Modern Day Heretics.

      A dedication to all those who don't fit the conformity of this consumer society with its emphasis on wealth and power, and decide to do something about their situation. Those who don't fit the rules will be punished harshly, all too often with the approval of the public. The punishments may change, but the message is still the same conform, be subservient to our code, or suffer.

He Didn't Fit Their Rules.

This from The Anarchist Library:

‘Heretics’ by Gabriel Pombo da Silva

      The heretic, like the bandit, knows that the loss of his freedom takes him irremediably to the gallows. What awaits him is a tribunal that will ask him about his actions. A court that will exercise its power and absolute reason in the name of God, the People, the Kingdom and the State. Power and reason are acts of authoritarian syncretism developed throughout the course of the centuries by the proprietors of the Earth, the Sea and the Sky. Therefore the individualist anarchist – who is at the same time heretic and bandit – is aware that his conviction on power and reason takes them to the stake. Like a moth, they seek light and succumb. Like Icarus, they fly high and the Sun melts their wings. Like Prometheus they steal the fire of the gods for themself and for the others; like him.
       The anarchist’s drama is his passion for freedom, his unrelenting search for accomplices, whom he rarely finds. She/he despises the conformism of the herd, the cowardice of the crowd, the dogmatism of every faith.
      Any priest – of every ‘ism’ – hates her because they can’t be controlled, she/he doesn’t obey him, he/she doesn’t listen to him; and when he/she can, she/he raises their voice to attack the slightest form of power and authority. Sometimes these solitary avengers throw a bomb or plunge a dagger with the intent – always – of sowing chaos into the order of reason, rigorously established as law or supreme truth. At other times, they mingle with discontent with the intent to trigger insurrections.
      But they use most of their time reading, because their best friend and hobby is the knowledge of what was and what is. They do not have illusions or hopes, but convictions. They know that knowledge is their strength and that it gives them self-determination.
      They live each day as if it were their last. In an enslaved society, Freedom is punishable with death. They don’t resign themselves, they don’t complain, they curse, attack, expropriate. There aren’t many of them, but even these few can preoccupy all governments, precisely because they are ungovernable; in love with total freedom. What was doesn’t matter. They reinvent themselves at every step, every shot, every kiss. They are not strategists because they do not have a final goal and, therefore, their actions arouse the anger of others.
       They have no ‘partisans’ other than those who know and love them, apart from their barbarian iconoclasts. Often, they are caricatures in newspapers, from the moment that they are thought to be able to prevent people asking: who are these madmen/women? What do they want? How to explain who anarchists are to citizens who delegate their lives and thoughts to others?
       Yes, they are mad and they don’t want anything less than nothing. Everything that has been taken from them and nobody can give back. There they are! They have no ‘arguments’, fire and powder speak for them. A kilo of dynamite and a poem. A kilo of black powder and a new heresy. A ‘Hands up’ and they are off. Machines that destroy their banks, courts, police stations; Barracks, churches and political seats… ‘What do these madmen/women want?’ Nothing! The destructive nothing which leaves space to wild nature. Flowers eat their way under the ruins of their putrid ‘civilization’.

Gabriel Pombo Da Silva
5th July 2019

From somewhere in the Old World

     Note: dedicated to our dead in combat, our prisoners of anarchist war, our fugitives and all the conspirators who acted in the night.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Torch, Lighting The Way To The Future.

       From Japan to Brazil, from Russia to South Africa, from Europe to America, from Peru to Indonesia, anarchism's torch burns, sometime bright like a beacon showing what the future can be, and some times as a flickering candle, but we are everywhere, and we are growing. No matter how "prosperous" or how poor the country, no matter whether the state is "liberal democracy" or authoritarian dictatorship, no matter if the country is torn apart by imperialist wars, we are there, still raising the flag of freedom and justice for all.

This from AMW English:

 

 

AMW interviewed comrades from the Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan (Asranarshism) about the potential war between Iran and the United States and building international solidarity with anarchists around the world.

---

As anarchists, what is your analysis of the threat of war occurring between the US and Iranian state?

Today, while we write this response, an American drone was targeted by the Islamic Republic, so now it’s very difficult for all of us anarchists to provide a uniform analysis. We can only predict what will happen because we cannot observe behind-the-scenes communications between states and many other issues. Only different hypotheses can be considered and assessed. Your question is focused on what, as anarchists, what is our analysis of the threat of war between these two states? It must first be said, naturally, anarchists oppose state wars, but how does this opposition affect wars of states is another discussion. We will always remain anti-war. A war between states is at the service of states and capitalism, and the Iranian people must strive to put an end to this deadly war and conflict, and the state militia and infantry cannot go to war and must have their own independent line. It should not remain unsaid that a large part of the Iranian people are waiting for the Islamic Republic to weaken so they can dissolve the dictatorship and theocracy ruling Iran—and us anarchists will be alongside the people and in the streets and we will do whatever we can do for the revolution and the fall of the Islamic Republic. People in Iran have experienced the devastating 8 year war between Iran and Iraq; however some people in Iran have been reluctant to end the Islamic Republic after 40 years of atrocities and unfortunately, they have given assent to the US war against the Iranian state and see it as the easiest possible way to break the evil Islamic Republic. Although they know war will destroy all the infrastructure, they say that the last forty years of the Islamic Republic’s record has been nothing less than war; it plundered the country’s wealth, destroyed the environment, the lakes, and wetlands, brought the people of Iran poverty and misery, executed more than 100,000 people, and expelled 8 million, setting them adrift around the world.

