UK, Third World Country!!

          Further to my article regarding the "End Of Austerity" some very interesting and devastating  series of facts in this link from Comrade Loam. It lays bare the facts of how we in the UK have seen our standard of living deteriorate further in relation to inequality within the country than any other country in Europe. As far as inequality goes we look more like a third world country than a so called rich developed country.

Thanks Loam for the link:

      "...purchasing power parity poorest people in the United Kingdom in the year 2000 are poorer than any other nation in 2010 some of the poorest 10% of the population have an income on the scale which the OECD create and I should explain this a little better to you the OECD study creates a scale and inequality scale in the year 2000 in the United Kingdom the poorest 10% of the population had an income which which gave them 60 points on the OECD scale the top 10% of the population of the United Kingdom in the year 2000 had an annual income at 845 points on the same scale 60 at the bottom 845 at the top Germany is the country in the study which comes closest to the United Kingdom at the bottom end of the scale poorest people in Germany are at around 60 points in the scale as well but the richest 10% of the German population have a score at the other end of the scale lot of 845 but just above 300 and that's the closest of any country in the whole survey including the United States so that's in the year 2000 15 years later and uniquely in the survey poorest people in the United Kingdom are poorer than they were in the year 2000 and there is no other country in the survey at all where 15 years later people have fallen further back than they were 10 years earlier at the top of the scale in the United Kingdom the richest people have moved from 845 points on the scale now to 1150 they have broken through the 1000 barrier in Germany the most well-off have got richer - they've now moved from just above 300 to just below 400 so the gap between the United Kingdom and any other country in Europe which starts with differences in equality in inequality which are absolutely striking at the start of the period that gap has grown even further in the 15-year period and that's what I mean I think by suggesting to you that while in the European mainstream the gap between the top and the bottom in any country is relatively narrow and even under the conditions of austerity grows to a modest extent the United Kingdom begins as the most unequal country in the European Union and that accelerates away accelerates away even faster during the austerity years and the figures as you will know I'm sure are not in any way one-off for the product of some strange methodological quirk earlier this year research for the Centre for you for European reform the Centre for European reform told the same story at a regional level the United Kingdom has nine of the ten poorest regions in northern Europe there is one part of Belgium that is on that list all nine others are regions of the United Kingdom and within the United Kingdom the gap between the richest and poorest regions is wider than in any the European Union country and that gap the centre concludes has widened and not narrowed during the age of austerity but simply it seems to me that by the end of the period the United Kingdom no longer looks like a European country the mechanisms of social solidarity which are the project of government action have been abandoned here to an extent unparalleled elsewhere with the gross disparities exposed in the figures I just set out and nor of course in our country is this dismal journey over..."

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

Anarchist Film Archive.

      Put on a local film show, bring anarchism to your neighbourhood, Spread the word with a friendly film night, all possible via Anarchist Film Archive. It's there make good use of it.

Anarchist Film Archive- More than 1000 FREE rare films & documentaries

        Christie Books just relaunched the Anarchist Film Archive, an easy to use online streaming, and has a ton of rare and hard to find films, documentaries and historical archives from early 20th century until our days. Check it out now HERE:
In their own words:

        “The archive is free to access and contains a growing collection of nearly 1000 difficult-to-find feature films, documentaries, interviews, talks and short videos — all with anarchist or libertarian-oriented themes of education, justice, resistance — and liberation. Complementing the archive is a comprehensive and regularly updated database of anarchist/libertarian films compiled and maintained by Santiago-Juan Navarro. The archive is easy to use: you can scroll through the titles, search for a particular film in the ‘Search’ box or search by tag. You can also embed individual films in blogs, facebook pages etc.”

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

 

The End Of Austerity!!

 

        As usual our political ballerinas are prancing around with their opposing views. On the one side, the opposition spouts gloom and doom, while the group with their hands on the controls, waffle on about "austerity is over", and everything is wonderful and will only get better if you leave them in control. Then through the portal into the real world and we find the truth. The use of food banks in UK has risen by 13% this year, people are still being callously sanctioned for trivial and unjust reasons, and losing their benefits for varying periods from one week to one year, pushing them into deprivation and desperation. This winter it is forecast that their will be an increase in deaths from fuel poverty. Which translates into people sitting in their home during the UK winter with no or too little heating and in some cases dying a slow death.

      What kind of society takes the only means of survival away from poor and vulnerable individuals and families, by deliberate means of "sanctions". What is the outcome for a young family when their income is stopped, in a society where money is your means of survival? This is callous vicious vindictiveness based on an ideology that the poor must be intimidate to obey and be submissive, or at worst, a cull of the poor. 

      How can we claim to be a developed rich modern country when there is an ever increasing number of our people, to survive, are having to seek food from charities?

      While the UK spent. 2016/17, £35.3 billion on defence, the world's 5th largest defence budget, the same government is quite prepared to see an increasing number of its elderly people suffer strokes, heart attacks, pneumonia and death, simply because they don't have enough money to heat their homes.

     This is the real picture of the "end of austerity" a country that has seen, during the ten years of "austerity", the richest section of our community double its wealth, while the rest of us have seen our standard of living rapidly decrease, and we continue to slide down that slippery slope to ever greater deprivation. All of these factors can be reasonably named engineered poverty.

       This is the best that capitalism can deliver, is this the way we want to live, is this the world we wish for our children? The answer is not to look to the very wealth political ballerinas to come to our rescue, they wont. Their corporate buddies need us as a large pool of submissive cheap labour, it helps their profits. The answer as always, is in our own hands, to take control of our own lives, our communities and workplaces, and shape them to the needs of all our people. Don't expect the rich and powerful to come riding on a white charger to sort out your problems, that's up to us, and only the people can and will solve the problems of the ordinary people.  

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

Spaceship Earth Has No Escape Capsule!!

      While reputable scientists tell us we have a very short limited time to get free from fossil fuels, or face human disaster on an unprecedented scale, the UK government makes noises of approval while voicing vacuous promises. Then goes on to grant fracking licenses to greedy corporate bodies who don't give a shit about the planet, and only have eyes for profit.
       The planet is not dying, it is being murdered, by corporate greed, and by our inaction, we are complicit. A fine gift for our grandchildren.

      As usual, quiet voice of reason from that excellent site, Not Buying Anything. 

          Humans are killing the planet, and we seem unable to stop. But hey, nobody's perfect. A recent report shows that since the 1970s our actions have caused the deaths of 60% of invertebrates. And the news is not good for insects, either.
         Humanity is facing the most extreme challenges in 200,000 years, and no one seems worried enough to take any kind of meaningful and collective evasive action.
        “We have known for many, many years that we are driving the planet to the very brink. This is not a doom and gloom story; it is reality. Our day-to-day life, health and livelihoods depend on a healthy planet. There cannot be a healthy, happy and prosperous future for people on a planet with a destabilized climate, depleted oceans and rivers, degraded land and empty forests, all stripped of biodiversity, the web of life.” - Marco Lambertini, director general of the WWF

       The majority reaction is that "nobody's perfect", and that we will just have to ride this thing out and see what happens. Too bad about all the extinctions.
That is the all-too convenient truth, and it overrides all the inconvenient truths confronting us.
       We are far from perfect, but approaching perfection is a goal we should continually strive toward. If we did, we could tackle all our challenges with creative, life-enhancing solutions. For a dumb species, we can be pretty smart when we want to, or when faced with imminent death.
     We CAN do better, and we will have to. If we fail to act, and soon, before long it will be human populations crashing.
There is nothing convenient about that.

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

No Time!

        Sometimes you know what you want to say, but realise that it will come out as a rather long monologue, and not the way you wanted it. Thought to word is a complicated process, and we don't always get it right. So to cut the crap, I thought I would try it with a wee poem I put together some years ago.

Now

No time to theorise the market economy

no time to mark out the nations boundary

injustice is now.

No time to measure the moon with a measuring tape

no time to catalogue the deeds of the great

injustice is now.

No time to worship purloined power

no time to kneel at the ivory tower

hunger is now.

No time to let illusions swamp the mind

no time to be lead like a host of blind

hunger is now.

It’s time to cast your silence to the ground

it’s time to use actions your anger found

freedom can be now.

It’s time to hold fast to your heart’s dictate

it’s time to rise in anger against the state

freedom can be now.

More of my little ramblings HERE:

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

 

The Relentless March Of The Financial Mafia.

 

       It is relentless, it is gaining in pace, it will continue as such, unless we stand up and resist. I'm talking about the march of privatisation, gentrification and corporatism, the commandeering of public spaces, a process that can by any rational thought, be called the culling of the poor. Excluding them to the margins of this new society, built for profit only. The ordinary will be dumped in poverty camps on the periphery, there to be called upon when needed to serve the new society built to the god Mammon. Obviously autonomous spaces are a threat to this financial Mafia dream, so must be rooted out, by rigged laws or brute force. Argument and dialogue will have no more than a delaying effect, they have the wealth, and the power of the state behind them, they know their goal. Do we the ordinary people, know ours?

This from Autonomies

         Anarchist social centres constitute fragile points of passage for anti-capitalist archipelagos of resistance.  There fragility is born of the (ever increasing) restrictions of private property and State opposition.  Yet they are often the only link to rebellious pasts and radical presents: they are the vehicles of radical thought and practices, the precious islands of different futures struggling against and creating beyond the violence of the present.
      The Centro de Cultura Libertária of Cacilhas-Almada, Portugal is the oldest anarchist cultural centre in Iberia; a centre whose space is now threatened by rampant real-estate speculation.  From the CCL, we share their urgent call for solidarity.

The CCL needs your support!
       The Centro de Cultura Libertária, an anarchist association with 44 years of activity in Cacilhas-Almada, Portugal, is again threatened. The continued pressure of the real estate business, the change in the rental law and the gentrification that forces the departure of residents from the central spaces of cities, the destruction of non-profit spaces or the closure of neighborhood stores, now also touches the CCL.
What is happening?
       This is not the first time that the CCL’s permanence in its historic headquarters has been called into question.
Between 2009 and 2011 the Centro de Cultura Libertária resisted an eviction procedure initiated by the landlord. Only the solidarity of many collectives and individuals here and beyond allowed us to face the costs of the judicial process, which led to two trials and one appeal. In the end, we reached a rent increase agreement that allowed us to continue in the space without changes in the duration of the contract.
      However, in 2014, as a result of the changes in the rent law in favor of property owners’ interests, the CCL contract duration was set at five years. At the end of 2018, we have reached the point where, as has happened to thousands of tenants, the continuation of the rent of our space will be at the mercy of the owner’s will and the conditions that he wants to impose on us.
Why support the CCL?
      The CCL is an anarchist cultural centre founded in 1974 by old libertarian militants who resisted the dictatorship, occupying since then the space rented at number 121 Rua Candido dos Reis, in Cacilhas-Almada. The Center has a unique library and archive in Portugal, with documents produced over the last hundred years, as well as a bookshop promoting libertarian culture. It has been a fundamental space for anarchism in Portugal, welcoming successive generations of libertarians. During its existence, the Center hosted numerous activities, such as debates, meetings, reading circles, video sessions, workshops, dinners and various learning workshops, and served as home to many libertarian groups and collectives. Different publications came out of the space, such as the Voz Anarquista in the 1970s, Antithesis in the 1980s, the Anarchist Information Bulletin in the 1990s, and Húmus magazine in the first decade of this century.
As an anarchist association, the functioning of the CCL’s internal organisation is horizontal and is based on the assembly of its members, where decisions are made and the tasks inherent to the life of the association are distributed. Participation in the CCL is always voluntary, unpaid and non-profit. The only sources of funding are membership fees, the bookstore, dinners and solidarity donations.
What future for the CCL?
       We do not want the Centro de Cultura Libertária to end! We want it to continue to exist as an active libertarian association for many years!
       But at the moment the future of the CCL is open: it can remain in the same space, paying a much higher rent, or move to a new space, where we would try to have better conditions for our activities, but where expenses will also be higher.
       In both cases, and given the conditions imposed by the current housing market bubble, we know that we will need financial means that we do not have. For this reason, we will start a fundraising campaign, which will include crowdfunding, concerts, dinners and other initiatives.
      We count on your solidarity support so that together we can guarantee a future for the CCL.
Center for Libertarian Culture
October 2018
C.C.L. bank account details for donations
Holder: CENTRO DE CULTURA LIBERTÁRIA
IBAN: PT50003501790000215493029
(Bank: Caixa Geral de Depósitos)
Contacts
E-mail: ateneu2000@gmail.com
Mail: Apartado 40 / 2800-801 Almada – Portugal
http://culturalibertaria.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/CulturaLibertariaCentro
The website for the crowdfunding effort can be found here. 

        For the Centre’s blog, click here.
       Original Portuguese language statement from CCL, HERE

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

Rampant Russian Fascism.

This from FREEDOM PRESS:

London: callout for solidarity with Russian Anti-Fascists

        We are an ad-hoc collective of anti-fascists in London who want to organise a solidarity event to support anti-fascists in Russia on 19th January.

        19th January is a significant day for anti-fascist and anarchists as each year demonstrations are held to remember Russian comrades, the journalist Anastasia Baburova and lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who were murdered by fascists in broad daylight 10 years ago, as well as other fallen comrades who were victims to fascist violence. Markelov, an experienced lawyer and social democrat, spent years fighting for justice in workers’ struggles, environmental protests and against the violence of the Russian state. Baburova, a young journalist with independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was a reporter and anarchist from Sevastopol, Crimea. They were murdered in Moscow by a nationalist terror group with links to the Kremlin.
      We also want to express our solidarity to the defendants in the “Network Case”, in which 11 Russian anti-fascists and anarchists have been detained and tortured as part of a security service investigation into alleged terrorism. These men, from St Petersburg and Penza, are due to go trial in the coming year.
       The Russian state’s repression against political dissents acts in tandem with fascist gangs, a collaboration that has long been known and experienced.
       With the turn to right and far-right fascist populist governments across the world from India to Brazil, USA to Italy, there is no more greater need that to share experiences and knowledge around this international moment which we are all facing whether in the UK or in Russia.
       Whilst our comrades are faced with unimaginable violence by both the state and street-level fascist gangs, we intend to send a message of solidarity and defiance with this event.
      What you can do:
We invite you to attend a meeting on Monday November 26th 6.30pm -9.00pm at Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet St, London EC4Y 1DH. Please RSVP: london19jan(at)riseup.net
Discuss within your group to support this initiative
Save the date and republish this callout on your website

Resources:
Rupression website
The Russian Reader website
Open Democracy on the situation in Russia

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

Rise Of European Fascism,--Shades of the 30's?

        The rise of fascism across the world is a reality, the latest of their numbers to grasp power in a large country, being the dictator loving, military worshiping, homophobic, racist, Brazilian, Balsonaro, who openly states that he is in favour of torture as it works. We in Europe are far from exempt from this growing divisive menace of fascism. We ignore, or even delay our  forceful response to this brutal reality at our peril. In this rise there are shades of the thirty's rise of fascism, which eventually lead the the various imperialist power blocs spreading the blood of ordinary people across the surface of the earth, in WW2, as they sorted out which of them controlled what slice of the planet. The various states will not sort out this danger, as their institutions will be controlled by the fascist, as in Brazil and elsewhere. It is up to the people themselves, of all shades and ethnicity, to come together and destroy this menace to our liberty and quality of life.

        The following is an extract from an interesting article from The New Republic. Though I don't embrace everything in the article it does come up with relevant information that shows that this rise of fascism is no fantasy. 

 

       European societies are, Fekete writes, “increasingly divided between citizens, demi-citizens and non-citizens,” some of whom are no longer guaranteed certain fundamental rights, depending on their race, class, religion, immigration status, incarceration, and political beliefs. These people include immigrants, Muslims, and the poor—in fact, anyone outside of the dominant ethnicity or the reigning political ideology. In Hungary for instance, human rights groups with international funding must register as “foreign agents.” Similarly, in Poland, the right wing Law and Justice Party has targeted human rights groups, feminists, and pro-immigration activists through media censorship, new laws around the teaching of holocaust history, and frequent raids on the offices of groups that criticize the government. The fallout from the Syrian Civil War intensified these trends. As millions fled, many into Europe, the right attacked the principle of freedom of movement within the Schengen Area of European Union; some countries started to impose passport checks at their borders with EU countries and many more sent police onto trains to detain brown and black passengers.
       For the most part, the center-left has gone along with these tactics. After terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015, for instance, France’s socialist party president François Hollande declared a state of emergency that has been extended multiple times with no sign of ending. Many on the Left subscribed to the 1990s hope that the EU would enable a softer form of globalization that concentrated on regional integration. However, it may also have hardened the distinctions between Europe and the rest of the world, giving credence to the notion of a “fortress Europe” in need of defensive parapets and a well-patrolled moat. A cross-continental network of right-wing political parties—from Fidesz in Hungary to the Danish People’s Party—now preaches border defense at all costs, national purity, and religious intolerance.
       While the new right-wing movements participate in electoral politics, many of them have unofficial links with vigilante groups that patrol their country’s borders, shake down immigrant businesses, and harass women in hijabs, and small armies of thugs that wait to pick fights at rallies. These groups do not live in fear of prosecution for hate crimes: They maintain Facebook pages and websites. Groups like the Cologne-based Hooligans Against Salafists make their racial claims on the streets of German cities, taking over public space as in an attempt to shock multiculturalism out of city life. In Greece, Golden Dawn members beat up immigrant vendors in street markets. In France, the National Front has sponsored “pork festivals” in cities its members see as being in danger of losing their French-ness, because of changing demographics.
       Some of the most visible manifestations of New Right muscle-flexing have emerged in post-socialist Europe. In Hungary and Bulgaria vigilante border guards target migrants fleeing North. In the former East German city of Dresden, Pegida (an acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West) took over the streets in 2014 to protest immigration turning Germany into “Eurorabia.” In Serbia, nativism merges with a desire to protect “traditional values” resulted in the cancellation or violent persecution of gay pride marches in Belgrade. Unlike in the past, when the Soviet Union commemorated the Great Patriotic War against fascism across Eastern Europe, Nazism is no longer something to hide. The extremist Hungarian Guard (Magyar Gárda) talks openly about following in the footsteps of the Arrow Cross, Hungary’s wartime fascist party that murdered thousands of Jews.

Continue reading HERE:

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

 

Spirit of Revolt And Conscientious Objectors.

Remember remember the 5th of November??

    Why remember that date? Well, Monday 5th. of November is the date of Spirit of Revolt's next Show and Tell, outreach event. This one, organised by our archivist Paula, is on Conscientious Objectors and has already raised considerable interest. It is in the form of an open discussion which will be opened by group member, Eric Chester. On display will be various articles from our archive on the subject. We at Spirit of Revolt try to bring the people to the archive, and bring their history to the people.
   This event is a "must not miss", is held in conjunction with the Mitchell Library and is on the 5th. floor of the Library, in the Blythswood Room, 12-2pm. Conscientious Objectors are a group that the establishment never give much, if any, publicity to, they would rather that you forget the heroic stance taken by thousands of individuals against the barbarity of war and the reasons behind every war. This is a FREE event of tremendous relevance in these troubled times.

Details: 

Monday 5th. November, 12.00-2.00pm.

Mitchell Library, 5th. floor, Blythswood Room, 

Free event.

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

From Russia With Love

       In the face of continued repression individuals can, and do, become desperate, and do things that may be far removed from their normal line of thought. Capitalism and the state is a brutal poisonous marriage, driving millions of people in this world to the point of desperation, causing them untold misery and steeping them in savagery. So it is not surprising that some of them resort to the same brutal methods of the state, attacking the problem with violence.

   On the recent bomb explosion at an office of the Russian security service, this from crimethinc:

      A year ago, the Russian Federal Security Service—the FSB—initiated a wave of repression, arresting and brutally torturing anarchists in order to force them to sign false statements admitting to participating in a supposed terrorist group invented by the Russian authorities. The ensuing crackdowns put tremendous pressure on anarchists around Russia; you can learn more about the cases and solidarity efforts here. Today, a young Russian anarchist died in an attack on the FSB headquarters in Arkhangelsk. The FSB has gotten its wish, bullying young Russians into carrying out bombings rather than engaging in public organizing. Below, we present a rough translation of the initial report from Russian anarchists, including the young man’s personal claim of responsibility.
      As we have previously emphasized, we don’t believe that individual attacks on specific authority figures will suffice to abolish the institutional power of the state and capitalism. But the Russian state has left precious few alternatives for those who desire a means of bringing about positive change. At the conclusion of a week that has seen a tremendous upswing in authoritarian repression and fascist violence around the world, from Pittsburgh to Brazil, it is time for us to discuss how we can collectively respond to the escalating violence of the state and its fascist supporters.
     It also bears mentioning that the FSB is directly descended from the KGB, showing the continuity of oppression between state socialism and capitalism.
     We respectfully bid farewell to this young man who took a stand against repression, torture, and deceit, doing the best he could with the few options that were available to him. Let’s organize together to give people like him a reason to live. Please go to the support page for those targeted by the FSB operation.

      Visual survey report on the torture that the FSB inflicted on arrestee Igor Shishkin, from the Public Monitoring Commission findings.
From bo-ak.org:
      At 8:52 am, at the entrance to the FSB Directorate for the Arkhangelsk Region, an explosion took place. The anarchist rebel, Zhlobitsky Mikhail Vasilyevich, also known on the app Telegram as Valerian Panov, blew himself up. This is the first case of anarchists carrying out such an attack on the FSB in 19 years; the previous attack was organized in 1999 at the reception of the FSB in Moscow by the New Revolutionary Alternative organization.
      The comrade died as a result of the explosion, also causing injuries of varying severity to three officers of the FSB.
     Seven minutes before the explosion, Valerian left a message in one of the anarchist chats via Telegram, in which he described the reasons for his action:

      Comrades, now in the FSB building in Arkhangelsk there will be a terrorist attack, the responsibility for which I take upon myself. The reasons are clear to you. Since the FSB fabricates cases and tortures people, I decided to go for it. Most likely, I will die because of the explosion, because I have initiated the charge directly by pressing the button attached to the bomb cover. Therefore, you are requested to spread information about the terrorist attack: who committed it and what the reasons were.
      Well, sort of like everything. I wish you to go unswervingly and uncompromisingly towards our goal. Light to you, the future of anarchist communism!

      We bow our heads before the heroism of our comrade. We were not acquainted in person, but through communication, he left an impression of himself as an intelligent and well-prepared person who was not apathetic, who aspired to go beyond the swamp of the official opposition struggle that is now mainstream.
       We are sorry that he had no other choice, no way to do more damage to the enemy with less harm to himself.
      Yet be that as it may, he lived as he thought was right, and died as a hero in the struggle for our common ideals.

As the Kurds say—Şehid namirin! Heroes do not die!

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

Precarious Workers Organise.

 

     Capitalism continually morphs trying to rescue itself from crisis after crisis. However all the changes never enhance the working conditions of the ordinary people. The previous crisis ushered in austerity, another name for stripping the funding from social service to repay the financial mafia's gambling losses. During this period the most wealthy managed to double their wealth, while the ordinary people went from "just about managing" to an ever precarious struggle to survive.

      The latest crisis  coming in on the back of austerity, has seen the expansion of zero hours contracts, part-time working and the gig economy. All of these are another step in protecting their ability to cream ever greater profit from the workers. It is a planned development to erode workers conditions stripping them of paid holidays, guaranteed income, sick pay, and saving the employers from paying national insurance. It also frees them from any responsibility for accidents at work and working conditions.

     This form of work, is likely to grow as more and more employers see the benefits to them of making workers "self-employed", freeing employers from any responsibility and lowering their costs. If there is anyone out there that thinks that the government, who work hand in glove with the employers, is likely to do anything to reverse this trend, they are living in the fog of naive illusion. Employers are working towards the ordinary people being units on the self, for the employer to pick up when they need them, and to be dumped back on the self to survive as best they can, until some other employer sees the need to pick up a couple more to be used in the same temporary manner.

     The only way that these workers will see any improvement in their conditions or improvement in their life style and security, is to organise in conjunction with other workers and the unemployed.

     It is encouraging to see that is what they are starting to do. Recently we had the couriers strike, and two protests and rallies of "precarious workers", which covers all those mentioned above and more. One in London and one in Glasgow, but they need the solidarity of all workers, unemployed and pensioners. As their conditions are stripped away it impinges on all our communities. Without organising we face a society of impoverished workers and social services stripped to the bone.    

Some photos from today's demonstration in Glasgow's George Square:

Some from the London demonstration:

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

Down Bristol Way.

Bristol Tattoo Circus 3rd + 4th November 2018 

 

  

         We are excited to say Bristol will be hosting it’s first ever Tattoo Circus this year! Open at 10 both days and stuff going on all day and till late.
 

What’s going down?
       It will be a weekend full of tattoos from local and international artists and will be a chance to bring together folk from tattoo, DIY and anarchist circles. There will also be workshops on prison abolition, stalls, tasty snacks and music throughout the weekend. The principle of a Tattoo Circus is that it is a non-hierarchical, non-competitive and non-commercial event where nobody makes a profit. Everyone involved will be donating their time for free and all money raised will go to Bristol Anarchist Black Cross, a group focused on supporting prisoners and furthering campaigns for prison abolition.
 

History of the Tattoo Circus:
       The first Tattoo Circus happened in Rome in 2007 as a solidarity event, to support the anti-prison struggle and to create a space where tattoo culture and political activism could merge. Since its birth 11 years ago, tattoo artists from all over Europe (Barcelona, London, Thessaloniki, Bern, Athens, Madrid, etc.) have come together to co-create events with the aim of supporting political struggle of various kinds and also celebrating tattoo and DIY culture.

 

More information and full program HERE: 

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

 

Just Another Figurehead In The Capitalist Dictatorship.

        Another election and another right-wing swing of a government, Jair Bolsonaro, ex-army officer who sings the praises of Brazil’s military dictatorship of 1964-1985 and has defended its use of torture on leftist opponents, “I am in favour of torture — you know that. And the people are in favour of it, too.”
        This psychopathic, anti-abortion, racist, homophobic nonentity, has been handed the power to control the lives of the people of Brazil, his policies should be clear, as he carries the nickname of, “The Trump of the Tropics.” . Obviously big money was behind him, making sure their desired illusion was woven by the Brazilian, babbling brook of bullshit, their mainstream media. Fantasy answers to the people’s problems, appealing to the lowest common denominator, and bolstering poisonous nationalism.

         It shows the power and efficiency of the babbling brook of bullshit, when it can win votes for a man who sees nothing wrong in rape, his comment to female official, “I would not rape you because you are not worthy of it.”, and after having fathered three sons stated that his fourth child, a daughter, was his moment of weakness. Somehow the propaganda machine of the rich and powerful has persuaded the people of Brazil to hand over power to this lover of dictatorships. No doubt, with the control of the police, military and judicial system in his hands, he will go about hastily carving his own name on the list of brutal dictators that have shed the blood of millions of ordinary people, a list that has savaged the history of the ordinary people.
         For years now, we have all lived under the dictatorship of capitalism, and in countries where there is insufficient control by that dictatorship, up pops the “hero” who will make the country great again, who will take us back to the illusionary “good old days” when everything was fine and dandy. It has been said often and by many, that elections change nothing, this is not exactly true. Under the dictatorship of capitalism, elections function to change the degree of control needed to keep that dictatorship in power. This is what has happened in Brazil, with the aid of the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, backed up by big money from powerful people and corporations, this election will reshape capitalism in that country, giving it greater control over the people of that country and its resources.
       The enemy is not the dictator, the real enemy is the dictatorship of capitalism over the world’s people and its resources. Jair Bolsonaro, is just another figurehead of that dictatorship.

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

 

International Video Poetry Festival, Athens.

     If in Athens at the end of November this year, you will have the opportunity to visit The International Video Poetry Festival, well worth a visit. You still have time to send in your work to be part of this growing international festival.

 

 

    The yearly International Video Poetry Festival 2018 will be held for seventh time in Athens / Greece. Approximately 1200 people attended the festival last year.
       The 7th International Video Poetry Festival will run for two days in two different zones. The first day will be the Show Room Video Poetry. An unique zone that will include video poems, visual poems, short film poems and cinematic poetry by artists from all over the world (America, Asia, Europe, Africa). The second day will be the Live Improvisation Zone with multimedia poetry reading, concerts with experimental music and performances.
      We are inviting the artists – poets, video artists, performers, directors, producers – who want to visit the festival to present their art project at the Theatre. We can provide to them accommodation for 3 days (one day before the festival, during the festival and one day afterwards).
      The International Video Poetry Festival 2018 attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry.
       It is very important to notice that this festival is a part of the counter-culture activities of Void Network and + the Institute [for Experimental Arts] and will be non-sponsored, free entrance, non commercial and nonprofit event. The festival will cover the costs (2000 posters, 15.000 flyers, high quality technical equipment) from the incomes of the bar of the festival. All the participating artists and the organizing groups will participate voluntary to the festival.
       The Institute [for Experimental Arts] invites the artists and creators of video poems to participate from their side in our effort to cover the expenses of the festival without private or state sponsorship. For this reason we propose to the artists the suggested donation of 5 euro for the submission of their video poems.
       The participation is free and each artist can send more than one work ( 1 to 3 video poems for free). 

      The International Video Poetry Festival 2018 attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry.
      Void Network started organizing multi media poetry nights in 1990. Void Network and +the Institute [for Experimental Arts] believe that multi media Poetry Nights and Video Poetry shows can vibrate in the heart of Metropolis, bring new audiences in contact with contemporary poetry and open new creative dimensions for this ancient art. To achieve this, we respect the aspirations and the objectives of the artists, create high quality self organized exhibition areas and show rooms, we work with professional technicians and we offer meeting points and fields of expression for artists and people that tend to stand antagonistically to the mainstream culture.
       We would like to thank Dave Bonta from the influential video art site Moving Poems, a global site with the best video poems in the web that inspired us to create the International Video Poetry Festival in Athens and we cooperate since 2012 to spread out the announcement of the Festival each year so as to gather participations from all over the world.
           DEAD LINE FOR SUBMISSION: no later than November 20, 2018 (date of postmark)
      HOW TO SUBMIT A WORK:
      Click here to download and complete the submission form:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIWEeQd3VUQAF4anMUUobO6bdEYHRS1AwRUtSbz6XTY/edit?usp=sharing
      1. Your participation is FREE. Please you can add the suggested donation of 5 euro (or more) to the following bank account: National Bank of Greece 04664860451 Iban GR2101100460000004664860451 Swift (BIC) ETHNGRAA
       2. Please, send the submission material via email as following:
via email: your video poems in mp4 or mov file, definition (720 x 576, 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080) the submission form and photos in .jpg file (all these in a single wetransfer file) Email: theinstitutecontact [at] gmail.com
*please replace [at] with @ symbol to send email
       You can use wetransfer.com or any other FREE SERVICE to send us big files.
        3. It is very important to name your files (videos and still images, photos) as it is shown below:
       Title of video poem, Artist’s name, Countrry
      4. Be careful, you have to send only one email with the application form, the link to download, the video poems or the video poems archives, the still images of the video poems and any website of your art work projects
      5. We recommend you to add English or Greek subtitles to your video poems even if the spoken language is in English as it will be easier for people outside the English spoken world to understand it.
       We suggest you send your video poems through internet. Otherwise you can also post your DVD file in the following address
INTERNATIONAL VIDEO POETRY FESTIVAL
TASOS SAGRIS
159 KREONTOS
SEPOLIA ATHENS
GREECE 10443
      Please post it not later than November 20, 2018(date of postmark) to the International Film Poetry Festival, Athens. The Institute [for Experimental Arts] will inform you about your participation in early December 2018.
      International Video Poetry Festival photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/98573745@N03/albums/72157636930950693
       You can look here for some photos of previous poetry nights organized by Void Network and + the Institute [for Experimental Arts]:
http://voidnetwork.gr/2/5th-international-video-poetry-festival-sat
http://voidnetwork.gr/2015/10/20/speak-no-evil-poetry-even
       for more photos from Void Network art, events and actions :
http://flickr.com/photos/voidnetwork

       The 7th International Video Poetry Festival is dedicated to the Chinese radical poet and photographer Ren Hang, one of the leading lights of the new generation of Chinese photographers. Ren Hang was arrested many times for his sexually explicit, joyously celebratory photography. Although he was globally renowned, he never gained the recognition he deserved in his home country, in part because he was repeatedly denied the opportunity to display his work in Beijing and throughout China.
      Read more about Ren Hang to the following link:
http://artasiapacific.com/News/ObituaryRenHang19872017

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