Rising??

  Food for thought as we face a winter of cold and hunger, midst abundant wealth.

 “Pity the nation whose people are sheep
And whose shepherds mislead them
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars
Whose sages are silenced
And whose bigots haunt the airwaves
Pity the nation that raises not its voice
Except to praise conquerors
And acclaim the bully as hero
And aims to rule the world
By force and by torture...
Pity the nation oh pity the people
who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away...”- 

 Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet

 

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

Spaces.

        The following article doesn't just apply to Exarcheia in Athens, what they are facing is happening to every city across the globe. The drive to turn public spaces into profitable entities, not for us all, but for the already very rich and powerful. These decisions are made by bureaucrats and politicians who see only economic growth for profit, although these decisions impact on our quality of life the decisions are made over our heads. It will take  a well organised mass movement to stop this trend of profit before the quality of life of those impacted by these bureaucratic decisions. If we want quality of life over profit, then we will have to take to the streets and force the change, it will not come from the politicians and the bureaucrats who are blinded by the profit motive.

The following from Freedom News.

Exarcheia, the subway station, and public space

 

 

Analysis, Dec 2nd
                First of all it is important to underline that public transport (tram, subway, bus) is immensely important as it allows for ecological and inclusive movement throughout the city. With the usage of all the different types of public transport a vast and comfortable transportation network can be developed to challenge the domination of the private car on our streets – domination that makes urban life worse by air and noise pollution, frequent accidents, and the exclusion of the most marginalised economically.
              For quite some time now, in the historic Exarcheia neighbourhood of Athens, home to countless anti-authoritarian and anarchist collectives, squats, and social centres, there has been a struggle directed against the construction of a metro station on the district’s central square. How does an area with such a libertarian history oppose the expansion of public transport, one might ask; but the truth is that the problem is not the subway as such, but the way the decision to build was made and what will came after it.
             Firstly, many of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, in coordination with architects and urban planners, have proposed another place of the neighbourhood (Archaeological Museum) as a place more suitable and rational for a subway station. The people of Exarcheia understand the ecological and inclusive dimensions of public transport; what they disagree with is the political way through which this, and other, decisions are being made – decisions, made by a handful of politicians and businessmen, that will shape our common ground for generations to come, without the participation of all of us who inhabit it.
            Secondly, the inhabitants are in opposition to the urban vision promoted by those in power: with most striking example being the Kotzias square right in front of the Mayor’s building in Athens. We speak of a place that does not feel nor look like square any more. There are no trees or benches, so one can pass through it on their way to somewhere, but not spend time in it, as there is no protection from summer’s blazing sun or anywhere to sit. This is in line with the project of “touristisation” that the Greek authorities have been implementing for years all around Athens. In this project the pubic spaces are an obstacle to economic growth: tourist shops, restaurants, cafeterias all generate economic revenues from tourists, while squares, with their benches and trees, serve the communal (often non-economic) needs of the inhabitants. This is what the inhabitants of Exarcheia do not want to happen to their square – but what the restructuring of it, due to the subway station, will most probably bring. The vision that local authorities envision will not solve any of the problems of the area, it will simply lay the foundations of yet another urban desert, where there is barely any vegetation and no place where one can sit for free.
             There is also a third dimension of this project. The Greek state, under different governments, has continuously been in opposition to the autonomous movement in all its expressions. As is well known, Exarcheia is both a point of reference and a symbol of this movement. In this line of thought the decision, taken without any sort of public deliberation and despite strong opposition, to place a metro station in an irrational place, is also seen by the authorities as an excuse to militarise the district with heavy police presence and suffocate any effort of self-organization.
              The case of the construction of a subway station at Exarcheia square comes to show that under the conditions of oligarchy and capitalism even sustainable means of transportation can be used to destroy public spaces and gentrify neighbourhoods, just as renewable energy sources are used to destroy mountainous areas in order to generate profits for investors far away. What is crucial to understand is that this is all a question of politics: of who gets to shape our city – a handful of bureaucrats and capitalist investors, or the vast majority of a district’s inhabitants. It is this political question that frames the content and the outlook of urban space.

Yavor Tarinski

Image: Pithari Stories

 

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The Street?

