Inhumanity.

     

            It appears from our media that the only violence in the world is taking place in Ukraine. Little or no mention of the fact that the streets of Sudan, have been since October 2021, the scene of state brutality against peaceful protesters. Since the October military coup in Sudan, 93 protestors have been killed, hundreds seriously injured, and more imprisoned by the military security forces, but still the people take to the streets to protest this military take over of their country, and the West, so called defenders of democracy, look the other way.
         I'm not for one minute suggesting that the Ukraine bloodshed is not important, but let's cover the violence across the globe that this insane system of state/corporate/military economics has produced. We are awash with violence from east to west, from north to south, but somehow our Western media seems to focus on one single spot of European violence, ignoring the thousands of lives that are being ended, maimed, destroyed and displaced across the planet on a daily basis. What makes the lives of Ukrainians more important than the lives of Palestinians, Iraqis, Libyans, Syrians, Afghans, Somalians, and the people of Yemen and Sudan to mention a few. Does our compassion and humanity only reach as far as the borders of the European military camp?

This from Enough is Enough:

          Sudan. The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors announced that one protestor was killed, and dozens were injured during the March of the Millions in Khartoum, on Thursday. Eisam Hasab al-Rasoul (23) was shot in the chest by the security forces, leaving the current number of protestors that have been killed at 93, since the October 25 military coup. 

                               Image above by Twitter account @HassanAhmedBerk.

Originally published by Dabanga.

        16 protestors were also reported to have been injured by gunfire, including a critical injury of a gunshot wound to the chest during the Burii demonstrations in eastern Khartoum, on Wednesday. Dozens more injuries occurred the next day, as peaceful protestors were fired upon by coup forces with live bullets, tear gas, and sound bombs, in an effort to disperse demonstrators headed towards the Presidential Palace.
        Protesters chanted slogans denouncing the October 25 military coup, calling on the army to return to their barracks, full civilian rule and retribution for those killed during the protests.
       Other cities in Sudan such as El Obeid, El Gedaref, Wad Madani, and Port Sudan also witnessed excessive violence during demonstrations condemning the coup, on Thursday. In El Gaderef, protestors faced tear gas and excessive beating with sticks and truncheons. Members of Sudan’s General Intelligence Service also arrested five activists in El Gedaref, three of whom were taken from inside the Gedaref Hospital. The five activists arrested in El Gedaref are Dr Muhamed Suleiman, lawyers Mutasim Osman and Hamam al-Rashed, Walid Abdallah and Moshen.

Northern Sudan

        16 activists of the Al-Hafir resistance committee were issued with a fine of SDG50,000 by the Dongola Court in Sudan’s Northern State, for their part in the protests at Sheryan El Shimal (Artery of the North) on the Sudan-Egypt border. The activists who were protesting the recent price hikes in electricity fees, were fined for building barricades in order to prevent lorries heading to and from Egypt to cross.
        Abdo Ali, a member of the Dongola Resistance Committees Coordination, told Radio Dabanga that the amounts set by the court would be paid on the activist’s behalf by his committee.
        He also stated that a group of coup force members wounded 5 protestors by pelting them with stones and beating them with sticks, during a demonstration on Tuesday.
       The committee condemned the attack on the peaceful procession and described those behind the attack as ‘barbaric’.

Khartoum City Resistance Committees Coordination: A new epic today that plunges the coup plotters into the abyss [Sudan]

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info. 

Crisis??

 

          When the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, we had a migrant crisis, millions of Ukrainians fled across the border to neighbouring countries, in most cases accepted and welcomed. It was as if this was the only migrant crisis on the planet. For years Europe has been gripping on about the migrant crisis from Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, and so the list went on. These migrants however were never accepted, never welcomed, thousand languished between authoritarian lines on the land called borders. neither allowed to move one way or the other. Trapped in appalling conditions, in unforgiving weather, men, women and children, herded like cattle to prevent them from entering this country or that country, continually fleeing repression and brutality,  and Europe wringing its hands and shouting "crisis" but no solution just detention centres.
        Along comes the Ukrainian affair, and suddenly the only migrant "crisis" is the flow of terrified people fleeing Ukraine and Europe opens its arms. The other migrant "crisis" has disappeared off the media map, off the agenda, no longer worth mentioning. Sadly however, those thousands of humans lumped together as a migrant "crisis" before this Ukrainian affair are still there, still trapped between those inhumane borders, their real problem of course is that they are the wrong colour, they are not European, therefore not welcome in our European white race military camp.

