The West, Masters Of Terrorism.

 

        Up until now I have refrained from saying anything about the Brussels atrocities, such actions leave me numb, the killing and maiming of innocent people, going about their business, is about as low as humans can sink. However there is also anger, anger at our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, who try to play each emotion, the panic, the fear, like some unknown spectacle. They fail to even mention, that this is now a daily occurrence in those lands that the West blasted into the stone age. Our hurt and pain is obviously greater than the suffering of the ordinary people of Iraq, who felt the apocalyptic horror of our "shock and awe", that totally destroyed their country. As we watched our TV's as those buildings disintegrate into dust and rubble, we slaughtered a multitude of teachers, bus drivers, shop assistants, plumbers, doctors, children and elderly, going about their business, all because the West didn't like their leader. Their deaths were justifiable, as their leader was a monster. This statement presupposes that we in the West don't have monsters, just morally impeccable individuals who are capable of killing countless thousands of ordinary people, going about their business. The only difference is scale, the West is the master of destruction and killing of innocents.

 

         The 13th. anniversary of our indescribable onslaught on the people of Iraq is this month, and they still suffer from the consequences of our brutality, car bombings, constant battles and bloodshed, this is their normality, as they try to, go about their business. However, our babbling brook of bullshit, pass these events by as not worthy of reporting.  We have repeated our callous destruction of countries by weapons of incredible power, that no terrorist could hope to have, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Behind all this moral doing-good hypocrisy, lies a mountain of dead ordinary people, from the very young to the very old, all going about their business, when suddenly, from the sky blood and thunder rained down on their innocent lives. All this because our lords and masters didn't like their leaders, their deaths are acceptable "collateral damage".  

          2001 we set about destroying Afghanistan, which entailed the killing of thousands of ordinary people, going about their business. Since then the West has swept through the Middle East, creating a quagmire of blood and destruction, a mountain of innocent deaths, an army of maimed and traumatised, innocent people, going about their business. We are still there, doing our damnedest through killing and maiming, to prop up corrupt factions that might be able to form a government that is compliant to the desires of Western imperialism. 

      Yes, Brussels was a dreadful nightmare for all those involved and fills any decent human with anger, horror and compassion for the victims, but let's not forget the bigger picture, let's start to ask WHY, don't you think that perhaps, just perhaps, we have stoked up a mountain of hate, and perhaps, just perhaps, some want to kick back? That does not in any way condone these actions, but perhaps, just perhaps, we reap what we sow.

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

Our Right To Protest Must Always Be Defended.

        In this so called democracy, the so called "right to protest" is not seen as a right by the powers that be, it is always seen as a threat. Protest means that people are challenging the purloined power of the decision makers. They can't allow that to be seen as an action of ordinary people, it must always be portrayed as a mob action of violent trouble makers. In an attempt to prevent others from joining protests, the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will always show the police instigated violence at protests as the action of the protesters. Obedient subservience is their desired aim, making control so much easier. The right to protest must be defended by solidarity across communities, workplaces, and borders, or our cages become permanently locked.

       The peaceful protest at Brand Street Glasgow was another example of this growing brutality, by the authorities against protesters.

This from Common Space:

Superglued protestors pulled apart and pregnant woman says she was pushed repeatedly at Brand Street blockade

POLICE DOGS and around 30 officers were used to break up a blockade in Glasgow last night, to enable the removal from Scotland of an LGBT asylum seeker and her young son.

Dogs were deployed against a peaceful protest in Glasgow as officers from Police Scotland broke up the blockade of 30 protestors with around 30 officers, in an move which the protestors described as "extremely violent" and "unprecedented".

Refugee rights campaigners blocked the entrance to the Border and Immigration Agency in Brand Street for around four hours yesterday [Monday 21 March] after discovering that LGBT activist and asylum seeker Beverly Vaanda Kanjii, 45, and her 14-year-old son had been arrested in a dawn raide at their Bridgeton home earlier that day. 

Read the full article HERE:


 

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Revolutions Are Not Made By Laws.