You have criticized the defence of the Iranian regime by some Western leftists who call it “anti-imperialist.” How can revolutionaries effectively oppose both the fascism of the Iranian state and imperialist intervention?

The target of absolutist and state-oriented anti-imperialist critique is only American imperialism, but we are more open to this than some so-called anarchists or communists such as Noam Chomsky or Slavoj Zizek who defend the Islamic Republic of Iran. The silence of these intellectuals about the crimes of the Islamic Republic repressing the Iranian people and the severe crackdown on anarchists, Islamic Republic crimes against immigrants, especially Afghan immigrants (who are deprived of their basic human rights and have been slaughtered in the Syrian war for the promise of temporary residence in Iran), and the repression of women, workers, and students is unacceptable. In fact, Chomsky and his like are silent about the Islamic Republic because it is a state that appears to stand against American imperialism and if they are presented with the choice between the ruling government of Iran and the Iranian people, they will choose power. This is a tragedy because the power and authority that has crystallized in the Iranian government has conquered and fascinated them, and the fate of the Iranian people does not matter to them—and instead of always opposing power and defending individual freedom and the collective freedom, they are entranced by power and forget about freedom and opposing domination of the Iranian government; instead they examine this major contradiction through Marxist theory and not on the basis of liberty and anarchist libertarianism.

What historical revolutionary movements and figures are particularly inspiring or relevant for your movement today in Iran and Afghanistan?

The failure of state communism globally on the one hand and the failed, unsuccessful political developments in Iran and Afghanistan on the other hand led youth to gravitate toward liberal and libertarian alternatives that were new to them. The Internet, anarchist artists and anarchist activists abroad have helped in this process. Since we are anarchist militants, individuals and revolutionary movements close to our tendency are most relevant to us. But if we were to name some of them, we would include the Paris Commune of 1871, the Spanish Civil War, the Chicago anarchist workers, the Kronstadt sailors, the Black Army and Nestor Makhno, Emiliano Zapata, Dorothy Day, the AANES (Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) and Abdullah Öcalan, the Chiapas Zapatistas, Japanese anarchists, Bakunin, Emma Goldman, Louise Michel, and Camillo Berneri.

As your website has published articles on the death of Lorenzo Orsetti and repression of Indonesian anarchists this past May Day, would you like to comment about these two important moments for the anarchist movement internationally?

So far, more than 500 international fighters have been killed in Syria fighting for the AANES and mostly in the war with ISIL. Many of them were our fellow international anarchists and Lorenzo Orsetti is one. We have always tried to identify international fighters who were anarchists fighting for our ideals to commemorate these comrades by introducing them to our audience and we emphasize that anarchists are idealists without pretensions and they are mostly anonymous and only called International Fighters, and main-stream platforms use it to deliberately hide anarchism so they do not advertise anarchists accidentally. Of course fallen anarchists do not care because they did not fight for power or fame, but to take revolutionary action. As you mention comrades, anarchist fighters in Rojava and the presence of anarchists in Indonesia are two significant historical moments, and it is very important to record these historical moments and our responsibility to highlight them. We emphasize the revolutionary nature of anarchists by calling attention to fallen comrades and encourage our young audience to radicalize.

Are there any new development in the situation of anarchist prisoner Soheil Arabi?

Anarchist prisoner Soheil Arabi was imprisoned in Ward 1, Hall 9 within the Greater Tehran Prison and is currently serving his 11 year prison sentence. He has been on a hunger strike to protest the horrendous conditions in the prison, which includes: violent behaviour by prison authorities, the spread of drug use among prisoners, lack of prison maintenance and provisioning, confessions coerced with shockers and batons, not separating prisoners by crimes, absence of adequate accommodations and sanitation facilities, denial of right to treatment, and an infestation of bedbugs and lice. The hunger strike happened because the prison authorities ignored Soheil’s repeated requests to address prison conditions. While performing his hunger strike, Soheil Arabi was transferred to the dispensary in the Greater Tehran Prison on June 20, 2019 after his health deteriorated severely. Farangis Mazloum, the brave mother of Soheil Arabi, was arrested in Tehran at her home on Monday July, 22 2019 by eight members of the security forces. She has been transferred to an unknown location. Anarchist comrade Soheil Arabi should have been released last year, but he was tried again last year in October and sentenced to another 3 years. After the last time he was tortured and beaten, he was not sent to the hospital despite a groin injury and broken nose. Recently, a 21-year-old political prisoner named Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali, his mother’s only son, was deliberately killed by two other prisoners with a knife in the same prison—this is one of the methods the Iranian state uses to physically remove political prisoners. We are worried about comrade Soheil because there is no security in the Islamic Republic’s prisons. Of course, besides Soheil, there are several anarchist prisoners in Iranian prisons. On May 1, 2019, fifty participants at a May Day demonstration, including women activists Neda Naji, Marzieh Amiri, Anisha Asadollahi, and Atefeh Rangriz were arrested and detained by security forces and have not been released. There are others that we cannot name for security reasons

What are some of the ways in which you have been organizing in your communities?

