Incompatible.

          It is now becoming ever more obvious that the system is falling apart, for generations we have been subject to our rulers rampant aggression and utter contempt, yet the populace at large, continued to hold onto that mythical thought of some sort of alliance between rulers and ruled. Now the truth is so blatantly obvious that this myth has evaporated, leaving bare the true nature of this incompatible relationship. The powerful rulers of society are aware of this now complete disconnect between ruled and ruler, aware that the illusion no longer holds, and the populace see the glaring truth. This makes them extremely dangerous, if they can’t hold onto their power by smoke and mirrors, by weaving illusions, then they will try to do so by force, we must prepare for this inevitability. The disconnect between ruled and ruler is now complete, the glaring inequality and disparity inherent in the system shows that their reality and ours is completely incompatible. 

        We the public can no longer march to their tune, no longer pick up the sword to defend their wealth, no longer shed our blood in their petty power struggles, no longer sweat our lives away cementing their privileged position. Across the globe people are showing that they have finally grasped this irrefutable truth, open rebellion is in the air. The attempted containment will become more brutal, ever increasing restrictions, ever greater surveillance, ever greater punishments for dissent. We organise in solidarity and face it full on, or we revert to that illusion that there is compatibility between rich and powerful rulers and the ruled and once again accept our serfdom, in a tighter and more frightening new world order.

 

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Black Square.

     Lifted this from ANARCHISM on Facebook

★ I am an anarchist in my very own essence ★

Kasimir Malevich.

       "In 1913, trying desperately to liberate art from the ballast of the representational world, I sought refuge in the form of the black square."
Revolutionary anarchist artist and founder of the Suprematist movement, Kasimir Malevich (Казимир Северинович Малевич) was born on Feb. 11, 1878, in Kiev. He is credited with having painted the first geometric, totally nonrepresentational picture.
He was a regular contributor to Anarkhiia, under the pen name Anti - a Russian weekly, then daily newspaper published by the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups.
It was first launched in September 1917, but was suspended in the confusion arising over the Bolshevik seizure of power. It reappeared in March 1918 as a daily newspaper. The last issue, the 99th, was published on 2 July 1918.
The paper had a section devoted to Tvorchestvo or "creativity". It featured many prominent Russian avant-garde artists such Aleksei Gan, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Aleksei Morgunov, Ivan Kliun, Olga Rozanova and Nadezhda Udaltsova.
      The Revolution of the Black Square: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lozgR-z2Sck...
Malevich's Black Square: Symbol of Russian Anarchism: https://nulluslocussinegenio.com/.../malevichs-black.../
The Aesthetics of Anarchy : Art and Ideology in the Early Russian Avant-Garde by Nina Gourianova [Book review]: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/83bm3h

 

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An Appeal.

       States act with impunity when handing out brutality and do so with the greatest force when it come to those who would dare to demand a change to this authoritarian system that has locked humanity in its grip. A system built on exploitation, by the powerful and privileged, a system that demands submission from the population. Of course they talk of checks and balances on the use of power, however that is always backed up by pieces of paper they have written in their favour, then stamped with their little symbols that is meant to give it legitimacy, therefore binding and can be enforced by what ever force they deem necessary. To appeal to those among the wealthy and privileged to give up some of those privileges and spread that wealth more evenly, is naivety in extreme.
        The Greek state is ahead of the game in Europe, when it comes to trying to crush dissent, though not by much, most states are walking the same path, all at their own pace.
       The following two articles apply to the Greek state, but similarities will be found across the globe.

