Left Unity.

 

      Left politics and right politics, where does the right stop and the left begin, how far left is still right, is left unity just another branch of the right, seems an odd way of classifying your political thoughts. Do you stand for no authority over others or just a little, do you think people need to be lead, or do you think that they can handle things by themselves. Do you think the people need some sort of leader to point the way and make sure they don't get it wrong, or do you think that people should be left to shape their own future, based on respect, equality, free association and responsibility, mistakes and all. I stand firmly in with latter.

The following is from Raddle:
Submitted by ziq in Anarchism (edited ) 

          The disturbing trend of anarcho-tankies we've been seeing can be traced back with a straight line to the proliferation of "left-unity" spaces
The biggest one is r/chapotraphouse and its spinoffs, along with r/dankleft, r/breadtube, r/genzanarchist, and probably leftbook and several youtube channels.
         Red fascists infiltrate the mod teams of these spaces and initiate left unity policies that successfully ban all criticism of their backwards conservative views. The more vocal opponents of the new policy are quickly purged for breaking left-unity, leaving a more passive audience who are ripe for indoctrination.
       Then the propaganda starts. Endless authoritarian memes to normalize gulags, guillotines, firing squads, violent struggle sessions and genocide. Tomes of nonsensical ideological "theory" that serves to brainwash young people who are starved for identity and belonging. Almost immediately, any ideas that conflict with the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Xi create desperate cognitive dissonance in their minds and the kids angrily lash out at the unindoctrinated for being "libs" and "imperialists" rather than risk parting with their new-found identity.
        Once the majority in the space are comfortable joking about murdering "kulaks", and quoting Chinese state media to counter "western propaganda", the shaming campaign begins.
        Anyone in the space who breaks with the tankie party line is lambasted and ridiculed into submission. The remaining anarchists in the space now find themselves hopelessly outnumbered by smug middle class white genocide fetishists telling them they're imperialist CIA stooges for thinking the Uighurs maybe shouldn't be put in concentration camps.
        In order to not be shunned by their peers, the anarchists adopt an obscene anarcho-tankie ideology that allows them to favor libertarian writers like Chomsky and Kropotkin, while embracing the authoritarian third positionist dogma enforced from the top down by their chosen community.
       Uncritical support for every nation (and empire) that opposes the "West", the insistance that anarchism and communism are one and the same because "they have the same end goal", the claim that anarchist communes and an ML state can co-exist in harmony, the attempt to whitewash authoritarian concepts like the dictatorship of the proletariat and the vanguard, the nonsensical belief that they can be an anarchist and also a Marxist. Suddenly they're able to take completely contradicting ideas and fuse them together in order to be accepted by the red fash echo chamber they so desperately want the approval of.
       The conflicting ideas grow increasingly out of whack the further down the rabbit hole the left unity space takes them, and the ridicule they get for their remaining libertarian attachments begins to eat at their ego, until finally they post "How I went from an anarkiddie to a principled Marxist-Leninist" and the transition is complete.
       Tldr: Left-unity is a deliberate ploy by disturbing groomers to indoctrinate impressionable young minds into their authoritarian third positionist fascist ideology and force them to abandon any libertarian beliefs they once had in order to be accepted within the collective's rigid hierarchy and not be branded a liberal or an anarkiddie for forming their own thoughts or questioning their leaders narratives in any way.
      "Left unity" is nothing more than tankie doublespeak for "obey us or be purged".

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Wee Poem.

And now for something completely different.

Mirror Mirror On The Wall.

I can’t help but watch him
that old man
as he staggers across the room
with that unusual gait
punctuated by the odd stumble
I hear his groans and feel his pain
sometimes with a few profane words
he drags himself from the couch or chair
pauses for a moment to regain his balance
I sense his reluctance to bend down
and pick things off the floor
I’m fascinated by those hands
light brown withered looking bony structures
with their pronounced veins
running along the back of them
and up his slim arms
I sense his annoyance
that they’re not as strong as they used to be
I feel his regret
that he can’t do the things he once did with ease
I often think
that to have lived that long
he must have a chest full
of memories and experiences
that should be worth something
but what puzzles me most
is when
I look in the mirror
I see him and not me.

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

Solidarity.

       We are controlled mainly by our national police, but the day is not far off when that control will be in the hands of an international police force, European states are welding together an efficient police force that knows no borders. Borders are there for control of us, the populations, hemming us in as more easily controlled groups, for the state's own power. The international police will be there to control those who would dare to cross their designated border lines, without their masters permission. The framework is already there and functioning well. the following from Act For Freedom Now:

 France / Italy: Letter from Imprisoned Anarchist Comrade Carla

Fresnes, 19.08.2020
Salut!
      After 536 days on the run, I was arrested on July 26th near Saint-Etienne. I experienced the arrest as the first performance of a scene repeated a thousand times in my head, or rather 536 times? Everything seemed to happen in slow motion: the hooded cops pointing their rifles at me, put me down and ask me the name that I’ve so often been called lately. It felt strange to pronounce it.
    I was then brought to Paris by the SDAT [Anti-Terrorist Sub-Directorate], four hours of travel handcuffed behind my back in the company of their balaclavas. They blindfolded me for the last few kilometers that separated us from their premises in Levallois-Perret. They were the ones who took me to court two days after the arrest, then to Fresnes prison.
      At the hearing, I accepted the extradition without hesitation. I had followed the events surrounding the arrest of Vincenzo Vecchi (whom I greet in passing) closely, but he had refused, offering himself a chance to remain free in France. For me, the choice was between waiting for the trial in France or in Italy, where the other defendants in Operation Scintilla are, all of them free except Silvia, who is still under judicial supervision.
      It seems that in recent times, arrest by means of a European arrest warrant and subsequent extradition have become mere formalities for the European justice system. We have seen this recently in Italy on several occasions, but also in the repression that followed the Hamburg riots or in Greece and Spain. European police forces are refining their weapons and their collaboration seems to be getting closer, exchanging tips and services. So it seems to me that it is up to us to look into the matter and study the mechanisms.
    I discovered the prison at the time of the coronavirus, the regulation fortnight in the new arrivals’ quarter, the mask during all movements, including the walk for that length of time, the suspension of all activities, the cell 22 hours a day.
     At the end of my fortnight, and on the eve of the scheduled date of my extradition, the other arrivals and I were placed in sanitary isolation on the grounds that we had shared a walk with a new arrival who turned out to be infected. Tests were only offered to us once this case was confirmed and have been the rule for all new arrivals ever since. We were initially told that they couldn’t test everyone. Unsurprisingly, it seems that the prison administration (PA) is behind schedule.
      In the spring, the measures taken by the PA in response to the arrival of the coronavirus led to situations of mutinies, revolts and solidarity. Unfortunately, here at least, it seems that living with the virus has become the norm, and the fear that a newcomer could bring the virus with her is coupled with the fear of being suspended from the visiting rooms, as was the case with us this week. The meagre compensation that the PA gave in the form of telephone credit in the spring is no longer relevant, as a group of isolated newcomers is so small compared to the strong mobilisations of last March.
     I’m expecting extradition again any day now and I know that a third isolation ward will probably be reserved for me when I arrive in Italy. I take advantage of the expressions of solidarity that join me today after so much silence. In spite of the publications on the subject, which are precious, the escape is still too often considered a romantic adventure and the companions concerned are often thought of as free. During this year and a half, I have never lacked solidarity and warm support, I have never lacked anything, but one is not free when one is deprived of one’s life.
      I would have liked to have been on the street with my comrades during the demonstrations in reaction to the eviction of Asilo, I accompanied the hunger strike of Silvia, Anna and Natascia with my thoughts, I thought every day of the comrades arrested in successive waves. I would have liked to have been by my family’s side when they went through difficult times and to have heard from them when we were all confined. Today I am ready and determined to face the next few months, but my thoughts are with those who are still on the run, often far from their loved ones. I hope that their journey will be as long as they want it to be, and that the encounters they make will give them the warmth they deserve and the energy to continue to fight.
     Carla
 

      On Tuesday 25 August 2020, Carla, arrested on 26 July, was finally extradited to Italy. She is now incarcerated in Vigevano prison, near Milan, in the AS3 module (alta sicurezza 3).
This high-security isolation section is initially reserved for prisoners accused of belonging to the mafia. Since the closure of the aquila, the AS2 sections, reserved for detainees considered political by the state, hardly exist for women, with the exception of Rebbibia (Rome) where Flavia and Anna are. Anna is only there for a few weeks because the Italian state has chosen to dispatch the companions, which is why most of them, including Carla, end up in AS3.
Carla wrote a letter from Fresnes prison which we reproduce below.
Let us continue to write to her and express our solidarity!
To write to her :
Carla Tubeuf
casa circondariale di Vigevano Centralino
via Gravellona 240
27029 Vigevano (PV), Italy

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

I Awake.

        Woke up this morning, as usual, sat in front of the computer, as usual, and as usual the familiar thoughts started to flood through my mind.
     Anger at the unnecessary injustice, inequality, poverty and deprivation heaped on the many by the greed driven few.
      Hatred at the hypocrisy, indifference and greed of the wealthy plundering parasite class and their engineered wars, where they never lift the gun.
     Anguish at the suffering of the countless innocent millions mutilated, maimed and slaughtered, young and old, who never desire war and gain nothing from those wars.
       Sorrow at those migrants fleeing wars, death and destruction, whose journey is drowning, hatred and concentration camps.
       The longer we accept this engineered pattern of plundering, the deeper the pool of blood we wade through, the heavier the burden of complicity will weigh on our shoulders.

The Seeds We Sow.

Because of my ignorance, I sowed the seeds of anguish,
while my self indulgence planted the vine of pain,
my disregard of the future laid sorrow’s foundation.
Suddenly the future slaps me in the face,
while my children eat the food of that anguish
and chew the leaves of that vine,
as the sea of sorrow washes around their feet.
My yesterday shaped their tomorrow
My ignorance laid their path
and now my self indulgence is their burden.
It would appear that,
these failings of the father are burdened on his heirs.

    We all know that we could distribute the resources of this world in a more humane and fairer manner. Their is enough to see to the needs of all our people, our crime is we leave that distribution to the greedy plundering parasite class. To often those suffering the most, the marginalised, those with the greatest need for our assistance, somehow are hidden from view, unless we take a deeper look around us.

The Invisible.