          We, the ordinary people are at war. I'm not talking about the war of missiles and drones, but the war we have fought for generations, the class war. Year in year out the conglomerate of corporate beasts have have grabbed more and more of the world's resources and in their never ending drive to increase profits, we have been hit time and time again with punishing austerity, inflation, cuts to social services, which translates into poverty and destitution for millions. Once again with great viciousness, the attack is on the ordinary people, and as winter approaches we are facing cold homes, insufficient food on the table, with the result being stunted children and elderly and vulnerable people dying earlier than would be normally.
           This is a constant fight and it will not be won in the marble halls of power, nor in the debating rooms of unions. It will be won on the streets, we surrender the streets at our peril. It is important that we take our anger and frustration on to the streets in organised vast numbers. To win that decent life for all, we must be prepared to do our debating with direct action on the streets, in our communities and workplaces. The good life will not be handed to you by the wealthy and powerful, we'll have to take what we create and turn it into a society of mutual aid that sees to the needs of all our people.
          Perhaps we can learn something from recent history, the mass protests of Gilets Jaunes

The following from Enough is Enough. 

           On November 17, 2018, a new kind of movement exploded in the face of many observers and took the trade unions and political parties, who were convinced they had a monopoly on protest, by surprise: the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement.

Originally published by Contre Attaque. Translated by Riot Turtle. 

 

         Officially 287,710 demonstrators, probably 10 times more, had spread around 2000 traffic circles across the country, created new spaces for discussion. The demonstrations were heterogeneous, many of them were not used to protesting. We all remember the call of truck driver Ghislain Coutard improvising a rallying symbol, the yellow safety vest. His anger and his genius call “We all have a yellow vest in the car! Put it on your dashboard in front of you all week long. It will be a little color code to show that you support the movement”.
        In the weeks that followed, a strange phenomenon: we all looked at each other on the streets, as if to count ourselves. And there are many of us… You know the rest: 65 weeks of mobilization, thousands of injured demonstrators and an estimated 1.800 injured among the forces of order. The mobilization was unprecedented, but so was the violent repression.
        In 2018 alone, the police fired 19,071 LBD bullets and launched 5,420 rounds of grenade ammunition. Total repression. The victories, unfortunately, are not as numerous. Although the carbon tax has been buried, the list of 42 demands has remained largely unheeded.
        The few measures that have been saved at the simulacrum of a citizens’ assembly will be further eroded by amendments in Parliament. Not sure that this is what the Gilets Jaunes had in mind when they demanded more direct democracy.
        4 years later, most of the initial Gilets Jaunes groups don’t exist anymore, but some activists persist and don’t hesitate to support other militant collectives. From their chaotic course, let us retain that the Gilets Jaunes movement knew how to show all the old street movements the need to renew the way to mobilize. A lesson still far from being integrated if we observe the success of the last call of the CGT in France…
          It would be good not to leave the monopoly of mobilizations to these union organizations again, who usually organize nice demonstrations and then leave. The success of the Sainte-Soline mobilization shows it, we have to fight in a different way. Mobilize people who use different strategies and create cohesion between “peaceful” and “determined” protests. The Gilets Jaunes knew how to blow on the embers of social movements, it’s up to us to set things on fire!

 

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

Capitalism.

 

 

           Explaining the flaws in capitalism to a believer that accepts that it's the only game in town, can be difficult. They arrive at their decision from the propaganda machine, mainstream media, government policies, the menagerie of parliament, corporate advertising and I suppose we can add Hollywood.  That's why I like reading  Caitlin Johnstone she seems to have this ability to spite out the truth and make it readable and obvious. I love her quote, "Why does China keep aggressively surrounding itself with US military bases"

 

 

Image courtesy of Counter Punch

 

