Why Work.

          Lock-down, partial lock-down, half lock-down, tiered lock-down regional lock-down, all shaped to try to keep you going to work, all those who can’t work stay in your cell and don’t socialise. There is an attempt to stop this virus but not at the expense of the economy. The economy must be protected at all costs, and that cost is billions of pounds of taxpayers money being pour into the coffers of big business, and continual spikes in deaths. As the various fiddling with measures give the impression that our lords and masters are working for your benefit. However we have the farcical “test and trace”, billions handed to corporate buddies and the result a scheme that is laughable if it were not so tragic. It’s safe to go to work on public transport, but not safe to go on public transport to visit your granny, one helps the economy, the other doesn’t. You can mix with strangers in a cafe, at a distance, but can’t visit your neighbours or your family down the road, again one helps the economy, the other doesn’t. Of course they will give you the "science" behind these decisions, but science like anything else has a variety of avenues, and there are several scientific views on these matters. Our lords and masters will pick the one that suits them, and interpret it according to their desires, which is, save the economy.
          Covid19 is a virus that spreads by close contact, it doesn’t select those that mix socially rather than those obliged to mix to keep the economy going. As long as the plan is to keep getting people out to work, rather than the number one priority being save people’s lives, we will see continual decreases and spikes. Sadly these rather innocent sounding terms and simple graphs, “spikes” and “hospital admissions” refer to human beings, members of families being struck down by a very serious and debilitating disease, and in some cases death. No economy is worth that cost. Why should you be the one to risk you and your family’s health for the benefit of “the economy”, remember as a worker mixing with others in what could be described as rather dubious conditions, go home and take what infections you may have picked up back with you. Who benefits most from you risking you and your family’s health, you or your employer? 

 

         Let’s screw the economy and look after each other. We can use this pandemic to change the structure of society by building on mutual aid and seeing that anything that is necessary for the well being of the public is taken into public ownership and run by the communities on a non-profit basis. We don’t need fat profits, greedy CEO and other members of the parasite class. Why risk your and your family’s health and well-being to keep the tills of a coterie of parasites ringing, so that they can live in the sort of luxury they think they deserve. Our new normal that sees to the needs of all our people, is what we should be aiming for, not a return to their exploitation and profit driven greed economy normal.

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

Serfs.

       It's a cruel illusion that is woven around us, as we are continually told, by the mainstream media and political propaganda, that we live in a free democracy. Yet a simple look around, and you see gross inequality, where the majority strive with sweat and blood producing an abundance of wealth, but live a life of constant struggle in an attempt to gain a half decent life. We know we produce a mountain of wealth, we see it all around us, in the shape of large mansions, super sports cars, private jets, luxury yachts, etc. and that small coterie of individuals living the high life in luxury and opulence.
      Are we still living away back in he middle ages of serfs, with a few trimmings of "modernity" but all the power and wealth still in the hands of our lords and masters? Has the structure really changed, we are as free as the cattle in the field or the sheep in the pen, there to be used as our masters see fit. They'll feed us, just enough as long as we are of value to them, when we are surplus to their requirements, they will dispose of us in various ways, or simple leave us to rot. We are the 21st century serfs, we struggle just to survive, placated by trinkets, mere popcorn and bubble gum in the form of mobile phones, laptops, etc. the usual bread and circuses, from world cups, to Olympic Games, all just paracetamol to make us feel better however remedying none of our problems, but all money making exercises for our lords and masters, for which we pay,

       The following food for thought from Acorn, Winter Oak.

 

 

         Inspired by Gerrard Winstanley who was born 411 years ago in Wigan.
         Most are happy to say they belong to a ‘nation’ or ‘country’ and feel a strong sense of pride in their connection to its land and shared ancestry. We think the times when monarchs and lords made claims on everything and everyone living on the land have long since gone and that these ‘nobles’ now ‘serve’ us and there are laws and safeguards to stop this kind of wicked exploitation happening again.
      What if on the surface it only looks like this but, in reality, these old ruling elites have found more covert ways to exploit us, keeping us in a similar state to how we were back in the dark and middle ages only with a veneer of modern state crafted respectability?
     Are modern day ‘nations’ no more than ‘mega brands’ that can be owned and managed for personal gain? Does state propaganda, and a corrupted mainstream media convince us that we have more freedoms than we in fact do, and that by voting once every 5 years, we have a say in who governs us when really we don’t? 