The following from Crimethinc:

          Nearly four million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded. But these are hardly the only refugees fleeing war-torn countries today. Starting in 2021, the government of Belarus has cynically used thousands of refugees displaced by wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ethiopia, and elsewhere as a weapon with which to exert pressure on the European Union. EU governments have responded callously, leaving these refugees trapped in limbo between two militarized borders and establishing a restricted zone to ensure that observers could not see them dying. Despite this, anarchists organized in the No Borders Team network have defied the restrictions to provide assistance to the refugees in the name of a world without borders. We spoke with anarchists mobilizing on the border between Poland and Belarus to learn more.

          You can donate to support the efforts of No Borders Team here.

         For background on mutual aid efforts in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic, start with this article. To learn about how volunteers act in solidarity with migrants along the border between the United States and Mexico, read this. For perspective from migrants, read this interview with Syrian exiles.

 

          October 23, 2021: Items abandoned by refugees in Poland. They were either in a hurry to escape from the border guards or were unable to pack up camp because they were arrested and taken back to Belarus.

 

 Read the full article HERE:

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Sudan.

          While our media are all a frenzy over the Ukrainian affair, you would tend to think that all is well in the rest of the world. However, that is far from the truth, their are brutal wars and repressions dotted all around the planet, Yemen, Somalia, Palestine, Rojava, to mention a few, and practically no media coverage of the situation in Sudan. The people of Sudan have been continuing to hold mass peaceful protests against the military coup that took place on October 2021. These ongoing peaceful protests have been met with savage and brutal force by the military war lords in charge of Sudan, resulting in many grotesque injures and deaths. Despite the viciousness of the state repression, the people continue to take to the streets and face down the state violence. They deserve our fullest support and solidarity, their fight for freedom is our fight.

The following from Enough is Enough:

           Sudan. March 25. 2022. Mohammed Abdellatif, 28 years old, was killed with a shotgun as he was shot at close range in the chest, abdomen, and neck by the joint security forces in Wad Madani during yesterday’s Marches of the Millions, bringing the total number of martyrs since the October 25 military coup to 90.

Originally published by Dabanga.

           In a preliminary field report on the Khartoum marches yesterday, the Socialist Doctors Association (SDA) said that the number of injuries recorded was 43, including 8 bullet wounds from live ammunition.
        The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) confirmed that the coup authorities in Khartoum are still using deadly violence against the peaceful revolutionaries and that the revolutionary protesters are still adhering to their peaceful protest tactics, ‘which have proven their strength against bullets and the security arsenal’. The total number of injuries in the Khartoum North (Bahri) marchers on Wednesday, March 23, reached 7 cases, including 5 injuries from live bullets, including a wound to the chest. The doctors’ report indicated that there were other cases of injuries that were treated by field aid teams, and they are not included in the list.

Shotgun use

         The joint security forces used heavily used shotguns as part of their repression of the Marches of the Millions in February and March, and a number of revolutionaries were killed whilst hundreds sustained injuries from shotguns. The surgery of such shotgun wounds is complicated by the difficulty of removing the scattered shrapnel that can settle next to some vital organs. A shotgun firearm designed to shoot a cartridge known as a ‘shotshell’, which usually discharges numerous small sub-projectiles, like shrapnel. According to the CCSD, 101 cases of shotgun wound infection were monitored on March 21, 2022, including a serious injury that led to the loss of an eye in the processions of the city of Wad Madani.
         The committee announced its report entitled ‘The New Killer’, issued yesterday, that it had recorded 4 deaths and 327 cases of gunshot wounds with this firearm since the coup of last October 25. The committee also mentioned in its report the presence of some other light injuries with shotguns that are treated by field teams.

