A Library?

 

         Where is Glasgow's anarchist library, we have Glasgow Women's Library, we have Spirit of Revolt Archives of Dissent, but no Glasgow Anarchist Library. We are a big city with a history of radical struggle by the ordinary people. Perhaps a Glasgow Anarchist Library could be the missing link. 

 From stuut.info
October 8, 2023

We are several people who set up a participatory anarchist public library in the center of Brussels because we thought it was important. It’s called La B.O.U.M. , and after many months of preparation, it’s the day of the inauguration : we are happy to celebrate, and to finally start borrowing!

It’s happening at Boom, a self-managed café on rue Pletinckx n°7 in 1000 Brussels, behind the Halles St-Géry.

Saturday, October 21, 2023 4:00-10:00 p.m.

Program :
-4 p.m. : workshops, games
-6 p.m. : presentation of the library
-7 p.m. : Spanish inn
-8:30 p.m. : concert
+ surprise

If you want to participate in the organization
contact : bibli-anar-bxl@proton.me

Visit ann arky at https:/spiritofrevolt.info  

Propaganda.

                                                    Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

           Propaganda, that insidious material that is a constant flow form the various state organisations and reproduced as truth by the mainstream media outlets is like a cancer. It takes over your consciousness, distorts the way you see the world and it destroys your ability to asses what is really happening in the world around us. It is one of the twin tools of the state, the other is a subservient population, one reinforces the other. Our lords and masters preach that everything our state does is honourable, other states not in the same club are deemed to be evil and can do no good, while we can do no wrong. Common sense tells us the world is not like that, all the power blocks make that same claim. We have to dispel the avalanche of propaganda that surrounds us, seek the facts and act on those human instincts of truth, fairness, equality and justice for all. The alternative is to exist as pawns in the mist of illusions.  

 

                                                    Image courtesy of wikipedia.

 The following extract from an article by Cara MariAnna makes the point more clearly.

        All of us alive at the time, and old enough to understand its import, must certainly recall the 1983 speech in which Ronald Reagan, “The Great Communicator,” famously called the Soviet Union the “evil empire”—at the very same time, it must be noted, that he and his administration were turning Central America into a killing field and supporting a jihadist insurgency in Afghanistan to trap the Soviets in a Vietnam-like quagmire. Reagan’s crude formulation resonated with many Americans. The implications were as obvious as they were primitive: Anything the Soviet Union did was evil, while anything America did was good.

       Reagan’s simplistic conceit, a product of the overwrought mind of his chief speechwriter, Anthony Dolan, survives to this day. Indeed, it makes most Americans impervious to, if not completely unable to see, the wrongs committed by their own country, the lies told by their own government. Of course, it perfectly served Reagan’s foreign policy agendas, just as it now perfectly serves Joe Biden’s, especially in his proxy war against Russia.
      Glenn Greenwald considered this question in a recent segment of System Update. “Russia continues to be the all-purpose villain that Western elites now use whenever they get caught in any sort of scandal, any kind of failure,” he noted. “They immediately point to Russia. They say, ‘It’s not our fault, look over there at the Kremlin.’”
       The persistent dogma that Russia is the embodiment of evil—and this is more recently personalized to mean Vladimir Putin—enables Americans to live in a pretend world as they continue to believe, contrary to all evidence, that the war in Ukraine was unprovoked. It is a complete disconnect from reality. The dangerous consequence of this is that anti–Russian propaganda has now pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info     

Plunder.

        The interest the government pays on national debt is a staggering 5.05% a 20 year high. This is more than double that we saw from 1980 to the 2008 financial crash (corporate plundering). The total amount of the UK's national debt is £2.59 trillion, what does this mean to you and I? Well it means that the chancellor will have to take £23 billion of your tax money and pay it to the sharks in the financial Mafia in interest payments. Last year the government paid the financial Mafia a whopping £111 billion in interest, this is more than it spent on education. What do you think is more important, the education of future generations or sharks of the financial Mafia?

Image courtesy of Thought Co.