We live there— yes— there
A little bit above the dead
But quite a bit below the living
Where poverty is a dream
Deprivation a reality
Our daily bread an illusion
We sigh--we weep—
As ruthless poverty
With its cold claws
Tears the heart from our children
We ask—WHY?
Surrounded by opulence
Invisible to arrogant greed
Anger simmers beneath the surface
We seek equality
We will have justice
If blood is the price
So be it. 

      We have the numbers, we have the power to change this weary and blood stained world to one of humanity, co-operation and justice for all. We have that better world drifting around in our hearts and heads, all we need is the will and solidarity to act now. Of course we can accept their tomorrow.

We Have The Power.

Empty streets,with empty shops,
queues forming at the job centre,
doorway beds and hungry children,
watched over by mean eyed cops,
foodbanks growing by the hour.
City razzle-dazzle just rusty remnants,
shopping malls now empty caverns,
home to starlings, pigeons, magpies,
zero hours, part-time workers live in,
homes where ambition fails to flower.
Shiny politicians peddling illusions,
grin and bear it, there’s pie in the sky,
follow the Messiah, he’ll get you there,
quietly swallow their empty promises,
so they can live in their ivory towers.
This world exists by our acceptance,
blindly following their biased rulebook,
failing to realise that we the people,
builders of the world by sweat and pain,
are the ones who really hold the power.

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

Apartheid.

       Apartheid in South Africa may have, in law, said to have been abolished, but the infrastructure that was built up supporting it is still there. The poor and native population still live in mainly overcrowded shanty town dwellings while the white settlers live in the more prosperous areas. Those in the outskirts of Capetown have to make a long, tiring and some times hazardous journey to earn their daily bread. However could these crowded shanty towns with their forced living together, be the phoenix of anarchism that could spread the flames of freedom across the continent and further afield? As they say, hope springs eternal.

        Zabalaza centres on a simple part of Cape Town life: the daily commute to work. It’s something many of us have the privilege not to worry about, other than gripes about sitting in traffic while in our air-conditioned, almost-luxury cars. This is in stark contrast with the experience of the people of Khayelitsha, who are far removed from their places of work in suburbs like Newlands and the Cape Town CBD after decades of race-based spatial planning. Using simple footage of Khayelitsha residents trying to make their way to work, Zabalaza captures how truly gruelling the daily commute can be for Cape Town’s working class – and just how out of touch their places of work are when compared with their own homes.

- Michelle Solomon, City Pres

Filmed, Edited and Directed by Jenna Bass w/Soundz of the South
       Anarchist Hiphop collective, SOUNDZ OF THE SOUTH announce music video, ZABALAZA, a politically-charged, visual testimony to stark inequality in the City of Cape Town. Soundz of the South (SoS) is an anarchist collective working to build an international working-class counter-culture that is anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and anti-sexist. They seek to foster new social values and new forms of collective organising, which will become the socio-political infrastructure of the free society.
      Zabalaza’s lyrics call on workers and unemployed workers to free themselves from the bondage of capitalism, whilst also celebrating workers’ self-initiatives to resist oppression.
      The track features MC’s Karl Myx, Tsidi and Anela, and was produced by DJ Cingle. Shot in Khayelitsha Site C, Newlands and the Cape Town CBD, the video depicts the daily commute of workers between two worlds: from their extremely poor communities to their workplaces in the city centre or the wealthy suburbs before travelling back home again.
      The combination of aerial and slow-motion imagery captures the reality of township life, from endless queues for public transport or the local clinic to workers awaiting casual labour jobs on the highway, while over-loaded trains and morning traffic pass below. The cycle of poverty and wealth is both poetic and sad, a combination of structural violence and inertia.
     SoS’s tracks can be streamed via Band Camp: https://sos1.bandcamp.com/

For more information about SoS:
https://www.facebook.com/soundzofthes...
IG: soundzofthesouth
Twitter: S_OS

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

Solidarity.

 

     August 25th. to August 30th. a week of international support for all anarchist prisoners. Across the planet there are uncountable thousands of these state institutions of repression. Institutions of arbitrary violence, devoid of justice, sparse on medical care, dark dungeons where the state incarcerates those who would dare to challenge its vice like authority. Prisons are just one of the states many tools to create a submissive population, to repress dissent, to silence opposition to its plunder of the the poor in favour of the wealthy few. Just one of its lines of defence of the parasite class that hold the levers of power in this economic system of exploitation, poverty, war and plunder. Those who make a stand against this gross injustice, who stand up and defy the state's manufactured monopoly of control over our lives, deserve all the support and solidarity that we can muster, their struggle is our struggle, we must show which side we are on.   

