallow without question. Religion is the enemy of the free thinking mind, the enemy liberty, an anathema to truth and justice. 

A to Z of Religions

Acclaim Arrogant Absolutes.
Bellow Bygone Beliefs.
Casuist Cackling Cabal.
Deadly Divine Dogma.
Embellish Earlier Errors.
Form Fearful Fundamentalists.
Gaily Gabble Gehenna.
Hype Holy Hate.
Ignorantly Idolise Illusion.
Justify Judgmental Jargon.
Knowingly Kindle Kulturkampf.
Lambaste Liberal Learning.
Machiavellian Mind Moulding.
Narrate Nescient Nostrum.
Obligatory Obnoxious Obfuscation.
Peremptory Pestiferous Panjandrum.
Quickly Quell Querists.
Redundant Reactionary Rants.
Suppress Scholastic Scepticism.
Totally Trammel Tolerance.
Ululate Useless Utterances.
Vaticinate Vicious Vengeance.
Wailing Wearisome Waffle.
Extol Excessive Exaltation.
Y? Y? Y?
Zany Zealous Zealots.

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Israel's Future???

        Israel, a state born on the promise of an invisible man in the sky, who is said to have promised this particular tribe a large part of the Middle East. As far as I am aware, there were no witnesses to this promise, and I doubt if an invisible man in the sky would have the where-with-all to write the promise down and sign it. So some "man" had to do the writing, again, as far as I am aware, their were no witness at the invisible man's dictation. What a load of crap to use as the foundation of a state, but those who believe this nonsense are prepared to maim, kill, and steal land from others to fulfill this childish fiction story.

      That ludicrous fictional promise has spawned the largest concentration camp on the planet, the enslavement and creeping genocide of a group of people who happen to have lived on the plot of land for countless centuries, the Palestinians.

       It is hard to imagine any state built on such ludicrous foundations could possible come into existence, let alone last, but it suited the imperialist powers of the time, and today Israel survives as it is doing the job of the Western imperialists policeman in the Middle East. But for how mach longer?