       You only have to look at current leaders like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump to wonder how they got to these important positions on which so many lives depend. Do these wily old families continue to benefit unfairly from the most constant and lucrative revenue stream available to a people? That is, its collective creative energy; namely the taxes we all pay on everything we earn, spend and own… For which we receive very little in return.
     Where does all this money go? How is our country still in debt after all this time, and the hard work we all put in? To give recent and obvious examples of everyday corruption, we know that £12 billion has just been spent on a phone app and £103 million was spent on a ferry company with zero ferries and so on… This list is in fact endless! Is something still ‘Rotten in the State of Denmark?’ as Shakespeare said? It appears it most definitely is.
     If it is the case, it means countries are more like fiefdoms and our common status that of chattels rather than a modern citizenry. In other words, 21st century slaveism.
      Perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves some pertinent questions. Are we falling for a very clever marketing con trick that makes us feel free and empowered when the reality is that a few power-obsessed and stupidly rich groups are still running everything behind the scenes, while life for the rest remains a constant struggle on an increasingly damaged Earth? How far have we come as a society when the weak are still made to carry the strong? You have to ask – and keep asking.

 

 

C.D.

      “England is a prison; the subtleties in the Laws are the bolts, bars and doors of the prison; the Lawyers are the Jailers; and Poor Men are the prisoners”. Gerrard Winstanley. (19 October 1609 – 10 September 1676)

         Of course for "England", substitute the patch of land on which you live.

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

Twins.

       It is sometimes difficult when you see our so called "political representatives", in their fine clothes and polite civilised manner, that they oversee and manage the cruel, vicious and barbaric prison system. A system deeply rooted in violence and inhumanity, a relic from our more barbaric past, but which our well manicured "political representatives" deem necessary to keep them in their privileged position of wealth and power. Prisons are institutions of violence, repression and  intimidation, and are intended to be so, as a deterrent to those who would dare to challenge the status-quo. As long as the state survives, the savagery and barbarity that is the prison system will persist, they are inseparably linked like Siamese-twins.  

The following from Act For Freedom Now: (Translation is not perfect, but you grasp the viciousness) 

 Rotative Hunger strike in spanish prisons

        From last 1st of September on at least 14 prisoners, mostly anarchists, take actually part of a new rotative hunger strike against the precarious health conditions in the spanish prisons. They reinvicate also a 14 point program against isolation custody (FIES/DERT), tortures and physical and psychical violence from the prison guards, dispersion of prisoners far from their home, etc. Every comrade is doing a 10-days-hunger strike, one following other, every month 3 prisoners.
      Violence in spanish prisons is very common, every year 200 prisoners die inside spanish prisons violently or from drugs, no medical attention or diseases. Actually in corona times, the conditions in jail are mostly insupportable (bad food, no activities, no visits…).
        Last month of August our comrade Carmen Badía Lachos was violated from a prison guard inside the ‘hospital’ part of the Zuera-prision (Zaragoza).
      She suffers cancer and use a wheelchair to move, so this psychopath had an ‘easy game’ to act like a coward. Carmen did a public communicate about this machist crime. Last year Carmen did a very long hunger strike (more than 2 month) to denounce her health conditions to get released from prison because of her incurable cancer. The prison-administration denied her petition… The violator got threats to kill from an anonymous prisoner.
       Long term prisoner Claudio Lavazza in August was brought back to Spain after being judged in Paris for a big bank-robbery (in 1978) and he got sentenced 41 years later to ten years of prison in France! Claudio was arrested in 1996 after a bank-robbery in Cordoba where died 2 cops in a battle of gun-fire.
        Also still in prison our anarchist comrade Gabriel Pombo da Silva, actually in the jail of Leon. He got transferred from Aachen/Germany in 2013 to Spain with the special condition that he had to finish just his sentence from Germany in spanish prisons and then he’d be free from all anterior sentences. So in 2016 he became free. But his freedom in Spain didn’t have a long stand… just because one judge from Girona opinion that Gabriel should finish his 30-years-sentence from 1990… that would be 16 years more behind bars! But his friends and comrades try to bring the case to the superior tribunal of justice, so the last word is still not spoken.

Solidarity with the anarchist/revolutionary prisoners all around the world!

Down all prison walls!

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

Bloody Friday.

          Bloody Friday is a date that is branded on the psyche of Glasgow's working class, January, 31st. 1919, (or should be) when people from Glasgow and all around gathered in George Square holding a mass peaceful demonstration in support of the 40 hour week. When some individual among the higher echelons of power, for reasons known to them, ordered the police to attack the crowd. They went in with batons swing and all hell broke loose. Fighting spread across the city and well into the night as the people vented their anger on the police and the authorities. The powers that be got extremely nervous, fearing a revolution being sparked in the Red Clyde and spreading. Their answer was troops, armed with fixed bayonets on the streets of Glasgow, tanks stationed in a warehouse in the east end of the city, and armed soldiers at the gates of docks and other places that the powers that be, deemed strategic.
       I know it's not January, an anniversary or anything like that, but it is an event that we should always try to bring to the attention of the young taking up the struggle for a decent life for all. Though it has been written about by many people I thought it would be nice to hear a voice of one who was there at the time, A Glasgow working class fighter and writer/poet, someone I have admired since I first came across his name while researching the subject at the Caledonian University many years ago, Tom Anderson.

