Syrian Kurdistan.

        Donnacha DeLong, Circled A Radio, returns this week with a show about what's happening in Syrian Kurdistan, with an activist who has seen first hand the new society Kurds are trying to build in the midst of conflict. Features Tottenham's own Zaher Baher talking about what's going on in Rojava in Syria and why they need our solidarity. 

Listen Now:

From Libcom By Zaher Baher, from Haringey Solidarity Group and Kurdistan Anarchists Forum

Also a talk on the subject from last year's Anarchist Bookfair.

Visist ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

Elegy Written In A Country Graveyard.

        A few verses from, Elegy Written in a Country Graveyard, by Thomas Gray, a poem that moved me as a child at school, and still one of my favourites.

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,

         Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;

Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile

         The short and simple annals of the poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,

         And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,

Awaits alike th' inevitable hour.

         The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault,

         If Mem'ry o'er their tomb no trophies raise,

Where thro' the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault

         The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

Can storied urn or animated bust

         Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?

Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,

         Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

         Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;

Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,

         Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page

         Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;

Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,

         And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

         The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:

Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,

         And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast

         The little tyrant of his fields withstood;

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

         Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

An Appeal For Solidarity And Help.

I'M PASSING ON - PLEASE READ THIS.

       Hi there: Several different groups from Glasgow are planning to take things to Calais in the week starting Monday 12th October so we are having one last push to collect donations to take.
      WE NO LONGER NEED ANY MORE CLOTHES - thank you to everyone who has donated clothes but we have been overwhelmed and have more than enough. The clothes are being sorted and some will be donated to charities in Glasgow, others will be sold on to raise funds to help pay for taking things to Calais. A lot of the clothes are going to be sent by container to refugee camps in the Lebanon and elsewhere.

CAN YOU HELP PREPARE THE CAMP IN CALAIS FOR THE COMING WINTER BY
DONATING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING?
- saws,
- hammers,
- screwdrivers,
- crow-bars,
- boltcutters,
- spades
- pickaxes,
- work gloves
- nails and screws,
- wood burners
- camping gas cookers
- cooking pots [not crockery or cutlery please]
- water containers,
- candles,
- tents,
- tarpaulins
- plastic sheeting
- sleeping bags
- blankets.
- Push bikes

       Donations can be dropped off at the St Pauls Building opposite Strathclyde Student Union, 90 John Street G1 1JH MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS & FRIDAYS from 4pm - 7pm.

PLEASE HELP FUND US
       We're also looking to raise money to cover the cost of an extra van from Glasgow. If you can help support us please make a donation to the Calais Solidarity Mission
https://www.indiegogo.com/…/solidarity-mission-to-calais-ca…

Thanks!

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A cool day, on a cool bike.

How can you not be captivated by the Loch?

       Looking at September, I think some how, some where, somebody, has got our season mixed up. March to August is our cold wet and windy Autumn, followed some how by our September summer, then we can expect our October to March to be our lousy cold, windy, winter. Spring is some kind of illusion.

        In saying that, today I had another nice day up the Loch, you know the one. When I left the north end of Glasgow, it was warm with lots of sunny intervals and little cloud. The loch side was cool, and rather cloudy, not the sun caressing my ageing body with warmth, that I had hoped for, never the less, a great day.

 The plate of soup is just round the next bend.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

America, A World Of Wealth And Squalor.

      America, land of the free, the pinnacle of capitalist development, probably the richest country in the world. So we should look to it to see the wonderful benefits of the capitalist system. In capitalist terms, America is successful. In the last six years America's wealth has grown by approximately 60%, during roughly the same time America's homeless children has grown by the same amount, 60%. In that American success story of capitalism, 16 million, 22% of families, live below the federal poverty level. 45% of families live in the low income level, and 16 million kids qualify for food stamps.

       Child poverty is field in which the great American capitalist dream leads the world. 

And from the Washington Post:

America is a 'Leader' in Child Poverty
       The U.S. has one of the highest relative child poverty rates in the developed world. As UNICEF reports, "[Children's] material well-being is highest in the Netherlands and in the four Nordic countries and lowest in Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and the United States."  Over half of public school students are poor enough to qualify for lunch subsidies, and almost half of black children under the age of six are living in poverty. With 32.2 percent of children living below this line, the U.S. ranks 36th out of the 41 wealthy countries included in the UNICEF report. By contrast, only 5.3 percent of Norwegian kids currently meet this definition of poverty.