The following from Anarchists Worldwide:

 

     Chile: Letter from Anarchist Comrade Juan Flores Riquelme about the Arrest of Mónica and Francisco

        We knew that by choosing the path of struggle against capital, our lives would develop against all odds, and it was not unknown to us that prison could be a possible destination.
      We questioned this humiliating reality and its so-called “social peace”, we severely questioned the enrichment of the bourgeoisie and their power. There are really too many questions to take a stand against the prevailing order. Countless have been the assassinations by the repressive forces of the power, countless those insurgents who have given their lives looking for the sharpening of the conflict against the states.
     Did the elite of this country believe that we would stand idly by after all their years of misery, alienation and neoliberal exploitation? How could we not try to be the stumbling block against the uninterrupted advance of capitalism and the states?
     A constant attack against the enemy we have made of our lives, which extend infinite complicities of an idea that lives in a multitude of hearts, a consequence of the reality of positioning against the enemy. This is how our lives are, this is how we chose it, against all odds we will advance without restraint along the path of subversion, beyond its borders, beyond its criminalization and Hollywood investigations, beyond its convictions and prisons, reality demands action from us. Our only option is to maintain the struggle for total liberation, facing with dignity the consequences that this may generate in our lives.
       These words are addressed to those daredevils who, without looking back, have defended anarchic and anti-authoritarian ideas with their teeth and claws. Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar are hermanxs [brothers & sisters] with deep convictions and critiques that are impossible to break with this new blow of power to their lives.
      To the comrades of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and Revolutionary Struggle, imprisoned in the prisons of Korydallos Greece. To the anarchist brothers and sisters imprisoned in Ferrada Prison, Italy. To all the prisoners who were filled with anger and faced off against the police during the recent revolt in October.
     Warmly greeting the initiative of the International Week for Anarchist Prisoners, which is being carried out from the 25th to the 30th of August, I say goodbye for now.

Juan Alexis Flores Riquelme
High security prison.

(via Contra Info, translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide)

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

Seeds Ye Sow.

        Perhaps, if anybody feels they need it, that today's struggles of the ordinary people for justice, freedom and equality, has been one continuous struggle for many generations, these few verses might support that proof. We can perhaps forgive Percy Bysshe Shelley for the hint of patriotism in the title of this piece, but the sentiment is universal, and the content of the poem/song, is the problem we have to solve. Three verses from Men of England, by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find, another keeps;
The robes ye weave, another wears;
The arms ye forge, another bears.

Sow seed—but let no tyrant reap:
Find wealth—let no imposter heap:
Weave robes—let not the idle wear:
Forge arms—in your defence to bear.

Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells—
In hall ye deck another dwells.
Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see
The steel ye tempered glance on ye.

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

Resistance.

      The full blown war being waged by the Greek state against any autonomous spaces, any self organising by the ordinary people, any solidarity shown to migrants, has been running for a year now. What this has meant is that the state uniformed thugs and accomplices heaping torment and anguish as well as savage brutality on all who struggle for that freedom and solidarity that is nurtured in these autonomous spaces, self organising groups, and migrant solidarity and support groups. It is all the state can offer to those who seek freedom to organise their own lives, who seek solidarity and co-operation between all peoples. How long will we let these state thugs, puppets of the billionaire corporate beast, chain our lives to their greedy profit drive system of exploitation? Resistance and solidarity are the keys to freedoms door.

   The following on Greece from Act For Freedom Now:

  10, 100, thousands of squats

One year of resistance against state terrorism
     Today 26.8.20 marks one year since the armed hooded men of Chrysochoidis invaded the refugee squat of Spyrou Trikoupi 17 and the neighboring Transito squat. It was early in the morning when they forcibly pulled out families with young children from their beds–people who after much hardship and suffering had found a place to grow roots again in these buildings. They took them from their home and distributed them in miserable camps to live in the dirt and with indifference in canvas tents. Since then, a barrage of state terrorist attacks on refugee and political squats has led to evacuations, snatching of people, beatings, and arrests.
     The refugee squats have functioned for many years as unprecedented experiments of practical anti-racism and anti-fascism, self-organization, and solidarity. These spaces have given thousands of people the opportunity to regain their stolen autonomy and the right to define their own lives away from human guards and charity contractors. And almost all of them were evacuated.Families with babies, single women, LGBTQI+ people, the sick and disabled, survivors of torture were all brutally detached from their daily lives and relationships and were trapped in nothing but state mercilessness.
Political squats that formed cells of social action in neighborhoods, challenging the prevailing ideas of tourism, private property, and commercialization, which turned cities into concrete class pyramids of solitary depravity and social rivalry, were also evacuated. Those who defended these squats faced harsh repression. But this also extended to simple neighbors, as it happened in Koukaki.Bricks were placed where there were open doors.Where once voices, songs, and laughter were heard, only silence echoes now.Where life spread its wings, they left only the dust of desolation.The targeting of squats through the monstrous lies of the media is an integral purpose of the state, which wants to crush any spatial, social, and ideological sphere, that shows and proves that there is another way to live, away from gender, class, ethnicity, and religious hierarchies. That our passage through the world deserves to be more than constant anxiety of survival and a lesson in obedience, that we can throw the weights of artificial suspicion to express, to create, to dream collectively. At the same time, it is an integral part of the most disgusting but also the purest face of power, of raw authoritarianism.
        The plan for mass evacuations of squats coincides with the militarization of entire areas, with the expansion of the supervisory-repressive mechanism, and the police barbarity it inflicts on the bodies of fighters.In the past year, at Notara 26 the housing squat for refugees and migrants, we mourned for every space of struggle that fell into the hands of the enemy. We mourned for every human who lost hope, for every hope for a better life that was tarnished under police boots. We felt anger for those injured with opened heads, the sad looks in the police buses and cages, the locked doors. We were moved by every act of resistance and an attempt to reclaim stolen land. We know very well, however, that no idea, no movement is evacuated. We ourselves accept daily the increasing pressure of the government with threats of evacuation, insulting comments against residents and people of solidarity, thrashings, attempts of invasion, constant harassment, and even Nazi slogans we have witnessed by the sad entourage of the Police shouting outside the squat.A year later we are still here, stronger, more united, more determined than ever with an immense wave of solidarity embracing us, forming a circle of care around us.
We are part of a multifaceted movement that is “not afraid of ruins” because it knows how to rebuild, who finds crevices to escape from all the jail cells, who will always haunt the empty houses and the nightmares of the torturers.The liveliest firework in the thickest darkness!
source

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

Fake News.