 Bloody Friday.

The Judas Iscariots, disciples of Christ,
Sent out the “Blue Legions”, bought at a price,
To maim and to kill at pleasure of will
The people unarmed who before them stood still.
The “Arm of the Law” read words from a “writ”
Empowering their legion to kill and to whip.
To cover their deeds, the press cried aloud,
“Save, save our good City from Bolshevik shroud!”

The knaves in chorus joined in with the throng:
“Machine them, baton them, drive them along;
Strike down the damned strikers, vermin at that,
The army’s behind you, make good your part.”
“The soldiers of freedom” - - - Christ! What an affair - - -
Stood waiting for orders, to “charge over there.
And sad was the sight, at the dead of night,
Slaves dressed in khaki, without human right.

They marched Khaki slaves through our streets day and night,
To show us the strength of their power and might;
And the poor slaves, bowed down with bayonet and gun,
Felt now they were the plundering Hun.
Christ Almighty! Was there ever a plot so foul,
They played with our men as a fox with a fowl.
Then down came their swoop with an avalanche tread;
And Kirkwood went down, and they cracked Willie’s head.
We fear not their law, nor yet their great men;
We fear not their prisons or blood-gallows pen;
We fear not their priests, or parsons or spies;
We fear not their land away up in the skies.
We laugh at their army, and navy, and king;
We laugh at the god to whom these thieves sing
We laugh,and in earnest we strive for the day
To wipe out the tyrants who do our class slay.

                                                                                Tom Anderson.

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

Take Sides.

       You don't like violence, then few people do, so when looking at the violence in our world, where should you direct your anger? At the unimaginable brutal, savage violence of states that bomb cities and countries killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people for power and wealth, that put police armed like robo-cop on the streets of our communities, or those same states that promote and protect corporate organisations that plunder the planet to the extinction of our ecosystem? Or those who would pick up a stone and throw it at the openly violent face of that state apparatus, or who attack the symbols of that violent state machine in hope of bring an end to the whole violent structure of the modern corporate/state system of capitalism? The state is violence, it can only survive by the violent repression of dissent, the state and capitalism are two fangs of the same vicious economic system that spawns mass poverty, deprivation, homelessness, wars, divisions between people across the planet, gross inequality and injustice, these are all degrees of violence. So why shouldn't those at the receiving end of this brutal system take to self defence and fight to destroy it, in an attempt to bring peace and equality to to all our people. When you stand and condemn violence in our society, be thoughtful and careful with which side you stand.

The following from Anarchists News:

Death to the State! Solidarity with Mónica and Francisco.
        Throughout history, anarchists have always suffered persecution by the State. This is because the simple idea of a world, free and in solidarity, where the coercive power of the State is not only unnecessary, but undesirable, is in itself a threat for those who hold power. And those people who put these ideas into practice and confront State violence can take for granted that they will catch the attention of the State's repressive apparatus.
        Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar are going through that. They were kidnapped by the State on July 24th, 2020. Now they risk spending various years in some Chilean prison.

Freedom for Mónica and Francisco!

         All the support to the struggle of the mapuche people which also suffers the repression of the Chilean State!
         This video was made as part of the Day of Agitation and Propaganda for Anarchist prisoners, August 14, 2020.

[Video transcript and translation below by Anarchist News:]

       Quote on screen: "It's not cruelty, nor thirst for blood, nor any other criminal tendency, what induce a man to attack organized power. On the contrary, it's above all due to a strong social instinct, due to a strong abundance of love and an overflowing of sympathy with the pain and sorrow that surrounds us" - Emma Goldman
Narrator voice-over in Portuguese and subtitles in Spanish:
        "In the morning of July 24th, 2020, the Chilean State arrested Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar in another attempt to criminalize anarchists. The State tries to disguise all the brutality and violence inherent in its existence by accusing anarchists of violence. But there's no way to compare the violence of colonialism, the military, the police and neo-liberalism, with rocks, Molotov cocktails and other tools used by peoples that resist genocide and oppression, and the destruction of all the ecosystems that maintain all the life on Earth. And it's those same States who are responsible for the greater part of the violence in the world, who feel they have the right to judge us and call that "justice".
        Freedom for Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar and for all the people that were kidnapped by States!"
       Mónica Caballero addressing the court: "Death to the State and long live anarchy!"
        Francisco Solar addressing the court: "Long live anarchy!"

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

Ye're Heroes.