An interesting article on Israel's possible future,

  By Gilad Atzmon, The End of Israel

          September 14, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - The lesson to be drawn from the current Israeli political stalemate is that Israel is imploding, breaking into the elements it has never managed to integrate into one. The schism is no longer the more quotidian dichotomy of Ashkenazi vs. Arab Jews (aka Sephardim); this divide is ideological, religious, spiritual, political, ethnic and cultural. Nor does it break down to Left and Right, Jewish Israelis are politically with the right even when they pretend to be ‘Left.’ Although some of the most astute critical voices of Israeli politics and Jewish fundamentalism are Israelis (such as Gideon Levi, Shlomo Sand, Israel Shamir and others), there is no political Israeli Left. Israeli politics break down into a lot of extreme right voters and many ordinary hawks. The Arab Joint List Party is practically the only Left party in the Israeli Knesset. This should not be surprising any more. Jewish Left, as I have been arguing for many years, is an oxymoron; Jewishness is a form of tribal identification and Left is universal. The ‘tribal’ and the ‘universal’ are like oil and water, they do not mix very well.
       What is peculiar about the Israeli political divide is that the Israelis are more united than ever in their nationalist beliefs and in the primacy of their Jewish symptoms. Why is it, if the Israelis are so unified, that no one can form a government in their so-called ‘Jewish State’?
        Avigdor Lieberman, formerly an enthusiastic Netanyahu ally and himself a radical Jewish nationalist, delved into the Israeli political deadlock yesterday. He maintained that the elections had already been decided: “The ultra-Orthodox and Messianic bloc reaches 62-61 seats.” The leader of the rabid nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu said, “If there is no voting rate of at least 70% in Gush Dan and Sharon, the Halacha government will be established.”
        Basically, Lieberman said that unless secular Israelis in Tel Aviv go to the polls, they should expect to live in a Halacha State under an ultra right wing Netanyahu government. Lieberman appears to hold the key to Israel’s political stability. Although he and Netanyahu are ideological twins regarding Israeli security and nationalist matters, the two are bitter rivals who fight aggressively against each other. Netanyahu has known for a few years that, absent a strong ultra right wing government, he can expect to spend some time behind bars, an adventure that has become common for Israel’s prime political figures. Netanyahu’s natural partners are the ultra right parties and the orthodox parties. Ideologically, Lieberman should also feel comfortable within such a political coalition but Lieberman has made a crucial political decision, essential for his political survival. A while back he grasped that his political home base, Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, many of them barely Jewish and subjected to constant rabbinical terror, regard the Jewish Orthodox parties as their ultimate foes. Many of these Russian and Ukrainian Jews hold ultra right wing political positions but also see the Rabbis as an imminent threat to their survival.
         Theoretically, Lieberman could broker a huge unity coalition with Netanyahu at the top, joined by Blue and White (Kachol Lavan) and its three right wing field marshals, Lieberman’s own party and probably the Labour party. Such a coalition would hold around 80 Knesset seats, more than enough to sustain a strong government but this coalition would refuse to guarantee Netanyahu’s immunity.
       Netanyahu gambles instead on a weak ultra right wing religious government, a government that may not hold for very long but would buy more time for its PM to stay out of jail.
        This conflict at the heart of Israeli politics is a window into the Jewish state and its fears. Israel is rapidly becoming an Orthodox Jewish state. Israel’s Orthodox Jews are the fastest growing group in the country. They are also the country’s poorest population, 45 percent live below the poverty line in segregated communities. Ordinarily, one would expect the poor to support the left, but Israeli Torah Jews are rabid nationalists and openly lend their support to Benjamin Netanyahu and his party.
        Prof. Dan Ben-David of Tel Aviv University warned recently that Israel could cease to exist in a couple of generations. He pointed to the astonishingly high birth rate among ultra Orthodox Jews and predicted that, based on current trends, they will comprise 49% of Israel’s population by 2065. The ultra Orthodox parties are destined to dominate the Knesset within a generation or less. Ben David predicts that their dependence on Israel’s welfare system will lead to a rapid decline is Israel’s economy. This is economically damaging enough and is made worse by the refusal of most rabbinical schools to incorporate standard Western subjects such as mathematics, science and English into their core curriculum. Consequently, Israel is educating a growing percentage of its population in a fashion that fails to equip them to contribute to the needs of a hi-tech society that is immersed in a conflict for survival.
        The picture that comes across is peculiar. As Israel becomes increasingly Jewish and fundamentalist in its nationalist and religious ethos, it has also become more divided on everything else. The Russian immigrants find it impossible to live alongside the ultra Orthodox and vice versa. The secular enclave in Tel Aviv is committed to seeing their metropolis as an extension of NY. The Israeli Left has morphed into an LGBT hasbara unit. It has practically removed itself from the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Jewish settlers adhere to the concept of a ‘Two Jewish States Solution.’ They want to see the West Bank become a Jewish land. Orthodox Jews are barely concerned with any of these political issues. They well know that the future of the Jewish state belongs to them. All they need to do is sustain a productive secular Jewish minority to serve as their milk cow. On top of all of that we face Bibi’s survival wars that threaten to escalate any minute into a world conflict.
         In light of all of this, the Palestinians are in relatively good shape.. They simply need to survive. Israel seems to be Israel’s fiercest enemy.
         Gilad Atzmon is a saxophonist, writer, and political activist. He was born in Israel, but now lives in London. https://gilad.online/writings/2019/9/12/the-end-of-israel

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

Trust And False Narratives.

        Where is the truth, how do we find it in the smoke and mirrors of the state propaganda mouthpiece, the mainstream media? How many of us live the false narrative of the state, seeing "our people" as special, better, different, while those "others" over there are in some way inferior, to be treated with suspicion and to be feared. The appalling treatment of migrants is one living proof of the result of this poisonous narrative. Wars are built on false narratives, otherwise would the bus driver want to go overseas to kill the shop assistant, or the gardener want to kill the plumber from over there? States can't exist without a false narrative, how else would they keep their wealth, power and privileges, while the rest of us struggle from week to week? How else would they get their citizens to send their sons and daughters across the sea to kill some other parents' sons and daughters? Our system is built on false narratives. One way to see through the false narratives is to abolish borders, see all humanity as our brothers and sisters, see our differences and admire at the variety, live with a system of mutual aid, sustainability, co-operation and seeing to all our people's needs, free from the profit motive. Put an end to wealth accumulation, privileges, and power over another. A difficult job, but do you see an alternative?

              An interesting extract from from Tony Kevin, (retired Australian diplomat.) 