       There's news and fake news, there's propaganda and downright lies, we have to sift through the garbage to find those gems of truth, sometimes very difficult, other times impossible. But what we do know is that all states have secrets from their population, all states carry out underhand actions and surveillance against other states, all states are corrupt  and are not fully accountable to the people. All states have their propaganda machine to hoodwink the population, and what one state accuses another state of, you can rest assured they themselves, have carried out similar actions. That's how states work, it's their method of holding onto power.

From Moon Over Alabama:

Navalny Was Not Poisoned
       On Thursday morning the Russian rightwing and racist rabble rouser Alexey Navalny fell ill during a flight from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow. He eventually went into a coma. The plane had to be rerouted for an emergency stop in Omsk. Navalny was brought into a clinic and put on a ventilator.
       Meanwhile his spokeswomen Kira Yarmysh claimed, without evidence, that Navalny had been poisoned: 

      Yarmysh believes Navalny, who showed no symptoms prior to the flight, was "poisoned with something mixed into his tea” as it was “the only thing he drank this morning.” In the middle of the journey, she wrote later, he began sweating, went to the toilet, and apparently lost consciousness for a period. RIA Novosti reported that Navalny did not eat or drink anything on the flight.
      The doctors in the intensive care unit in Omsk had difficulties to stabilize Navalny. A number of tests were made but no poisons were found. Yesterday evening the patient had stabilized. On request of his family he was transported to Germany where he is currently undergoing treatment.
     The hospital in Omsk said that Navalny had experienced severe hypoglycemia:
     The head physician of the Omsk emergency hospital, Alexander Murakhovsky, said that Alexei Navalny’s condition was caused by a sharp drop in blood sugar. Hypoglycemia is also known as diabetic shock: When a person experiences diabetic shock, or severe hypoglycemia, they may lose consciousness, have trouble speaking, and experience double vision. Early treatment is essential because blood sugar levels that stay low for too long can lead to seizures or diabetic coma.
       Hypoglycemia can sometimes happen rapidly and may even occur when a person follows their diabetes treatment plan. A diabetic shock happens when someone with diabetes has taken too much insulin or has eaten too little. My father had diabetes and I have seen him experiencing this problem several times. He always carried a piece of sugar with him to use it as soon as he felt the first symptoms. My mother taught me the basic first aid I would have to to apply should my father be unable to help himself. Thankfully I never had to use it. It is important that the measures are taken immediately. A prolonged coma can lead to brain damage. As Navalny was on a plane up in the air it took quite a while to get him into a hospital. His prolonged coma may have created additional damage to his body.------

------/Update/
Intellinews reports that Navalny has diabetes: Navalny said himself that he suffered from diabetes in 2019, giving some credence to this explanation.

Read the full article HERE: 
This from the BBC:

       Several prominent critics of Kremlin policies - ex-spies, journalists and politicians - have been poisoned in the past two decades. In the UK, two Russian ex-secret service agents were targeted: Alexander Litvinenko fatally with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006, and Sergei Skripal with the toxic nerve agent Novichok in 2018. The Kremlin denied any involvement.
      Alexei Navalny, who has been physically attacked before, appears to be the latest victim. Yet much remains unclear.
     Mysterious poisonings involving Russians often remain mysterious - a distinct advantage for assassins, compared with say an old-fashioned shooting in the street. Prof Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC that "poison has two characteristics: subtlety and theatricality".
      "It's so subtle that you can deny it, or make it harder to prove. And it takes time to work, there's all kinds of agony, and the poisoner can deny it with a sly wink, so everyone gets the hint."
Thorn in Kremlin's side
      Alexei Navalny is Russia's best-known anti-corruption campaigner and opposition activist. His slick, hard-hitting videos on social media have drawn many millions of views, and made him a thorn in the side of the Kremlin.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Misconceptions.

Anarchy is for lovers.

    It's common practice for the media and political pundits to "blame" anarchists for any violence that happens at demonstrations. Seldom a reference to why there is such underlying anger and rage in this society and a total ignorance of what anarchism is and stands for, its ideology, its aims and dreams.

     Although the extracts below are references about America, they equally apply in all states. The open sustained brutality and repression by the state apparatus against anarchists in Greece, Italy, Germany, Russia and Italy, to name a few, is testament to this violence against and hatred of anarchists by the establishment. The establishment in no way will allow the freedom and justice that anarchism has to offer.