          While my thoughts were wandering through events during this pandemic, I kept remembering all the lauding of the health and care workers. Clap for the NHS, every one a hero, all get together and praise their gallant work. Not for one minute am I suggesting that they didn't deserve all that praise for their unstinting efforts day in day out, to try and protect the communities. However, a decent life with security and income with full safety on the job, would have done them more good than hurray and clapping.
       It's something our lords and masters are good at, their hypocrisy knows no depth to which it will sink, when they need you most expect praise a plenty and clapping a loud, but not much more. This lead me to remember a poem written by James Mitchell, during the time when coal was the fuel that fed the economy and the state war machine, then, miners were heroes.

 

                                                 The Miners.

Ye’re heroes, aye, Ye’re heroes,
When workin’ doon the mine.
They slap yer back an’ praise ye,
Ye’re gallant lads an’ fine,
Toilin’ there among the damp
Where nane o’ them wid daur,
Ye’re heroes, aye, ye’re heroes,
When getting’ coals for war.

They humour ye, praise ye,
as ye keep the bunkers fu’,
An’ the convoys bring the foodstuffs
that they ration out to you;
Or the troopships tak’ yer brithers
To the battlefields afaur,
Ye’re heroes, aye, ye’re heroes
When getting’ coals for war.

They’ll promise ye high heaven,
As the furnace flames ye feed,
In a world that’s mad wi’ murder,
Truth is sacrificed to greed;
As factories belch their smoke-clouds,
An’ their profits daily soar,
Ye’re heroes, aye, ye’re heroes,
When getting’ coals for war.

                                                                                 James Mitchell.

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

Decisions.

          In this world of wars, poverty, deprivation, homelessness, injustice and inequality, for the many, and wealth, opulence, power, pomp and privilege for the few, people across the world take different actions to try to remedy this gross distortion of humanity, which is based on an economic system of insanity. There is dialogue, meetings, debates, protests, pamphlets, direct action, rebellion and insurrection, somewhere in that mix lies the answer to all our problems. We have to decide which road will lead to freedom, justice and equality for all, perhaps it is a mix of all these coming together in solidarity that is the answer. But the debate has to take place and be acted upon in unity, if we want that better world for all, and time is not on our side. 

        As part of that debate Rumoer Issue 2, is worth a read.

 

       The second edition of the anarchist publication Rumoer is out! A publication which will hopefully provoke discussion, irritation, inspiration, agitation, and attack. Because we do not want a raise in wages, but the destruction of work. Because we do not want to shout ‘boo!’ but want to hear BOOM! We want a confrontation without compromise with the system that is destroying our lives and the planet.
      In this issue some extra attention for the rampaging Covid-19 virus. But also just the ongoing anarchist interventions and other topics: an interview with a graffiti maker in Lebanon, the fight against Shell, post-gentrification and the use of the Signal app.
       If you want to receive the new Rumoer, send an email to: rumoer (((A))) riseup /// net. Since most social centres are currently closed, we ask you to help spread the latest edition. Order some extra copies and bring it to your neighbours, isolated family, friends and comrades.
       You can also download the new Rumoer or print it yourself. The link to the downloads can be found at rumoer.noblogs.org
        Remember, the streets are empty, the possibilities are open. Keep 1.5 meters away, but always at least ten times as much from the police!
Download:

Cover
Print PDF
Read PDF

  Radio on
Smartphones on
Films on
Tablets on
Travels bought
Cars bought
Houses bought
Furniture bought
For what?
Trains going
Dollars flowing
Machines going
People toiling
Motors made
Canons made
For whom?
Destroy what destroys you
Bombers flying
Tanks rolling
Cops hitting
Soldiers falling
Stocks protected
Managers protected
The state protected
Against us?
Destroy what destroys you

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

Dialogues.

 

       A publication that might prick your thoughts on how do we turn this exploitative economic system that benefits a privileged few, spawns poverty, division, inequality, repression and wars, into a society that sees to the needs of all our people, in a co-operative, fair, just and equitable manner. The dialogue has been going on for centuries, but sooner or later we will have to make up our minds on how to free ourselves from this profit gorging nightmare. Time for us and the ecological system that supports us, and all life on this planet, is fast running out. 