          At the end of last December the Greek government approved a reform of the national penitentiary system that, in addition to other measures that worsen prison conditions, establishes that those convicted of terrorism cannot access “rural prisons”, more “open” institutions to which long-term prisoners have access. The approval of this law has led to the immediate transfer of political prisoner Dimitri Koufontinas from the rural prison of Kassevitia.
       Dimitri is a comrade convicted for participating in the revolutionary organization 17 November, in prison since 2002. The new set of laws stipulates that inmates in rural prisons are reclassified and then transferred to the last prison they were in. In Dimitri’s case it should have been the Athenian prison of Koridallos. However, the prison administration decided to transfer him, manipulating the transfer papers, to Domokos prison. Although there are no differentiated circuits in Greece, in recent years, the prison administration has turned Domokos into a “hard” prison.
       Such a punitive transfer is aimed at striking a comrade who has always struggled: as a free man, in courtrooms, in prison. Since his capture he has participated in numerous protests and has been on four hunger strikes. This repressive manoeuvre is not only aimed at annihilating Dimitri Koufontinas but also forms part of the Greek’s state repressive project: crushing the most radical and combative parts of society to
avoid the hypothesis of future and general conflicts.
       Faced with the transfer, Dimitri Koufontinas decided to strive once again, using his body as a weapon and last resort. Since 8 January he has begun a hunger strike which will continue indefinitely until he is transferred to Koridallos prison. As the strike continues, the comrade is in a critical and precarious condition in Lamia hospital: according to the doctors he could collapse at any moment. During the strike there were many initiatives and solidarity actions throughout Greece and beyond:
protests, demos, wall writings, banners, attacks against multiple objectives (politicians, banks, post offices, etc.). But time is running out and now we think extra efforts are needed. Dimitri’s struggle is also the struggle of each of us.
        The creation and expansion of international ties is as crucial as ever so we are calling for an INTERNATIONAL day of solidarity and action on FRIDAY 12 FEBRUARY to support Dimitri Koufontinas.

THE DEMAND OF HUNGER STRIKE MUST BE IMMEDIATELY ACCEPTED
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON

Athens, 7 February 2021
Solidarity Assembly with Dimitri Koufontinas

And regarding the same case of repression:

           On Monday, February 1/2021 the ′′ Solidarity Assembly with the hunger striker D. Koufontinas ′′ intervened with the participation of dozens of comrades at the Athens Bar Association (solicitors general offices union).
      The intervention included hanging a massive banner on the building and gathering in front of the Board of Directors offices with banners, On Monday, February 1/2021 the ′′ Solidarity Assembly with the hunger striker D. Koufontinas intervened with the participation of dozens of comrades at the Athens Bar Association (solicitors general offices union).The intervention included hanging a massive banner on the building and gathering in front of the Board of Directors offices with banners, texts, flyers, and slogans. At the same time, they handed out texts on all floors of the building to the workers and lawyers who were there. Comrades involved in the intervention then left shouting slogans in Academias Street. 

THEY WANT HIM DEAD, LET’S NOT ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN
VICTORY TO THE STRUGGLE OF D. KOUFONTINAS
Solidarity Assembly with hunger striker D. Koufontinas
THEY WANT HIM DEAD, LET’S NOT ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN
VICTORY TO THE STRUGGLE OF D. KOUFONTINAS
Solidarity Assembly with hunger striker D. Koufontinas

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2,000 Dead!!

          Time and time again this pandemic is seen to have been handled by our political ballerinas, lead by bubbling Boris as an economic crisis. Their shut, open shut again, half open and half shut, was obviously driven my thoughts of their corporate friends and a desire to see that they didn't lose too much money. Health and safety of workers was away down the scale. Only when it was seen to be getting out of control did they come up with another prolonged lockdown. However even in these circumstances they still wanted to keep some business earning, so construction was allowed to continuing working as the number of case spiked. 

        The result being that it has meant that those working in the construction industry had to pay a heavy price for this economic decision. According to the Office of National Statistics, the number of construction workers who have died from Covid19 between March 9th, 2020, and December 28th, 2020, is over 2,000. This figure doesn't take into account all the ancillary staff, security guards, delivery personnel, cleaners etc. Nor does it take into account how many of the construction workers' family and friends fell fowl of this disease because of this government's cavalier attitude to the health and welfare of workers.
        Surely this and all the other bungling decisions made with one and half eyes on the economic and half an eye on the medical during this pandemic is a case that must be brought into the open, and justice brought to all those who died unnecessarily through government bungle ineptitude and economic greed. There must be a reckoning or we insult those and their families who died unnecessarily. 

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Back Door.