 

       Because of this debt and high interest rate, no doubt our "prudent" chancellor will decide to spend less on health, education and public services, so that he can keep happy those sharks of the financial Mafia. What kind of society is it that can see the people of a country produce all the wealth of a country and then syphon it off a massive chunks to their billionaire/millionaire buddies. They label this insanity "the economy", which is just a misnomer for a system of plundering the poor to fatten the rich. There is alternatives, it is possible to build society on mutual aid, co-operation, fairness and justice that sees to the needs of all our people. We have the numbers, the skills, the imagination, all that is lacking is the will and solidarity to take control of our lives. The choice is ours, we can knuckle down and get on with this grinding never ending daily struggle, or we can take control of our communities, our workplaces and create that better world we all hold in our hearts, we owe it to our future generations.

Image courtesy of Alerta id.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Work Hard???

 

                                                   Image courtesy of Blogs.Iris.

          In Scotland there is a saying "wha's like is" in my opinion not that many in the developed world. A recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation research reveals that in this oil and whisky country, almost half a million individuals are living in "very deep poverty", an increase of 300,000 since last March. They also found that poverty among working people was growing and 10% of employees were locked into persistent low pay. Those worst hit by this capitalist created poverty are women and ethnic minorities. Following the capitalist work ethic that work lifts you our of poverty, is another spewing of bullshit, as 60% of children living in poverty have at least one parent working. Compare this with those parasites at the other end of wealth scale. Anders Holch Povlsen, who is the owner of Danish retailer Bestseller and has a 25 per cent stake in ASOS, he has managed to grasp a personal fortune of £6.5billion, which is up by £500million compared to last year. Not bad for a 49 year old. Then we have the Easdale brothers, James and Sandy with a £1.363billion fortune based on transport and property acquisitions. Let's not forget the  Edinburgh lassie JK Rowling, she added £30million to her fortune, making her worth £850 million.

Image courtesy of  IX Magazine.

        Now do you think any of these and other millionaire parasites, work that much harder than factory workers, delivery drivers, warehouse workers, nurses, and those in a host of essential jobs that keep this country going and create that wealth that these parasites plunder? Think about it, we create all that wealth, why can't we share it among all our people?

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Last Stand?

 

Image lifted from my friend Loam's blog  Arrezafe      

          To anyone who looks at world affairs it will be obvious that the Dollar and those who control it, are losing their grip on world domination. More and more countries across the planet are tiring of cow-towing to the the whims and desires of that bunch of psychopaths that hold the power of the dollar as a weapon to coercive them to follow the dictate of U$A imperialism. More countries are joining up to trade in their own currencies, freeing themselves for the Dollar domination. In the past those who dared to stand against the Dollar domination, found their country and its people steeped in blood, and left with a land of destroyed infrastructure, poverty and deprivation. The continent of South America has for centuries felt the wrath of the mighty Dollar as it was controlled, plundered and pillaged to enrich the imperial Dollar brigade. The U$A Dollar psychopaths have had no qualms about killing thousands of innocent people just to maintain their dominance. Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, have all felt the wrath of the plundering all powerful Dollar. All have seen their country and their people fall into lands of despair, left to rot or struggle as best they can to recover.
        Looking at its history of actions to maintain its dominance, one fears for what depth it will sink in what it sees as the final stand for world domination. Their previous brutal actions could fade into insignificance as it makes that last grasp for world dominance. Will it throw nuclear weapons around like confetti, believing it will survive and over come the rest of the world. I for one don't believe it will capitulate quietly and be content to lose all that wealth and power that it has held for so long. 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

UN Hypocrisy.

 

        Nice to hear a little bit of truth being spoken in that office of U$A world control, The United Nations. Just a couple of extracts from those prepared to speak a semblance of truth at the 2023 United Nations General Assembly.  

Image courtesy of Davis Political Review.

After a bumbling, incoherent speech by President Biden, Latin America again took the stage in the person of President Gustavo Petro of Colombia:

         While the minutes that define life or death on our planet are ticking on, rather than halting this march of time and talking about how to defend life for the future, thanks to deepening knowledge, expand it to the universe, we decided to waste time killing each other. We are not thinking about how to expand life to the stars, but rather how to end life on our own planet. We have devoted ourselves to war. We have been called to war. Latin America has been called upon to produce war machines, men, to go to the killing fields.
       They’re forgetting that our countries have been invaded several times by the very same people who are now talking about combatting invasions. They’re forgetting that they invaded Iraq, Syria and Libya for oil. They’re forgetting that the same reasons they use to defend Zelenskyy are the very reasons that should be used to defend Palestine. They forget that to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, we must end all wars.
       But they’re helping to wage one war in particular, because world powers see this suiting themselves in their game of thrones, in their hunger games and they’re forgetting to bring an end to the other war because, for these powers, this did not suit them. What is the difference between Ukraine and Palestine, I ask? Is it not time to bring an end to both wars, and other wars too, and make the most of the short time we have to build paths to save life on the planet?
        …I propose that the United Nations, as soon as possible, should hold two peace conferences, one on Ukraine, the other on Palestine, not because there are no other wars in the world—there are in my country—but because this would guide the way to making peace in all regions of the planet, because both of these, by themselves, could bring an end to hypocrisy as a political practice, because we could be sincere, a virtue without which we cannot be warriors for life itself.

Petro was not the only leader who upheld the value of sincerity and assailed the hypocrisy of Western diplomacy. Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines cut to the chase:

       Let us clear certain ideational cobwebs from our brains. It is, for example, wholly unhelpful to frame the central contradictions of our troubled times as revolving around a struggle between democracies and autocracies. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a strong liberal democracy, rejects this wrong-headed thesis. It is evident to all right-thinking persons, devoid of self-serving hypocrisy, that the struggle today between the dominant powers is centered upon the control, ownership, and distribution of the world’s resources.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Cesspool.

     Where have I heard this explanation of UK politics before, AH, at various anarchist discussions. However mainstream media seems loathed to give it the oxygen of publicity.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Why Vote?

 

        Spirit of Revolt is probably Scotland's largest collection of Anarchist and Libertarian Socialist history, memorabilia, letters, pamphlets, periodicals, serials, photos, posters and a myriad of documents on the everyday struggles of the ordinary people, mainly Glasgow Clydeside, but lots of material from further afield including other language material. Spirit of Revolt is entirely run by a small group of unpaid volunteers and we welcome volunteers who can give an hour or two a week to help out and at the same time learn about archiving. So if you are interested in archives and history from below and have those couple of hours spare, why not get in touch, contact us HERE or contact us through info@spiritofrevolt.info

         One of our aims, beside collecting and preserving our history is to make it freely and easily accessible to all. To this aim we digitise as much as possible and make it freely available on our website https://spiritofrevolt.info We also produce a "Read of the Month" here on this blog and on our website. You can also read selections from our collections on our twitter account, https://twitter.com/RevoltArchives

         We rely entirely on donations from comrades, friends and associates, and are not supported financially by trade unions, or businesses. So if you like what we are doing and think it is worth while doing, why not support us by the price of a pint our a couple of coffees a month. On off or monthly direct debit no matter how small would be very much appreciated. DONATE HERE.

 For September's "Read of the Month" We bring you Why I Won't Vote.

READ ON LINE HERE.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

State Crime.

Image courtesy of The Telegraph.

          So here we are in Great Britain, a country that can afford to throw £millions into prolonging a blood bath in Ukraine but spouts no money to afford to eradicate child poverty at home. During 2021-22 in the UK there were 4.2 million children living in poverty, that's a staggering 29% of all UK children. Of course statistics vary as you move among the population. In lone parent families,44% of children are living in poverty. Again, if we move to Black and minority groups, then the % of children living in poverty jumps to 48%
        Of course the ever preached mantra from our lords and masters that work will lift you out of poverty, proves to be the usual bullshit we expect from our political ballerinas. Here in the very rich UK 71% of those children living in poverty are in a family where at least one person works. Again the dice is loaded against you if you come from a larger family. 42% of children living in families of 3 or more children are living in poverty. Of course we shouldn't forget, the adult poverty that lives along side this tsunami of child poverty.

Image courtesy of West Wales Chronicle.

 

        These figures certainly don't paint a picture of a very rich country, but we are living in a very rich country. The problem is the distribution of that wealth, the capitalist system is a system that favours the few who can horde that wealth and with it live a life of opulence steeped in privileges and power. Until we sort that problem we will bequeath a future of continuing poverty and stunted lives for the coming generation of our kids. The choice is ours, the solution will not come from those hoarding parasites who live a privileged life and hold the reins of power.

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Memory-Hole.

An extract from the article, The Mass-Media Memory Hole.  

          Knowledge that sheds light on how the world operates politically and economically is kept to a minimum by the ‘mainstream’ media. George Orwell’s famous ‘memory hole’ from ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ signifies the phenomenon brilliantly. Winston Smith’s work for the Ministry of Truth requires that he destroys documents that contradict state propaganda:

‘When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building’.

(Orwell, ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, 1949, Penguin edition, 1982, p. 34)

The interests of power, hinging on the domination of an ignorant population, are robustly maintained:

          Australian political analyst Caitlin Johnstone noted recently that:

‘Arguably the single most egregious display of war propaganda in the 21st century occurred last year, when the entire western political/media class began uniformly bleating the word “unprovoked” in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.’

          Pointing out that the West ‘provoked’ Russia is not the same as saying that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was justified. In fact, we were clear in our first media alert following the invasion:      

  ‘Russia’s attack is a textbook example of “the supreme crime”, the waging of a war of aggression.’

        As Noam Chomsky pointed out, the 2003 invasion of Iraq was totally unprovoked, but:

        ‘nobody ever called it “the unprovoked invasion of Iraq.” In fact, I don’t know if the term was ever used; if it was, it was very marginal. Now you look it up on Google, and hundreds of thousands of hits. Every article that comes out has to talk about the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Why? Because they know perfectly well it was provoked. That doesn’t justify it, but it was massively provoked.’

         Bryce Greene, a media analyst with US-based Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), observed that US policy makers regarded a war in Ukraine as a desirable objective:
        

‘One 2019 study from the RAND Corporation—a think tank with close ties to the Pentagon—suggested that an effective way to overextend and unbalance Russia would be to increase military support for Ukraine, arguing that this could lead to a Russian invasion.’

          The rationale was outlined in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by John Deni of the Atlantic Council, a US think tank with close links to the White House and the arms industry, headlined ‘The Strategic Case for Risking War in Ukraine’. Greene summarised the logic:

            ‘Provoking a war would allow the US to impose sanctions and fight a proxy war that would grind Russia down. Additionally, the anti-Russian sentiment that resulted from a war would strengthen NATO’s resolve.’

        Greene added:

         ‘The consensus among policymakers in Washington is to push for endless conflict, no matter how many Ukrainians die in the process. As long as Russia loses men and material, the effect on Ukraine is irrelevant. Ukrainian victory was never the goal.’

          As Johnstone emphasised in her analysis:  

     

  ‘It’s just a well–documented fact that the US and its allies provoked this war in a whole host of ways, from NATO expansion to backing regime change in Kyiv to playing along with aggressions against Donbass separatists to pouring weapons into Ukraine. There’s also an abundance of evidence that the US and its allies sabotaged a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine in the early weeks of the war in order to keep this conflict going as long as possible to hurt Russian interests.’

She continued:      

"We know that western actions provoked the war in Ukraine because many western foreign policy experts spent years warning that western actions would provoke a war in Ukraine.’

         But you will search in vain for substantive reporting of such salient facts and relevant history – see also this piece by FAIR – in ‘mainstream’ news media.

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

The Green.

          Gleswegians know your history, without your history you were never here. As George Orwell stated, "The best way to destroy a people is to destroy their history" So make sure that won't happen to us. Spirit of Revolt works hard at trying to preserve and make freely accessible to all, the history of the struggles of the ordinary people. Why not visit their website and delve into a wealth of information on the history, the struggles the victories and the pain of trying for that better world for all.

Spirit of Revolt Archives of Dissent Glasgow/Clydeside

This 25-minute film draws together 1000 years of writings about the area now known as Glasgow Green an integral part of Glasgow and its people the film is part of Spirit of Revolt Archive 

 https://spiritofrevolt.info/radical-history-on-glasgow-green/

 

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Milked!!

            The troubles and struggles we have in our daily life are all down to our Lords and Masters saying, "there isn't enough money" not enough to sort out the health workers with a decent wage increase, Not enough money to recruit more staff. There is not enough money to sort out the education system that is falling apart, just like our NHS. However, when one of their corporate buddies throws down a veiled threat of pulling out of the UK because their antiquated furnaces are costing them money, as the Tata billionaires have done, then our impoverished Lords and Master find £500 million to help them out, to update their antiquated furnaces. It's there business and they boast about putting in £700 million of their own money. They claimed to be losing money, but fail to mention the billions they made rather than update the ageing furnaces. We are being milked by the usual billionaire parasite class, with the co-operation of our political ballerinas, and they are all getting fat on salaries we pay them. Our £500 million will cost a lot of families distress and poverty as the deal comes with 3,000 redundancies. That's the corporate way of saying thanks to the UK tax payers.
           When do we finally take control of our workplaces and our communities and run our affairs for the benefit of all our people, instead of feeding bloated billionaires and their cronies. We have the skills, we have the power, we have the imagination, we have the numbers, all we require is the will and solidarity. Our sweat and labour fashioned and made everything in this world.

Image courtesy of Liverpool University Press.

WE THE LABOURING MASSES.

We the people have, every brick laid,
have fed the world with sweat and spade,
every instrument played in every band
created by the skill of the craftsman's hand.
We made every truck and every load,
our toil our effort every winding road,
every ship that ever sailed the sea,
our power our imagination made it be.
Cities and towns large and small,
our labouring hands fashioned them all,
every home, every spire,
luxury mansion or humble byre.
No matter what dreams the mind might spawn
without labour's hand, never see the light of dawn,
without labour's strength and labour's skill,
we would be foraging beasts in a jungle still.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

War Drums.

            Do you feel threatened by China, do you think that China is likely to attack the West? Strange how the West pushed on by the cheer-leader the good old U$ of A, believes that China is the greatest threat to our way of life. Looking at American history I don't think anybody believes that the U$A stance on China has anything to do with democracy or the well being of the Western population. It is all to do with the psychopathic determination to hold on to the dollar's domination on the world's stage and the power that this hegemony gives America over our countries. To lose this power would knock U$A of the world stage, it would just be another player with no special powers or privileges. The parasite class of America will go to any lengths to avoid this climb down from their throne of power. And that's the worry, the U$A state with its imperial agenda is fanning the flames of war and prodding China in the hope that will capitulate or face a nuclear war. A war where there will be no winners. I'm not singing the praises of China it is just another state that happens to be better at capitalism than the West. However, the outcome of this war mongering lie is what should concern us. 

                                                 Image courtesy of Global Times

An extract from an article by Marjorie Cohn from Truth Out.    

        The United States is gunning for war with China. By cozying up to Taiwan and arming it to the teeth, President Joe Biden is undermining the “One China” policy which has been the cornerstone of U.S.-China relations since 1979. The Biden administration is enlisting South Korea and Japan to encircle China. The U.S. military is conducting provocative military maneuvers that exacerbate the conflict in the South China Sea. Biden is escalating tensions with China and intensifying the danger of nuclear war in the Asia-Pacific. And Republican presidential candidates are also fanning the flames of war with China.
         In March, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines called China the “leading and most consequential threat to U.S. national security.” Chinese President Xi Jinping stated, “Western countries — led by the U.S. — have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression against us.”
         The Biden administration has “doubled down on the most insanely bellicose aspects of Trump administration policies, especially over Taiwan, which the U.S. had long recognized as part of China,” Peter Kuznick, professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, told Truthout.
         More than 90 percent of the most advanced microchips in the world are manufactured in Taiwan. The chips are used to power our smartphones, train artificial intelligence systems and guide missiles. The Trump administration imposed heavy tariffs on Chinese imports to cut off China’s access to the software technology and equipment required to build the advanced chips.
           Biden has maintained and dramatically expanded Trump’s coercive economic measures and imposed a blockade on advanced semiconductors. “Official U.S. policy is to make a nation of almost a billion and a half people poorer,” David Brooks wrote in The New York Times.

AND--

        Speaking on a panel at the Veterans For Peace (VFP) annual convention on August 25, Kuznick remarked that China has not been at war with any country since 1979. By contrast, the United States has had only 16 years of peace in its 247 years. “The U.S. is the most war-making country” in the world, Kuznick said.
       K.J. Noh, an activist scholar who writes about the geopolitics of the Asian continent, also spoke on the VFP panel. Noh described South Korea as key to the U.S.’s escalating war on China. “The United States has operational control over South Korean troops,” Noh said. The U.S. is also “weaponizing Taiwan into an imperial outpost for war.”
        The third panelist was Simone Chun, a researcher and activist specializing in inter-Korean relations and U.S. foreign policy on the Korean Peninsula. She echoed Noh’s comments, calling South Korea a “pawn in Washington’s march to war against China.” South Korea, Chun said, is a “subcontractor in the new Cold War.” In an article for Truthout in March, Chun characterized “[t]he U.S. military encirclement of China” as threatening “to escalate into an Asia-Pacific war, with the Korean Peninsula at the focal point of this dangerous path.” South Korea has 30,000 combat-ready U.S. troops on 73 U.S. military bases in the small country

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Disobey.

       

                                        Image courtesy of Electoral Reform Society.

          At the moment, there's a lot of talk about elections in the UK and each of the crooks and liars parties are spouting their illusions to try and tempt you to run to the ballot box and put down your little X. Of course what you will get from whoever wins will be difficult to tell the difference from what we have already suffered at hands of our political ballerinas. A general election is a bit like tossing a two-headed coin and expecting a different result each time. The Tories are known as the party that attacks the working class, Labour are supposed to be their saviour. However it looks like we can expect Labour to be the party that cuts state pensions. Deputy Labour leader has stated that if they win the next election, they can't guarantee to keep the triple-lock on pensions and benefits. That's a sure vote winner among the Tories, to hell with the principles on which the Labour Party was founded, votes and power is what it is all about. That is power to keep the capitalist system rolling along making big bucks for the corporate world and their minders who worship in that edifice to pomp, power and privilege, the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. When will we ever learn? 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

9-11

          We should always remember the violence carried out and/or orchestrated  by the U$A against states that don't follow their rules. The list is long and the details horrific as catalogues of state terror heaped on innocent people. America's first imperialist adventure was the Philippines, 1899-1902. Since then it has invade countries across the globe on a regular basis.

                                              Image courtesy of Radio Havana Cuba.

          Today 11th September marks the 50th anniversary of the American orchestrated military overthrow of the legitimate elected government of Chile. The Presidential Palace, La Modena, was bombed by military jets, the legitimated elected president Salvadore Allende was killed. General Augustus Pinochet took the reins of power. What followed was years of brutal repression of the people of Chile with thousands killed and as many "disappeared". Dictator Pinochet ruled until 1990 but continued as Commander-in-Chief until 1998, when he became senator-for-life according to legislation he passed in 1980. He has a close friend of the UK Thatcher government.  Still it goes on, from Korea to Vietnam, Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya to Syria the U$A proxy war in Ukraine and the belligerent military attitude to China, a desire to maintain its dominant position in the world is a road to total destruction for civilised life on the planet.    

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info