The following from 325:

         PDF: ‘Incendiary Dialogues: For the Propagation of Anarchic Sedition’ (Black International Editions)
Printed copies coming soon…
         We present a new book by Black International Editions, an internationalist project of anarchic diffusion that, from an informal and seditious anarcho-insurrectional intent, resurfaces in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and English, with a new title: “Incendiary Dialogues: For the Propagation of Anarchic Sedition”. The title is based on a dialogue on the course of the anarchic war between comrades Alfredo Cóspito, Gustavo Rodríguez and Gabriel Pombo da Silva.
        We consciously decided to launch this booklet on May 22, in timely celebration of Chaos Day, remembering anarchist comrade Mauricio Morales, who, on a day like today in 2009 left this life fighting against Power when the bomb he was carrying in his backpack exploded prematurely, detonating a few meters away from the Gendarmerie School in Chile.
        We dedicate this book to all our comrades in prison around the world, with a special dedication to our comrade Alfredo Cóspito, imprisoned in Italy, and to our beloved Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, who was arrested in Portugal and extradited to Spain at the time this book was published. We send all our strength to comrade Gabriel in the face of this new revenge by the authorities for his eternal irreducible struggle.
       This book will have printed versions that will circulate in affinity spaces, among comrades and diverse anarchic projects around the world. We invite you to actively support its diffusion by sharing its digital version, printing copies and/or making presentations and launches wherever there is a willingness to do the impossible in order to spread chaos and extend anarchic warfare.

Editorial collaborators of Black International Editions. 

EN | Incendiary Dialogues: For the Propagation of Anarchic Sedition
ES | Diálogos Incendiarios
PT | Diálogos Incendiarios
IT | Dialoghi incendiari

 

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

State Crimes.

 

 

        The case of Julian Assange receives little or no cover in the mainstream media, why? It is a glaring example of state persecution to stifle and deter anyone from exposing the brutality and lies that form the foundations of their foreign policy for domination of the world's resources. Julian Assange exposed war crimes, savage brutality, the murder of thousands of innocent civilians, all acted out on a fabrication of deliberate lies by the very states that swan around the world pretending to be the defenders of peace and democracy. Where are the army of journalists that spout that they are seekers of the truth, the defenders of free speech, why the silence.

 

     The following is an extract from an article regarding the case of Julian Assange, though in this case I must emphasise that I'm no lover of the messenger in this case, but I whole heartedly agree with the message.

       - - -George Bush and Tony Blair Should be Behind Bars Not Julian Assange The absence of bitterness from John’s conversation with me is remarkable and testimony to his compassion and understanding of world affairs. His admiration for his son’s courage and strength is huge. Julian Assange committed no crimes. He is in a prison cell while real war criminals like George Bush and Tony Blair escape justice. They are the ones who lied and bullied and bribed and blackmailed the UN to try and get a second resolution justifying invading Iraq. They failed.
          The invasion and subsequent occupation were illegal and they should be held responsible for the one million civilian deaths which resulted. The fact Chelsea Manning spent seven years behind bars before her thirty-five-year sentence was commuted by Barack Obama is a disgrace. She was sentenced again last March because she refused to testify against Julian Assange. She spent a year in jail between March 2019 – March 2020. She is the epitome of courage and integrity. Refusing to turn on Assange revealed her inner strength and dignity.
Julian Assange is a Victim of Psychological Torture in UK Custody
        Julian Assange’s father drew attention to the numerous investigations of his son’s incarceration by the United Nations rapporteur on torture and arbitrary detention. Through visits and detailed assessments Professor Nils Melzer compiled damning evidence which showed Julian was indeed a victim of systematic psychological torture for which the UK bears a heavy responsibility:

“The case falls into my mandate in three different ways: First, Assange published proof of systematic torture. But instead of those responsible for the torture, it is Assange who is being persecuted. Second, he himself has been ill-treated to the point that he is now exhibiting symptoms of psychological torture. And third, he is to be extradited to a country that holds people like him in prison conditions that Amnesty International has described as torture. In summary: Julian Assange uncovered torture, has been tortured himself and could be tortured to death in the United States. And a case like that isn’t supposed to be part of my area of responsibility? Beyond that, the case is of symbolic importance and affects every citizen of a democratic country”

        Please read these words from Professor Nils Melzer over and over again and acquaint yourself with his various reports. Exactly ten years to the day after exposing heinous US war crimes, systematic torture and flagrant breaches of international law it is the man who exposed the crimes who is behind bars when it should be the organisers, facilitators and perpetrators of those crimes.
Plague of Malice
         During our interview, I reminded John Shipton of an incredibly apt phrase he used recently when interviewed during Julian’s trial in London. He said his son was subject to a “plague of malice”. I suggested it should be the title of a book detailing how Julian has not been criminally prosecuted - he has been politically persecuted. Persecuted by powerful nations in a vengeful act of revenge for being exposed by Julian as the practiced criminals, liars, and murderers they are. Should Julian Assange be handed over by a British Court to face a life sentence in America for publishing evidence of US government war crimes it is the death knell of investigative journalism and the most serious undermining of free speech and freedom of expression in hundreds of years. The world will be propelled back to the dark ages of medieval dynasties and the denial of democratic rights and freedoms should America be allowed to demand the release of a journalist into their custody for harsh punishment for doing no more than revealing war crimes. It was the celebrated author and forensic social commentator George Orwell who said that journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations. But he also advised us that:

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

       Please get involved in the various campaigns and online petitions and support groups demanding the release of Julian Assange. His state-sponsored political persecution has no association with justice and everything to do with spite, revenge, and stark warnings to the rest of us. Don’t you dare speak the truth or speak out or stand up against injustices and wicked crimes committed by your governments lest you face the same personal mauling and destruction of character meted out to Julian Assange.- - -

Read the full article HERE: 

 

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

Local Kids.