All over Sudan

        Three central cities that witnessed Marches of the Millions yesterday Khartoum, Khartoum North (Bahri), and Omdurman. All three witnessed brutal repression by the joint security forces during their march towards the Republican Palace and the march in Omdurman’s streets heading to the parliament buildings.
        The repression led to a number of wounded who were transferred to hospitals whilse others were treated in the field. The joint security forces met the peaceful demonstrators with excessive force, using tear gas, live bullets, and stun grenades in an attempt to prevent the peaceful processions from reaching the Republican Palace. The Omdurman processions managed, under the sound of stun grenades and tear gas, to reach Parliament. The demonstrators chanted throughout the capital, condemning the coup of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) leader Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Commander Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo.
        Marches of the Millions, called for by the Resistance Committees also took place in several cities in the states, including Wad Madani, Port Sudan, Nyala, Atbara, Singa, El Geneina, and El Gedaref. Everywhere, the protesters demanded full civilian rule and the return of the military to their barracks and held the coup authorities responsible for the deterioration of the economic and living conditions in Sudan. A member of the El Gedaref Resistance Committees told Radio Dabanga that the El Gedaref demonstrations moved past the murals for the martyrs, next to the morgue, and met on Marches of the Millions Revolution Street in the city center with chants denouncing the coup and demanding full civil rule. The police confronted the demonstrators and closed the El Gedaref market.

 

Visit ann arky's home home at https://spiritofrevolt.info 

Protest.

 

        Come on all you Glasca folks, get over to the Burrell Museum and Art Gallery tomorrow 29th March. Show you disgust at the lavish honouring of a plunderer and master of pillage Sir William Burrell. Millions of tax payers money being squandered on this glorification of plundered "hi-art" which has nothing to do with the people of Glasgow. It in no way represents the people of Glasgow, or their way of life, but the "great and the good", will be there for a vanity photo-op. Show up and let them know what you think of ordinary folks money being lavished on these type of projects while community centres, swimming pools and social services are being closed or starved of cash. Where in this edifice to pomp and wealth is there a hint of how the people of Glasgow, like other large cities, struggle to make ends meet.  Your money, their pomp and vanity, they dance in the ballroom, you queue at the food bank. 

March 29th, The Burrell, Pollok Country Park, 11am.

 

Visit ann arky's home at;

 http://strugglepedia.co.uk/index.php?title=Main_Page  

Lies and Wars.

      I, like every decent human being with a shred of humanity, condemn the war in Ukraine. However I can't stomach the the phoney outrage at this slaughter in Ukraine, by the bosses of NATO and the nations that support that vast war machine. In this war in Ukraine, they report every building destroyed, every casualty, with crocodile tears, as if this is different from any other war, their memory doesn't stretch back enough to remember March 24th. 1999, when NATO unleashed a totally illegal vicious bombardment of Yugoslavia. 

The following extract from Struggle-la-Lucha:

        

  

       Exactly 23 years ago, NATO countries, without UN Security Council authorization, ordered their troops to bomb the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as part of an offensive operation named Allied Force, under the pretext of a supposed humanitarian intervention to prevent genocide” of Kosovar Albanians.
The air strikes lasted 78 days, beginning on March 24 and ending on June 10, 1999. During that time, more than 1,000 aircraft were used to drop more than 3,000 cruise missiles and about 80,000 tons of bombs on the territory of the Balkan country (which at that time consisted of Serbia and Montenegro). The number of dead, most of them civilians, ranges between 2,500 and 3,500 people. 89 were children, which means that, on average, NATO killed one child every day during the bombing. Some 10,000 people were seriously wounded. Most of the victims were Serbs.
     Both military and civilian installations were hit. Hospitals, bridges, oil refineries, power plants, political party headquarters, railways, schools and even the Chinese embassy in Belgrade were bombed.
      In total, NATO’s military intervention resulted in the destruction of 25,000 residential buildings, 450 kilometers of roads, almost 600 kilometers of railroads, nearly 40 bridges, 100 schools and kindergartens, 30 hospitals and 14 airfields. The material damage is quantified at about 100 billion dollars.

        Let's not forget America and its puppets' "Shock and Awe" on Iraq, savagery based on lies.

The following extract from Open Democracy: 