The following extracts are from an article by Kim Kelly:

       Stop blaming everything bad on anarchists

       A demonstrator wearing black and holding a black flag stands facing a police cordon at an anarchist protest in front of the Polish Parliament during a demonstration demanding that the poorest be included in the government's assistance program during the coronavirus pandemic. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images)

       As protests continue to sweep the nation, a narrative has emerged blaming alleged “anarchists” for stirring the pot. They are, the story goes, materializing out of nowhere to sow chaos, put marginalized people at risk and generally make more peaceful protesters look bad. On June 1, President Trump retweeted a video implying that a man who later explained that he was helping other protesters buy medical supplies was instead paying them to incite violence. In his tweet, Trump added, “Anarchists, we see you!” After surveying damage to city property, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price declared, “It’s not protest, it’s anarchy.” The next day, Post opinions contributor Helaine Olen wrote that Trump is “the real anarchist.” Her only basis for making this claim appeared to be the common use of “anarchy” as a flawed synonym for “chaos.”
        This reflexive tic to associate anarchism with thoughtless discord betrays a profound ignorance of leftist ideology. The problem is that no one seems to understand what anarchism is or what its adherents are seeking to accomplish — and that lack of understanding is going to end up endangering a lot of people. We’re rapidly approaching a point in which dissent is further criminalized, the justified rage and pain fueling these protests is further delegitimized, and anyone who engages in any form of protest outside the preapproved liberal template becomes a target for surveillance, or worse. On June 3, with zero evidence backing its claim, the White House Twitter account trumpeted: “Antifa and professional anarchists are invading our communities, staging bricks and weapons to instigate violence. These are acts of domestic terror.” At least one of the supposed weapons caches appears to have been part of a security barricade in front of a Jewish community center.-------

And ------

     -----So what is anarchism? As I’ve explained before, it is a radical, revolutionary leftist political ideology that advocates for the abolition of government and all other unequal systems of power in favor of a society organized around direct democracy and voluntary association. Though it encompasses many schools of thought, most anarchists are committed to a basic set of beliefs. Key anarchist principles include mutual aid (a reciprocal approach to community care in which people share resources), direct action (the use of political protest to achieve a goal) and horizontalism (a non-hierarchical organizational system in which decisions are made by consensus). Anarchists advocate for abolishing institutions such as prisons, police and the military, which they hold to be inherently oppressive. Anarchists are by definition anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and directly opposed to all other forms of bigotry and oppression. They are anti-fascist (though not all anti-fascists are anarchists!), which opens up another potential avenue for repression now that the president has fixated on antifascists, or “antifa,” and law enforcement has continued to surveil and target leftist activists.
        In practice, to be an anarchist is to dream of a kinder, more equitable society, and to do one’s best to get us closer to making that dream a reality. For every minute of protest footage showing anarchists out in the streets, there are untold hours spent attending endless meetings (anarchists love meetings), cooking and delivering food and supplies to those who need it, researching far-right groups, planning demonstrations, providing child care and other support to comrades, and taking part in other communally minded projects. It may sound hokey, but anarchism is about love as much as it is rage; there is a certain utopian romance to it.-----

And:----

     -------All of this obfuscation and misinformation is a shame, because anarchism has many lessons to offer about caring for our communities and all of those in need. The concepts that make up its core have become increasingly popular, even as anarchism itself has been dismissed as a mere thirst for destruction. As long-running anarchist collective Crimethinc wrote in their anthology “Expect Resistance: A Field Manual,” “No one is more qualified than you are to decide how you live; no one should be able to vote on what you do with your time and your potential unless you invite them to.”
      As others survey the smoldering ruins of the American Dream and beg politicians to take mercy on the most vulnerable, it’s worth reminding people that life doesn’t have to be this way. The government has shown that it won’t save us. We know that the rich won’t save us. But if we embrace the true spirit of anarchy, maybe, just maybe, we can save ourselves.

Read the full article HERE:

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Idle.

In Praise of Idleness, By Bertrand Russell:

      Like most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present moment. But although my conscience has controlled my actions, my opinions have undergone a revolution. I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached. Every one knows the story of the traveler in Naples who saw twelve beggars lying in the sun (it was before the days of Mussolini), and offered a lira to the laziest of them. Eleven of them jumped up to claim it, so he gave it to the twelfth. This traveler was on the right lines.

       This pandemic has created a lot of enforced change in the way we live, suddenly you find yourself with lots of time on your hands. At first it might be frustrating and boring, but a bit of reflection and you will soon realise that you can survive without stressing yourself out at a lousy job for crap wages, just to pay rent/mortgage, TV license, car, and other bills that come with a very busy life. Do you need all those bells and whistles, bobbles, bubble gum and popcorn that this work ethic society throws at you? After all do your really want to be running against a clock and jumping through hoops to the detriment of your health, at somebody else's dictate?

      As always when I visit Not Buying Anything blog, I find common sense in plain language, this visit was no different.