        Lots of large companies are rubbing their hands with glee and taking this pandemic as a wonderful milk-cow. During the pandemic, millions of pounds of tax payers money has been handed to friends and buddies of the Tory Party, in the form of contracts, without any tendering or public scrutiny, and some have made a right dogs dinner of that contract, but of course held onto the money. Of course it is not just the Bumbling Boris brigade that are guilty of this throwing tax payers money at companies without as much as tendering process or a wee squint of public scrutiny, why here in Bonnie Scotland the same rather dodgy process is alive and well. The recent contract to KMPG being one that we are are aware of, another little slice of the NHS moved into private hands, without the public getting a sniff of the process.

the following extract from Consultancy UK 

       Scotland's health service has awarded a contract worth more than £2 million to Big Four professional services firm KPMG for "management and advisory services" on the nation’s coronavirus vaccine programme.
       According to reports in the Scottish press, three months before the first vaccinations began in Scotland, a contract for "extended flu and Covid vaccination programme management and advisory services" was handed out to KPMG. The deal, worth a total of £2.32 million, was given to the advisory and accounting firm without any other competing bids in September, with the Government citing the "extreme urgency" of the vaccination programme.
       A contract award notice published at the start of 2021 added that the Government’s justification for directly awarding the contract on behalf of NHS Scotland was due to "unforeseeable" events. Statements from the Governments since defended the process, which it said are standard practice in the current pandemic.

      Slice by slice, our NHS is being handed to private companies, sooner or later they will be the ones that call the shots on what kind of care you get and what it will cost you. That is if we allow this back door entrance to big business to continue.

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Eagle Stew.

        The babble and furore of what happened on January 6th in America has now more or less disappeared from the media, no longer able to create sensationalism from that event so it slides down the scale. Of course it is not forgotten by the powers that be, they will milk it for all it's worth to tighten security, ever greater surveillance, passing ever tighter legislation, to clamp down on any form of protest, putting all protests under the umbrella of "domestic terrorism".  We should have no illusions, the establishment in the U$A and here, as elsewhere, is fascist in intent, but wears the cloak of liberalism. This steady march to fascism will not stop, either it will result in a total submissive population, bound to the rigid rules of corporate greed, or it will come to an end when the people finally stand up and grab freedom and justice for all, bringing an end to the whole corporate/state system of greed and exploitation. 

Lots of interesting videos on Kolektiva HERE: 

The latest episode of  System Fail:

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My Friend Joe.

        Friendship is a strange thing, while living it you never think of missing it, it's something that is there on tap, and as they say, "You never miss the water until the well runs dry". More than 40 years of friendship with the last 16 or so years meeting once a week in some pub for a soup, coffee and a good old blether, where nothing was off the agenda. Everything from natural disasters to the latest medical advances, some weird recipe to political corruption, wild life to music, it didn't matter, we always had something to say about it. Joe's stories from his very varied and at times very hard life, were material for a multitude of movies and books, some tragic and other hilarious, sadly they were never recorded. Even yet, things come into my mind, and I think "Oh, I must tell Joe about that", but of course I can't. Joe died from prostrate cancer February 7th 2019, and it left a very large hole in my life. Like some old mine shaft that just can't be filled. Joe, a well known folk singer, but that was just a fragment of the man.

Friendship.

True friendship has many things
anger, annoyance, even squabbles,
there are times, now and again
it falters, wavers, even wobbles
but sure as fate, up it gets
with a smile on it hobbles:
with it comes comfort, warmth, love,
laughter at its foibles.
the longer it lasts the stronger it gets,
any flaw it finds it cobbles.

         This was filmed in his sister's home, a couple of weeks before Joe died, he moved to his sister house as he could no longer make the stairs of his own flat.

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Gaolers

 

 

      It is a thought that has always puzzled me, why does somebody want to become a prison guard, a gaoler of other humans. It seems the most deranged or deluded mind that would wish to earn their living by locking up individuals in cages. I know a lot of us take shit jobs for survival, but surely a spark of humanity in anybody would make them draw back from earning their living by treating members of their community like animals or worse. However history teaches us different, there are those people who for whatever reason will pick up the baton and the gaolers keys, we have still a long way to go before we can call ourselves a civilised species. However, I think it is right and proper that we make our opinions known regards those who would choose to earn their living as the state's skivvy and become a gaoler of people.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