Truth, Trust and False Narratives

          Let me now turn to some theory about political reality and perception, and how national communities are persuaded to accept false narratives. Let me acknowledge my debt to the fearless and brilliant Australian independent online journalist, Caitlin Johnstone.
          Behavioural scientists have worked in the field of what used to be called propaganda since WW1. England has always excelled in this field. Modern wars are won or lost not just on the battlefield, but in people’s minds. Propaganda, or as we now call it information warfare, is as much about influencing people’s beliefs within your own national communityas it is about trying to demoralise and subvert the enemy population.
       The IT revolution of the past few years has exponentially magnified the effectiveness of information warfare. Already in the 1940s, George Orwell understood how easily governments are able to control and shape public perceptions of reality and to suppress dissent. His brilliant books 1984 and Animal Farm are still instruction manuals in principles of information warfare. Their plots tell of the creation by the state of false narratives, with which to control their gullible populations.
         The disillusioned Orwell wrote from his experience of real politics. As a volunteer fighter in the Spanish Civil War, he saw how both Spanish sides used false news and propaganda narratives to demonise the enemy. He also saw how the Nazi and Stalinist systems in Germany and Russia used propaganda to support show trials and purges, the concentration camps and the Gulag, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, German master race and Stalinist class enemy ideologies; and hows dissident thought was suppressed in these controlled societies. Orwell tried to warn his readers: all this could happen here too, in our familiar old England. But because the good guys won the war against fascism, his warnings were ignored.
          We are now in Britain, U.S. and Australia actually living in an information warfare world that has disturbing echoes of the world that Orwell wrote about. The essence of information control is the effective state management of two elements, trust and fear, to generate and uphold a particular view of truth. Truth, trust and fear: these are the three key elements, now as 100 years ago in WWI Britain.

Read the full article HERE:

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American Privileges.

 

       Another fine article from Australian Caitlin Johnstone, summing up some American home truths, not a lot I could add to this piece except to say that we citizens of its puppet regimes are equally guilty as our governments bend their knee to all those American privileges. We are complicity in so much as our acceptance our governments unquestioning and safeguarding those American privileges. Our governments are very unlikely to change their stance on these privileges, but perhaps we could change our support for such a corrupt and damaging structure.

American Privilege
By Caitlin Johnstone

         September 14, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -

        American liberals and progressives talk a bit about white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege etc, but one thing I never hear them talk about is American privilege: the ability their nationality gives them to have a relationship with this world that the rest of us do not have.
         American privilege is reassuring yourself that there are problems enough at home without worrying about the trillions your government’s war machine is spending terrorizing the world and encircling the planet with military bases.
     American privilege is reluctantly allowing the potential Commanders-in-Chief have an eight-minute conversation about foreign policy in your presidential primary debates, when your country’s military policy functionally dictates the affairs of rest of the world.
        American privilege is arguing against the legality of assault weapons on the basis that they are “weapons of war”, implying that they’re fine as long as they’re used to kill some foreigner’s kids.
         American privilege is being able to masturbate your outrage addiction over a racist joke while ignoring the way your military murders black and brown people by the tens of thousands every year.
          American privilege is being able to lose your mind over someone using the wrong pronouns while paying no attention to the fact that your government pours your tax money and resources into governments and groups who hang gay people in the town square.
         American privilege is believing your propaganda is the truth, and everyone else’s understanding of the world is fake news.

There are 800 U.S. military bases in 80 countries. https://t.co/yUrf7T5U1B pic.twitter.com/AAqqJ25ZFd

— CounterPunch (@NatCounterPunch) March 5, 2016

          American privilege is assuming your prudish Puritanical brand of sexuality is healthy and normal so it’s no big deal that you insist that all English-speaking social media adheres to your creepy nipple-hating norms.
         American privilege is telling foreigners to butt out of your politics when your politics are literally killing them.
          American privilege is having a shit fit over election meddling in one social media post, while cheerleading regime change in the next.
        American privilege is starting a war on a lie without being charged with a war crime.
          American privilege is committing war crimes with impunity while jailing the whistleblowers and journalists who reveal them and still getting to call yourselves the good guys.
           American privilege is being able to spend all day arguing online about domestic policy while the rest of the world, completely incapable of influencing your government’s behavior, prays you don’t get us all killed.
         American privilege is only having a robust antiwar movement when your own citizens are at risk of being drafted, then completely forgetting about peace for decades while an increasingly robotic military force gives you even more peace of mind.
         American privilege is being able to relax about war because your soldiers are being replaced with drones and proxy militias in US-driven conflicts, even though those kill people just as dead as manually operated killing machines.
        American privilege is being hush-hush about the egregious imperialist stances of progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders because they have some decent domestic policies.
      American privilege is black bloc protests against public appearances by figures like Milo Yiannopoulos and the Proud Boys while murderous war pigs like Bill Kristol, Henry Kissinger, John Bolton, David Frum and arms industry executives go from appearance to appearance completely unbothered.
         American privilege is benefiting from cheap goods and oil and a strong dollar and never wondering how many innocent foreigners lost their lives and homes in the wars your government starts to make that so.
       American privilege is living in a nation whose government can murder an entire family one day with explosives dropped from the sky, and yet you never hearing about it because that isn’t considered a newsworthy occurrence.
        American privilege is being one of the worst-travelled populations in the world while having military bases in countries that most Americans wouldn’t recognize the name of, let alone have been to.
        American privilege is having your insane culture normalized around the world via Hollywood and other media so that nobody stops and wonders why we’re letting this bat shit crazy nation rule our planet, and so no one makes you feel bad about your American privilege.
       American privilege is living in a nation that uses its military and economic might to terrorize, murder, imprison, starve and impoverish anyone who doesn’t go along with its interests, and feeling no urgent need to bring a stop to this.
        American privilege is being fine with being the world leader, but not being too bothered about what exactly that means.

