Glasgow Protest Against Turkish Attack On Kurds.

         On Saturday, 12th. October, Glasgow like many other cities across the world people took to the streets in protest at the Turkish savage invasion against the Kurds in northern Syria. Another onslaught by a state on people trying to shape their world in a fairer manner than the states that surround them. No matter the ideology, the particular faith or politics, the people should always resist any state waging war on another. In all these state conflicts, it is never the leaders and political ballerinas that face the death and destruction, it is the ordinary people. When a state wages war it is a well trained well armed military machine against civilians, bus drivers, plumbers, shop keepers, teachers, grandparents and grandchildren, these are the people that suffer most.

      Glasgow's protest was a varied collection of groups and individuals, in my estimate probably in the region of over three hundred, lots of banners and flags and lots of passion and speeches. We must keep up the protests at this all too familiar act of man's inhumanity to man.

 

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Working Class Kids And A Loaded Education System.

         Most working class families realise that their kids get a raw deal when it comes to education. Even so, it is nice to have it made clear in facts and figures, and Professor Diane Reay's book does just that. Her recent book has been reviewed in the Guardian and makes for very interesting reading.
     Diane Reay, is a Cambridge University professor of education, her background might surprise you, The daughter of a coalminer, and the eldest of eight, she grew up on a council estate and received free school meals. She then spent 20 years working as a teacher in London primary schools before moving into academia and ending up at Cambridge.

Extract from the Guardian review:

 

  Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

  -------Research suggests it is the wealth and inclination of parents, rather than the ability and efforts of the child, that have the most bearing on a child’s educational success today. “If you’re a working class child, you’re starting the race halfway round the track behind the middle class child. Middle class parents do a lot via extra resources and activities.”
       Less affluent children also get a more restrictive educational offer, she discovered. “It wasn’t until I talked to young people about their experiences that I realised how different and unequal their educations were. Because the schools that working class children mostly go to are not doing well in the league tables, there’s a lot of pressure on their teachers and heads to increase their league table position. That means they focus ruthlessly on reading, writing and arithmetic.”
      Some children in these schools talked wistfully about hardly ever doing art, drama or dance: “These children come from families where their parents can’t afford to pay for them to do those activities out of school. It almost feels criminal. It feels very unfair.”
       The difference between amounts spent on educating children privately or in the state sector is stark. She cites research from University College London that found £12,200 a year is the average spending on a privately educated primary pupil, compared with £4,800 on a state pupil. For secondary, it’s £15,000 compared with £6,200.
       “Society has got more unfair, and the gap between the rich and poor is a lot greater than it was even 30 years ago. We’ve got to move back instead of going further in the direction of austerity, which seems to be punishing the poor.”
       She believes the government’s support for academies and free schools is powerfully ideological. “It’s about opening up education to the markets. I found it particularly shocking – and I had to read some quite boring parliamentary reports to get the information – that masses of money has gone into the academy and free school programme, and it’s been taken out of the comprehensive school system.”
       Reay found that free schools receive 60% more funding per pupil than local authority primaries and secondaries, and that £96m originally intended for improving underperforming schools was redistributed to academies.
      To make things worse, an analysis of Department for Education data reveals that schools with the highest numbers of pupils on free school meals are facing the deepest funding cuts: in secondary schools with more than 40% of children on free school meals, the average loss per pupil will be £803. That’s £326 more than the average for secondary schools as a whole. And primary schools with high numbers of working class pupils are expected to lose £578 per pupil.
          Another blow being inflicted on working class children is through the way they are treated in some super-strict schools, argues Reay. She says some academies operate on the principle that working class families are chaotic and children need school to impose control. “There’s lots of lining up in silence, standing to attention when an adult comes into the room, and mantras. I think it’s about disrespecting working class young people and their families. ------

It is well worth reading the full review HERE:
      Perhaps reading these facts and figures will bring home to the ordinary people that it is not just the education system that is loaded against them, it is the ideology of the entire system, it is designed to make sure you know your place in this hierarchical system where wealth and power are the tools that load the system against the ordinary people. I have ordered the book.

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Politicalised In A Repression Cage.