The following is from Not Buying Anything:

 

 

        Since the beginning, this blog has been promoting the idea that doing less, not more, is the way to lasting happiness.
      My personal motto is: "Do less with less, and do it less often."
     That has set me at odds with mainstream notions of a work ethic, but I couldn't be bothered to care any more. But is doing less lazy? It could be self-preservation. Or just enjoying life.
     When workaholism is the expectation, slowing down (or-gasp!-stopping) reflects a dangerous lack of ambition and initiative. Who thought that shit up?
      I don't think it was a worker that invented the work till you drop ethic. It sounds like something a boss would come up with.
       Although people in fast nations have forgotten it, not all humans have accepted accelerated lifestyles high on speed and stuff, but low on quality of life. Some cultures see no shame in cultivating the art of doing nothing, and have done so since time immemorial without being guilted into exchanging that for "productive activity". Whatever that means. Sounds like the bosses again.
     Now, perhaps those of us in North America may be finally learning something about the benefits of being idle. Just because we are in a lockdown does not mean we can't gain something from it.Let that be at least one take away - during this pandemic I hope people discover the childlike heavenly simplicity of doing nothing. On purpose, and repeatedly.
       This is an excellent opportunity to Begin Building Better. Sorry, I got a little slogany there. But I persist. How about starting a whole new life? One can do that when one finds one's self at the bottom, which is a good place to start a new foundation.
      Allowing ourselves idle time will lead to slower, more intentional ways of living, ones which have nothing to do with infinite speediness, and the endless pursuit of wealth, power, and fame. Quite the opposite. We can leave that behind us.
      This is about being in that glorious moment of non-productive bliss. This is about taking back power and control over your own person.
      For, as Tom Hodgkinson says in his book How To Be Idle, "Idleness is not a giving up on life, but a spirited grabbing hold of it."
      So grab hold of a bit of American idle today.
      You might like it.

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Tomorrow!

      Artists paint pictures, so do poets and writers, but figures can also paint a picture. So let's take some figures and try to paint a picture of what lies ahead of us in the UK after covid19 .
         Bank of England unemployment predictions, 2019 3.8%, 2020 8.6% 2021 11.0%
Another prediction:
Unemployment could hit 15 per cent in UK hit by second coronaviruswave

Dark picture even before covid19:

       March 2020 An extra 1.5 million children will have been pitched into poverty by 2021 as a consequence of the government’s austerity programme, according to a study of the impact of tax and benefit policy by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

      The EHRC study forecasts dramatic increases in poverty rates among children in lone parent and minority ethnic households, families with disabled children and households with three or more children. There are clear winners and losers from austerity tax and benefits changes since 2010, the study says. The regressive nature of the policies means that low-income families have been hit hardest: the poorest fifth will lose 10% of income by 2021, while the wealthiest fifth will see little or no change.

After covid19: 

COVID-19 Impact: 50 per cent of UK households believe they will struggle to meet their financial commitments over the next three months.
       In the first three weeks after the UK government introduced the ‘lockdown’, an estimated 7 million households (a quarter of all households in the UK) had lost either a substantial part or all of their earned income as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis. The immediate consequences of the crisis for UK households are seen in the large numbers (28 per cent) who were experiencing financial difficulties. An estimated 3.1 million households were in serious financial difficulty and a further 4.8 million households were clearly struggling to make ends meet. Anxiety about money was widespread, with half of all householders saying that thinking about their financial situation made them anxious.
Key findings:

• 3.1 million households are in serious financial difficulty
• 4.8 million households are struggling to make ends meet
• 7 million have lost a significant part of their earnings
• 7.7 million households anticipate some fall in income in the next 3 months
• 10.4 million households are potentially exposed financially
  

On housing: 

• Of those in serious financial difficulty, 64% are renting
• 31% are home owners
  

      These are some of the findings from a national COVID-19 financial impact tracker published by Standard Life Foundation, which were analysed by the University of Bristol’s Emeritus Professor Elaine Kempson, and Christian Poppe at Oslo Metropolitan university.  
      Professor Kempson will be leading the series of monthly surveys, designed to track the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 crisis on household economies. The analysis and reporting is being undertaken by Bristol in collaboration with other researchers, including academics at Oslo Metropolitan University.You can download the full report here.

      Theeconomic fallout of the pandemic could leave 1.1 million more people below the pre-Covid poverty line at year end, including a further 200,000 children, according to analysis released today (Thursday) by the IPPR think tank.

      Well there's a picture of tomorrow, do you feel that it is as it should be, or do you accept that the capitalist system has failed, as usual, to see to the needs of the ordinary people? If so, what are we going to do about its failure? Reformed is impossible, remove is the only answer.

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Inspiration.

       The tributes to Stuart Christie, who died on the 15th August, still pour in, proof that the strands of this man's life are woven through a vast fabric that is the continuing world wide struggle for a system of justice, peace and freedom. A life of unstinting effort and sacrifice to that one cause, the better world for all, deserves to be honoured and remembered. His life should be an inspiration to all of us, young and old, who hold those same desires.

Stuart Christie, Luis Edo, Albert Meltzer, Doris Ensinger, Barcelona.

 The following from 325:

     ‘Stuart Christie, comrade, friend’ by Octavio Alberola
Stuart Christie, el compañero, el amigo
      The news of the death of Stuart Christie was communicated to me by telephone, the day before yesterday in the afternoon, by my comrade René after asking me if I was aware of the new bad news and after answering him abruptly: who has died? Well, from the tone of his voice, I immediately sensed that it must be the death of someone close to me.
       His answer left me stunned, because although Stuart had confirmed to me a week earlier that he was still suffering from cancer and that the results of the medical examinations were not very encouraging, at no time had I thought of such a quick end for him. Close to me are several comrades -more or less my age- who are not in very good health, and the “normal” thing, at my age (soon ninety-three years old), is to think that it is you that time is counting down on.
      So, in Stuart’s case, how can I think about it when he’s eighteen years younger? Besides, we were both in common projects and determined to continue participating in the fight against the world of power and exploitation.
      For me, his death is not only the loss of a comrade, of a friend; it is the end of a collaboration of many years in common actions and initiatives to denounce the injustices of the world in which we live and to fight for a more just and free world. A world that is possible and for everyone, which we have not ceased to long for and to try to build through the consistent practice of active revolutionary and internationalist solidarity.
     We had many years of a fraternal relationship since our first meeting, in that month of August 1964, until this one of 2020. More than half a century of our lives being linked, in one way or another, in a common cause in spite of the borders… Since, in spite of being focused on the political and social ups-and-downs of the Spanish people, first under Franco’s dictatorship and then under that false democracy born from the Transition/Transaction, that struggle was always framed in a revolutionary internationalist perspective.
      The proof, for him, is his prison experiences in Spain and England, and for Brenda, his companion, in Germany, and for Ariane and me in Belgium and France. These experiences bear witness to those struggles without frontiers, being aware that the condition of freedom is for everyone and for everything.
      How, then, can we not feel the need to remember this at this time when this comradeship with Stuart ends with his death. And also because of the death a few days ago of our German companion Doris Ensinger, the companion of Luis Andrés Edo, with whom Stuart also shared prison experiences and fraternization in the struggles; since it is obvious that Doris’s disappearance also meant for me, in a certain way, the definitive end point of my fraternization in the struggles with Luis. An end that began a few years before with his death.
       The fact is that with Doris I was also left in a state of shock, surprised by the news of her death that Manel communicated to me; since it was barely a week ago that she had sent us, Tomás and me, a mail to announce that she had been called to the hospital suddenly and had had a transplant… And that she was already at home and was feeling well…
        So once again I am confronted with the temporariness of our existence and the need to preserve the memory of what we have tried to be and do until death.

Perpignan, 17 August 2020
Octavio Alberola

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The Coup!

       One of the US's favourite tactics for taking control of another countries resources is the "coup". It does this ruthlessly and has no consideration for the people of that country, their plight is of no concern to the millionaire/billionaire corporate gangs of parasites that control America and its policies. Over the years South America has been the theatre of American organised and backed coups, one so far successful, but meeting resistance is Bolivia, and one that never quite got off the ground is Venezuela. It is an on going strategy of America for control of the world's resources. Iran in the middle East is a permanent target. Where the coup fails, then there is always brute force in the way of an invasion preceded by an Armagedden of unbelievable weapons of mass destruction pored over the civilian population, Iraq, for example. 

        The recent coup in Bolivia is still meeting mass resistance, but as usual, this is met by the state, with ever growing brutal viciousness against that resistance by the people. They need our full support and solidarity, their struggle is our struggle, we live under the same savage exploitative system, it is all a matter of degree.

The following article is from Struggle La Lucha:  

 

         A 12-day national Bolivian blockade led by massive social movements, students, elders, unions and farmworkers ended on Aug. 13. It had paralyzed the entire country, resulting in food/fuel shortages and in the complete instability of the Andean nation itself. The blockade was temporarily lifted after the government agreed to have presidential elections on Oct. 18, but union workers forewarned that, if another delay occurs, expect more mobilizations to continue.
       On that same day, a terrorist attack by a group of hooded men used explosives against the centers of Las Bartolinas, a primary union organization of native Indigenous women, and of the COB, a union federation of Bolivian mineworkers. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the deliberate brutal attacks on rural Indigenous communities have the people on edge.

          Amid the blockades, student hunger strikes, privatization of natural resources, increased deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the deliberate abandonment/neglect foisted upon the Original Peoples, Bolivia continues to endure the worst state violence and political persecution it has seen in decades.
          Since the U.S.-backed coup took over, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and its Indigenous leaders have experienced non-stop civil unrest. On Aug. 18, the alt-right paramilitary group, Resistencia Juvenil Cochala (RJC), which is funded not only by the oligarchs but by the National Endowment for Democracy — a private “nongovernmental” operation that is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development — began passing out leaflets outside local banks with 39 images of Indigenous community leaders. The caption says, “MURDERERS REVEALED!! THESE ARE BOLIVIA’S ENEMIES!”
       One of the people listed is a young Quechua medical doctor and MAS member and leader, Marisol Coca Calderón, who resides in the Sacaba/Huayllani area, where a bloody massacre took place on Nov. 15, 2019. During a phone conversation with Calderón, she shared with me how she is being threatened and harassed daily. But because the de facto government supports and funds RJC, there is little she can do.
       For now, she continues to organize at a small local center called Juventudes de la Democracia Huayllani, which is a safe space for a community hit hard by the coup. There, they hold group meetings, provide support and guidance for one another and grow their own medicinal plants. I asked Calderón what people can do to help. Her response was, “Please keep speaking about us on social media. You are all our voices. We need your support more than ever. And, if people can help to keep the doors of our center open, it would be a major relief to not only the youth but to the widows and children of our protectors who were brutally killed in November.”
        If you would like to make a donation to help keep the Huayllani center open and to show your solidarity, please send to: Cash app: $AyniAllyuSolidarity. For more updates, please join us on our Facebook group, Ayni Allyu: The Official Llajta of Evo Morales & Indigenous Bolivians.

JALLALLA!
      Julia “Pachamama” Fernández is a Los Angeles Native/Quechua/Xicana organizer/activist and member of Ayni Allyu.

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