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

I'll Walk With The Poets.

        I've read the news from different avenues, I've poked my nose in some papers, I've intervened in the internet, and my thought for the days is quite simple, walk with the poets.

 

WALK WITH THE POETS.

My head has had enough of you,
you doomsday sooth-sayers, and
rationalists, that trap us in the world that is.
Go weave your tales of “can't be done”
to the dead, and those of no imagination.
I want to walk with the utopian,
the dreamer and the poet,
laugh with the child and sing with the wind.
Run with the deer, not with “the market trend”
Enough of, “this is the way it has to be”,
a world of poverty, wars and inequality.
Now, I'll create the world I want to see,
A world of sharing, peace and liberty.
I want the children to plan tomorrow,
the adult help them get there,
trees and flowers our treasured possessions,
with birds and animals their keepers.
Who wants a world that chains us to mortgages,
binds us to a labouring day, just to eat bread?
Who wants to spend their life, feeding fat-cats
while their own children go hungry?
No, this is not the world that has to be,
in our foolishness and misplaced trust,
this is a world that has slithered over us,
poisoning our mind, putrefying our spirit.
Let's call on the poet, let's welcome the dreamer,
let's take council with the utopian,
They'll help us create a better world for all.

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

Thousands March To Defend Exarcheia.

        Happening now, thousands take to the streets in Athens in protest at the riot police and military style violent attacks on the district of Exarcheia. Since mid August the district of Exarcheia has been under continuous police attacks and evictions, with hundreds of migrants evicted and arrested. Exarchia is a district in Athens where there are numerous squats in empty property and used as social spaces, educational and health centres, and for housing migrants. It is run on the principles of mutual aid, co-operation, self-help and respect for the individual, free from the burdening shackles of the state.  The Greek authoritarian state has decided that it will not tolerate people living outside their dictates, rules and regulations, it seeks total control. Besides it sees the district as of value to the developers, so wishes to clear the residents out and see it become another tourist centre pandering to the rich with expensive apartments, high fashion outlets and a source of tax revenue to fund their neo-liberal capitalist expansion.

        The people of Exarcheia need our support and solidarity, and their fight to be put fully in the spotlight of public knowledge, share and spread. First they came for Exarcheia---.

Links:

https://itsgoingdown.org/greek-anarchist-movement-responds-to-assault-on-exarchia/

 http://voidnetwork.gr/category/voidnetwork-news/

 https://twitter.com/th1an1/status/1172831586355752960

 

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

Glasgow's Workers City.

        A wee reminder, just a couple of days to go before the, not to be missed, Spirit of Revolt's FREE event, Show and Tell, Workers City, at the Mitchell Library. Workers City was a series of events that took place in Glasgow 1989-1991, organised by writers, artists, poets, activists and a melody of other Glaswegian stalwarts. It was a counter to the events being organised by Glasgow City Council during Glasgow's European City of Culture year. Some of those present for this open discussion were involved in organising the Workers City event, and it should prove to be both informative and entertaining.

        On display at the event, for your perusal before the open discussion starts will be a selection of material from he Spirit of Revolt Archive, relating to those events during Workers City. Come along look, listen, contribute, enjoy and learn a little bit more about the grassroots history of your city.

Details:
Free event.
Spirit of Revolt,
Workers City,
12noon-2:00pm.
Blythswood Room
Mitchell Library,
Glasgow.

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