Anarchists in Iran and Afghanistan have clandestine activities that cannot be shared externally, because of the very dangerous security conditions, so that the secret police in Iran do not know how to fight anarchist organizations and do not know where we are operating. If we make our organizing, campaigns, and areas of activity public, then the Iranian state will focus their security institutions on them and create security traps. After the ten-day protests in more than 100 cities in Iran beginning on December 28, 2017, security agencies realized that people were organizing without leadership and, as a result, were at risk. Of course, when we began our activities 10 years ago, security institutions were at risk because since 1979, they had been able to suppress all of the opposition in Iran and quash them in the eyes of the people, and for three decades of repression, it was easy to imagine that no politics were attractive to young people and women, and that they were comfortable with the political structure, parties and currents. The regime was shocked by the emergence of new and fresh political currents, which on the one hand, was welcomed by young people, women and workers, and on the other hand, the regime itself had no knowledge about this new political thinking, its main activists, and how it spreads. For this reason, we and other political activists asked the questions: what would the regime do to counter the spread of anarchism through society? And what methods of oppression will they use to repress anarchists? Until the answers to these questions reveal themselves over-time, security agencies are opposing us and by using their Internet and propaganda facilities, they created a virtual faction and ordered them to create parallel organizations. By creating a counterfeit political movement called “anarchism,” it destroys the anarchist movement and pushes teenagers and young people in the desired direction of the state.

What issues do you see percolating in Iran and Afghanistan that would make people more responsive and interested in anarchism?

In Iran and Afghanistan, cases such as patriarchy, religion, limited individual liberty, lack of social justice, ecological collapse and the extinction of many animal and plant species, the theocracy in Iran, and the lack of alternative, revolutionary opposition in Iran and Afghanistan. Anarchism is attractive because anarchist libertarianism and its emphasis on the importance of individual and secular freedom and radicalization, the importance of women’s rights, the protection of animals and the environment, the opposition to all hierarchy, and opposition to authority are all essential for Iranian society and strongly catches people’s attention.

How can anarchists in other parts of the world act in solidarity with the movement in Iran and Afghanistan?

We can say that so far anarchists in other parts of the world have been supporting the anarchist movement inn Iran and Afghanistan very well, and shared our struggles through interviews and voluntary translation of interviews on their own websites in different languages. Our anarchist comrades supported Soheil Arabi and other actions that we cannot mention for security reasons. Because we are all anarchists, we have a deep interest in the global anarchist movement and in the vastness of the world, our range of struggles is wide and all anarchists face many anarchist struggles; however they do as much as they can for the anarchist movement in Iran and Afghanistan. In any case, the struggle continues and all kinds of anarchist support from the international anarchist movement will continue.

In the long term, how do you think anarchists can build stronger connections internationally to support revolutionary movements in a way that is not merely reactive to crises or repression?

Now the left movement and communist movement are facing a crisis, they do not have a strong presence at the international level or in international struggles, they have largely lost their revolutionary and militant characters, and even the parliamentary left is facing a crisis, even liberals face a crisis—but anarchists do not face this situation and they have not lost their revolutionary character and are still pragmatic. Anywhere in the world that has the smallest movement, the whole international anarchist movement focuses on it and stands up like in Syria, where several hundred international anarchists have fallen in the fight against ISIS alongside the SDF. Yes, we also think that in the long run anarchists can create create stronger international ties to support revolutionary movements abroad. They should not only be involved in everyday struggles and should attract many other popular political tendencies and movements, as we do. This is the very nature of the revolutionary and honestly also of anarchists: their pragmatism and the importance they invest in international struggles provides the groundwork for the practical support of revolutionary movements. The next important point is that anarchists from different parts of the world communicate with one another through their websites and email to share news about each other, which means they have a true and broader political worldview, and that they are quick to learn of problems and struggles, so they can rapidly support their international peers.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Dangerous Bumbling Boris The Carpet Bagger.

       Sorry for this, I don't usually bother to post anything about our bunch of privileged parasites that govern us to their friends and their own advantage. I just accept that they are all currupt in one way or another and out to see to themselves and their rich friends. However, sometimes the bile  and hatred of this unjust and exploitative system just boils up and I have to spew it out. So this is not my new enlightened view, it is just how I have always viewed this system and this bunch of privileged parasites that plague our lives.

