Warring UK.

       The UK, that patch on the planet that boasts of being the Mother of Parliaments, a country that claims to be a democratic and peace loving nation, well it seems that it has the second largest military presence around the world after U$A. I have no doubt that this sort of revelation will perhaps come as a surprise to you. An open democratic country where the people are unaware of the government's military involvement around the world. It shouldn't surprise us, as the state always works with duplicity, and functions in the interest of power and resources for its corporate bosses. All this being funded by tax payers money, plus the largest increase in military spending since the cold war, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer, their purse holder, promises a wage freeze for public sector workers and hard times ahead for the rest of us. Excluding themselves of course.

       Britain’s armed forces have a far more extensive base network than ever presented by the Ministry of Defence. New research by Declassified reveals the extent of this global military presence for the first time – as the government announces an extra 10% spending on defence.
        UK military has base sites in five countries around China: naval base in Singapore, garrisons in Brunei, drone testing sites in Australia, three facilities in Nepal and quick reaction force in Afghanistan
        Cyprus hosts 17 UK military installations including firing ranges and spy stations, with some located outside UK’s “sovereign base areas”
        Britain maintains military presence in seven Arab monarchies where citizens have little or no say in how they are governed
        UK personnel are stationed across 15 sites in Saudi Arabia, supporting internal repression and the war in Yemen, and at 16 sites in Oman, some run directly by British military
        In Africa, British troops are based in Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Mali
        Many UK overseas bases are located in tax havens such as Bermuda and Cayman Islands
      Britain’s military has a permanent presence at 145 base sites in 42 countries or territories around the world, research by Declassified UK has found. The size of this global military presence is far larger than previously thought and is likely to mean that the UK has the second largest military network in the world, after the United States. It is the first time the true size of this network has been revealed.

Read the full article HERE 

        Of course if you read the real history of this little island you would know that the Britain has always been a militaristic nation, run by a war loving aristocratic clique, seeing themselves as some sort of exceptional breed, but now bound up with the financial Mafia and corporate plunderers. Their aim has never changed, just their methods.
       How much longer can we the ordinary people put up with this power crazy bunch of psychopaths slashing their sabres across the world, stoking the flames of eternal wars, while pushing us the ordinary people, into ever deeper poverty. When the insane are driving the car, it's time we took they car keys away from them.

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UK Poverty.

 

        The following is a comment left on one of my posts by Loam, thanks comrade. It refers to a documentary made by John Pilger, a number of years ago, read it, and think what has changed in the years since, basically the poverty and deprivation is still there, it looms large like a huge scar on the face of our unequal and unjust society. Then try to contemplate what things will be like in the coming years, after listening to our Chancellor of the Exchequer, with his wage freeze for millions of ordinary people and his talk of "hard times" ahead. How can we let that happen when millions are living in "hard times" now and in the past, with 25% of our kids living below the poverty level, and any deepening of the "hard times" would certainly lead to more homelessness, destitution and death, stunted development for millions of our kids. Perhaps we should be asking those who predict and manage these "hard times", how it will affect them and their privileged families. Ask how many of their kids will go to school hungry, how many of their wives will consider taking to prostitution to feed their kids. Of course we should also ask, what gives them the right to plunge millions into poverty, to stunt the health and development of millions of kids while they maintain their pampered, privileged position of power and wealth. Do you know the answer to that question?

 

The Warmth of a Dream 

 

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bones.

In the dream there was a sister,

a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngsters the same young men, who

now laugh at him, throw beer cans,

piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?

When was that first step down this slippery slope,

when was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.