The following is a short extract from a longer article by Caitlin  

            The claim that capitalism is the best system for generating profits is basically correct; it’s hard to beat greed and starvation as a carrot and stick to get the gears of industry whirring. The issue here is that merely generating profits won’t solve most of the world’s problems, and in fact many of our problems come from the fact that capitalism is too effective at turning the gears of industry. Our biosphere is dying largely because capitalism values making lots of things but not un-making things; we’re choking our ecosystem to death because it’s profitable.
           Capitalism has no real answers for problems like ecocide, inequality, exploitation and caring for the needful. Yes “let the markets decide” will generate lots of profits for those set up to harvest them, but profit-seeking cannot address those very serious problems. The “invisible hand of the market” gets treated as an actual deity that actually exists, with all the wisdom necessary to solve the world’s problems, but in reality the pursuit of money lacks any wisdom. It can’t solve our major problems, it can only make more stuff and generate more profit.
              Find me a capitalist business plan for leaving a forest untouched. Find me a capitalist business plan for keeping someone free of illness, for ensuring that someone with nothing gets what they need, for giving resources to a struggling parent. You can’t. Capitalism can’t do this. These are the most important things in the world, and no possible iteration of capitalism has any solutions for any of them whatsoever, apart from “Well hopefully rich people will feel very charitable and fix those problems.” And how is that solution working out? It’s a joke.
            The “Maybe the very rich will feel charitable and fix our problems for us” solution assumes that the very same people who are wired to do whatever it takes to claw their way to the top of the ladder will suddenly start caring deeply about everyone they stepped on to get there. Capitalism elevates sociopaths, because profit-seeking competition-based systems reward those who are willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. That’s why we are ruled by sociopaths, and it’s why looking to “philanthropy” as a solution to our problems is a ridiculous joke.
          When capitalism proponents tell socialists and communists “You don’t understand economics,” what they really mean is “You don’t understand that capitalism is the best system for generating profits.” But socialists and communists do understand this; it’s just that generating profits, in and of itself, is not sufficient.
            If lack of wealth is your major problem, then capitalism can be a tool to address it; that’s what China is temporarily doing to keep up economically with the western forces who wish to enslave it. But such measures won’t solve ecocide, inequality, exploitation, and caring for the needful. For that other measures are needed.
         If you want to make more of something (money, material goods), then capitalism can be a good way to do that. But if you need to make less of something (pollution, inequality, exploitation, sickness, homelessness, etc) it’s worthless, and other systems must be looked to.

 READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE:

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

End Wars.

   

            In yesterday's post I emphasised, to end wars, we need to strangle the military industrial complex here at home, without that beast, there would be no wars. However there are other ways to help to bring an end to wars, we must give all the support we can to draft dodgers and deserters. An increase in these numbers would certainly have an effect on the war machine. If they know they have support, then we might see a trickle become a flood. Nobody should be forced to kill someone they don't know on the orders of another.

This extract from tridni-valka-en

 Appeal: Days of international solidarity with deserters

 

           The war in Ukraine continues with all the negative consequences for much of the world. However, acts of desertion and draft evasion also continue, which, if widespread, could lead to the end of the war. Anarchists from the Central European region are therefore publishing this call to organise active support for deserters. Wherever we live, let us make every other day a day of international working-class solidarity and resistance against the war. Let us organise in workplaces, schools and streets to strengthen the influence of desertions. Let us fight for dignified conditions for all who refuse to serve as a cannon fodder in the inter-imperialist war.

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

Our War!

             War is in the air, rumblings of nuclear war, our insane war mongering politicians playing the tune of the corporate and imperialist masters, spout the phoney mantra about defending freedom. If you want to stop this psychopathic society of perpetual war, then I'm afraid calling "Stop the War" from the streets will have no effect what so ever. Remember Iraq, millions in the UK and millions more across the globe took to the streets and shouted "No War". What did our democratic leaders do, why they stuck two fingers up at the public and went ahead and obliterated Iraq's infrastructure, killed thousands of innocent people and displaced millions, turning Iraq into a religious faction fighting ground, while at the same time devouring its natural resources. All this on a lie. 

Image courtesy of Arab News.

            Wars don't just happen in other places, they start right here in our own land. The war machine has tentacles that feed through the fibre of our society, without which it could not function. As long as we tolerate this breeding ground for the war machine to freely function in our own country, we are complicit in the wars in other lands. To stop the wars, we have to strangle the war machine at home. The powers that be will preach about how the "arms" industry creates jobs, grows the economy, but do you want jobs and a strong economy that relies on the brutal bloodshed of innocents in other lands? To stop wars, we have to change society completely, rebuild it from the bottom up, dispense with the capitalist greed system and replace it with a society built on mutual aid, free from borders and the profit motive. A society that sees to the needs of all our people, no matter from what part of this tiny planet they live. That will take massive direct action on a prolonged scale, the alternative is to continue with this cancerous capitalist system with its military industrial complex that breeds poverty and destructive wars.

An interesting article from Greece via Act for Freedom Now.

            In the days of commemoration of the Polytechnic, we must not forget the anti-militarist implications of the uprising. In the midst of military dictatorship, one of the central slogans of the occupied Polytechnic in ’73 was “Out with NATO”. Picking up this thread, anarchy today must find a way of direct action against those who profit and gain from these wars.
          While we try to develop anarchist considerations and analyses of every interstate war conflict, one of the most important aspects of the multifaceted anti-military struggle is often ignored: sabotaging the death machine on the ground we are on.
          Since we are in NATO’s territory of influence, we have a duty to sabotage everything used by the armed forces of the Greek state and its allies, the arms industry, the financiers and those who give orders and make decisions.
          Alongside the Russian state’s invasion of Ukrainian territory, the Turkish state’s war against the Kurdish people is raging, while the USA is waging wars all over the planet. In all these cases, DB Schenker is actively involved, supporting and profiting from these wars. It is a German state-owned company, owned by Deutsche Bahn (DB, the German railway company) and controlled by the German Ministry of Transport. It is a company responsible for war crimes during World War II, and today, it maintains supply chain hubs in dozens of places around the globe, transporting and delivering war equipment, weapons as well as parts of vehicles, tanks and war planes. In 2019, DB Schenker received an award from the U.S. Department of Transportation for its cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense, as there seem to be very few transnational wars in which DB Schenker does not transport weapons to the front lines.
           The parent company, Deutsche Bahn, is responsible for the ‘Tren Maya’ project, the development of railway lines on Mexican territory, including the Chiapas region, lines that will serve the Mexican military.
          This project will destroy huge tracts of forested land, and the lands are home to thousands of people. It obviously serves as the basis of a wider plan to pressure the Mexican state against the liberated Zapatista land, and resistance against it has already begun.
           While the Greek police were gradually occupying Exarcheia, in an attempt to suppress the memory of the resistance against the junta, on the morning of 15 November, we carried out an arson attack on a DB Schenker truck on Baltinon Street in Gyzi. While we know that a destroyed truck alone will not stop any war, we have a duty to recognize the cogs that set the state war machines in motion and dismantle them piece by piece.

Solidarity with the struggle of the Kurdish people against the Turkish state.

Solidarity with the prisoner Dimitris Hatzivassiliadis

We support the 4 imprisoned comrades in the case of the Piraeus traffic police.

Victory for the hunger strike of Alfredo Cospito.   Anarchists

via: athens.indymedia Translated by Act for freedom now!

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

Anti-Racism.

 

   
         Day by day it becomes more obvious that our state apparatus is a blatant racist organisation. The legislation being churned out by one Suella Braverman, another Cambridge educate millionaire, yes a millionaire with a net worth of approximately £3.5Million, is unflinching racist. Her legislation treats refugees as less than human. She considers it a legal policy to lock them up in camps, etc. denies them access to normal human decency or health care. She does this in the tradition of the UK state apparatus and is backed up by her political cohorts. The UK welcomed refugees from Ukraine, offering them places in the homes of ordinary people, but locks up those refugees that don't quite fit the European mould. All the more why we must continue to bring racism and its cancerous results into every debate on how we organise our society.       

The following is an extract and images from Unions Against Racism

          Here is a force that can defeat the hostile environment and the government's racist offensive. Well done to the up to 2000 anti-racists who came to Glasgow today to #MarchAgainstRacism and say #AllRefugeesWelcome & #BlackLivesMatter. We are the majority and we will #StandUpToRacism Stand Up To Racism Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) #WorldAgainstRacism #Unions4Unity #UnionsAgainstRacism 

 

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Keelie 37.

 

             Glasgow Keelie 37 is on the streets, look out for it, you'll find it at picket lines, protests, strikers support rallies, in cafes, pubs and on the street, watch out for it and grab your free copy of Glasgow's own radical newspaper. Find out what's happening in our city and further afield, and how to get involved, a pocket rocket of a newspaper jam packed with info. If you think you can contribute, or would like a few copies to distribute among your mates, please get in touch at glasgowkeelie@riseup.net Read it on line at https://glasgowkeelie.org You can also find us Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. 

 

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

Pickets.

    

            Strikes are widespread across the country, and rightly so, as the ordinary people of this country are being savaged by the parasite financial Mafia class, all for profit for the big boys. We are being hit with massive food price increases, stratospheric energy price rises, brutal cuts to social services, wage restraint, and the promise that we will be 7% worse off by the next two years. Just remember the strikers are your neighbours, the group you meet in the pub, the bunch you go to the match with, they are us. Their fight is our fight and we must support the strikes, join their picket lines, show your support, for all of us, this is a fight we must win if we have to have any semblance of a decent life. See  Solidarity to find out how and where to support the pickets.

Some photos from this morning's picket lines, join them.

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