      We receive and spread:
       The national recruiting competition for the selection of prison guards took place on13th January in Paris, and the walls of the Parc des Expos exhibition centre and the Porte de Versailles metro station served for us to blow our top.
What can make a person lock up another up by force, deprive them of their freedom, personal initiative, identity, responsibility and loves? The lure of gain, no matter how derisory? Blind infinite obedience to an omnipotent authority that orders them “do this for me”? Sadistic delusion masquerading as benevolence, telling oneself “I’ll do it better than anyone else”? A torturer’s dubious ambition? Pressure from the job centre adviser?
      All these reasons disgust us, that’s why we made sure to organize a welcoming committee from the bottom of our hearts for all the adrift and human crap who turned up to the recruitment competition for prison guards on 13th January 2021, 12:30, at Parc des Expos and Porte de Versailles, Paris. The walls of the exhibition park along the route of Tram 1 and those of the metro station corridors served for us to blow our top and were copiously covered in what we think of people who spend three hours competing to become jailers, as well as the world they defend:
Against confinement revolts and freedom
Fire to the prisons
Here we recruit prison guards
Rather unemployed than screw
Screw, watch out
Rather do nothing than be a torturer
Screw, choke on your exam certificate
Fire to the jails and your cars
ACAB
      In the hope that they give up, or at least have some nightmares, but also because we will not passively let individuals become lockers-up. There is no such thing as a “kind screw” a “nice prison guard” or a “caring jailer”. The screws who’d have you believe they are there to help you back into society or to get through your sentence, are and remain the people who lock you up, who have chosen what side they are on: that of authority, oppression, control, prison, the State. Everything we hate.
       Let’s not forget that competitive exams are often run to hire the various servants of power, all of whom deserve our contempt. By the way, the next session of this exam will take place in March.
A word to the wise…
        P.S.: to have an idea of what this exam is: DesDetenus

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Bad News.

     Episode 42 from Bad News via Anarchist Radio Network.

         Welcome to the 42nd edition of B(A)D News: Angry Voices from Around the World, a commonly produced monthly show of the anarchist and anti-authoritarian radio network, on this occasion composed by A-Radio Berlin, an anarchist podcast from Germany.
In this episode we will hear contributions from:
     1) Crna Luknja – An urgent Call for Solidarity with evicted Squat ROG in Ljubljana
      2) Free social radio 1431AM – Report on the Solidarity Fund for imprisoned Revolutionaries in Greece and the Situation of Long Time Prisoner Dimitris Koufontinas who is in an ongoing hunger strike
     3) Announcement for the upcoming A Radio Network Live Show at Saturday 13 th of Februar from 14:00 – 20:00 (CET)
     4) Elephant in the Room – an anarchist estimation of the current situation in Russia and the Protests around the trial against right-wing liberal Nawalny
     5) A Radio Berlin – with a short piece and a quote highlighting anarchist Thinker and Revolutionary Piotr Kropotkin who died 100 years ago

Total length of the show: 39 min
Audio Player

00:00

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. 

You can download it directly from archive.org here:

Bad News Episode 42 2021 01 EN

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Thieving Bosses.

       So Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, steps down from his cushy job of CEO of Amazon. I doubt if he will have any money worries stepping down from his extremely lucrative little number. It could be mere coincidence that he steps down as Amazon is found guilt of stealing more than $61 million from its workers, it seems that the company simple pocketed all those millions of dollars given by the public as tips for the workers. We know that all large corporation exploit their works to varying degrees, but this one surely takes the biscuit. Of course the media are never too hard on large corporations when they are caught blatantly pilfering their workers money, after all they are dependent on, owned by, and are the mouthpiece of, the corporate world, so we expect this usual whitewashing of their corporate bosses.

    However the point that I would like to make is that the company has been fined, well and good, but the decision of what to do with that money as it came in was made by one or more individuals at the top of the tree. They have names, they as individuals should be held to account for what was obvious theft and corruption, when do we see them brought to account? The anonymous company leaves those individuals sitting pretty, and able to carry on their devious deceptive corrupt endeavours. Actions always have names and faces.
       The following is an extract from Mint Press News, describing how the media reported this blatant stealing of workers money,

       Even worse, many more framed the news as a mere allegation, despite the fact that the FTC had made a formal ruling. Forbes, for instance, led with the headline “Amazon Will Pay $61.7 Million Settlement After Allegedly Withholding Tips From Delivery Drivers.” Others (Daily Caller, Daily Mail) did the same. Meanwhile, in a tweet on the news, Vox claimed that (emphasis added) “Amazon will pay $61.7 million in a settlement over allegations that the company used customer tips to subsidize the hourly wages of some delivery drivers.” Thus, the fact that Amazon had been caught stealing was watered down into a claim that it was merely “subsidizing” “some” of its employees’ wages.
     Perhaps the worst offender was business and tech news site ZDNet, whose headline was “Amazon will pay $61.7 million to settle Flex driver tip dispute with FTC,” which obscured the matter into a foggy and very technical sounding financial dispute. Only a very small number of outlets, including Slate and The Huffington Post, echoed the FTC’s decision by using the word “stole” in their headlines. 

Read the full article HERE:

 

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Vindictive Minions.

       Those who manage the prison system for their wealthy powerful state masters, follow the state's dictate with a gay abandon, handing out vindictive actions on a daily bases, no doubt getting a feeling of satisfaction and a power rush, which encourages them to continue down that inhumane road.
      Once again, political prisoner, Eric King, has been at the receiving end of this savage brutality. Savage and brutal treatment doesn't need to be physical, there are a myriad of methods the prison managing minions can inflict this treatment on the prisoners. 

       The following from the Support Eric King Group.

 

        On January 5th, 2021, Eric was once again placed on a 6- month communication restriction in response to a New Year’s Eve noise demo that was held outside of FCI Englewood by various groups in Denver, a demo that happens every single year at prisons worldwide. After being accused of organizing the demo, the BOP finally admitted that they are aware that Eric had nothing to do with the noise demo. Despite this fact, the BOP North Central Regional office instructed Englewood to restrict Eric’s communication.
       Apparently, in the BOP prisoners will be held responsible for anything anyone may do. It is interesting though that in 2017 when the right-wing Bundy family attempted to force their way into the prison to visit a prisoner they stood in solidarity with, driving around the parking lot, evading guards, blasting music… there were no disciplinary actions or restrictions enforced on the prisoner. This must be another special BOP rule that only applies to anti-fascists.
         Eric can no longer correspond with anyone outside his family and lawyer. He is again cut off from communication from anyone that might offer him support and strength and solidarity during a global pandemic. He is again isolated from all contact with friends that matter deeply to him.
          If folks want to help, he can receive books. These can be a great distraction for him and all of the prisoners he passes them onto, especially during this next level federal lock-down.
Eric’s Booklist
       Donations to the bad ass lawfirm who has stepped up for him in a real way can be made, to help ensure they have the resources to continue to stand behind folks who are fighting oppression in real ways.
Donate to the Civil Liberties Defense Center

 

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Ocalan.

       We all know that Turkey is ruled by a ruthless dictator with visions of a new Ottoman Empire and he doesn't tolerate any form of opposition to that grand illusion. One of those who has suffered for years in one of Turkey's prisons is Abdullal Ocalan, arrested and imprisoned 1999, still languishes in the iron grasp of blood dripping Tayyip Erdogan.
        The following is an appeal for Abdullah Ocalan to be freed from the clutches of Tayyip Erdogan's prison.

Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan.

 Dear friend,
         Kidnapped in Kenya in 1999, Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan has been jailed in Turkey ever since. Öcalan is the Kurdish Mandela: The parallels are striking. As the one leader who possesses the confidence of the Kurdish people, and as the advocate of a peaceful solution, Öcalan is indispensable to resolving the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. But he cannot fulfil this role from prison, due to the onerous conditions and the extremely restricted communication — he is at present entirely cut off from the outside world. To end this isolation is the first, urgent step. And it needs your support.
         Millions have been rallying for his freedom for many years now. Between 2013 and 2015, over 10 million people worldwide signed the demand to free him and start serious peace negotiations. We need you to add your voice too!
        Please endorse the sign-on statement. If you have already endorsed the statement perhaps you can encourage others to do the same.
         The campaign now has its own website and campaign news and activities will be posted there. You can contact us at info@freedomforocalan.org.au.
In solidarity,