 

        We all know that prisons are inhumane institutions of state repression. There sole purpose is to subdue the rebellious and disobedient in society, and turn them into subservient humble citizens, who will quietly follow the rules no matter what shape or form those rules take. Though that may be the aim of the state in imprisoning humans in cages, the result can quiet often be the opposite and produce a politically alert and active individual. It can sharpen the individual's awareness of the nature of the state and the cruel injustices inherent in this type of society.  

          The following is a letter first published in 325, from John Bowden, long term prisoner in the UK, one of those whose internment raised his political awareness, and far from becoming a subservient humble citizen he became a political activist locked in a cage but still with a voice that can and does reach outside the state's cages.

Letter from John Bowden, long-term radical prisoner (UK)
           There is a group of prisoners who although imprisoned for non-political offences subsequently become politicised or radicalised whilst in jail, and in both the USA and Britain this is a phenomenon that has become increasingly widespread.
        In the USA during the 1960s and 70s the radicalisation of ordinary black prisoners, in particular, was fostered by the centrality of imprisonment in the experience of black activists and revolutionaries like Malcolm X (who described prisons as “universities of revolution”), Eldridge Cleaver, George Jackson, H Rap Brown, Angela Davis and others. George Jackson described his own politicisation succinctly: “I met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels, and Mao when I entered prison and they redeemed me”.
         Thus those whom W.E.B. Dubois described as an “army of the wronged” increasingly defined themselves as political prisoners who were the products of an oppressive political-economic order. This belief underpinned the praxis of radical groups such as the Black Panthers and Symbionese Liberation Army, and prisons were seen as the epicentre of a broader social and political revolution. The call for recognition of radicalised prisoners claim to political status underpinned prisoners’ demands in a series of protests that punctuated the 1970s in U.S. Prisons such as Folsom, Soledad, San Quentin and, later, Attica.
          The radicalisation of ordinary prisoners in both the UK and the USA was channeled through both identity politics and the prisoner union movement. In the UK such groups during the 1970s were highly active in organised protests and uprisings against oppressive prison conditions, particularly for long-term prisoners. The politicisation of ordinary prisoners who link their imprisonment to broader social and political inequality and oppression, and prison as the epicentre of their struggle, transforming them into proto-revolutionaries striking out against the capitalist state, is a spectre that terrifies those responsible for managing and enforcing prison repression.
          Islamic radicalisation within prisons is currently considered by the state a primary “intelligence and security concern”, and a leaked UK Home Office document identifies prison as a “key site of radicalisation for young Muslims”, justifying measures like the political vetting of Imams before they are permitted to preach in jails and the creation of “separation wings” or isolation units for militant Muslim prisoners. In the UK the segregation or isolation of politicised and radicalised prisoners in separate wings and units is a method of control imported from British occupied and controlled Northern Ireland where during “The Troubles” Irish Republican prisoners of war were confined to the notorious H-Blocks of The Maze prison, which through the dirty protests and hunger strikes actually became an epicentre of the wider Irish Republican struggle. Concentrating radicalised prisoners in separation units and wings inevitably creates greater solidarity amongst those prisoners and re-enforces their radicalisation, and of course in any case political ideas and ideologies cannot be isolated or segregated, even within an oppressive institution like prison. The treatment of politicised prisoners is always inevitably brutal and discriminatory, and within total institutions whose fundamental purpose is to tame and subdue the rebellious and disobedient poor, prisoners who develop a political consciousness and psychologically liberate themselves from existential and penal obedience are perceived by the prison system as the most dangerous of all the imprisoned.
         Prisoners serving indeterminate or life sentences for non-political offences but who subsequently become politicised whilst in prison have a very minimal chance of hope of ever being released, even when their actual risk to the public is considered minimal or even non-existent. Officially, the prime criterion determining the “suitability for release” of indeterminate sentenced prisoners is their assessment as “low-risk” to public safety, but in fact what actually determines a life sentence prisoner’s chance of release is not a perceived level of risk to the public, but their level of obedience to prison authority.Those life sentence prisoners who embrace an ideology considered by their jailers as “subversive” and “anti-authority” are viewed as the absolute antithesis of the “model prisoner” and therefore permanently “unsuitable for release”. Prisons are microcosms of the society that creates them, and the treatment of prisoners who identify with a political belief system that directly challenges the authority and legitimacy of the state reveals the fascist core of that state, which has implications for society generally, especially during times of social unrest.

John Bowden October 2019

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The Struggle Of Indigenous People.

         We should share and spread this update on the growing struggle for freedom and justice in Ecuador from Roar Magazine:

 

        In the Ecuadorian Amazon, Shuar and Achuar people radicalize the strike, marching towards Puyo. Photo: CONAIE.

    Over the past days, women, children and elders from the diverse nations and Indigenous communities in Ecuador have paralyzed highways, and carried out assemblies in their communities, neighborhoods, and cities. These dignified women and men, who live at the middle of the world, have risen up to recover and take back their country, their present and their future, which is under threat once more by the same elites as always, allied to the predatory right wing patriarchs that monopolize political life.
         With the declaration of a national strike and an Indigenous uprising, they have created a powerful space of discussion that questions the nefarious Decree 883, which dictates austerity measures, the most obvious of which is a dramatic increase in the cost of fuel. “If the price of gas rises, everything gets more expensive, transportation and food get more expensive,” said one Indigenous woman into a microphone in front of a crowd of mobilized community members in the Cotopaxi region.
         Communities in the mountains, in the Amazon and along the coast are standing up together. Through their speeches, posters and songs, they are producing a plurality of meanings, and weaving rejection to the issues that affect them: resisting poverty, resisting being subjected to the economic measures and agenda of the International Monetary Fund, and stopping the extractive regime that is destroying their collective wealth.
A long term struggle has been activated
         As part of this powerful uprising, which is connected to strikes in the cities, calling up historic Indigenous struggles for land and water, and against oil and gas camps and mining projects which sow misery wherever they operate, is clear. In Ecuador we can tell that a long term struggle has been activated, because while today we see that effort and energy are devoted to rolling back economic austerity, the power of the Indigenous and community struggle demonstrates the frustration of the people with state aggression against their communities.
        On October 5, the government of Lenin Moreno declared a sixty day State of Emergency to avoid demonstrations, gatherings and public actions. In response, the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), together with members of the Popular Front and the Unified Workers’ Front, responded: “Don’t play with fire, the destiny of 17 million people is at stake.”
     In the days following, the CONAIE has announced that Indigenous communities have also declared themselves in a State of Emergency, and stated that they will not allow police of the army to destroy the homes of those they detain, or mistreat women and children. Their communiqué makes clear that anyone found taking part in human rights violations will be brought before Indigenous justice.
        The communities that are rising up are doing so with the aim of re-establishing the order of communal life. Indigenous justice does not threaten or contradict the Constitution, nor does it allow rights and guarantees that have been won through organization to be ignored in such an arbitrary and crude manner. The State of Emergency, through an Indigenous lens, is against the detention of more than 477 people, the attacks on many others, and the killing of one.
        The images from Ecuador that are spreading around the world today show the decision and the energy of the youth, of children, of women and elders. These images have profoundly moved Indigenous people throughout the continent. The speeches of Indigenous leaders in Ecuador have been seen thousands of times on social media. Their speeches are expansive, they nurture Indigenous struggles and at the same time, they include cities in their demands.
The dignity of community struggles
       Students around the country have also powerfully spoken out. The green kerchiefs from recent feminist struggles for legal abortion can also be seen in the images of the demonstrations in the cities, as organized women add their voices and bring with them the capacity to sustain a strike. The cacerolazos (pots and pans demonstrations) convened by womens’ collectives force us to take note of the double workday and the exploitation of women via unpaid work, it also demonstrates how the paquetazo (series of economic reforms ordered by the IMF) will impact them. Urban women recognize the dignity of community struggles, and seek to add their voices, their screams of frustration, by self-organizing to take the streets.
      On October 8th, at the barricades in the Pastaza region, the people demanded the resignation of Lenin Moreno, in other parts of the country, interior ministry buildings have been occupied. The Indigenous movement entered Quito from the south, receiving support and solidarity from working class and poor neighborhoods who joined them to chant: “Join in, pueblo, join the struggle against this government that is against us.”
        Social organizations represented by workers unions and others in the cities will now join in the massive National Strike on October 9th. An Indigenous uprising is, once again, at the heart of the struggle, opening a horizon of re-appropriation in the face of an attempt to expropriate all of the peoples of Ecuador. The Indigenous mobilization calls for the generalization of protest actions so that the struggle can grow stronger.
      This moment of struggle is a moment to re-appropriate strength and self determination, a time of rebellion towards the production of a renewed sense of struggle, woven together with diverse voices that warn, clearly and firmly: “Not Moreno or Correa, not Lasso or Nebot! The struggle is ours!” This makes clear that this uprising will not end in new alliances between power brokers or in other kinds of patriarchal pacts.
        On October 7, Lenin Moreno moved the seat of his government to the coastal city of Guayaquil. His actions remind us of the nervous and fearful priests and colonial bureaucrats during the colonial period, who hid in walled houses and called for military aid, fearing the moment that Indians in resistance would, in the words of Bartolina Sisa, reign again.
        From our communities, from the cities we live in, we are and will continue to follow and express solidarity with what is taking place in Ecuador. The strength of Indigenous communities nurtures ours. We raise our voices together and show our support for popular and Indigenous resistance. Here and there, we resist being overseen by the state, and we yell once again that we are moved by a desire to change every single thing.
        ¡Nos queremos vivas, libres y desendeudadas en todas partes! We want to be alive, free and without debt, everywhere! ¡Que se sigan tejiendo entramados comunitarios y populares de lucha! May community weavings of popular struggle continue to be woven! ¡Que siga creciendo la dignidad! May dignity continue to flourish!

Signed,
Gladys Tzul Tzul, Guatemala
Raquel Gutiérrez, México
Claudia López, Bolivia
Mariana Menéndez, Uruguay
Noel Sosa, Uruguay
Veronica Gago, Argentina
Luci Caballero, Argentina
Jovita Tzul Tzul, Guatemala
Ita del Cielo, México
Victoria Furtado, Uruguay
Siboney Mora, Uruguay
Dunia Mokrani, Bolivia
Claudia Cuellar, Bolivia
Silvia Federici, United States
Dawn Paley, Canada

    

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Depressed, Probably Suffering From Capitalism.

The real shape of the UK:

At least '320,000 people homeless in Britain'
Fifth of people in working UK household trapped in relative poverty.
There were 4.1 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2017-18.
There are expected to be 5.2 million children living in poverty in the UK by 2022
47% of children living in lone-parent families are in poverty.
Children from Black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to be in poverty: 45 per cent are now in poverty, compared with 26 per cent of children in White British families.
London the richest city in UK has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK.
70 per cent of children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one person works.

Figures show a homeless person dying every 19 hours in UK.

       This is the true picture of capitalist Britain, poverty, rough sleeping and homelessness are part and parcel of a very large slice of the population of this country. There isn't much good you can say about capitalism, unless of course you are one of the millionaire/billionaire exploiters that control the system. However, you can of course list a catalogue of its negative aspects. These vary from the brutal deprivation of millions of humans, the abject poverty of millions more, and of course its endless lists of wars for resources, markets and power. These all happen on a vast scale affecting us all across the planet, but there is also the individual problems less associated with this unjust economical system.

     Across the developed world, that part that is considered the lucky part of the world, there is an ever increase in mental health problems, rises in self-harm, suicides and substance abuse. More and more people feel anxious, depressed and isolated these can all be traced back to the type of society we live in, a capitalist economy where injustice, inequality and the constant fear of poverty have created a state of anxiety that can become normal, the accepted way of life. Capitalism doesn't just affect your purse and standard of living, it can also decimate your physical and mental health, without you realising the root cause. 

      A society freed from the greed drive profit motive that sees to the needs of all our people, would go a long way to eliminate these personal problems of physical and mental health.

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For Human Dignity, Capitalism Must Fall.

         Ecuador, like Haiti and many other countries is in open revolt, as more and more people allow their righteous anger at the cruel injustices of this destructive economic system of capitalism, that is rapidly plunging the world into chaos, to flow onto the streets. More and more people are now realising that debating and seeking legislation to protect the poor and curtail the rampant plundering of the public purse, just doesn't work. Across the globe, living standards are falling for the majority, while the opulence of the few grows ever more grotesque. We have had centuries of "representative democracy" but still the gap between the privileged few and the vast majority grows ever wider. We the many are on an ever ending slippery slope to poverty and deprivation, as long as we tolerate this greed drive economic system of capitalism to rule our planet.

       All strength to and support for, all those we stand up and fight to end this system of greed and savage injustice. For human dignity and justice, capitalism must fall.

This from AMW:

      About 50 police officers have been taken hostage and indigenous groups have blocked roads and highways, as protests against the state’s neoliberal economic policies continued in Ecuador.

       On October 3, in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, anarchists, some carrying red and black flags, fought alongside students, setting flaming barricades and throwing rocks at riot police, who they forced to retreat. Anarchists have been on the forefront of the struggle against IMF-imposed “reforms” and against the police-state that is attempting to enforce these “reforms” with brutality.

       Protests began when Ecuador’s corrupt president Lenin Moreno announced the end of fuel subsidies. Moreno’s regime, though nominally left-wing, has strengthened relations with the imperialist United States, launching a joint security effort and intelligence sharing operation.

       President Lenin Moreno says he will not bring back subsidies and has declared a two-month national emergency.

       Some of the protests were organized by transport unions who have since stopped their action. Other sectors are calling for a national strike on Wednesday.

       An umbrella group for indigenous groups in the country, the Confederation of Indigenous Nations in Ecuador (Conaie) said it was declaring a “state of exception” in indigenous areas, where soldiers and police officers would be detained and would face “indigenous justice.”

      Luis Iguamba, leader of the Kayambi people from northern Ecuador, said they would keep up the pressure on the government.

“We are fighting for everyone and we are fighting to foresee the rights we all have and we can’t allow this. So, everyone, be on the lookout and keep up the fight. Let’s radicalise the strike,” he said.

Indigenous-led protests have toppled three presidents in the last few decades.

        Their intervention follows protests on Thursday and Friday that saw roads in the capital Quito and the city of Guayaquil strewn with makeshift barricades and burning tires.

Hundreds of people were arrested, dozens of police officers hurt, several police cars destroyed and a local government building was attacked, the authorities said.

       Ecuador’s government has agreed to cut public spending as part of a loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The agreement, signed in March, allows Ecuador to borrow $4.2bn.

Anarchists and indigenous groups are likely to continue resistance against the neoliberal policies of the Moreno regime.

More information from that area: AMW

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Coming To A Street Near You.

         It is now obvious that the powers that be in the West are preparing for the army to be ready to function in civilian areas, in the event of civil unrest or threat of insurrection. They are always better prepared than we the public are, they do their planning well in advance and with unlimited funding. We tend to react to circumstances that are forced on us, rather than accept that there is a class war already operational at the moment. It is sold to us in various guises, austerity, national emergency, privatisation, gentrification, balancing the books, etc. when these start to hurt and anger rises, we react, but they are well prepared to quell that anger by force. What are our preparations for self defence?

      This from Act For Freedom Now:

 Coming to a street near you.

         For decades France has been one of the most important arms suppliers to the four corners of the world. With a flourishing industrial-military complex, it regularly carries out wars, supports irregular troops (such as that of general Haftar in Libya) and is also training on its own territory… and that of its neighbours. In the context of the ‘Motorized Ability’ program signed in June 2019 with one of NATO’s privileged partners, Belgium, it will supply the latter with 450 armoured vehicles (382 Griffon troops transporters and 60 Jaguar recognition vehicles), which will be delivered from 2025. Another aspect of this agreement is the strengthening of ‘strategic partnership’ between French and Belgian ground troops, which takes form in particular with conjoint training. This might seem quite banal, were it not for the fact that the army decided to train not only in barracks and appointed centres [1] that reproduce cities in miniature… but directly among the civilian population by performing exercises on a real scale.That’s how more than 1,000 Belgian and French military will occupy the provinces of Namur (ten municipalities located in the triangle Walcourt-Hastière-Couvin) and Hainaut (triangle Beaumont-Chimay-Froidchapelle) from 18th to 25th September 2019.

         ‘The goal is to start a French-Belgian military cooperation by integrating units in both countries in a civilian environment. It will also allow us to exchange skills and improve our inter-operations action in many sectors, such as radio communication and weapons use’. Yes, you read right, the goal is that of operating on a large scale ‘in a civilian environment’ as happened after the 2015 attacks, but above all that of carrying out an operation meant to improve ‘weapons use’. More precisely, 150 vehicles and 600 soldiers (fifty fifty for each of the States involved) will be deployed in twenty villages, with over 300 taking care of assignment (personnel, examiners, logistics) and… and… and… 100 soldiers who will play the part of rural insurgents euphemistically called ‘opponents’, who hide among the population.

         This military training operation, called ‘Celtic uprise’ (a reference to Brexit), has ‘a fictitious country in crisis’ as its scenario, and the goal of the murderers in uniform is no longer simply hidden behind vague humanitarian pretexts to aid the population, as it was years ago, but this time it also officially includes ‘patrolling, making sensitive points secure’ and of course ‘antiterrorism actions’. It’s been known for some time that the army has been preparing for interventions within the European borders in case of urban insurrections or rural guerrillas, scenarios that even NATO projections took seriously. As for us, it’s time we took seriously the proposals that insist on the need to be involved in it now [2]; to map carefully industries and technological companies, but also everything that is sensitive to the correct operational functioning of domination: communication networks, transport routes, resources and energy networks, strategic supplies of raw material and food; to develop technical skills and precise knowledge in order to put them out of use; to think today of forms of informal coordination and develop anarchist projectualities, valid in times of peace as well as of war, because the distinction between the two is no longer appropriate…

          [1]. Such as the 12,000 hectares of CENTAC (combat training centre) in Mailly-le-camp (Aube) and the 6,000 hectares of CENZUB (urban action training centre) in Sissonne (Aisne).

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All Must Kneel Before The Altar Of The Economy.

       So often humans create something for their benefit, and then the "thing" becomes more important than the people. Trade unions were created to help people but now in most cases the union becomes more important than the people it was meant to serve. Religion is the same, the church must be protected even at the expense of the people. Today it is the economy, how do we cure ourselves from the epidemic of consumerism. These usual words of wisdom, which I endorse, from Not Buying Anything sums it up perfectly.

 Don't worry. Keep buying, and be happy... sort of.

          I keep hearing that "the consumer is doing the heavy lifting" for the economy, that they are "holding up", and "aren't fatigued yet". Isn't this backwards?
      I remember a time when the economy worked for the people, existed for the people, functioned for the people. Now, the people work for the economy. Now, nothing is more important than the economy.
       So we get the following situations:
       The environment is generally collapsing... but the consumer is still buying.
       Manufacturing is down... but the consumer is still buying.
       There is a "Retail Apocalypse"... but the consumer is still buying.
       There is a global political crisis... but the consumer is still buying.
      Depression and suicide have reached depressing proportions... but the consumer is still buying.
       We are getting fatter and less fit... but the consumer is still buying.
      Everything is breaking down, but not to worry - the consumer is still buying.
       If I understand this correctly, as long as we keep buying, everything will appear to be fine. The only disaster that could befall the world that would actually matter is if The Consumer stopped buying.
         If The Consumer even dared to slow their acquisitional frenzy, there would be an immediate emergency declared that would require special and intense activity to repair.
        We would need to really DO something in that case. We wouldn't want to put the billionaire lifestyle at risk now, would we?
       "I buy, therefore I am", will be the new motto to live by if the economic manipulators get their way. Today's Consumers will be tomorrow's Buybots.
       So don't worry about all those pesky and unimportant emergencies scientists and environmental activists keep making up, just keep buying.
         Everything will be fine. Well, the economy will be fine, at least, and what is more important than that?
       That is the system as it exists, and I'm not buying it. Our planetary community needs something better, and soon.

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A Magical Rise To Fame!!!

         Extinction Rebellion is certainly grabbing the headlines at the moment it was a very rapid rise to prominence and its figurehead Greta Thunberg is a most remarkable and sudden rise to fame. A little girl sitting all alone on a pavement complaining about "climate change" suddenly is a world figure. I find that rather strange. How come, all those other activists that have been complaining for years never got the same treatment, a lot of them instead, got a criminal record for their efforts.  Who really is the driving force behind this little girl, where did the financial support come from originally? As I have said before, I'm not against mass protests to stop the obliteration of the planet, I just feel that this particular protest is being steered deliberately, and for ulterior motives, in the wrong direction. See previous article.

        This is an extract from an interesting article from Acorn:

    ------It also turns out not to be entirely coincidental that Rentzhog came across Greta’s little protest. He later admitted had already done PR work for her mother and was “tipped off” about the event in advance.
       So the bottom line is this: from the very first day of her “rebellion”, Greta Thunberg was being promoted by two corporate PR professionals paid for their skills in “brand development” and “storytelling”.
        Since then, of course, she has addressed the UN, the WEF, the European Parliament, featured on the cover of Time magazine, which named her a “next generation leader”, met Barack Obama and Emmanuel Macron and been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
       This is all rather strange in a world where the usual reward for environmental activism is a criminal record.-------

        It is well worth reading the entire article to try and understand who really is pushing this particular campaign.

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What Is Wrong With Extinction Rebellion?

           Though I have always believed that the people have to take to the streets in a drive to change society to one that sees to the needs of all of society, not just the privileged few, I just can’t accept the direction of this particular protest. Yes I accept that climate change is a rapidly impending disaster, and yes we have to tackle it head on. However to ignore the root cause of this looming disaster, which is the capitalist economic system, which is part and parcel of the state system, is doomed to failure. This particular protest is aiming to get the state apparatus to legislate for “green capitalism”, a mythical beast that belongs in the category of fairy tales. Capitalism, green or any other shade, can only survive by continual growth, ever increasing consumption and growth of profit for the few. These are its essence, its blood vessels for survival, and it is obvious that these very goals are the very cause of the climate disaster that we face. To “save the planet” we have to stop the drive for continued growth, drastically cut consumption and end the mantra of everything must produce a profit. In other words we must destroy capitalism if we are serious about “saving the planet”. 

 

 

       I consider it naive in the extreme to expect capitalism ever to embark on a drive that will destroy it, an end to perpetual growth, and to work towards a continual cut in consumption, as both these aims would destroy its need for ever growing profits. Profit, wealth and power is what capitalism is all about, no matter its colour. If you wish to “save the planet” then get behind those who wish to destroy capitalism and its bastard twin, the state, as that is the only direction that will take you down the road to “saving the planet”. 

       Yes, take to the streets, grow your numbers, create disruption, stop the city, but have no illusions about who your real enemy is, capitalism brought us to this catastrophe, it can never get us out of it. Capitalism of any shade or colour and “save the planet” ideals, will never make pleasant bed-fellows, one will have to kill the other to survive, they are totally incompatible. 

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The Web Of Illusions Woven Around War.

        Wars and their reasons are probably the most savage and brutal illusions foisted on the people of any and all countries. Wars are always labelled defence of democracy, for liberty, justice, to bring democracy to others, just wars, wars to bring peace. They are never stated to be for the growth of empire, to grow resources and markets, to stifle the growth of competitors in the big corporate battles, to fan patriotism and get the public behind the government. Part and parcel of this system and society of illusions that swamp our minds and blind us to reality.

An interesting excerpt from an article from Anarkismo: 

World War One and 100 Years of Counter-Revolution.

--------FROM THE WAR ON TERROR TO A NEW GREAT UNREST
        Despite the brutality of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, international opposition did deter the US military from bombing people on the scale of the Korean and Vietnam wars. At the same time, however, the US population's reluctance to sacrifice its soldiers compelled the US military to use a level of violence to protect its personnel that only increased opposition to the American presence. Unable to bomb people into submission or to win their support, US defeat was inevitable.
        This defeat later helped to encourage the Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East. Unfortunately, counter-revolutionary repression and civil war have, so far, crushed these uprisings. But the US and other Western governments still need to use troops on the ground to stabilise these counter-revolutions and people’s reluctance to sacrifice any more soldiers makes that an extremely risky proposition. Unable to unite their populations around wars in Iraq, Iran or Syria – let alone the Ukraine – Western politicians are, instead, keen to commemorate the national unity and futile sacrifice of past wars in a desperate attempt to pretend that we really are ‘all in this together’.
        With no concession to any historical truth, Barack Obama has praised the ‘profound sacrifice’ that Allied soldiers made in 1914-18 ‘to fight and die for the freedom we enjoy’. Meanwhile, David Cameron was so fixated on the idea of the sacrifice that British soldiers ‘made for us’ that he used the word ‘sacrifice’ eight times in one commemoration speech. Fortunately, if Britain, with its strong military traditions, cannot tolerate the sacrifice of 179 soldiers in Iraq, then no Western societies are likely to tolerate the sacrifice of vastly greater numbers in any new global war. Nevertheless, the Western ruling class are still hoping that people will agree to sacrifice their living standards in order to compete with workers in Asia and so, somehow, rejuvenate Western capitalism.[13]
       Such a sacrifice, such a ‘race to the bottom’, would be less bloody than the inter-imperialist competition of 1914-18, but no less pointless. As in the early years of the Great War, people will go along with government propaganda for a while but – eventually – they will realise that they are sacrificing their lives for nothing. Then it may only be a matter of time before we see social unrest comparable to that of the Great Unrest. And, this time, our rulers will have serious problems containing any such unrest because there is no easy way to divert people’s energies into war as there was in the Cold War – or in the Great War.
       The British Government’s desperate attempt to revive what Cameron called the ‘national spirit’ by commemorating the monstrous slaughter of 1914-18 is a good opportunity to expose the real history of capitalism and its counter-revolutionary wars. See http://therealww1.wordpress.com for information about future events and for more anti-war articles.

Read the full article HERE:

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Representative Democracy, The Great Illusion.

       This so called democracy we live in, is a world of illusions. Most people consider themselves free because they can choose from a box of goodies handed to them by unseen masters, but seem unaware that there are other boxes that they are not being allowed to see. The public's tastes and values are formed by manipulation, formed and shaped by deliberate propaganda from the media, the corporate juggernaut and state institutions. The information you get is what they want you to hear and see, and that invariably bears no relation to what is actually going on in the world. Concealment of the true workings of society is necessary for the survival of the powers that be, the greater the division between the elite, powerful controlling few and the ordinary person, the greater the illusions created. Truth would destroy this unjust and exploitative economic system, illusions must be generated and will grow at an ever greater distance from the truth.

      The vast majority seem to accept that poverty and deprivation, existing alongside unimaginable wealth, is just an adjustable hiccup in the system, but fail to see that the ever increasing wealth of the few is the root cause of all that poverty and deprivation. The illusions state that the economic system we have is the best, it's all there is, and the injustice and inequalities are caused by differences in ability and effort, but can be sorted by little adjustments here and there. That is the great big illusion on which all the others are built.
       History should tell us that these minor manipulations of the system to repair its little hiccups is just another fantasy to safe guard the small wealthy and powerful controllers of the system. 

        Of course others have been saying this for years and saying it much better than I ever could.

". . . in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them. " Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery.

      However it is not just in America that this enslavement of the human mind is in full control, it is the existing model for the capitalist world. Though there are signs that more and more of the public at large, are beginning to see through the illusions, their eyes are beginning to penetrate the smoke and mirrors and they see glimpses of the reality of the system that has for so long heaped so much misery on the population of the world. 

        "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country . . . we're dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . . it is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world." Edward Bernays - Propaganda, Liveright Publishing Company, New York, 2005, excerpts from pp. 9-19 

       Illusions are meant to be part of stage entertainment, not the world in which we live. Illusions should be fun, something you know is not true, you should then leave the theatre and re-enter the real world of truths, realities and facts. When will we all leave the theatre?

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

Spirit of Revolt, More Digitised Collections.

      The volunteers at Spirit of Revolt are as always busy trying to bring the people to the archive, and bring our history to the people. We are delighted to state that two more of our collections have been fully digitised and therefore you can now read them from the comfort of your home, library, cafe, etc. No need to make you way into the Mitchell Library to do so. Though you will always be made welcome should you wish to visit us at the Mitchell.

The two collections are:

GB243 T/SOR/23 Collection No. 23, Clydeside Hunt Saboteurs.

GB243 T/SOR/35 Collection No. 35, Shirley Sampson Collection.

      Enjoy perusing these wonderful and informative collections from the comfort of your home. Of course there is a wealth of information already digitised on our website, so you could spend endless hours in that comfy chair trawling through the thousands of documents, leaflets, booklets, posters, letters, photos etc. all from grassroots activities in your local Glasgow/Clydeside area, with lots from further afield. Have a look and let's know what you think. 

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