          The latest issue of The Local Kids, Autumn 2020, No. 6, is just released well worth downloading the PDF and having a wee read.

 

        The last months we saw different shades of curfew being imposed throughout the world. Apparently in this highly developed society (in the sense of the multiplication of institutions and technologies that penetrate every aspect of life) a pandemic can only be dealt with through the most blunt weapon of repression. To come together, to see eye-to-eye, is branded irresponsible and forcibly disbanded, with a glaring exception for profit-making, exploitative relations.
          Physical intimacy and tenderness suddenly become something threatening with deadly consequences. Meetings and physical contact are declared to be something abnormal and forbidden. Don’t kiss, don’t hug, don’t touch. Yes but touch the screens. The physical is banned from our real world and replaced by the virtual. The situation serves as an ideal opportunity to push ahead the total digitalization of all aspects of life. This is the definition of this society of a human life; work and consume, preferably without leaving the confinements of the home and permanently accompanied by a fear of potential infection which puts one in a constant state of anxiety.
          Levels of fear went through the roof not only because of the unknown risks of a potentially deadly virus, but also because of the violence unleashed against perceived potential transmitters. Everyone who doesn’t display the good behaviour of the responsible citizen, is deemed suspect. The understanding of solidarity and responsibility was deformed and equated with obedience and trust in the state. Though not everyone went along with this narrative, the streets and squares did empty. Interaction moved to the internet, a space inherently linked to
surveillance (data gathering) and shaped by unknown or misunderstood parameters (algorithms). Some might accept this (self-)imposed separation and isolation, others are starting to doubt if they want to live a life devoid of encounters that are not ruled by capitalist logic.
          The flow of goods will continue, the economy will be kept alive, the transfer of all aspects of life to the digital will be guaranteed. Thus creating an unstable construct of infrastructure where mobile phone antennas, fibre optic cables and the supply by trucks, trains etc. are more and more important. Could this mean possibilities to sabotage their apparent security at their sensitive points? By experimenting with these possibilities, can we perhaps feel, sense and touch life a little more?

PDFs on thelocalkids.noblogs.org

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

Insanity.

        At the moment the favourite popcorn and bubble gum of the mainstream media is the pandemic and the Trump election. All else in the world is calm and not worth reporting, or so it would seem. However the horror of Iraq still spills blood in buckets full, all those years after we installed "Western democracy", Afghanistan still keeps adding to its dead and maimed, on a daily basis, after 19 years of Western attempts at bring the people "freedom" and to punish them for a event they had no part in, 9/11. Then there is Libya, where the West freed the people by getting rid of an evil man and turned the country into a blood letting tribal battle ground, and now it is about to once again explode as the Western powers have not got the compliant structure that would delivery what they wanted. Then let's not forget Syria, a country where millions have fled their homes, hundreds of thousands have been killed and the slaughter still goes on. A country where a world war is being fought with the people of Syria being the collateral damage. In that country at the moment, Israel, Turkey, Russia, and America, aided and abetted by the EU are shelling, bombing maiming and killing, while the media would have us all focus on the election between a lying, egotistical, psychological deranged, delusional idiot and an authoritarian, money grabbing, duplicitous manipulator, from which the outcome will not alter anything.

Libya

     Add to this mayhem and insanity, the gross ineptitude in handling this pandemic, with the powers that be keeping their emphasis on the economy as that is where their wealth and power lies, without their control of the economy they have nothing, and they will never allow that to happen. So expect this pandemic to continue with its stop-start, spike and leveling off, restrictions on-off and on again. In between all that saving the economy, people will die unnecessarily. And there are those who say that the human is a rational animal.

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

WEF Fascism.

       By now it should be obvious to all, that this pandemic has been grasped by the billionaire/millionaire pampered, privileged parasite class, as a wonderful opportunity. They are well organised and with slick sleight of hand have managed to get public to accept that the various states across the globe should pour trillions of dollars/pounds into their coffers, under the guise of keeping jobs and saving the economy, money that you and I the tax payer will have to pay back to the financial mafia when they come a calling for their repayment.. While at the same time ordinary people, losing their jobs through the pandemic, are facing dire poverty and deprivation and are failing to get that same level of support. During this pandemic it is only the extremely wealthy, banks and the international financial institutions who have seen their wealth grow, and grow immensely.