John Tully
Honorary Professor
Victoria University
(in a personal capacity)Dear

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Protection Gang

       I have often posted my view on the loaded judicial system that protects the wealthy and the privileged against those who would dare to point a finger at the corruption and injustice at the heart of this capitalist system. Of course it is world wide, the rich and power have set up system to protect themselves for any form of real criticism, the decisions of these judicial guardians of the wealthy, are actions that fly in the face of the flag they have the audacity to wave, that of democracy. Their democracy is a theatre of smoke and mirrors, a grand show of illusions, with suffering as its outcome.

       The following extract refers to Spain, but as I keep saying, the pattern is repeated across the globe.

The following is from arrezafe:

Thanks Loam for the translation.

Translation:

"Do you swear to tell the truth?"              "I'm sitting here saying it."

         While the international oligopolistic press sets its sights on the situation of Human Rights in countries such as Venezuela or Cuba, where there are no cases of systemic persecution of their opponents, and much less of artists who manifest critical positions in their art, in Spain there are two firm convictions against rappers who denounce with their lyrics uncomfortable truths, abuses of the system and flagrant privileges that are inadmissible in states that claim to be democratic. The case of rapper ValtónYc, currently convicted but exiled from his own country to evade a Justice without due guarantees, is one more case of political condemned who must escape from a highly degraded Spanish institutionality, with dangerous glimpses of the fascist abyss and against them. humanity. Valtónyc was assumed as a public danger for singing Rap with criticism of a corrupt monarchy, with shady businesses and a firm presumption of money laundering and relationships with financial circuits of drug trafficking, it has become a paradigmatic case of how the judicial system is at the service of the powerful. A Judicial Power always ready to cover up systemic deviations, and ready to violate essential freedoms such as free expression and rebellious or didactic artistic creation for the awareness of the masses. Precisely what the system does not support in order to continue to function with impunity for the privileged. it has become a paradigmatic case of how the judicial system is at the service of the powerful. A Judicial Power always ready to cover up systemic deviations, and ready to violate essential freedoms such as free expression and rebellious or didactic artistic creation for the awareness of the masses. Precisely what the system does not support in order to continue to function with impunity for the privileged. it has become a paradigmatic case of how the judicial system is at the service of the powerful. A Judicial Power always ready to cover up systemic deviations, and ready to violate essential freedoms such as free expression and rebellious or didactic artistic creation for the awareness of the masses. Precisely what the system does not support in order to continue to function with impunity for the privileged.

Read the full article HERE: 

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Gallus Glasgow.

        The Glasgow Keelie group are a bunch of beavers, each month they turn out a wee gem packed with information gained through a critical eye. Always well worth a read and always worth spreading around. So now Glasgow Keelie 15 is up there ready to be read and be enjoyed, have a look and let's know what you think, and of course spread the word.

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Smoke & Mirrors.

       As everybody who has been involved in trying to curtail the ravages of corporate capitalism knows, the judicial system is an institution to defend those plundering actions of the corporate world against any resistance from the public at large. The system always portrays these actions of protest against the corporate juggernaut's exploits, as polite lines of police officers facing baying crowds of savage destructive trouble makers, followed by the reluctant police having to use force against this dangerous baying mob. Of course on examination you find out that the baying mob are just ordinary people with a conscience, a little courage and who are prepare to make a stand to right some injustice.

      Examples abound, day and daily in the theatrical halls of this loaded judicial illusion, from country to country, it is part of the life blood of this system of capital dominance over the health and welfare of planet and people. 

The following example is from Lecce in Italy.

 

         In the bunker courtroom of the prison of Lecce in the morning of Friday, January 15, the prosecutor submitted requests for sentencing 90 No TAP accused, on trial for a number of episodes of struggle which took place between 2017 and 2018. The charges range from violence and resistance against public officials to breaching expulsion orders from Lecce and Melendugno, where the struggle against the gas multinational was most intense. In the first instance trial the sentences requested ranged from a minimum of 2 months to a maximum of 2 years and 3 months.
        During the hearing a comrade made a declaration concerning the charges against her, here is the text:
        In this trial I am accused of having repeatedly breached an order prohibiting me from being present in the territory of Lecce and Melendugno. Some policemen, in the role of witnesses, stated that I would have deliberately and in contempt of their job of observation, neglected to hide or change my appearance. The many photographs that portray me confirm this observation. In fact I always took part in the demonstrations and the various protests without caring about the prohibition and without concealing myself. And I often spoke out, as did many others, to repeat the reasons for those mobilizations, which have involved a great number of people over two years.
         I hope the gentlemen of the police station won’t mind, but I’d say the reasons that led me to the prohibited areas, risking the charges made against me here, were quite other than contempt for the digos of Lecce. I won’t expose these reasons in all their length and breadth, also because I think that a courtroom is the least suitable place for such a purpose. Suffice it to say that it is not by chance that the reasons I am referring to are all in the missing link of the statements given by the police here in the role of witnesses, statements that sketch a rather simplified, flat, let’s say bi-dimensional scenario where the police are facing a group of rioters against a backdrop of yards, gates, country roads, olive orchards. Instead, my reasons are all in the third dimension, that of the background. These are places that have suffered the indelible scar of an aberrant operation, the TAP gas pipeline. An operation imposed from above and always rejected by the inhabitants because it upturns delicate ecosystems, puts human health at risk, upsets the local economy. Ultimately, that work represents the voracity of transnational capital to which local communities are being forced to succumb. The impressive mobilization of men in uniform in defence of the TAP Consortium and against the opponents of the works showed everyone the State’s subjugation to those superior reasons. The militarization of a vast territory and the suspension of freedom of movement within it in contempt of the population, these yes, are only some of the reasons that convinced me to take part rather than desist, to go to the prohibited areas instead of complying with the prohibitions imposed on me. I thus decided to respond to my own personal ethical imperative, ignore the injunction of authority and be present in the prohibited places.
If anything, my only regret is effectively not having done enough.

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Hard Work!!

         In our type of Society, one of the illusions that the wealthy always try to perpetrate is that you get wealthy from working hard. The last thing they want you to understand is that most of the wealthy owe their wealthy position to a privileged background. Much better to keep the working class believing that they might make it big time, if they only work hard enough, and that wealth comes from sweat and not from inherited position and/or wealthy connections. How many wealthy people have you heard boasting of how hard it was for them, but because of their fortitude and hard work they won through in the end, omitting to mention any of the privileges that they may have had along the way.

 

 

A few experts in that field have had a wee look at this phenomenon in this interesting article from Sage Journals: 

Introduction

         In a Hawaiian resort four well-groomed men puffing on expensive cigars and resplendent in white dinner jackets settle down to a nice glass of Chateau de Chassilier. Thus starts Monty Python’s classic 1974 ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ sketch about a group of men reflecting on their ascent into Britain’s elite. But rather than an exercise in self-congratulation, it is soon clear that this is an exchange of childhood reminiscences – and one in which the stakes revolve around proving one’s purported proletarian origin rather than privileged destination. ‘We used to live in a tiny, tumble-down ’ouse with great ’oles in t’roof’, John Cleese tells us in a distinctly ropey Yorkshire accent. ‘’ouse!’, exclaims Graham Chapman in marginally improved dialect. ‘You were lucky to ’ave an ’ouse. We used to live in one room. All 26 of us.’ From here a ludicrous race to the bottom ensues, with boasted familial dwellings stretching from corridors to lakes to shoe boxes.

       The sketch may not be particularly funny (and indeed a forerunner for the now hackneyed comedy trope of the ‘Northerner’) but its enduring appeal with the British public (it has been repeated verbatim by multiple1 comedians since) lies in the fact that it continues to carry a pertinent thread of social commentary. For over 50 years, survey research has consistently demonstrated that Britons tend to identify subjectively as working class, even when – like the Four Yorkshiremen – this often contradicts their ‘objective’ class position (Heath et al., 2013; Savage, 2007). For example, the latest available data – the 2016 British Social Attitudes Survey – shows that 47% of those in ‘middle-class’ professional and managerial occupations identify as working class (Evans and Mellon, 2016).

Read the full article HERE:

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