Contrasts.

 

          Posted this some years ago on the thought of what if our world was a village of 100, and thought I would try to see what difference there has been since then, sadly not a lot and not to the benefit of the ordinary people of our village.

This is what I came up with, if our world was a 100 people village. Figures are for 2021.

25 would be aged 0-14
66 would be aged 15-64
9 would be aged 65+
6o would be Asian
16 would be Africa
10 would be European
9 Latin Americans
5 North Americans
86 would be able to read and write
14 would not
7 would get to university
93 would not
78 would have safe shelter
22 would not
91 would have clean drinking water
9 would not
82 would have electricty
18 would not
15 would always have enough to eat
15 would not
69 would be malnourished
1 would die from starvation
6 would own 59% of the wealth
74 would own 39%
20 would share 2% of the wealth

Aid in $ dollars.

21 would be living on $1.25 a day
$1.24 trillion would go on military spending
$100 billion would go on developement aid
$1.2 trillion would be spent on non-essentials
$30 billion to end world hunger.

        It looks like a real imbalance of the resources that the present insane economic system can't possible remedy. It calls for the demolishing of the present state/corporate system and the building of one based on mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and that sees to the needs of all the people in our village.

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

Faslane.

           An interesting event. Spirit of Revolt with Glasgow CND will be holding an event to celebrate the 40th. anniversary of the Faslane Peace Camp. It will be in the Blythswood Room at the Mitchell Library, Thursday, 2nd. June, 5:15-7:15pm. FREE.
          On display there will be items from Spirit of Revolt's Faslane Peace Camp Collection, talks, chat and discussions. Come along and have your say on why we need a stronger anti-war movement and anti-nuclear movement, more today than ever. Spread the word.

 

 

Visit ann arky's home at http://strugglepedia.com  

History.

 

           For the May “Read of the Month”  Spirit of Revolt brings up another wee gem from the past, by J. Britz. A small pamphlet, Crisis in the Communist Party. This is from our Les Foster Collection, T/SOR/36/23/13, well worth a read. Of course one of the reasons we do this “Read of the  Month” is not just to bring you these priceless pieces from the past, but to encourage you to browse through the anarchist and libertarian socialist history of Glasgow and Clydeside. A rich well of the struggles of the ordinary people for that better world for all. We can always lean from our history, and it is essential that we record and make easily available that history. I think it was George Orwell that said, I paraphrase here, “The best we to destroy a people is to destroy their history”. So delve, enjoy, learn, spread the word.

READ online, “Crisis in the Communist Party HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at http://strugglepedia.com  

Cesspool.

     

           All my adult life I have spouted against the party political system we call representative democracy. I have always seen The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption as nothing more than a posh boys club, but a club with tremendous power over our lives. It has always reeked of pomposity, arrogance, and expected privileges, a bubble divorced from the reality of ordinary people's lives. However, I never in my life thought that the occupants would make this so obvious that even supporters of the system are showing disgust at the arrogant shenanigans that take place behind those closed doors of power and privilege. Never did I think that the occupants of the seat of power would blow their cover in a display of complete indifference to the struggles and suffering of the people of this country and booze a path to their own oblivion.

         Surely, this latest display from the cesspool that governs our lives, will convince people that we, ourselves, can do a better job of running our lives than this over privileged, pompous, arrogant bunch of posh ignoramuses. They have for centuries entered the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption and feathered their own nests, usually done in a sly underhand manner, but now drunk on their privileged position they openly laugh in the face of the suffering public.

         Isn't time we rose up and destroyed this insane system, this theater of lies, this cesspool of privilege, that functions at our expense but benefits that pompous, privileged class of parasites. 

 

Visit ann arky's home at http://strugglepedia.com  

Democracy?

         I penned this little piece three years ago, but thought as it is "jubilee year", I would repeat it, just to express my thoughts on our UK "democracy".

         The establishment and its mouthpiece, the mainstream media keep referring to the UK as a democracy, but a democracy with a monarch. This edifice to imperialism may get labelled as a “constitutional monarchy”, but a democracy? I’m sure anyone with a modicum of rationalism must see this as a contradiction, who voted them in, how do you vote the monarch out? Built on that template only an idiot would refer to the UK as a “democracy”. Somewhere else this fantasy democracy falls down is in how it treats it citizens. I would imagine that in a democracy those in most need would receive the most care. Well how does the UK “democracy” fair in that aspect? Well for starters we have lots of privileges heaped on those with lots of money, while at the other end, those in need suffer in poverty. 

         In this UK “democracy” while wealth and plenty is displayed for all to see, it is out of reach for the majority. The fact is that more than 14 million people live in poverty in the UK. Of that army of disadvantaged, 4.5 million are children, while a further 1.4 million are pensioners. Mired in that swamp of avoidable poverty, 7.7 million are deemed to be in persistent poverty, meaning that they have suffered this deplorable condition for four years or more. Then there is those with greater needs, the disabled. Of the unacceptable army of poverty stricken, 6.9 million are in families with a disabled member.
       If you live in this fantasy UK "democracy" and you are a family with a disabled member, you are far more likely to be living in poverty than a family with no disabled member. In fact approximately half of those living in poverty in this land of milk and honey, are disabled, or living with a disabled person.
        Now how do we equate these facts with the word and idea of “democracy? It seems that in this UK fantasy “democracy”, the greater your need the deeper you sink into poverty.
     If we want a "democracy", a real "democracy", we have to get rid of the pompous circus of monarchy and privilege, we have to get rid of the party political system and its inherent corruption, self interest and privileges, we have to dismantle the capitalist system that fosters and is fostered by a brutal, callous, greed driven indifferent drive for profit and growth for the few, at the expense of the many. Or we can continue to live in the self destructive illusion that we are equal participants in a democracy, and that getting shafted is part of the deal.

 

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

Illusions??

 

         The war in Ukraine shattered the illusion that we live in a peaceful world held by most of the population encompassed in the snug and "peaceful" enclave we call Europe. Suddenly there was blood flowing in Europe, shock, horror, how could this be? What most in Europe fail to grasp is that war is ever present in the present economic system of state/corporate capitalism. While we in Europe wallowed in this illusion of a peaceful world, vast swaths of the planet were living with mass deaths and blood flowing like mountain streams. Power struggles of one faction over another, states taking sides and the "peaceful" West supplying support to this state or that state and supplying the devastating weapons to make this living hell possible. The "peaceful" West is the overseer of this perpetual bloodshed, it is one of their cash-cows. Not until we get rid of the insane economic system of capitalism and the destruction of all state apparatus, this bloodshed will continue, and the corporate world will make billions of £'s to feed their greedy over privileged shareholders, all of it stained with the blood of innocents.

The following from Statista:

The World at War in 2022
Armed Conflict
by Martin Armstrong, Feb 14, 2022

         May 8, 2021 marked 76 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe - VE Day. While the conflict which claimed millions of lives on European soil is firmly committed to the annals of history, conflict in the East of the continent is still a harsh reality in the present day. Even before the recently increased risk of a Russian invasion, the Ukrainian crisis, ravaging the Donbass region of the country, had amassed a death toll above the 13 thousand mark.
        As data collection by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) shows, a substantial portion of the globe is still engulfed in some form of conflict. This infographic shows countries in which there have been reports of armed clashes involving state forces and/or rebel groups in 2022. Even as early as February 4, and using this simplified definition, the presence of war across the world is extensive.
        Unlike the situations in Donbass and Syria, for example, not all conflicts fit the picture we may have in our minds when thinking of war. In Mexico in 2021 for example, ACLED recorded 6 armed clashes involving state forces. Each one though was a battle between different law enforcement entities - providing a snapshot of the ongoing fight against police corruption and the deep-seated influence of organized crime. So far for 2022, no such incidents have been recorded in the country.

You will find more infographics at Statista

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