      The sad and horrific conditions of the citizens of the wealthiest country in the world goes on, in every aspect of their lives, poverty overwhelms them in the midst of opulence.

Nevertheless, other measures of child well-being tend to confirm what the high childhood poverty rate suggests: According to a UNICEF report on 29 similarly affluent countries, American children rank 25th in safety, 27th in education, and 23rd in housing and environment, among other metrics. These results are less open to charges of political bias; the education ranking, for example, bases its findings mostly on school participation rates and international test scores.

       So this is where capitalist success leads us, low incomes, child poverty, poor education, but richer and richer countries, where that wealth is channelled into fewer and fewer hands. 

And from Polizeros:

Los Angeles just realized it has a ginormous Skid Row problem and is galloping to the rescue with alleged plans to help the homeless. Bizarrely, this happened right after a devastating L.A. Weekly article detailed just how hideous things there are now. I guess the article shamed the city into doing something.
Skid Row in Los Angeles is so dangerous and disease-ridden that Union Rescue Mission workers are afraid to eat lunch at nearby restaurants and its CEO is now confined to a wheelchair due to bacterial infections he got from walking around the area. It’s at least as bad as diseased third world cities.
I lived in L.A. for years so pardon my skepticism, but I’m guessing the plan involves chasing the homeless out of the Skid Row, sterilizing and fumigating the area, then gentrifying it. Sure, housing for homeless might help some of them. However many homeless prefer living on the street and the plans don’t involve looking at roots causes, like what caused them to be homeless and, often, addicted to something. It’ll be out of sight, out of mind. The homeless will go elsewhere.
Andy Bales, the CEO now in a wheelchair, says “conditions on Skid Row are worse than they have ever been in the 11 years I’ve been here and I would venture to say that they are the worst and the most violent and the most lawless they have ever been.” He had a blister that became infected with E. coli, staph,, and strep while walking around, even though wearing a special boot. It quickly became hideously infected.

The shockingly unsanitary conditions found on Skid Row are rarely seen outside the Third World. In 2013, public health officials discovered a strain of tuberculosis believed unique to the area. And while all this makes just walking down the street dangerous, for diabetics and other people with compromised immune systems, it can be deadly.

Monochrome photos from "Making-invisible-visible"

 

Corporate Fascism's Strangle Hold.

         Every day it becomes ever more clear that the world is not controlled by governments, but by corporations. More and more the big corporations and the financial Mafia, shape the structure of our societies, they dictate to governments the policies that they want, and these policies are never for the benefit of the citizens of those countries. All is to maximise profit for their shareholders, anything that gets in the way of that aim, has to be removed. This corporate fascism is not in its initial stages, they are at the point of dotting the i's and crossing the t's to finalise their total control over our lives, irrespective of what government you vote in to power. Today we have the illusion of democracy, tomorrow we will real corporatism. The shape of our world will be in the hands of CEOs in the marble halls of corporate power. If you're naive enough to believe that you can somehow stop this by voting in some messiah and a bunch of their cronies, you will be sadly disappointed. Governments are the paid managers of the corporate plan, the are there to give the corporate fascism the semblance of legitimise, and to control the civil population.

An appeal from Global Justice Now:

        Remember the secret corporate courts that allow corporations to sue governments for protecting their citizens?
         Following pressure from thousands of people like you from across Europe, the European Commission has now admitted that these courts are bad in their current form. However, the EU now wants to sign a lesser-known toxic trade agreement leaving our government open to huge law suits for things like raising the minimum wage or stopping fracking.

Take action now to stop the corporate courts.

        Today is one year since the EU and Canada finished negotiating the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). Our elected representatives in the EU parliament will vote on CETA next year. We need to remind them that as they have already rejected secret corporate courts, they will also have to reject CETA.

Tell your Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) it’s time to reject CETA now.

        CETA is TTIP's little brother. It poses major threats to our public services, local jobs, the environment, and to the safety of our food. We’re facing raft of dangerous trade deals, and as CETA is the furthest progressed, it is vital we stop this toxic deal.

Best wishes

Guy Taylor
Global Justice Now trade campaigner

Join Global Justice Now:
Become part of the movement for a more just and equal
world by joining as a member today. Join now.

Connect with us: Twitter | Facebook

Our mailing address is:
Global Justice Now
66 Offley Road, London SW9 0LS
Phone: 020 7820 4900

We used to be the World Development Movement. Find out more.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Downward Spiral To Deprivation.