       “Tonight, more than two million parents will go to bed hungry in order to give their children something to eat… for the first time since the Great Depression, Britain – the so-called Welfare State – is deliberately cutting back the means of survival of its poorest, and their children.” Children growing up in poverty is the subject of Smashing Kids, 1975. John Pilger meets the Hopwoods, of Liverpool, where hunger has become a way of life during father Harry’s unemployment as his family of five survive on £1 a day. The wallpaper in their council house is torn and there are no clothes in the couple’s wardrobe and no sheets on their bed. The family have never had a holiday and Harry tells Pilger: “It would be easier to serve time than to put up with this.” Frank Field, director of the Child Poverty Action Group and later a Labour MP, says benefits from the unemployed are falling in real terms and many families struggle to feed their children. The Brunsdens, of Hackney, east London, are one of these and have just been served with notice to quit their council house for not paying rent. Mother Irene shockingly tells Pilger that she would have to resort to prostitution “if my baby really, really needed something to eat and I didn’t have a penny”. Another mother says she does not mark her younger children’s birthdays because “they’re too young to know anyway”. Pilger points out that the current Labour government’s planned increases in social benefits will be wiped out by inflation, “imposing a direct threat to the survival of the growing number of the poor”. Smashing Kids, 1975 (Pilger, ATV), ITV, 14 August 1975 Producer-director: John Ingram (26 mins)

Smashing Kids from John Pilger on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/17187548 

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Prisons.

 

        Prison reform is the usual paracetamol, an attempt to make you feel better without attacking your real problem. Somehow there are those who call for better conditions for prisoners, better medical facilities, more education and recreational facilities, more family visits, etc.. What they seem to miss is that prisons, even if all these demands were met, would still be inhumane, institutions of repression and a form of cheap forced labour, abolition is the only humane answer. Forced incarceration of humans, as with other animals, is unacceptable in any civilised society. Those outside the prison system continually fight for justice and equality, it is only natural that those incarcerated with less justice and more inequality, will enter into struggle to relieve them from this inhumanity that swamps their lives.
     No matter how you dress them up, prisons are not "rehabilitation centres", "correction centres", or any other nice sounding name with which you wish to label them. The prime and only purpose of the judicial and prison system is to protect the status-quo of this unequal society. They are state institution to quell any dissent from the population, to turn the rebellious into the submissive, to intimidate and deter others from joining any organised attempt at changing the power, privilege and wealth structure of this unjust unequal society.
     The struggle for justice inside prisons is often is met with more savagery and brutality than those struggles outside those anonymous looking hellholes. So I believe they should always receive as much publicity as we can muster, their struggle is our struggle, there can be no justice and civilised society while the prison walls still stand.

      Bearing in mind that the prison system in the U$A is 100%, nothing more or less, than outright modern slavery, creating millions of dollars for the corporate world.

The following from AMW, English:

 

       Hundreds of prison rebels in the Cook Unit of the Eyman prison in Florence, Arizona surrounded prison staff and destroyed prison infrastructure during an uprising Wednesday afternoon. According to one prisoner, windows were broken during the uprising and the unit looked like it had “exploded.”
        Prisoners at the facility and their family members said that prisoners were moved to the recreation yard with their hands zip-tied behind their backs while officers searched their cells. “They came in with tear gas, flash bangs, pepper spray, and started shooting them at everyone,” one prisoner wrote in an email. “It was basically a war zone.”
      In response to the uprising, the facility has cancelled Thanksgiving video visitation.
       Over 400 prisoners at the facility have tested positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic and one has died, according to data maintained by the prison. Several family members of prisoners expressed concerns about conditions at the facility.
       The Arizona State Prison Complex at Eyman is Arizona’s single largest prison, imprisoning over 5,400 people.
      With prison pigs spreading the COVID-19 pandemic inside prisons, imprisoned comrades are taking action to defend themselves and rise up aginst the brutality of the prison enslavement system.

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Slavery.

      Sorry a bit late for this one, but still time if your enthusiastic enough.

Thomas Muir of Huntershill On Slavery: A Rediscovered Legal Thesis

26th November 2020
5pm to 5.45pm
An online lecture
Learn about Thomas Muir's thesis and views on slavery in the 3rd Annual Thomas Muir Lecture.
Led by Gerard Carruthers and Martyn Jones.

(Professor Gerard Carruthers)

Organised by 

About this event: 

      In recent years there have come to light an increasing number of writings by Thomas Muir of Huntershill (1765-99), notoriously transported to Botany Bay for sedition in 1793. Among these is Muir’s legal thesis on the topic of slavery written for admittance to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh in 1787 and which can be found in the holdings of the National Library of Scotland. This online talk asks how did Muir view the legality of slavery and how did his perspective on the topic relate to his political ideas, more generally?

Book tickets at

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thomas-muir-of-huntershill-on-slavery-a-rediscovered-legal-thesis-tickets-121714299747NEW GRAPHIC

 

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Covid19 Cages.

        As covid19 permeates through our communities like a toxic fog, and cries of loneliness and isolation increase among our communities, without minimising the suffering of those individuals, we should all spare a thought for those who by state dictate find themselves locked up in insanitary, overcrowded, conditions with inadequate medical facilities, over which they have no control what so ever. Prisoners across the world live in conditions that inhumane as normal, during this pandemic they seldom make the news but they are suffering from this covid19 disaster more than the public at large. In prison after prison the incarcerated have taken the only path left open to them, to riot, in an attempt to get some sort of protection from this virus that is ravishing prisons across the world.
        This report is from America, that extremely rich imperialist power that goes around the world bombing and decimating countries, while killing and maiming the populations to give them democracy. The American prison system is no more or less that slavery, a large profit making corporate controlled inhuman institution. The corona virus has added immensely to the suffering of that slave population. However, no country is blameless in this incarceration, dignity denying cruel procedure, we are all culpably, human dignity and true democracy are impossible while prisons exist. 

The following from Truthout:

                                        Lauren Walker / Truthout

By Ella Fassler, Truthout

        U.S jails and prisons, already death traps, have been completely ravaged by COVID-19. Crowded quarters, a lack of PPE, inadequate medical care, an aging population, and unsanitary conditions have contributed to an infection rate 5.5 times higher than the already ballooned average in the U.S. As of this writing, over 252,000 people in jails and prisons have been infected and at least 1,450 incarcerated people and officers have died from the novel coronavirus. Evidence suggests these figures are underreported, however. (The entire state of Wisconsin, for example, isn’t releasing any information to the public.)
     In response, incarcerated people have shown strong solidarity, coming together to demand baseline safety measures and advocating for their release, only to be met with brutal repression and punishment.
     According to a new report released by the archival group Perilous: A Chronicle of Prisoner Unrest on November 13, incarcerated people in the U.S. collectively organized at least 106 COVID-19 related rebellions from March 17 to June 15. Perilous, a volunteer collective project that tracks information on all prison uprisings, riots, protests, strikes and other unrest within carceral facilities, described this activity as “clearly one of the most massive waves of prisoner resistance in the past decade.”

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Sparrows.

         It is always sad when a comrade dies, an action fades, a gap appears and memories flood in, but soon the action resurges, the gap is filled and the memories are cherished, that's the nature of anarchism. This from The Sparrows Nest, an archive, like Spirit of Revolt collects store and digitises the history of anarchists, anarchism and libertarian socialists history and literature, and makes it easily and freely available on the internet. I have no doubt the Sparrows nest  will miss Chris, but will continue from strength to strength doing what they do with a passion. 

 Sparrows Nest <sparrowsnestlibrary@gmail.com>

To sparrownews

Hello,

      With great sadness do we report on the death of our dear friend and comrade Chris Richardson, committed Socialist, proud fighter for LGBTQ+ liberation, accomplished historian and author of A City of Light. Chris was also a very generous and active supporter of the Sparrows’ Nest, and e.g. helped to compile our collections of local LGBTQ+ papers.

He is greatly missed.

       Please find his obituary on the website of People’s Histreh, and attached to this email.

       Chris’ life and legacy will not be forgotten anytime soon. Not only do so many people cherish vivid memories of him, he also left a rich trove of published and unpublished records. He is exactly the kind of person future students of history will stumble upon long after we have all gone too, just as he rediscovered so many amazing people and captured echoes of their lives and struggles. We will work to make those future historians’ work easier, and hope you can help them too.

        If you want to share any documents, photographs, audio andl/or visual records and not least your personal stories of Chris, please contact: info@thesparrowsnest.org.uk

       In light of the Covid-19 crisis, Chris’ partner Richard McCance and several close friends have decided to hold an event celebrating Chris’ life at a time when people can get together again without undue risk.

      If you wish to take part in the preparations or to be kept up to date with those plans, please contact: info@thesparrowsnest.org.uk

Thank you and stay safe

A Sparrow

Sparrows Nest <sparrowsnestlibrary@gmail.com>
to sparrownews

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

Forest Fires.

       So many injustices, so many inequalities, causing so many mass protests, like forest fires across the globe, perhaps the spark of one will leap across and ignite another area and our world will be ablaze with passion, burning all those injustices turning to ashes all those inequalities. Certainly we will never see a planet at peace as long as we allow to exist an economic system that spawns inequality, injustice and poverty for the many while lavishing pampered privilege on the few.

THE MURMUR OF THE POOR.

Brokers, bankers, Earls and Dukes,
callous, mercenary, pirate crew
gasconading through the land
bloated, pampered, privileged few.

Striding with selfish arrogance
plundering as you go
grasping at the fruits
the common people sow.

Take heed, you swaggering fat-cats,
in our world you don’t belong,
that murmur you hear is the poor
rehearsing an angry song.

The day is fast approaching
when our chorus loud you’ll hear,
then all your greed and treachery
will surely cost you dear.

A price you’ll pay for being blind
to the hungry at your door,
oh, haste the day our angry chorus
becomes a mighty roar. 

       At least 30 protesters were detained during big pro-democracy demonstrations in Peru, with multiple reports of heavy-handed treatment of largely peaceful attendees. The health ministry reported two protesters were killed and more than 30 people were being treated for injuries on Saturday after nearly a week of unrest over the controversial removal of Martín Vizcarra as president.
      Vizcarra's replacement by a de facto government is seen by many Peruvians as a coup and people have demanded the resignation of Manuel Merino, the former speaker of congress who was sworn in as president on Tuesday
Peru's president Martín Vizcarra ousted in impeachment vote
Two killed as huge pro-democracy protests continue in Peru

And:

       Thousands of protesters rallied for a second day in Bangkok to condemn police use of teargas and chemical-laced water cannon jets against them. Demonstrators gathered outside the national police headquarters, hurling blue and yellow paint and spraying graffiti fiercely critical of the country's king. More than 50 people were injured during the violent clashes with police earlier in the week sparking calls for changes to the constitution, reform of the monarchy and the removal of the prime minister

• Thai PM threatens to use 'all laws' against pro-democracy protesters

And:

         A black man has died after being beaten by supermarket security guards in the city of Porto Alegre on the eve of Black Consciousness Day. Videos of the incident circulated on social media and have sparked outrage and protests across Brazil, with people entering Carrefour supermarkets and demanding justice for Freitas

Protests erupt in Brazil after black man dies after being beaten outside supermarket

And:

       Belarus police have arrested more than 200 people in the capital, Minsk, during the latest anti-government protests ignited by a disputed presidential election in August, human rights activists have said. Thousands took to the streets on Sunday, and police used stun grenades to disperse crowds, several Belarusian media outlets reported.

And:

        Thousands of people have staged the biggest protest yet against Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, with some setting fire to Congress, fuelled by anger over cuts in the 2021 budget as the country reels from back-to-back storms.

And:

         Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Paris on Saturday to protest a proposed new law that would criminalise the dissemination of images of police officers. Protesters gathered on the Esplanade of Human Rights at the Trocadéro, chanting "Liberty!" and carrying placards saying: "No to the police state".

And:

       Large crowds protested in Berlin against the German government's push to enshrine coronavirus restrictions into an existing law. Police intervened as the crowds sought to approach the parliament.

And:

         Tens of thousands of people marched through Australian cities and towns for Black Lives Matter protests on Saturday, defying an attempt from the police to ban one demonstration through the courts and despite pleas from the prime minister and state leaders for people to stay home.

And:

        Over 3,000 primary school teachers clashed with police in the second week of protests over hiring reforms. Teachers in Athens demonstrated on Monday against government plans to change the hiring system for the public sector. Protesters held banners that read: "Permanent hirings now!"

And and and and and ---

 

 

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

I Am--.

 

       It is difficult to find a patch on this plundered planet where the general public are not in open protest against the privileged parasites that hold the reins of power. Poverty, injustice, inequality, deprivation, exploitation, homelessness and wars, scar the face of our planet and we the general public carry that burden on our backs, but the righteous anger of the ordinary people is rising on a dally basis and rightly so. Bubbling below the surface for many years with periodic explosions, that anger is now becoming open and common place. Those who take to the streets to right these scars of inhumanity that burden the ordinary people, must have our solidarity and support, this struggle is the struggle of all the people for the benefit of all our people.

I AM THE CROWD.

I am the crowd
I swim in the quagmire of poverty
its hooks, its barbs, tear my flesh
rupture my dreams,
I hold my breath for centuries
hoping to break through, gasp pure air.
Through the murky mire
I see bright things, shiny things, sparkle
I see women in fine dresses, men in silk shirts.
I ask myself,
why do I swim in this cesspool?
I want the light and warmth of rectitude
to caress my labouring body,
seeds of my dreams to bloom
like wild flowers in a meadow.
One day, I will use my boundless strength
to haul this torn, battered being
out of the morass
onto the warm grassy bank,
when I do;
woe betide you, women in fine dresses
woe betide you mister in your fine silk shirt
should you ever try to get in my way,
for I am the strength of the world,
I am the crowd.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

 

       Anarchists have always stood up against tyranny and dictatorship. Regardless of the color of the flag, raised by authoritarianism over this or that corner of the planet. So it is not surprising that anarchists are actively involved in the uprising against the dictator Lukashenko in Belarus. From the very first days, with our determination and uncompromising attitude, we showed that anarchism is a revolutionary movement capable of changing the world!
       During the uprising, many of our comrades ended up in prison. Now at least 10 anarchists and antifascists are serving administrative arrests. In addition, 10 anarchists and 4 anti-fascists are waiting for criminal courts, punishment for some of them reaches 20 years in prison.
       We call on you to join the week of solidarity and show by action your support for revolutionary anarchists and antifascists fighting against the occupation regime of Lukashenko! Every action counts!
      Send reports on the actions and activities to the post email of ABC-Belarus belarus_abc@riseup.net.
      Financial support can be send through ABC-Belarus (https://abc-belarus.org/?p=13136) or crowdfunding campaign (https://www.firefund.net/belarus).
Details of political affairs
     Since the beginning of the protest about 40 of our comrades have been detained and sentenced on administrative cases. Some of them later became defendants in criminal cases. Without waiting for their arrest, they decided to leave Belarus. Many activists are now forced to hide from persecution in Belarus and abroad.
The case of anti-fascists “MTZ-RIPO”
      Anti-fascists Vitaliy Shishlov, Tamaz Pipiya, Timur Pipiya and Denis Boltut were arrested after protests against Lukashenko’s secret inauguration in October this year. About 5 thousand people took part in protests throughout Minsk. Minor clashes with rioters took place in some parts of the city. According to the investigation, anti-fascists took part in them. Moreover, two of them were also charged with organizing mass riots. All anti-fascists are now waiting for trial in the pre-trial detention center.
The case of the Belarusian anarcho-partisans
      On October 22 in Soligorsk administrative building of State committee of forensic examination was attacked and cars were set on fire at the parking of prosecutor’s office of Soligorsk district. On the night of October 28 a building of traffic police department of Mozyrsky district was set on fire. Soon anarchists Ihar Alinevich, Dzmitry Dubovsky, Dzmitry Rezanovich and Sergey Romanov were detained on the territory of Belarus near the Ukrainian border.
The activists are accused of terrorist activity and illegal trafficking in weapons and explosives. At present, everyone is in the KGB jail in Minsk.
The case of Mikalai Dziadok
Anarchist and blogger Mikalai Dziadok was detained late in the evening of November 11 in a safe house near Minsk. After his arrest Dedok was beaten for several hours and forced to give passwords to the encrypted equipment.
The investigation believes that Dziadok repeatedly called for illegal actions on his Internet pages, including participation in protests and resistance to the cops. Dziadok himself was forced to go underground even before the revolution because of the threat of political persecution.
The case of Igor Banzer
Anarchist, antifascist and musician Igor Banzer was detained on October 20 in Grodno. He was charged under part 1 of article 339 (hooliganism) for performance in front of a cop car. Before that, he had been repeatedly detained at protest actions.
Akihiro Khanada-Gaevsky, Alexander Franzkevich, Maria Rabkova, Andrei Chepiuk, and Ivan Krasovsky were also detained for organizing, participating in, and financing mass riots. You can learn more about them on our website: https://abc-belarus.org/?paged=3&cat=3

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Screw You.

        So now the wee hints are being dropped, with the Chancellor stating that hard times are ahead, suggesting a freeze on public sector wages, the inevitable cut to services and an increase in taxes, he did however, say that there would be no return to "austerity". Though in my book if it looks like austerity, smells like austerity and hurts the general public like austerity, then it is austerity. Having handed the large corporations and their business buddies, billions of pounds in handouts, and handed out lucrative health related contracts to non-health business pals, they now turn round and tell you and I, that we are the ones who will have to pay back all that money to the money lenders of the financial Mafia, apparently it is "our" debt. You have to hand it to them for their blatant two fingers to the public, while announcing these pictures of a brutal future of wage freezes, increase taxes for us, he has just announced the largest increase in military spending since the cold war. They know whose side their on, do we?

      Their sacred economy is all that matters, big business corporations must be rescued and protected come what may, as for small businesses, they can go to hell in a handcart and the public can go with them. Welcome to state/corporate fascism.

Thanks Loam for the link: Sick Britain's Orwellian Dystopia.

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

Facts?

     I get confused with the info that keeps coming out about the covid19 pandemic, so many graphs, figures and opinions. We here in the UK are being told that our government is handling the pandemic as best as possible, "following the science", then we get the dreadful state of America with the Trump gang not bothering too much about the pandemic. We hear of the dreadful statistics coming out of that patch on the planet. However, a look at some of the statistics and I sort of gasped, as for deaths per million of population we are doing worse than America. Unless I'm reading the data wrong, this is an indictment of the gross negligence, lying and criminality  of our Boris brigade. The data also points to the disturbing fact that Europe, as a whole, is doing worse than America as far as deaths per million of population.

Data from Statista:

 

        To those who still refer to it as some kind of flu, comparing these deaths with the range of flu deaths according to World Health Organisation figures, Covid19 vastly dwarfs flu figures.

       The WHO estimates that between 290,000 and 650,000 respiratory deaths globally each year are associated with seasonal influenza.
       At the time of writing this article in March, Public Health England told Full Fact it estimated that on average 17,000 people have died from the flu in England annually between 2014/15 and 2018/19 - with the yearly deaths varying widely from a high of 28,330 in 2014/15 to a low of 1,692 in 2018/19.

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Remember.

      Two dates that are enshrined in the minds of the people of Greece, one is the 1973 student uprising that preceded the overthrow of the Greek Military Junta, and the more recent brutal event on December 6th 2008 when 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos while out in Exarcheia having a coffee with with his friend, was shot by a Greek police officer, he died on the street in the arms of his 15 year friend Nikos Ramanos. Both these dates are marked by mass gatherings in Greece. Just prior to these events, the Greek government introduce a ban on gatherings of more than 3 people. The following report, shows some of the response by the people to this dictatorial measure. 

 

15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos, 15 year victim of police murder.

 

Nikos Romanos being arrested some years after the police murder of his friend Alexis.
 

 

 

The following report was lifted from Anarchist-Communism site

Stratos Moraitis shared a link.

[Video] Riot in Athens
        The Orwellian ban on gatherings of more than 3 people leads to riots all over Greece.
       17 November 2020: On the day commemorating the bloodied student revolt against the dictatorship back in 1973, this is how the right-wing government in Greece honored the dead of the fascist regime. By banning all gatherings of more than 3 people, something that has happened in Greece for the first time in its modern history, on the 21 April 1967 when there was a fascist military coup d'état and on 17 November 1973 during a student revolt against the military junta of that same regime.
       The banning of public gatherings of more than 3 people on that particular day, (and on the 6th of December on the day commemorating the revolt that occurred back in 2008 following the murder of a 15 years old by a cop at Exarcheia in Athens), during the 9 months of the pandemic awoke memories of a fascist regime creating an incomprehensible precedent of banning protests. It is obvious to the people that the banning of public gatherings was imposed with one and only aim. To ban protests. While for 9 months since the pandemic other places around the world were preparing for the 2nd more dangerous and lethal wave of the pandemic, by strengthening their public health systems, hiring more doctors and nurses, setting up new hospitals and Intensive Care Units, the neoliberal right-wing government in Greece chose to hire thousands of policemen (true fact) and to provide the Mass Media with free money to promote the government’s propaganda. Hiring cops instead of doctors and nurses during a deadly pandemic! Imagine that!
      Faced with the complete incompetence of the greek government to handle the pandemic and a direct attack on people’s rights, many all over Greece defied the banning of public gatherings and symbolically took to the streets taking all health precautions, to protest, wearing masks and keeping distances (as it can be clearly seen in the video). These people were not anti maskers or anything of that sort. The essence of anarchism and communism is based on the notion that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
      And then the greek government and the police showed their true face. As it can be seen in the video, while all health precautions were being taken by the protesters, scores of policemen ruthlessly launched an attack with batons, flash-bang grenades, asphyxiating gas, water cannons and dozens of police bikers chasing protesters for many kilometres. The idiotic paradox of power. They injured and asphyxiated people to protect their health!
       Similar scenes like in the video above, (shot by @kinimatini on Twitter) took place all over Athens and other greek cities and towns. And yet in an Orwellian new life, as it is now being formulated by those power, people still managed to break the wall of fear being built around their lives, and take back the streets to show that this is going to be a long battle.

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Savage State.

      We can never give enough publicity to the real conditions in prisons across the world, there can be no civilised method of imprisoning people, the whole idea of incarceration of humans is inhumane and a barbaric aspect of a degraded human mind.  Added to the sadistic process of locking people up in cages, is the brutal arbitrary violence, gross overcrowding and total lack of human duty of care, lack necessary facilities, and inadequate medical treatment, even more so during this pandemic.

    Of course the state and its mouthpieces will always paint the opposite picture, first demonising the individuals that happen to get sucked into their loaded judicial system and end up incarcerate in these cages of repression. Secondly, they will put out propaganda trying to create the illusion that life in their cages is one of ease, comfort, with modern facilities and due care of prisoners, and lots of programs to make those unfortunate individuals, "better people". We are also fed, via the media a series of "entertainment" programs showing prisons as places of calm and camaraderie between prisons and their cage keepers, citadels of of dialogue and compassion, the old UK program of "Porridge" springs to mind. We have to keep shouting the truth about these inhumane cages and the true reason for their existence, they are there to protect the powerful and wealthy privileged parasites, who hold the reins of power in this economic system, and control all aspects of our lives. Prisons must be crushed and the parasite class abolished before human dignity can flourish.

 

 

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

Greece :A letter from Polykarpos Georgiadis about the situation in the Greek prisons
         In recent months the far right neoliberal government has launched a tempest of propaganda on prisons through the controlled media aimed at creating a deformed narrative on the prison situation, thereby favouring a methodical abolition of the rights conquered with the blood of the prisoners themselves. These are not rights conferred by some merciful government but conquests that were won through hard struggles, revolts, torture, hunger strikes, privations.
        In this propaganda campaign, the prisons are being presented almost as places of rest and leisure, with luxury cells and services, in the same way that the junta of the colonels presented the places of confinement. They were ridiculous to the point that they even indicated kettles, small speakers, USBs with music and films, etc. as luxury articles. But instead of calling up the various chiefs of the prison guards such as Aravantinos and the various robocops, who give a false image of prisons, journalists should make the effort to go into the prison wings themselves to see the real conditions of life in person. Of course the image shown by the media is distorted and misleading. The reality is completely different. Thousands of people are literally crammed up in disgusting buildings, in inhuman shameful conditions of detention. Obviously, this is nothing new for Greek prisons. However, in the current conditions of pandemic the situation is even more dreadful. Not only are the conditions of detention still deplorable, but no substantial health measures have been adopted to protect the health of prisoners, who continue to be piled into cells that are becoming the antechambers of coffins. The prisons are filling up each day more and more and are on the verge of collapse, at the same time as the government – through the ever-available media – are publicizing a “spectacular fall in criminal delinquency”.
        How do you explain this paradox: reducing criminality and filling up the prisons. And this is happening in Greece, whereas even authoritarian regimes have decongested their prisons, releasing thousands of prisoners. At the same time the government is making a fool of prisoners by publishing COVID-19 instructions and advising them not to have gatherings! In the Greek prisons, instead of adopting basic health measures, the ministry of public order prefers prohibitions and the imposition of repressive measures that make prisoners’ lives even more difficult. All permits have been cancelled, visits with third parties abolished and days for closed visits have been reduced instead of increasing them to avoid crowding of relatives and friends in waiting areas. The example of Corfu’s jails is absolutely indicative. Instead of taking health measures, the authorities preferred to block prisoners, sentencing them to death while waiting for EODY [national organization of prevention and public health] to wake up after a week and proceed with prescribed tests.
       This policy is obviously murderous and some have chosen the role of hangman for themselves. In the face of these destructive and inhuman conditions it is necessary, inside and outside the prison hells, to develop a wide movement of solidarity that demands the immediate decongestion of prisons, the provision of dignified conditions of life, and medical care as well as visits by doctors to check (and not the Ministry of Public Order) measures taken to protect the prisoners’ health, doing mass testing, the free administration of antiseptics and face masks, the immediate lifting of repressive measures and their replacement with aequate health measures against the pandemic.
       P.S. 1. Shortly before publication of this text, new repressive measures were announced by the ministry, clearly revealing the inhumanity and depravation of its leader, M. Chrysochoidis. So, all visits have been cancelled indefinitely, thus intensifying the social and family isolation of prisoners; all transfers to hospitals for health reasons have been suspended, thus endangering the very lives of prisoners and, finally, all educational services and therapeutic activities have been stopped. The only certainty is that they want us dead. But, you reap what you sow – who sows wind reaps a tempest.
        P.S. 2. I send my solidarity to comrade Costas Sakkas who started a hunger strike on 9th November demanding his transfer to Korydallos for reasons of study.
Polykarpos Georgiadis
Prison of Larissa

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