       Not the sort of thing that you would find in that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, an interesting article from ROAR:

        Have you heard about Venezuela’s communes? Have you heard that there are hundreds of thousands of people in nearly 1,500 communes struggling to take control of their territories, their labor, and their lives? If you haven’t heard, you’re not the only one. As the mainstream media howls about economic crisis and authoritarianism, there is little mention of the grassroots revolutionaries who have always been the backbone of the Bolivarian process.

        This blindspot is reproduced by an international left whose dogmas and pieties creak and groan when confronted with a political process that doesn’t fit, in which the state, oil, and a uniformed soldier have all played key roles. It’s a sad testament to the state of the left that when we think of communes we are more likely to think of nine arrests in rural France than the ongoing efforts of these hundreds of thousands. But nowhere is communism pure, and the challenges Venezuela’s comuneros confront today are ones that we neglect at our own peril.

“Revolutions Are Not Made by Laws”

        What is a commune? Concretely speaking, Venezuela’s communes bring together communal councils—local units of direct democratic self-government—with productive units known as social production enterprises. The latter can be either state-owned or, more commonly, directly owned by the communes themselves. Direct ownership means that it is the communal parliament itself—composed of delegates from each council—that debates and decides what is produced, how much the workers are paid, how to distribute the product, and how best to reinvest any surplus into the commune itself.

      Just as the late Hugo Chávez did not create the Bolivarian Revolution, the Venezuelan state did not create the communes or the communal councils that they comprise. Instead, the revolutionary movements that “created Chávez” did not simply stop there and stand back to admire their creation—they have continued their formative work in and on the world by building radically democratic and participatory self-government from the bottom-up.

Read the full article HERE:

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Oh What A Beutiful Day---

        Sunday, another glorious day, but still COOOLD. Out round Gartmore, beautiful sunshine, not much of a wind, it just needs to move up a few more degrees to enter that zone of super magic. I have never seen so many cyclists on the road before. There were individuals, groups of two to six or seven, bunches of a dozen or more and one pack of around twenty. You didn't have to cover much ground to see another couple grinding their way around. All ages, young and some grey-bearded, fantastic to see. In the first photo, if you look carefully, you can just see the top of Ben Lomond peeking above the horizon, with some snow still visible on its slopes.It looked better in reality than it does in the photo.

Just visible, Ben Lomond, in the centre of the horizon.

Just outside Gartmore.

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

 

The Plague Of Tarmac Spreads.

 

      It looks like those tarmac worshippers in the Kremlin in George Square Glasgow, have prevailed again. Another public green spot in our city is to disappear, Sighthill Park is to be sacrificed on the developers altar. Another slice of public open green space that people enjoy will get a monochrome coating of tarmac, and developers will pop their Champagne bottles, paying homage to a council that is supposed to represent the people. Soon, if you want a green space in Glasgow you will have to put it in a flower pot and stand it on your window sill.

 

SUN TRAP:

 The stones were the first astronomically aligned circle built in Britain for 3,000 years.

Duncan Lunan just posted an update on the petition you signed, Glasgow City Council should scrap their plans to demolish Sighthill Park and its stone circle.

Last Event at the Stone Circle

Mar 20, 2016 — The Paper Kiln Event at Sighthill Stone Circle on Sunday 20th March 2016 will be the very last event at the Stone Circle as it will be taken down in the first week in April. Please support this event. https://www.facebook.com/events/1086121661427305/ A Spring Equinox event with the opportunity to fire ceramic pieces using a traditional outdoor paper kiln at the Sighthill Park Stone Circle with... Read more

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

Anarchist Radio Berlin.

          The latest episode from Anarchist Radio Berlin:
          As Anarchist Radio Berlin (aradio.blogsport.de) we had the opportunity of talking to a member of the anarchosyndicalist union FAU in Berlin. Until very recently he was involved in a worker's struggle concerning the dismissal of two workers from a vegan Pizzeria and tells us about the background of the struggle, the methods they used and the successful end of the campaign. Further topics are the situation of migrant workers in Berlin and the issue of self-organizing of those workers.

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

Glasgow's Anti-racism March.

        Saturday 19th. March is United Nations Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in cities and across the UK, and in countries around the globe, people came together to shout loud and clear, “ Refugees Are Welcome Here”. Glasgow saw a crowd in excess of two thousand gather in George Square, before marching through the city and returning to George Square for a display of solidarity against racism of any kind. There were the usual colourful banners, placards and flags, all with a similar message, “we're all Jock Tamson's bairns.”. People are people across the world, all of us struggling to survive in a brutal and exploitative system. Racism is an artificial barrier constructed by the power mongers to divide the ordinary people of this world, making it so much easier for them to rule over their fiefdoms, by creating an imagined enemy across the seas. Our only enemy are the power mongers, whither they be Presidents, monarchs, dictators, governments, corporations or religions. 

        It is sad that we still have to hold these events, but great that such numbers turn up and publicly display their support for people as people, we are all villagers of the world village. 

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

Greek Anarchists Show Of Strength Against Drug dealers.

From Anarchist News:

       Massive show of strength as anarchists, antifascists and anti-authoritarians took to the streets of Exarcheia against drug dealing mafias and police. The demonstration was guarded by comrades armed with openly displayed guns (who can be seen on the video from 01:53), something that has not been seen at demonstrations in recent times but was deemed necessary due to the serious threat posed by the heavily armed drug mafias who work in collusion with the police.
        This show of armed strength and solidarity was in response to ongoing tensions in the area with drug dealing mafias including a recent incident where 3 anarchist comrades were violently attacked by a drug dealer.

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

Little Questions About God.

         Got this from comrade Loam, thanks Loam. As the comment states, apparently it is a song that was banned during the Franco era.Those good Christians can't abide anybody questioning their God.

         "During the dictatorship that killed so many people in my country, it was forbidden to play this song in the radio or the TV. The dictators were, of course, defending "christian faith"."

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

 

My Uncle Willie.

My Uncle Willie.

        To those who know me, there will be no doubt in their minds about my hatred of the economic system we bleed under. In my eighties now, I have seen this system destroy individuals, tear families apart, and in its voracious greed for profit and power, it has murdered and maimed countless millions in its endless wars. Each individual destroyed, each family torn apart, each war grave, and each veterans hospital are all indictments against a system where people are sacrificed to keep the system functioning for the benefit of a small cabal of over privileged parasites. You would think that our humanity would demand that the system should be altered, modified and shaped to meet the needs of the people, not the other way round.
       As we look at this society we can see all around us, those unfortunate individuals whose lives are deeply scarred by a system that uses people to perpetuate its greed driven machinations. It is so easy to encapsulate the ruthless viciousness of the system in one person's life, to me my uncle Willie is such a person. To the system, a nobody, a human being of no significance, but to those around him, a friend, a father, a son, a brother, a husband and an uncle.
       My uncle Willie was my mother's younger brother, naturally I didn't know him in his early years, but I heard the stories. Willie, like the rest of my family, lived in Garngad, a Glasgow slum in the north of the city. A young man in the 30's, he was married and had three kids, and like so many of that era, unemployed. It seems that Willie was a family man and loved his kids, he could be seen most days walking with them along the waste ground off Charles Street at the back of Glenconner Park, usually two kids running in front and the youngest on his shoulders. It seems he was an excellent snooker player, and that is where he supplemented his income, by playing round the many snooker halls in Glasgow. However to the system, he was superfluous to requirements, so could scrape a living in the slums of Glasgow as best he could.
      Then, suddenly, he is a valuable asset to the system, 1939, WWII starts, and Willie is scooped up and shipped out to Egypt. We know nothing of his experiences there, but after three years there and later his demob, he returned home with malaria, this is when I got to know him, just a little. His shaking hands, the troubled look in his eyes. His return to civilian life didn't get off to a good start, on returning home to his family, of wife and three kids, he discovered that he now had five kids. This was the end of his marriage, the family broke up, and Willie moved from job to job, and his drinking got worse and he eventually couldn't hold a job, he was now an alcoholic and homeless. Moving from homeless hostel to homeless hostel, occasionally staying with family, but his alcoholism made that an ever decreasing possibility.
       I remember my mother on many an occasion, looking out the window and saying, "Oh, here's Willie coming", then a pause, then, "he doesn't look too drunk". He would sit and chat to his big sister and myself, my mother would make him something to eat and give a cup of tea. Though, it was never a full cup of tea, his hands were shaking so bad, a full cup would have been all over him, she only quarter filled the cup and kept topping it up, it was his troubled eyes that have stuck with me all these years, as he was leaving, my mother would slip a 10 shilling note into his hand.
        Willie spent the rest of his years moving around hostels for the homeless, eventually dying in one down in Ardrossan in his fifties.
       To me, my uncle Willie epitomises this stinking system, you're a worthless entity, left to rot unless the system needs you, either to make its profits, or to fight its imperialist wars, and your reward for either of these activities, is never anything worth having. 

The Homeless.

Tenebrous spectres, they exist,    out there,

on the crumbling edge of chaos,

a father, a son, a brother,

a daughter, a sister, a mother.

Fragments of some shattered family structure;

waste products

from a society being driven to destruction

by a hurricane of greed,

living a life that wears out life,

dying,

the devious death of exhaustion from existence. 

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

The Murder Of A Planet.

        It is now obvious that the corporate world, is destroying the planet. Ground water is contaminated, rivers are polluted, oceans and seas are poisoned, glaciers are melting, forests are stripped bare. Natural habitats disappear under a carpet of tarmac and industrial constructions, more and more species become extinct. All this is done for profit to benefit the few. If we continue as we are doing, it is only a matter of time before the species responsible for this insane destruction of our planet will join the ever growing list of extinct species.
       Where does the state stand in all this? Take a glance around and it becomes obvious. Where resistance to this killing of the planet grows and gets in the way of corporate profit, the state apparatus, as the corporate world's hit squad, moves in and attempts to crush that resistance to the corporate greed and insanity.

       This appeal for solidarity from the Hambach Forest, where mining is set to destroy the entire forest.

 Info

            Short facts about the lignite mining in Rhineland (Germany)
           In the Rhineland in Germany, the company RWE is running 3 lignite mines where they extract around 100 Mio. t of lignite each year. Furthermore they run 5 power plants where the coal is being burned in order to produce energy. This industry causes aroung 100 Mio. t CO² per year, sets free a lot of fine dust as well as heavy metals, radioactive elements and other pollutants.
         To preserve the mines from flooding with water the ground water level of the region is being lowered to a depth of around 500m, which brings heavy consequences for the nature.
In addition many villages are being „relocated“ which means that the people there are forced to move and the land is being destroyed and contaminated.
       For the biggest nowadays running mine there – the mine ‚Hambach‘ – the forest ‚Hambacher Forst‘ is being cut since 1978. The plan of the company is to completely clearcut the forest until 2018.

The world's is largest digger at the RWE mine in Hambach Forest.

Second Day of Evictions! Support needed!

        Yesterday morning the meadow occupation was surrounded by police. This turned into a huge police operation: All main paths in the forest were cleared, fixed and broadened,, all barricades and tripods destroyed. Until today three unoccupied occupations were evicted (Crusty Town, Pizza, Molly). Police forces are still present all around, chasing people who try to build new barricades.

       This is an urgent call-out for all kinds of support! What has happened the last two days is a massive attack! Because all the roads are cleared and passable for big machinery it’s important to protect the forest occupations NOW!

         Come to the Hambach forest, we need food, water, blankets and most of all more people with fresh energy!

15.03.2016

19:30 For now the situation is calm again, seems like the cops left the forest.
17:10 Police chases activists who are trying again and again to barricade the roads.
17:00 Cops cut a rope in Oaktown and peppersprayed one other. This is hindering
food/water supply, climbing up or down is impossible now.
14:30 evicted until now: Crusty Town, Molly, Pizza (all platforms were not occupied at that time)
the meadow is surrounded again by cops, some on horses
tunnel near Molly is destroyed
11:00 copcars are patrolling in the forest

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

 

A Right Royal Democracy.

           We are a supposed to live in a democracy, but we have a monarch, a very expensive symbol of British imperialism. You could say that the present monarch landed lucky, as without any effort on her behave, she fell heir to approximately 46,000 acres of land, which generates a considerable income. This is called the Duchy of Lancaster and is held in trust for her personal use. It is referred to as the Privy Purse, a nice name, and at the last reckoning generated around £12.5 million. I suppose she could get by on that, and take care of her brood, but no, there are other incomes to help her get by. There is another Duchy, the Duchy of Cornwall, this is give her son Charles a little income of his own, and last year it is reckoned to have netted him a cool £19.8 million. The royal brood are not afraid to have a wee fling now and again, like Andrew spending £14,692 to see the golf at Muirfield, and Andrew splashing out a wee bundle of £46,198, on a charter flight to a couple of resorts in Europe. Then there was Charles, so overcome with grief at Nelson Mandela's death that he spent almost a quarter of a million on a private jet to be at the funeral.

 Look, pie-in-the-sky, that's what our loyal peasants get.

           Apart from their nice little earners from the Duchies, there is the sovereign grant, tax payers money, to make sure they don't fall short before the end of the month, I suppose you could call this their tax credits. Last year it was a tidy little some of £35.7 million. However, this sum is disputed by the group called Republic, who point out that the massively expensive security bill to look after this privileged bunch, is picked up by the Metropolitan Police, (tax payers) and when they go walk-about and visit their humble subjects, the local councils pick up the tab,(tax payers). Republic state that the actual bill to the tax payer for keeping this family on benefit is about 10 times the stated £35.7 million and comes in at around £334 million annually.
            Another anomaly with this rather large family, although they are all on benefit, none of them have ever been forced to take a workfare placement, nor have any of them been sanctioned. Don't you feel that this is a bit unfair, I think it is because of their connections in high places, but I must be wrong, as we live in a democracy!!!

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

Oh What A Beautiful Day.

        Best day of the year so far. What a beautiful day, not a cloud to be seen, though the wind was light 8mph it was an easterly and very cold. It is quite a while since I trundled along the Aberfoyle road, really enjoyed it, still longing for some heat in the air, but it is a beautiful country.

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

The Budget, A Carve Up For The Rich.

         Wednesday sees that familiar episode in our political farce, “the budget”. This is when that millionaire product of the Oxbridge sausage factory, Osborne, tells us how he is going to carve up the nation's wealth. Of course being a multi-millionaire and moving in those circles, he is totally divorced from that place we, the ordinary people call “the real world”. His circle of fiends and associates will all hail from that exclusive little club of over privileged parasites, and no doubt he will take good care of them. 

       Do you think that he will be sitting burning the midnight oil over the statistics that tell us that 28% of children in the UK live in poverty? Do you think it will cause him sleepless nights that this translates into 9 children in every class of 30 go hungry, and that means that a staggering 3.7 million children in the UK will have their life potential stunted because of poverty?
       The Institute for Fiscal Studies states that because of tax and benefit adjustments since 2010, the number of children living in relative poverty will have increased from 3.6 million to 4.3 million by 2020.
         This same chancellor is always bumming about how his bunch of cronies are getting more people into work, but fails to mention that in this type of economic system, work is not the solution to poverty. The facts are that 64%, almost two thirds, of children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one person works. Also, 60% of families in the bottom end of income can't afford to take the children for one weeks holiday a year. 

         Child poverty is life damaging, shortens life's, in blunts their education, and deprives them from joining activities with their school friends. Regarding achieving in education there is a 28% gap in achieving 5 A-C GCSE grades between those of free school meals and their wealthier friends. 

        At the other end of the scale, Oxfam states that since 2000, the richest 1% of Britons, a cabal made up completely of millionaires, took more than a quarter of the £4 trillion increase of the UK's increase in national wealth. Each parasitic member of this 1%, saw their average wealth grow to a staggering £3.7 million in 2015. By contrast, only 7% of that national wealth increase went to around 30 million people. Today the average wealth of those in the bottom 10% is £1.600.
         The hints coming out from the “budget” is that there are more severe cuts coming the way of us at the bottom half of the income range, while there are talk of tax cuts for the better off. 

         They know there is a class war, and they fight accordingly, they know who their friends are. What about us, do we accept we are in a class war, will we fight accordingly, do we know who our friends are?

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