 

      In the UK the cull of the working class continues unabated. A recent statement from a food bank charity says it has handed out 913,000 food parcels in the last year, up from 347,000 the year before. Still the Bullingdon Club Boys, sitting in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, trumpet this as a "strong" economy. Another sign of their "strong" economy, is the steep rise in homelessness. The England and Wales figures of homeless for June to July 2014 was 55,090 compared with 39,480 for the same period 2010. 

     The massive rise in food bank distribution and the stark increase in homelessness, is nothing short of a human tragedy, a crime waged against the poor and vulnerable, in this extremely wealthy country. One homeless charity says it can no longer offer a bed to all the homeless and instead is giving then bus tickets so they can sleep on the bus at night. It says ‘We tell them which routes to choose, so that they will be travelling around all night".

        Of course the UK state is not the only state that is slashing the living conditions of the people. It is a European wide strategy, we all know how far they have gone in Greece, we are aware of the viciousness of the Spanish state. The people in Finland have taken to the streets as their government moves in with the hatchet to slash at the people's living conditions. New legislation in Finland will abolish two paid holidays, introduce wage cuts, and cut overtime payments, among a raft of other "austerity" measures. Big business wants a sweatshop economy here in Europe and the governments are hell bent on delivering. The UK has already given them a pool of free labour in the shape of workfare.

        Living standards across Europe are all under attack, big business is hungry, wages have to come down, working conditions have to "liberalised", social spending has to be cut to a minimum. Slashing social services means that the government can cut taxes to big business, and those services can be provided, at a profit, by big business. 

       This is not going to change because the government and their pay masters, big business, decide that it is time to raise the living standards of the people and give them a bigger slice of the cake. We are not going to see this wealthy bunch of parasitical shareholders, become a caring compassionate group eager to share their ill-gotten plunder with the people. We are on a downward spiral to deprivation, unless we decide that we want all the fruits of our labour to come to us, and take the necessary steps to ensure that happens. We don't need CEO, banksters, parasitical shareholders, nor do me need their protector that state.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Surveillance Society.

       Big business and state apparatus will always be found to be holding hands, it is a festering marriage that destroys any semblance of democracy. Big business buys governments, governments give the stamp of legitimacy to the big business's plundering of the earth. Both agree that the populace must be kept under control, otherwise their partnership of greed and corruption collapses. Whatever foul deed they get involved in should not surprise us, our only answer to this cancerous marriage is the destruction of the present economic system. Though the fight to get that desired end will take many different shapes, we should not lose sight of the fact that if we want freedom, justice, peace, sustainability, and a society that sees to the needs of all our people, then each battle should be with that destruction of the economic system in mind.

 This from Fight For The Future:

     Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, Symantec, and a handful of other companies just betrayed billions of people and publicly aligned themselves with spy agencies like the NSA.1

Click here to learn more and take urgent action to stop them from handing even more of our personal data over to the government.

        We tend to be pretty skeptical, so it’s hard for tech companies to shock us. But this latest development is significant because these companies aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they’re lobbying for MORE government spying, and asking for government handouts and protection if they play nice.

      Here are the facts: last week, this group of companies sent a letter to Congress endorsing bills like CISA—the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. It’s a dangerous bill that security experts say will erode our privacy while actually making our data less secure.2

      So why are these companies pushing for it? Because the government is offering legal immunity to companies that share private user information with dozens of government agencies.

       We need to act now because if we don’t respond swiftly and loudly, more companies will jump on the bandwagon and sell out their users privacy in exchange for government protection. If more major companies endorse CISA, it will be almost impossible to stop it in Congress.

Click here to take action right now to hold these companies accountable for endorsing CISA.

      We have an opportunity right now, but it won’t last long. If we can create a massive public backlash and make these companies regret endorsing CISA, we can make sure that no other companies are willing to betray their users so publicly, and send a message to Congress that this is still a supremely unpopular bill, no matter what Microsoft and Apple’s lobbyists say.

Time is of the essence. Click here to take action TODAY to stop CISA, before it’s too late.

    Thanks for all you do. More on this soon.
~ Evan at Fight for the Future

P.S. We’re a small group of activists who consistently take on and win huge campaigns — chip in $5 to help us make sure we have the resources we need to beat these companies.