       So there you have it, our UK new Prime Minister, not elected by the people but by a wee coterie of Tory faithfuls. Our new Prime Minister Boris wll fit into the job perfectly, he is a lair, charlatan, fantasist, self indulgent, power crazy, arrogant, privileged prat, product of the Oxbridge sausage factory, but extremely dangerous, totally lacking in any form of sincerity or moral principles. He is the master of farce and obfuscation, rambling and bumbling, reminicent of the carpet baggers of old. Sadly, he now has the power to devaste the lives of millions of ordinary people with impunity, that's UK democarcy in action. The last two UK Prime ministers have walked into the job without the people of the country voting for them, mono minded Teresa was slotted in after Cameron done a runner, and now bumbling Boris slips in with a few pats on the back from his rightwing fan club. How long will the people of this country put up with this farce? 

   

      When will we wake up and get rid of the cabal of privileged parasites that milk us day and daily to the advantage of the wealthy and powerful friends in the corporate juggernaut? Do you think we lack the skill, ability and imagination to govern ourselves, we are so stupid that we need a pompous privileged Etonian to do the job for us? Surely we can't accept this is democracy and the best we can do?    

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Lunacy And Environmental Violence Of HS2.

       What would the ordinary person consider an extra £100 billion should be spent on to improve our society? Health care, education, better environmental homes, eliminating carbon emitting fuels from our society, more youth clubs and social centres, and so the list goes on, but how about a fast train from London to Birmingham?? HS2, or the idiotic dream of our privileged parasites sitting in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, £100 billion, to save 20 minutes travel time between London and Birmingham, it could be more, who knows for sure.  Thanks Loam for the link:

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What Is Violence.

       Violence should be avoided, but is self defence violence?  Is the state the greatest perpetrator of violence on the planet? Is self defence against the vast state institution of violence, violence or self defence? Violence comes in many shades, from physical, to psychological, suppression of desires is violence, stunting the potential of an individual by avoidable poverty is violence. How should we respond to these acts of violence?

Sub.Media: What is Violence?

By

submedia.tv

-

July 17, 2019

280

        SubMedia offers up another video installment in their A is for Anarchy series. This episode takes on violence, what it means, how it plays out in struggles, daily life, and how it is utilized by the State and forces of domination.

 
       Our societies are heavily dependent on violence to function. While states will attempt to hold a monopoly on violence and constantly find new ways to legitimize their use of force, people struggling against domination can also use violence to confront the hierarchical systems oppressing them. While debates around violence and tactics seem to be revived every time someone decides to fight back, the necessity of physical attacks on power cannot be ignored. So, what is violence exactly, and how does it function in the world?

Music: Outspoken Beats & Blaze Audio

Download [HD * SD * Torrent * English Subs] * Translate

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:08 — 41.9MB) | Embed

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How Dare You Try To Live Outside Our System!!

       Greece, Argentina, Germany, Russia, France, no matter where, when people start to set up a life style contrary the laid down norms of our State/corporate/consumerism society, they are met with the full frontal force of the authoritarian state's enforcers. The intimidation is to create subservience in the population, it is saying, "How dare you try to live outside our system, get on with your work, your shopping and screen watching, leave us to handle everything else". Of course people are not like that, they prefer freedom, freedom to choose their own way of life, freedom to shape their society and communities they way they want, not follow the dictates of an authoritarian exploitative economic system.

This from Enough is Enough: 

Saturday 20.07.2019 Friedrichshainer Nordkiez:      

      This morning, the cops of the LKA 5.21 unit under the command of Kranich raided Liebig34. Unusual was the Saturday, unusual the mix of units from different departments. New were a few civil cop faces, not new: the repression.

Originally published by Indymedia DE.

      The reason for this raid was probably stones thrown from the house during the last few weeks. After the cops collected stones from the Dorfplatz around 2:30 this morning, they obtained a court order and search warrant to search part of our house and returned around 6:30 a.m.. They came through the backyard and the front door, sawed the doors and barris, picked them up and thus forcibly gained access to our project. A lawyer was quickly on the scene and was able to observe and testify. Altogether the cops were about three hours in the house, having searched officially and intensively three connected rooms and the attic. They also snooped around in unlocked private rooms, tore posters from the walls, knocked over furniture, cut internet cables and destroyed windows. During the search, they extensively documented the interior and structure of our house. In the officially searched part of the house they collected plenty of DNA and fingerprints from everyday objects. They also confiscated some items from these rooms, such as cigarette butts, stones, deposit bottles, internet switches, wall paint and clothes. They did not seek contact with the people in the house and did not record any personal data.
      Meanwhile and immediately afterwards there were soli actions: the cops were shot from the roof of Liebig14 with fireworks, a cop car covered with stones and paint, barris burned in Rigaerstrasse. People came to support and are still supporting now, helping us to repair our doors together.
This morning joins into the sharpening situation here in the neighbourhood: our anger becomes bigger and the harassment and repression increases. Together we have survived the morning well, but the extensive DNA recording concerns us. It suggests an intention to normalize DNA recording and shows that the cops want to fill their databases. Collecting random samples such as those from cigarettte butts, cups, empty bottles and window frames, shows that even the most basic forms of daily alternative life are criminalised preventively and placed under general suspicion. So it is now enough to drink a cup of coffee in a queer-feminist house project and end up in a DNA database for life, without even a concrete accusation of a so-called crime.
      Our answer: Form gangs and get your crew! Only together are we strong!
        Become active and do not wait for a dayX. In the case of Liebig34 , we welcome both centralised and decentralised actions of all kinds. Over the past few months, they have put a mischievous smile on our faces. We are seeing an increase in radical and militant practices that implicitly and explicitly refer to feminist issues. We want more of it!
Probs to the action of a FLINT* action group against the ASW last week.
For current information on Liebig34 check: twitter @Liebig34Liebig and http://liebig34.blogsport.de/
Dates:

Today, Saturday 20.07., 9 pm,Dorfplatz

Tomorrow, Sunday 21.07., 6 pm,manifestation at Dorfplatz in front of our house
Come over! If you have discarded long internet cables, please bring them with you, the pigs have cut our cables, but we won’t be cut off!

Who’s Kiez? Our Kiez!
Love, Your 34 collective

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Seen It All Before, When Will We Scrap This Farce?

      We here in the UK are in the midst of another crooks and liars competition, this time to have a new face as Prime Minister foisted upon us, babbling Boris or humble Hunt. No doubt the new Messiah will throw the old lot out and plant his side-kicks and backers in their places. So bloody what.

     To save me ranting out something new here is a wee blast from the past, 27th October 2010, New Bums On Seats, New Faces At The Podium.

       We all know that those who sit on the seat of government are in the pay of the corporate world, they call the shots, who gets invaded and when, where the tax payers money goes etc. So what’s next, new bums on seats, nicer smiles at the podium, while leaving the same corporate power in control? The system stinks from top to bottom, it is the system that should be criticised not the individuals that manage it, an Obama here a Blair there, so what, what changes. When the mass euphoria broke out at the election of Obama I reminded people of the same euphoria when Blair was elected which quickly turned to an effort to get him indicted. Over the years I have seen a multitude of smiling faces form governments and seen a library of election manifestos held aloft, but little changes, our standard of living goes up a little and goes down again, but we always struggle. We go to war on an alphabet of causes, we are always the just and the defenders of freedom, the other the evil enemy, the workers do the killing and get killed, the corporate world takes the bounty. It’s the system that needs to be destroyed, until that happens, we will struggle and we will go to war, we will kill ordinary people in the defence of those ordinary people and it will be the ordinary people that do the killing.

       Let's stop the babble and the pandering to the parasites that control and destroy our lives, Let's realise that we can make a better job of the world if we take control ourselves. Direct action, direct involvement, not delegation of our power to the millionaire parasite class that is going to screw you to the deck at every turn. 

ENDLESS BABBLE.

The questions arise. Why war and hunger?

Why does poverty continue to linger?

Why such need in a world of wealth?

Why put a price on a child’s health?

Confused and angry the public stand

gazing in disbelief at this pathetic band.

Those shiny politicians designed by spin

their street credibility paper thin,

the great persuaders looking the mood

struggling so hard just for our good!

Masters of the art of wheeling and dealing

exceptional experts at legal stealing.

Enter the Media, drowning us all in trivial text,

everything you need know

of scandal and sport, crime and sex.

Together they create a world of confusion

all fashion and style, a vicious illusion.

So no matter how often we point at need,

we always drown in a sea of greed,

no debate entered into, no answers found,

the waffle the babble goes round and round.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Squat The World.

 

     Squats are always a symbol of rebellion, an important aspect of taking control by ordinary people, and sometimes a matter of necessity. They are however, detested by the powers that be, as it is a group that is stepping out of the status-quo, a group moving with self determination, a group that is not being subservient to the rules of this exploitative system, a group that refuses to see the sanctity of private property. Squats should always be publicised and supported when and where possible.

      Athens is no stranger to squats and they are always under attack from the authorities who see them as part of the population that has not submitted to its authoritarian and unjust rules, a threat to its total control of the population, a threat that could spread, so must be eliminated.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

         Today 17 July 19, we the self-organized collective of anarchist immigrants together with other self-organized collectives and  individuals in solidarity occupied an abandoned shop at the corner of Tsamadou/Tositsa streets, Exarchia.

Our goals to use this steki as the self-organized collective of anarchist immigrants are:
1- a centre of struggle for anarchist immigrants
2- self-organizing immigrants for common struggle and building relations between the immigrant communities and the movement
3- a collective cafeteria in solidarity with political prisoners
4- education activity
Our opinions on the identity of squat:
A- the squat is not the goal of struggle but is the tool of struggle, which means: the struggle should happen in the street and the squat is a help to organize the social struggles which should happen in the street.
B- the squat should be a social open space, creating open activity for society. For example: open education classes etc…
C- the steki of self-organized anarchist immigrants will not be a housing project. In our opinion: it is not a project to occupy a space for housing. Housing by squatting a place is only a project when the squat is a social political space and is active for struggle in the neighbourhood and other areas.
D- in the squat decisions should be taken in the collective way and the assemblies should be with no authority or hierarchical situation.
In reference to our opinion on squatting, we are struggling to SQUAT THE WORLD.

       Once a place is squatted, it has to be defended, it will always be a point of conflict with the stifling state. Again from Act For Freedom Now:

Photo: The squat patrol in Exarcheia, in front of the memorial for Alexis Grigoropoulos and Michael Kaltezas.

      17.07.19: They think that we will live like slaves. They expect that we will cease to exist, that we will die quietly to perpetuate the world of power. In stubbornness of the times, not only have we not been destroyed, we have strengthened, we have spread everywhere, we have become the hope of the earth. They continue to torture us, preparing prisons and concentration camps for us, sprinkling our streets and our bodies with chemicals and plastic bullets and killing us. Once again they announce that they will take our homes, our squats, our squares, everything.
     We are determined to defend our squats, our neighborhoods and the memory of our struggle. We will fight. The world of freedom, community and solidarity will win.
via: anarchistsworldwide.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

What Price A Smart Phone?

         That devastated area known as the Democratic Republic of Congo has saw its people mired in blood, deprivation and forced migration to avoid possible death or serious injury for years. Its people suffer poverty and deprivation as a way of life, the reason, it is a very rich country with incredible wealth in natural resources. I wrote the following piece five years or so ago, sadly the people are still living in a swamp of violence, death, deprivation and corruption, all because of that rich bounty of natural resources.

 

     It says a lot about our present economic system when you look around the world and find that countries with the richest natural resources have some of the poorest people on our earth. The Middle East is a wash with oil, which transfers into unbelievable wealth, but you can't say its people are all very rich. This pattern is repeated across the planet, another example is the Democratic Republic of Congo. A vast country, the second largest in Africa, the 11th largest in the world. As well as having coal, oil and diamonds, it is also the richest source of cobalt in the world. That rather dull looking material produces unimaginable wealth for the corporate world, but little for the people of the that country. In fact it is the opposite, this immeasurable wealth is probably the main cause of the suffering of the people.
         Because of the economic system that prevails today, blood will be shed to get control of that wealth. Sadly that blood is shed for the end product of things like mobile phones and laptops, and these are products that the vast majority of the people who produce that raw material will never see.
        If it was just dreadful working conditions and poor pay, that would be bad enough, but we are talking about millions dying and millions more suffering unimaginable violence. Since its bitter struggle to be free from the Western colonialists, the country has been blighted by violence, and at the root of that, is the fact that it is very rich in raw materials like cobalt.
      The Second Congo War, sometimes referred to as the “African World War”, as it involved around twenty armed groups and nine other African countries started in 1998. No doubt all eager to get a slice of that wealth. Although “Peace Accords” were signed in 2003, fighting continued in the east of the country through 2007. In this region the prevalence of all manner of sexual violence and rape is often described as the worst in the world. Since 1998 this conflict has claimed the lives of more than 5.4 million people. Though this was a brutal conflict, more than 90% were not killed in combat, they died from such things as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malnutrition, brought about by the usual companions of war, displaced populations ending up living in unsanitary, over crowed conditions, combined with lack of shelter, clean water, food and medical care. What is even more tragic, 47% of those deaths were children under five.
         The country also has great agricultural potential but this is being stifled by this conflict, which still continues. It is the struggle to control those vast mineral resources that drives this most brutal and savage conflict. Is your mobile phone worth it?
       Surely we have the imagination and the ability to devise a economic system whereby natural resources do not equate with misery, poverty, deprivation and bloodshed for the many, and unbelievable opulence for the few.

 

According to World Report:

         Throughout 2018, government officials and security forces carried out widespread repression and serious human rights violations against political opposition leaders and supporters, pro-democracy and human rights activists, journalists, and peaceful protesters. The December 30 elections were marred by widespread irregularities, voter suppression, and violence. More than a million Congolese were unable to vote when voting was postponed until March 2019 in three pro-opposition areas.

The same report also states: 

       That 4.5 million people are displaced from their homes due to clashes with armed groups and government forces. 13 million people need humanitarian assistance, and 140+ armed groups are active in Eastern Congo's North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

        This is the pattern of corporate capitalism world wide, resources are for the profit of the few, while the many suffer as the plunders violently squabble over the riches of the country.

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Whose Poem?

 

       I copied this poem from somewhere some time ago but can't remember where I got it from. I would love to know who the poet is/was, so if any of you poets and poetry lovers out there can throw me a wee bit of info on this I'd be delighted.

The Seeds We Sow. 

 
Because of my ignorance, I sowed the seeds of anguish,
while my self indulgence planted the vine of pain,
my disregard of the future laid sorrow’s foundation.
Suddenly the future slaps me in the face,
while my children eat the food of that anguish
and chew the leaves of that vine,
as the sea of sorrow washes around their feet.
My yesterday shaped their tomorrow
My ignorance laid their path
and now my self indulgence is their burden.
It would appear that,
these failings of the father are burdened on his family.

 

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The Cyborg Society.

       Have the Swedes gone mad, not only in having more trust in their government than most citizens of other countries, but by jumping on the "chipping" bandwagon with greater enthusiasm? The Swedes don't seem to carry all the fears that once chipped it can open doors for you, but perhaps it can also close doors, shutting you out of certain benefits etc. I suppose with a few tweaks it could also be used to track you. Of course when it comes to tracking in our society, we should not be too complacent. Forgetting the almost total CCTV surveillance here in the UK, as we walk around with our smart phones in our pockets/purses we are being tracked, your phone is an excellent tracking device. However, I feel a chip in your body to be able to get in touch with technical gadgets is a gateway for the authorities to continue their desire to control your every action. Is the chip the gateway to the cyborg society? Perhaps in the near future we will see lots of Swedes with small holes in their hands where they pulled the chip out.

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Two Exclusive Clubs That Control Our Lives.

         Two groups that don't get much publicity but wield tremendous power over all of our lives. In plush hotels and marble corridors behind closed doors they shape the world to their advantage, carving up their plunder and driving towards ever greater monopolization, to the detriment of all of us, the ordinary people. 

      These two groups are populated by some of the most powerful people on the planet, and despite the fact that they shape our world, they are not voted there by you and me.

      The two groups are the Bilderberg Group, and the World Economic Form, (Wikipedia:

   The Transnational Institute describes the World Economic Forum's main purpose as being "to function as a socializing institution for the emerging global elite, globalization's "Mafiocracy" of bankers, industrialists, oligarchs, technocrats and politicians. They promote common ideas, and serve common interests: their own."[65] In combination with the self-styled International Organization pretensions, has led to the citing of the informal motto "the NGO of the status quo".
      A study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, investigated the sociological impact of the WEF. It concluded that the WEF do not solve issues such as poverty, global warming, chronic illness, or debt. They have simply shifted the burden for the solution of these problems from governments and business to "responsible consumers subjects: the green consumer, the health-conscious consumer, and the financially literate consumer." They merely reframe the issues, and by so doing perpetuate them. Al Gore is singled out as a prime example. Gore's speeches deliberately shift focus away from the problems of unregulated markets and corporate activities to one of moral pathologies, individual greed, etc. In doing so he is actually promoting the creation of new markets, and hence perpetuating the same old problems in a new guise. New markets will follow the same patterns as the old ones because the core problem of corporate governance is never addressed.[66]

          A couple of extracts from an article that throws some light on their aims and activities.

       These quotes from Tarcoteca counterinfo: 

     What is in common between the World Economic Forum and the Bilderberg Club?

          The World Forum Economic WEF held annually in Davos is the world's most important economic meeting. The Forum is made up of 1,000 corporations and companies. Among them, those who organize the event are 200 known as Industrial Partners, being 100 and only 100 selected corporations the Strategic Partners, corporations responsible to mark the annual and general objectives for the remaining 1000.
        The Bilderberg Club is an exclusive club that meets annually to no more than 150 political careerists, business, military and university professors representing corporations and most powerful states of the West.
       The goals of both organizations are basically the same: unifying political objectives, market sharing, organizing global cartels and monopolies and enhance their synergy. Also members of both repeated insistently. So a question must be asked, what is the relationship between them?

And:

The World Economic Forum WEF

      The World Economic Forum WEF was founded in 1972 as what could be considered a great Club with a very unique Convenction, the largest informal gathering of entrepreneur, politicians and military in the world. Operational management is carried out by the companies themselves through the Schwab Foundation.
        In 1000 companies Members only 200 are the organizers, and just 100 are the one who set the programs and plans. Corporations acquire membership by status, divided into three castes. In 2014:
      - Strategic Partners, setting the general and annual targets, are 100 corporations of which all but one are also Industrial WEF Members
     - Industry Partners are corporations organized industrial monopolies and cartels, price fixing and territorial spread . There are 200 corporations.
       - Members of the Forum are about 1000 companies, under the umbrella, protection and in close collaboration with Industrial partners. Are organized in cartels waiting to be absorbed by the monopolistic Industrial Members.
      There are more than 2500 guests from corporations and individuals, such as politicians, journalists, military cupula, high priests, celebrities, spot stars, NGOs ... anyone with particular interest for the Forum are allowed to participate.

And:

FEM: The Bilderberg Club Project

       In 1973 members of the exclusive Bilderberg Club, founded in 1953, set in motion a plan to expand its area of action and influence without increasing the number of members, which means increasing the number of monopolies among which should distribute the markets.
      The Forum allows direct contact to companies of their own industrial sectors, closing thousands of agreements, both commercial contracts as political. The results are better than expected, the Forum remains the global market under control, manipulated, and provides fresh meat in the form of easily absorbed young companies.
      Local industries, heirs of national oligarchies, room with transnational corporations spread until its absorption.
         The formal part of the Forum is filled with the usual meaningless media circus, necessary to divert attention from the real purpose of the meeting: organizing international cartels, signing contracts, concerting on prices and buying companies with monopolistic purposes.

We are at war!

The fascist forces organized around its banks continue with their plans to raze and predate the world, and us within!

We now have the tools to get rid of their yoke. Let’s use them!

Organize the Assemblies! For the Libertarian Communism!

Join the Resistance, contact your local groups!

Read the full article HERE: 

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Nikos Romanos Released From Prison.

         The news that Nikos Romanos has been released from prison must bring pleasure to the hearts of all anarchists. I have no doubt the the life Nikos has lead up to now was greatly influenced by that event on a Saturday evening in 2008, when, as a teenager out at a cafe with his teenage friend Alexis Grigoropoulos and was by his side when Alexis was shot dead in cold blood by a police officer. No matter his political views before that event, it is obvious that such a cold blood murder of his teenage friend standing beside him, would sharpen his hate of a system that harboured and armed such cold blooded murderers.

This from AWM English:

• Posted on: 11 July 2019

        Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos was released from prison in Greece yesterday after six years of imprisonment.
        Nikos was a close friend of Alexis Grigoropoulos, an anarchist teenager who was murdered in Exarcheia by the police in 2008, sparking the Greek anarchist insurrection.
       Nikos Romanos was arrested in February 2013 with 3 more people and charged with attempted armed robbery at the Agricultural Bank and TT Hellenic Postbank in Velvento, Kozani.
        He was also sentenced to 18 years in prison for possession and placement of explosive devices in 2012. Among the “targets” was the home of the former Minister of National Defense, Giannos Papantoniou.
       The court that originally sentenced Romanos had not admitted any mitigating circumstances, including his good behaviour while in prison but this decision was later reversed by the Supreme Court. Taking the Supreme Court’s decision into account, a Five-member Criminal Appeals Court that reconsidered his case recently reduced his sentence by four years, to 14 years in prison.
      This made possible the release of Romanos, whose six years in prison counted “double” due to days of work done while incarcerated, during which time he had also finished high school and sat university entrance exams, getting a place in the Athens TEI School of Management and Economy.
       In an interview earlier this year, Nikos stated, “Our goal should be to sharpen the subversive struggle in every form it can take, to transform it into a real danger for every ruler. Part of this process is reconstructing our historical memory, so it can serve as a compass for the strategies of struggle we employ. We should start talking again about the organization of different forms of revolutionary violence, the practices of revolutionary illegalism, and the need to diffuse these in the movement in order to overcome the “politics” (in the dirty and civil meaning of the word) that have infected our circles… Whoever arms his conscience to overthrow the brutal cycle of oppression and exploitation will definitely be the target of vengeful and authoritarian treatment by the regime. This does not mean that we will give up our fight, in the courtroom or elsewhere.”
        Anarchists around the world will celebrate the release of Nikos, a comrade who has remained intransigent in his revolutionary values in the face of harsh repression from the state.

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Our Quiet March To Fascism Continues.

         The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative.   Benito Mussolini

         About six years ago I wrote a wee piece, "Inch By Inch We Lose Control", about how I believed we were taking a quiet march to fascism, the following is just a rehash of that article, as I believe we are still taking that quiet march in the same direction, though we are now much closer to that destination.

      Like a tape-loop message, I keep repeating, that we are marching quietly towards full blown fascism. It won't be recognised by the jackboots on the streets, nor by people being locked up for not living to the laid down norms. No, the state has moved on from from those days, though that method will still be held in reserve to be used if needed. It will be much more subtle than that, just slowly bit by bit, the state introducing ever stronger legislation to control every aspect of your life. The establishment making more and more arbitrary decision over our heads. They have already neutered the spontaneity of the trade unions by legislation, and tied protesters in legal loops. There other things that pass almost unnoticed, but show state power acting out what can only be called dictatorial acts, unchallenged. The ever creeping CCTV surveillance, advanced facial recognition, trolling through your phone and internet activity. The interweaving of state and corporate bodies in the interest of “growth” and to the detriment of the people. The introduction of the “minimum wage” gave the employers a low legal standard to adhere to and moved the struggle for improvement away from the employer to the state. Wars are and will continue to be waged, despite the will of the people saying otherwise, remember Iraq, millions on the streets in protest, but the war went ahead. Hardly the hallmark of democracy.
      Surreptitiously and brutally, the all knowing, all powerful, all for your own good, state, reaches in and controls every aspect of your life, for no other purpose than to safeguard its own power and privileges, and it can do it at will, through its various agents, backed up by its own biased judiciary. Who do you believe has the right, the benevolent character, and the humanity to take control of your life? No doubt your answer will be nobody, then why do we tolerate the faceless ones, behind closed doors in their marble corridors of power, to control all avenues of our life?

And another quote from one of the masters of fascism:

       It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity.

Benito Mussolini

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