Baghdad ablaze on the first night of the Shock and Awe coalition bombing

| Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo 

          Since the invasion, Iraq Body Count has recorded between 185,000 and 209,000 civilian deaths as a result of violence. The number grows to 288,000 when combatants are included.
        The coalition alone has killed over 24,000 Iraqi civilians, and that number grows to 33,000 when we include those killed by Iraqi state forces.
        During the 2003-2017 period, Iraq Body Count recorded the killings of over 7,000 Iraqi children, among them 932 are attributed to the Islamic State, while twice as many were killed by the US-UK coalition. Estimates suggest that over 7,400 Iraqi children have been killed up to 2021, with over 1,000 deaths attributed to the Islamic State, and twice as many killed by the US-UK coalition.
        The mass killings of Iraqis commenced on 19 March 2003, with the ‘shock and awe’ bombing of Baghdad. Millions sat transfixed before their TV screens, watching as bombs and missiles exploded. The reports came with the warning that they contained flashing images. True enough, the sky over Baghdad flashed orange and golden, the sounds of war filling our ears. The narrative of terror that began that day was to last for years: terror from the sky, terror on the ground, terror from the foreign soldier, terror from one’s neighbour.
        The victims were people from all walks of life: shepherds, fishermen, construction workers, street cleaners, doctors, clerics, journalists, politicians, policemen, housewives… killed as they walked, slept, drove, or changed a tyre.
        Images of the last 20 years include wooden coffins, bodies in white shrouds, the names and faces of those killed – some smiling in old photographs – and many blown-out cars. There are also stories of heroes, like 18-year-old vendor Ahmed Draiwel, who picked up a bomb and ran with it, away from the busy market, in Sadr City in March of 2007. He was the only one who died when it exploded.
       Thousands of civilians have been killed each year, since the night of the flashing images. At its peak, the terror claimed 29,027 in 2006; at its calmest, 902 in 2020. but 18 years on, the deaths continue.

       We must stand against all wars, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Palestine, no matter where, and bring down the system that ferments wars and profits from wars. Wars are savagery that produces wealth and power to a powerful and privileged few, paid for by the blood of ordinary people, who play no part in these barbaric power games except as cannon fodder.

 Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

B(A)d News.

          Another great podcast from A-Radio Berlin, Episode number 54 (03/2022) of "B(A)D NEWS. We must use every avenue to get our ideas out there, papers on the street, videos, social media, meetings, discussion groups, bookfairs and be present where the people are showing their anger at the injustice inherent in this system. We must also try to ferment that righteous anger and drive it into action to change the insane economic system we are at present forced to live under.

  Or listen to the podcast HERE:

In this episode you will hear contributions from:
1) A-Radio Berlin shares part of an interview with members of the Gorillas Workers Collective, which is organizing at the app-driven food delivery system around Berlin, Germany, about employment, data collection, precarity and labor organizing;
2) Then, you’ll hear updates about anarchist prisoners, hunger strikes and releasees in Greece from Free Social Radio 1431 AM out of Thessaloniki;
3) Following this, you’ll hear perspectives from a queer anarchist in Kyiv from 4 days after the Russian invasion began conducted by A-Radio Vienna in Austria;
4) Finally, you’ll hear comrades at Crna Luknja in Ljublana, Slovenia, with an anarcho-syndicalist in Belgrade, Serbia about the role of NATO in the war in Ukraine, the need for revolution against all governments involved. 

 

Visit ann arky's home at;

http://strugglepedia.co.uk/index.php?title=Main_Page   

Keelie.

          You may or you may not have heard of the Glasgow Keelie, a great wee free newspaper that comes out monthly. You'll find it on the streets with our friendly distributors, or in cafes and pubs etc. It is usually packed with info, facts and exposures of what is wrong with this stinking system and the people that manage the whole rotten affair. The march issue is out there watch for it, or get in touch on line at https://glasgowkeelie.org/ to download your copy free. You can also get in touch to be part of the group distributors, send in your ideas, or ask for a bundle to distribute at your workplace or community. It's Glasgow folks' paper, use it spread it around, it's a voice from the streets and the schemes.

     A wee sample of our thoughts from one of the members.

Visit ann arky's home at:

 http://strugglepedia.co.uk/index.php?title=Main_Page

Business.

  

The state loves to show off its military might. Image courtesy of The Times.

        My doesn't America do very well out of this Ukrainian affair? Europe usually buys its gas from Russia, that's a lot of gas, now because America has bullied the world into sanctions on Russia, for humanitarian reasons, of course, the EU has signed a contract to buy gas from America. A nice little earner for corporate America. Now I know gas is not the greenest of fuels, but if you are going to use gas, which do you think is the most environmentally friendly method? To pipe the gas through a pipe system from source to users, or to load it and send it in large specially built ships thousands of miles across the Atlantic, to be unloaded at special created terminals in Europe? To hell with the environment when it comes to corporate America. So you see there are lots of advantages to be grasp from this war as in all wars. The military industrial complex loves wars and that's big bucks for the corporate pariahs. Every bullet, shell, missile that is fired will be replaced, but every school, apartment block, or hospital, destroyed by these instruments, will not necessarily be replaced. You can rest assured that this war, like all wars, will be milked for all its worth by the corporate world. Of course the one thing that can't be replaced is the millions of ordinary individuals that are killed in these wars to enhance the rich and powerful, but that matters not to the profit guzzling corporate world. War is a corporate tool for enhancing growth, we must destroy both, the corporate world and war..

Image courtesy of World Beyond War.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Plunder.

          The Burrell museum and art gallery in Glasgow will reopen after an estimated £66 million refurbishment, of a building that wasn't that old in the first place. Part of the cost, £15 million was paid by the lottery fund, of form of tax and punters money which could have been better used. The Glasgow council has agreed to meet 50% of the total cost, no doubt from money saved form closing community centres and shaving social services. Then this society always does showcase and grandstand the pillage and plunder acquired by very ruthless rich people.
        The collection is a mixture of art works and artefacts plundered from all over the world, including Jewish arts stolen by the Nazis and sold on to rich parasites like Burrell.
        There is to be a grand opening ceremony on the 29th of March where the pampered and privileged will rub shoulders for some photo opportunity, all eager to be part of this display of pillage and plunder. Nothing there will relate to the people of Glasgow, nothing there will tell the world about the lives of the people who, without being asked, helped pay for this display of plunder.
       Lots of citizens of this fair city of Glasgow see this for what it is, and are angry that this grotesque display costing million is being trumpeted as great for Glasgow, while they struggle for decent services from transport to health, from education to leisure. So on the 29th of March there will be a demonstration against this lavish extravagance of pomp and privilege. So if you are struggling in your daily life, then turn up at the Burrell on the 29th and voice your disgust and righteous anger. 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Bookfair.

         Another reminder of the Red and Black Clydeside Bookfair coming up as part of Glasgow May Day celebrations. May Day is important to the ordinary people, as it it is a time to celebrate our struggles, our successes and honour our class warriors, but also a day to come together with old and new friends, to strengthen those bonds of solidarity among the ordinary people of our cities towns and villages. Why not get a stall, come and give a talk, join in the discussions, what ever, but do come along and just browse and mingle, meet new friends, and old acquaintances.
        With all the present brutal attacks on our living standards, there has never been a more important time for all the ordinary people to come together and defend our living standards against this unnecessary vicious avalanche of austerity and hardship that is being heaped on us, all in the name of the economy and profit. 

The following from the Red and Black Bookfair website, have a look.

        Glasgow has one of the richest histories of anarchist organising in these islands. Our founding mothers include Ethel MacDonald, Jenny Patrick, Margaret Duff, and Mollie Baird. Our history includes names such as Guy Aldred, John Taylor Caldwell and Stuart Christie, organisations such as the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation, and publishing houses such as the Strickland Press.
       Anarchist pamphlets, leaflets, newspapers, books, speakers, organisers, agitators, and groups have informed and excited radical and working class life in Glasgow since the 19th Century.
       That tradition continues today, and Red and Black Clydeside is just its latest expression.
       The event is a showcase for the libertarian left and beyond in Glasgow today. As well as talks, discussions, and stalls, we are providing a long overdue chance, curtailed by the pandemic, to mingle in person.
       Red and Black Clydeside is part of working class Glasgow’s May Day celebrations, and follows from the previous weekend’s May Day on the Green. It is organised by groups including Glasgow ACG, the Glasgow Keelie and other individuals.
       The event will take place in the CCA on Sauchiehall Street on 7th May 2022, but we hope its effects will be much longer lasting.

Saturday 7th May 2022

3pm – 9pm
The Clubroom
Centre for Contemporary Arts
350 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow G2 3JD

 Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Money.

   

  

        As usual, some words of wisdom from friend and comrade Gregg at Not Buying Anything. As they say, "money makes the world go round", but we don't like the way that it is going round, so we could help stop it going round in this insane crazy way by doing what we can to stop feeding it the money to make it go round.

The following from Not Buying Anything:

"If we don't end war, war will end us." - H.G. Wells

        Money has power, so the withholding of money has power too. So the practice of simple living (earning and spending just enough for a life that meets basic needs) withholds money not only from exploitive corrupt corporate entities destroying the environment, but also from corrupt violent governments perpetuating endless wars.
       Chances are your government is one of those using your tax dollars to wage war. I know mine certainly is. That is one reason I live simply, and have made do on a small income when I could have made more.
      Living this way I do not pay income taxes, and therefore don't pay for war. It is a way to resist not only the war machine, but also the corporate war on our planet.

       "Simple living choices can be part of a lifestyle of nonviolent resistance. The more you examine your economic behavior, the more you learn of your entanglement with the military-industrial complex and of your power to untangle yourself.
       You can help build parallel economic systems based on cooperation and sustainable choices rather than on consumerism, resource depletion, and exploitation.
      By participating in such alternatives, you live the revolution in values that is necessary for peace with justice. Each economic choice you make can be a witness to your values."

From the pamphlet: Low Income/Simple Living as War Tax Resistance

        War resistance through not paying income tax is not the main reason I live simply, but it is a wonderful fringe benefit. It is hard enough to pay for the essentials in life these days, why pay for war on top of that?
       When we make do with enough and no more, we join a revolution in values that has the power to end war and exploitation wherever it exists

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Police.

          In country after country the opinion of the people is that they don't want the police, they have had enough of police brutality. Injury and deaths mount up from police action, but  rarely or never is there a successful prosecution of a police officer. When they are armed, they shoot people, when they are not armed with firearms, they beat people up. Their approach is always confrontational, provoking, threatening and arrogant. They are the intimidating tool of the state, there to stifle any possible threat to the existing structure of society, a society that is controlled and governed by the rich and powerful. We don't need the police, we can look after our own communities in a more reasonable and humane manner, we don't need their violence and brutality. Their aim is a subservient and submissive population that will not step out of the line they have been allocated by the powers that be. They are the state's protectors of wealth, power and privilege.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Aramco.

 

We love your oil and you love our weapons, let's be friends.

         As the West keeps on about "the crisis", Saudi Arabia says "what crisis?". The West having sanctioned everything Russian and is now scrambling around to find alternatives to Russian oil and Gas, Saudi Arabia is chuckling all the way to the bank. Saudi Aramco oil giant has announced that its income for 2021 has just shot through the roof, up by 120% to $110 billion. It doesn't cost a penny more to get the oil out of the ground, but the price it is sold at goes stratospheric, reaping the Saudi's billions more in profit.
        When asked to increase production so as to reduce the selling price, our friendly Saudi friends said no, the UK Saudi relationship is built on weapons and oil, we sell them lots of deadly weapons, though they don't need them to execute 80 men in one day, the old fashioned sword will do just fine. The Saudi's are just loving the "crisis". Typical of the economics of the corporate world, they love a crisis if it increases their sacred profits. The crisis, the war in Ukraine and the west's sanctions on Russia, create wonderful opportunities for lots of the big boys in the corporate club. The military industrial corporate gangsters for one, they just love a war, the more ordinary blood soaks the soil, the more they make. Wars inevitable cause shortages, shortages are an opportunity for the corporate parasites to increase prices and send their profits soaring, just like Saudi Aramco, all part and parcel of the crazy insane system of capitalism we have allowed to wash over our lives. For sanity and justice to return to humanity we have to bring down this economic system of pillage and plunder to enrich the few at the expense of the many.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrrevolt.info  

Ruthless.

    

     

                                                   Image courtesy of BBC.

           So P&O ferries have just paid off 800 workers without a hint of discussion. Just a statement telling all ferries to stay in port waiting an announcement. The announcement came shortly after that via a zoom message, no matter how it was phrased it came down to "your fired". Obviously this was not a sudden decision, for as the dismissal statement was "zoomed", the replacement foreign workers were already waiting at the dockside to take over the ferries. So there was a process of recruiting vetting and employing the replacement cheaper workers to replace the 800 fired. All done surreptitiously, behind closed doors with no regard to the disaster this would mean for so many families. Homes pushed into poverty, kids having to miss out on all manner of things, anxiety and stress for the households concerned.
         No matter what you might think, this is the true face of capitalism, first and foremost it must be profit, and to hell with the workforce. In 2019 P&O ferries were bought by DP World, a Dubai company, during 2020 they claimed almost £15 million in government grants, our money, and in 2020, paid out £270 million to shareholders. Now in 2022 they clam that they are losing money and need to pay off their staff and employ cheaper labour from abroad. If that is not exploiting workers who for whatever reason will work for less, then what is. What does that statement make of Bumbling Boris's statement about the UK being a high salary, high skilled economy.
        There should be no shock and horror at this decision, this economic system of capitalism will always put profit before people, and will always be as ruthless as they can get away with in their drive for ever increasing profit. Attempting to make capitalism a more humane system is like trying to make an omelette without breaking the egg. If you want justice and fairness in the workplace, then the workers have to take control of that workplace, there is no alternative. Yes, the present system may give you sticking plaster or a paracetamol to make you feel better, but it will not cure the problem of workers exploitation. 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info
 

Universities!!

         Universities, seats of learning, places where you go to develop  your ability to be rational and critical, to allow your imagination and intelligence to flower, for the greater good of humanity, ah, the dream. In fact universities have become factories for turning out the nuts and bolts to further the corporate world, nuts and bolts in the shape of conditioned human beings. What is more, universities make money from these nuts and bolts, universities have become part and parcel of the corporate world, they are now just another factory supplying the needs of the profit driven capitalist system. They are dependent on corporate money, they are an integral part of this economic system of insanity.

        The hope is that the students grasp this and decide it is not what they want, and decide they don't want to be programmed to be profit making units for the rich and powerful corporations. Let's hope they decide to take control of the universities and shape them into those desired seats of learning for the benefit of all humanity.  Encouragingly, some are already going down this path, and deserve our full support and solidarity.

The following extract from It's Going Down: 

 

          Statement from group of students occupying the arts building at McGill University in Montreal. 

 

          For the past week, students have been occupying the arts building at McGill University in Montreal. Dozens of tents block the corridor and the atmosphere is festive. These different people occupying the building are clear in their position: they are not asking for anything, they are building, independently, the democratization of their university. We share here their manifesto.
        We are tired of demanding change from those who never intended on listening. We will no longer be deceived. We will prefigure a democratically-led university for ourselves.
       We are occupying McGill to create a festive, autonomous space for learning. A space which belongs to all rather than to the corporate elite. At present, McGill University, as controlled by the Board of Governors, serves capitalist, white-supremacist, settler-colonial and imperialist structures of power.
       When we say McGill is capitalist we mean that it upholds the market’s senseless production, consumption, and environmental exploitation. Under this inflexible model, students, staff, and faculty suffer from exhaustion and mental health issues. Just this semester, in pursuit of profit, McGill prioritized a return to in-person classes over the safety of community members, forcing many to go on strike or to unionize.
       This negligence is not surprising; Capitalist McGill is busy with other things:
It is a high-cost, exploitative landlord, charging many students over $1500 for a one-bedroom.
       It is a stockholder, managing an investment pool of $1.4 billion across the military industrial complex, banking sector, and fossil fuel industry
       We, as students, pay this private entity, the university, to train us for professions that serve human and environmental exploitation. Any other purpose for the university has been deliberately rendered unimaginable. The continuity of corporations relies on the commodification of knowledge, wherin education becomes an instrument of profit.
       McGill is controlled by Senior executives from the Bank of Montreal (BMO), Power Corporation of Canada, the National Bank of Canada, Metro Inc., HSBC Bank Canada, and Redbourne Properties Inc. They all sit on the Board of Governors and represent its single largest voting bloc.
       The university’s structure mirrors the exploitative and hierarchical logic of corporations. By forming an industrial complex of grants, research, public relations campaigns, and donations, McGill has become University Incorporated.
       When we say this structure is also white-supremacist, we mean that, in a white supremacist society that thrives on the exploitation of racialized communities and entire nations, McGill’s education is not revolutionary but reformist and complacent.
       For two years, White-Supremacist McGill has refused to #TakeJamesDown as demanded by Black and Indigenous students, faculty and staff, choosing instead to protect the university’s slave-owning founder and his public statue. Scholarships, prizes, and buildings continue to bear the name of James McGill and the legacy of slavery. University administrators have also failed to meet the Black Student Network’s demands regarding the funding of Black History Month and a Black Canadian Studies Department staffed by Black scholars.
       Financed by James McGill’s colonial enterprises, the university was founded on, and continues to operate on, the unceded, traditional lands of the Kahnistensera from the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation. The land acknowledgements that Settler-Colonial McGill boasts on its brochures and at its public events are empty words as it refuses to meaningfully engage with the Kahnistensera and their demands. The university demonstrates no comittment to upholding Indigneous soveignty. McGill finances colonial projects like the Coastal GasLink pipeline trespassing on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory and refuses to repay the money it received from the Six Nations Trust Fund in 1850, totalling $1.7 billion today.

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