1. http://www.bsa.org/~/media/Files/Policy/data/09142015CongLeadershipDataAgendaLetter.pdf
2. http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/files/blogs/technologists_info_sharing_bills_letter_w_exhibit.pdf 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Can The World's People March Together

       It is hard to imagine that our political lords and masters, who are, no more than the bed fellows of the corporate world, will do anything about climate change. The corporate world's short term strategies for fast profit, is hardly a recipe for change that will address the issue of climate change. It is only by the pressure of the world's people that we can halt this insane policy of profit at the expense of our planet. Capitalism and conservation do not make happy partners, conservation is the sane road, capitalism the insane. 

This from Avaaz:

Dear friends,
     Something magical is happening... All across the world we’re coming together to hit the streets on November 29th — hours before the most important climate summit this decade! This is a day of action not to be missed — click on the map to find an event near you: 

      This is going to be mega! Last year almost 700,000 people took to their streets and created the largest mobilisation on climate change in history. This year we are going even bigger! If hundreds of thousands of us join events in cities and towns everywhere, we’ll show our leaders meeting in Paris that our movement cannot be ignored and we will accept nothing less than an ambitious climate deal, with a global commitment to 100% clean energy!

Click the link to join in and find an event near you:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/event/globalclimatemarch?cl=8608269896&v=65175

Let’s seize this moment, for our future, our kids’ futures, and everything we love.
With hope,
Oli, Alice, Morgan, Iain and the rest of the Avaaz team

More Information:
No plan B if Paris climate summit ends in failure, says EU climate chief (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/06/no-plan-b-if-paris-climate-summit-ends-in-failure-says-eu-climate-chief 

‘Climate deception dossiers’ expose oil industry lobbying (RTCC)
http://www.rtcc.org/2015/07/08/climate-deception-dossiers-expose-oil-industry-lobbying

Taking a call for climate change to the streets (NYTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/nyregion/new-york-city-climate-change-march.html

People's Climate March: the revolution starts here (article on The Guardian by Avaaz founder Ricken Patel)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/29/peoples-climate-march-the-revolution-starts-here

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Help The Homeless, Go To Prison!!!

        Once again that part of the state apparatus known as the judicial system shows its inhumane face. A group of people decide to help the homeless, so the occupy an empty building, set up places for the homeless to sleep, organise a street kitchen to help feed, run an advice centre to help homeless people find their way through the maze of bureaucracy that can exclude them form what they are entitled to, and what does this system do? It evicts them and then imprisons those trying to help the homeless. They were obviously stopping somebody or other from making money from the homeless, so they had to be punished.

This from Streets Kitchen:

      Five Activists who had occupied Liverpool’s old Bank of England building to provide shelter and feed the city’s homeless people have been jailed for almost 3 months each.
       The Love Activists moved into the unoccupied building in the middle of April to set up a support centre for Liverpool’s homeless people, incorporating places to sleep, an advice centre and a street kitchen, from where they were evicted in the early hours of 12 May and the homeless activists arrested.

      The defendants were charged in relation to the occupation of the old bank building in Castle Street, Liverpool city centre, as part of a protest over lack of support for the homeless and government austerity.

      John Hall, 50; John Rice, 22; Chelsea Stafford, 19; James Jones, 20, and James Allanson, 20, all pleaded guilty to trespass while a possession order was in place.

        The court also heard a minimum of £91,573 was spent in policing the protest, while the operation to arrest the protesters cost around £27,000. Almost all this budget was used in paying overtime to officers so as to create a heavy oppressive police presence around the building where they used a dispersal order to clear supporters away from the building and, the activists said, were refusing to allow supplies to be taken into the building.

        The Love Activists’ occupation had growing support among residents and businesses of Liverpool. A poll on the Liverpool Echo website at that time gave a majority of those asked believing the group should stand firm against their eviction order.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

September Sun.

       Thank you September, you came up with the goods when summer failed. Another fine day, another pleasurable spell grinding the pedals, didn't like the wind though, never the less a great wee run. They say that October is to be fine in Scotland. Who knows, perhaps this fair weather cyclist will be cycling at Christmas. Ahh, we can still dream.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Finnish Workers Fight Back.

      An update on the Finnish workers fight back against the vicious attack on their pay and conditions by the right-wing coalition government. This government has tried to do in one fell swoop, what the Cameron Bullingdon Boys have been doing over the last few years. However, the Finnish workers are not taking it lying down, they are organising across the country, isn't it time we followed their example.