      Those who still see the World Economic Forum as some sort of business/state benign get-together, to try to make the world a better place for all, should take a closer look. It is a well organised, well funded, slick and exclusive club of the very rich, coming together to enhance their power and wealth and dispose of any semblance of democracy in favour of corporate control.

        The following, rather long, but well worth reading, extract is from Winter Oak:

     Born in Ravensburg in 1938, Klaus Schwab is a child of Adolf Hitler’s Germany, a police-state regime built on fear and violence, on brainwashing and control, on propaganda and lies, on industrialism and eugenics, on dehumanisation and “disinfection”, on a chilling and grandiose vision of a “new order” that would last a thousand years.
       Schwab seems to have dedicated his life to reinventing that nightmare and to trying to turn it into a reality not just for Germany but for the whole world. Worse still, as his own words confirm time and time again, his technocratic fascist vision is also a twisted transhumanist one, which will merge humans with machines in “curious mixes of digital-and-analog life”, which will infect our bodies with “Smart Dust” and in which the police will apparently be able to read our brains.
        And, as we will see, he and his accomplices are using the Covid-19 crisis to bypass democratic accountability, to override opposition, to accelerate their agenda and to impose it on the rest of humankind against our will in what he terms a “Great Reset“. Schwab is not, of course, a Nazi in the classic sense, being neither a nationalist nor an anti-semite, as testified by the $1 million Dan David Prize he was awarded by Israel in 2004.
        But 21st century fascism has found different political forms through which to continue its core project of reshaping humanity to suit capitalism through blatantly authoritarian means. This new fascism is today being advanced in the guise of global governance, biosecurity, the “New Normal”, the “New Deal for Nature” and the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

    Schwab, the octogenarian founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, sits at the centre of this matrix like a spider on a giant web. The original fascist project, in Italy and Germany, was all about a merger of state and business. While communism envisages the take-over of business and industry by the government, which – theoretically! – acts in the interests of the people, fascism was all about using the state to protect and advance the interests of the wealthy elite.
       Schwab was continuing this approach in a denazified post-WW2 context, when in 1971 he founded the European Management Forum, which held annual meetings at Davos in Switzerland. Here he promoted his ideology of “stakeholder” capitalism in which businesses were brought into closer co-operation with government. Stakeholder capitalism” is described by Forbes business magazine as “the notion that a firm focuses on meeting the needs of all its stakeholders: customers, employees, partners, the community, and society as a whole”.
        Even in the context of a particular business, it is invariably an empty label. As the Forbes article notes, it actually only means that “firms can go on privately shoveling money to their shareholders and executives, while maintaining a public front of exquisite social sensitivity and exemplary altruism”.  But in a general social context, the stakeholder concept is even more nefarious, discarding any idea of democracy, rule by the people, in favour of rule by corporate interests. Society is no longer regarded as a living community but as a business, whose profitability is the sole valid aim of human activity.
    Schwab set out this agenda back in 1971, in his book Moderne Unternehmensführung im Maschinenbau (Modern Enterprise Management in Mechanical Engineering), where his use of the term “stakeholders” (die Interessenten) effectively redefined human beings not as citizens, free individuals or members of communities, but as secondary participants in a massive commercial enterprise. The aim of each and every person’s life was “to achieve long-term growth and prosperity” for this enterprise – in other words, to protect and increase the wealth of the capitalist elite.
       This all became even clearer in 1987, when Schwab renamed his European Management Forum the World Economic Forum. The WEF describes itself on its own website as “the global platform for public-private cooperation”, with admirers describing how it creates “partnerships between businessmen, politicians, intellectuals and other leaders of society to ‘define, discuss and advance key issues on the global agenda’.”
      The “partnerships” which the WEF creates are aimed at replacing democracy with a global leadership of hand-picked and unelected individuals whose duty is not to serve the public, but to impose the rule of the 1% on that public with as little interference from the rest of us as possible.
      In the books Schwab writes for public consumption, he expresses himself in the two-faced clichés of corporate spin and greenwashing. The same empty terms are dished up time and time again. In Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Guide to Building a Better World Schwab talks of “the inclusion of stakeholders and the distribution of benefits” and of “sustainable and inclusive partnerships” which will lead us all to an “inclusive, sustainable and prosperous future”! (1) Behind this bluster, the real motivation driving his “stakeholder capitalism”, which he was still relentlessly promoting at the WEF’s 2020 Davos conference, is profit and exploitation. - - -

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Aberfan.

       In the morning of October 21st. 1966, darkness fell on a small village in Wales, on that day, half the children in Aberfan ended their short lives under a mountain of coal slurry. This was no unavoidable accident, nor some "weird act of god", this was death by industrial quest for profit, and gross neglect of its duty of care. Something that should never been allowed to happen and was avoidable.

 The following extract from Wikipedia:

         The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a collieryspoil tip in Wales on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. A period of heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and other buildings. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board (NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees.
        There were seven spoil tips on the slopes above Aberfan; Tip 7—the one that slipped onto the village—was begun in 1958 and, at the time of the disaster, was 111 feet (34 m) high. In contravention of the NCB's official procedures, the tip was partly based on ground from which water springs emerged. After three weeks of heavy rain the tip was saturated and approximately 140,000 cubic yards (110,000 m3) of spoil slipped down the side of the hill and onto the Pantglas area of the village. The main building hit was the local junior school, where lessons had just begun; five teachers and 109 children were killed in the school.
        An official inquiry was chaired by Lord JusticeEdmund Davies. The report placed the blame squarely on the NCB. The organisation's chairman, Lord Robens, was criticised for making misleading statements and for not providing clarity as to the NCB's knowledge of the presence of water springs on the hillside. Neither the NCB nor any of its employees were prosecuted and the organisation was not fined. 

         

 

          This of course was not the first or the last mass deaths from industrial drive for profit, nor will it ever be the last as long as profit is the driving force for industry.

        Sometimes these avoidable disasters hit suddenly and with mass deaths, Aberfan, Bhopal, but other times that same drive for profit kills much slower and over many many years, the asbestos disaster that is still with us today as people still die from the results of working with this slow killer. These deaths are nothing short of industrial murder.

         Avoidable industrial deaths will continue to blight the lives of millions of ordinary working people as long as industry is driven by the capitalist model of profit, with profit comes avoidable deaths. Not until we the ordinary workers take over the production of all goods will the health and welfare of the people be at the forefront of all working conditions.    

         Until that day we will have to live with more Abefans, Bhopals and Mesothelioma.

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

His Word.

          Looking for a break from reading and writing about all the insanity of the state/capitalist cesspool with all its poverty, homelessness, gross inequality, exploitation, wars, corruption, deprivation, repression and the greed driven pampered privileged parasites that run this citadel of plunder. After all it has all been said before in a myriad of fashions, all that remains to be done is action, there has been enough words and dialogue is hopeless.
        So I thought I would turn my mind to that other disaster of humanity, religion, especially the Christian religion. Their holy of holy books the bible, raises a lot of questions. So god made Adam from mud and dust and then, I suppose just to do something different he created Eve, but not from the same mud an dust, no, he took a rib from Adam to do the job. Having created his two toys he equipped them both with fully function sexual organs, then forbids them to use them. That's a rather nasty and twisted attitude.
        God having created his two toys in his little garden of Eden, his toys got naughty and started to beget. There naughty behaviour begot two sons. There rises another question, the two sons Cain and Able went and done what lots of young men do they went and got married, to who? Was there another Adam and Eve somewhere else in the garden doing a bit of begetting and had two daughters? Or perhaps god had found out all about mass production and was turning out Adams and Eves all over the place, and they all turned naughty.
         Of course this god is a loving god, or so they say, but asking a family to leave a town that he was going to destroy, he told them not to look back. However one young woman done the very natural thing, looked back at the home she was leaving, and the loving god immediately turned her into a pillar of salt, rather a psychopathic action I think.
         Then there is this geezer Elijah, who girded up his loins and managed to out run a horse drawn chariot for twenty miles. Now there's an athlete for you.
        Of course there was not always one bible, away back there were several bibles, some with more books of god's words than others. So how did they resolve that problem, did they ask god, who is invisible and lives some where up in the sky to come down and sort out what was his words and what was balderdash. No, a group of men sat down and decided what was god's words and what was not, and so they ended up with one holy holy christian book of god's words. However, we only have their word for that of course. This holy holy book is supposed to be the word of god, then again some say you have to interpret what is written. So at the end of the day we only have some old men's word that these are the words of god, and interpretations by other men, or your own interpretation of a bunch of stories of various nomadic tribes tales.

 

 

         Apart from the garbage that this "faith", (substitute insanity) they believe in, it is the raging horror of wars, savagery and brutality, between all those with different shades of this religious insanity, their desire for power over people's lives, their drive to get everybody to accept the nonsense in which they believe and the authoritarian structure that are they life's blood. As a book of facts it is patently obviously ridiculous rubbish, as a work of fiction it is so much garbled rubbish it should hold the accolade of the most inane puerile nonsense ever written. There I feel better already. 

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