This from IUF

      Last week we appealed to you to send messages to the government of Finland condemning proposed new anti-union laws. Over 7,000 of you sent messages, which were shared with the Finnish labour movement. The Finnish Food Workers, on behalf of our affiliates and the wider labour movement have conveyed their warm appreciation for this show of solidarity.
     Workers in Finland's 3 national trade union centers held strikes and demonstrations on September 18 to show their opposition to the new coalition government's proposed legislative attack on collective bargaining rights. Some 300,000 workers engaged in work stoppages, including 10,000 members of the Food Workers Union SEL who held strikes ranging from 15 minutes to 4 days, depending on the company.
    30,000 workers demonstrated in torrential rain in the capital Helsinki and unions held local demonstrations across the country.

The fight has only started.

       If you were not able to respond to our earlier appeal, please take a moment now - CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Disappearing Common Good Fund.

       The Common Good Fund, money that could improve the quality of life of the citizens of this country, lost, disappeared, misused, mismanaged, shrouded in mystery. It is ours and those deemed to be responsible for looking after it, can't even tell us what it is worth. Pop along and ask about it, find out what you can do about it, find out exactly what it is and how it is supposed to be used.

Thursday, 24th. September, 19:00

The Fred Paton Centre

Carrington Street 

St. George's Cross 

Glasgow G4 9AJ

Five minutes walk from St. George's Cross underground.

 

The Common Good: What is it and how do we take it back?

        Scotland was formerly divided into 196 Burghs, each containing between the people of each Burgh, what is known as a Common Good Fund. The Common Good Fund of each Burgh consisted of properties, land and money which was available to the common benefit of all the people of each Burgh. Since the demarcations of localities across Scotland has changed over time, Burgh councils have been folded and all responsibility of the Common Good Fund has been transferred to each District Council in Scotland. It has become apparent, however, that the responsibilities of District Councils to keep a proper account of Common Good assets has not been properly fulfilled, even so far as property of the Common Good being illegally sold to private bodies. As a result, the public at large have been so removed from this knowledge of the Common Good that as a people we have been alienated from what is commonly belonging between us. The discussion GAC would like to invite you to is to pursue the questions as to what the Common Good is and how we go about taking back what has been purposefully allowed to fade into the past by our so-called local authorities.

The venue is the Fred Paton Centre a 5 minute walk from St George's X underground on Carrington Street.

Visit ann ark's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Long History Of Glasgow's Anarchists.

       We in the city of Glasgow can trace the roots of its anarchist groups, individuals and activities, back into the distant past. We have always been there, standing with the people of the city in their many and varied and sometimes brutal struggles for that better world, for justice and for freedom. The history of the Glasgow anarchists is one of which we can be proud.

         It was in 1894 that Tom Anderson founded the first Scottish Socialist Sunday School, and three years later founded the South Side Socialist Sunday School, which lasted well into the 1930's. In 1910, George (Ballard) Barrett settled in Glasgow and set about holding street meetings with some assistance from John McAra from Edinburgh. Around about the same time George along with John Paton, set up the Glasgow Anarchist Group. 1919 saw the well know anarchist Guy Aldred settle in Glasgow, stating it was, "its citizen's truculent attitude, rebellious spirit and disrespect for leaders" that made him think of settling in Glasgow. Let's hope we can enhance that particular trait in the citizens of our great city. When we mention Guy Aldred, we have to mention Ethel MacDonald. Running along with and over lapping the time of Guy Aldred, we had such gallant working class fighters as, Frank Leech, Charlie and Mollie Baird, Willie McDougal, who helped keep the Workers Open form running until the 1950's, Jimmy and Babs Raeside,  Bobby Lynn, The list goes on and on, some known, some forgotten, some lost in the fog of history, much to our regret. Some others are, Farquar McLay, John Taylor Caldwell, Rita Milton, Allan Burnett, with more on Allan HERE, and Dave Carruthers.

        A little hint of what was happening in the anarchist movement in Glasgow during the 1960's can be read HERE,  and a little later, 1974-1986, HERE.

        These are just a few of the anarchist that have helped shape our city, like I said, there are so many names that have been lost, that this is just a fragment of the picture. What is encouraging is that the anarchist tradition is still alive and well in our city today. There is a crop of enthusiastic individuals and groups, who are still at the forefront of the struggles of the people of our city, and it is uplifting to see that it is not all grey haired and slow walking individuals, but a wonderful gathering of young, intelligent and dedicated individuals, that are forming groups and pushing forward with the anarchist dream of that better world for all.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk