Justice Turns Its Back.

       Not a new video, but what has changed in the 11 years since it was first released? More Palestinians dead and maimed, more of their homes destroyed, more of their land stolen and their conditions vastly deteriorated, and still the vast majority of the states of this world turn a blind eye or worse, openly support the genocide being carried out by the Zionist regime that holds sway in Israel.

      Will history record how the people of Palestine disappeared in a bloody epoch, or will it record how finally the people of the world stood up and halted this racist genocide by a deluded fanatical Zionist regime. A regime that daily brings the Jewish people into disrepute the world over. Who will write the history, religious fanaticism or rational humanity?

Thanks Loam for the link.

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

Rampant Genocide.

     Obviously the only supporters of the Trump/Netanyahu "deal of the Century"  for the people of Palestine, are rabid racists, apartheid supporters, fascists and Trump worshipers. However they will do their utmost to implement this racist land-grab with the hope of obliterating the land of Palestine off the map completely. No rational person with a grain of humanity can stand by and watch this happening. This deal will not be rescinded by debate in the corridors of power, too many in that labyrinth of power and corruption pay homage to their imperial master America. It can only be opposed on the streets in countries around the world. Sadly I don't see Glasgow's name in this list though I do know that there is wide opposition to this extension of American/Zionist imperialism. Let's widely publicise our actions and show the strength of solidarity.

This from Struggle La Lucha:

      Palestinian communities and supporters of Palestine inside occupied Palestine, in the refugee camps and everywhere around the world have mobilized a series of events, actions and demonstrations to express their outrage at the latest colonial insult proffered by U.S. imperialism, the Zionist state and complicit reactionary regimes, the Trump-Netanyahu “deal of the century.”

     A list of actions is below, organized by a wide range of community groups and solidarity movements. This list focuses mostly on events outside Palestine and the camps – there are countless mobilizations taking place there. We know this list is incomplete and growing! will add your action and demonstration to the list if you send us the time, date and location. Send us a message on Facebook or email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to add your mobilization to the growing international rising that makes clear that the people of the world stand with the Palestinian people and will never accept apartheid, land theft and colonization.

UPCOMING ACTIONS

Saturday, 1 February

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
2:00 pm, Aotea Square, New Zealand. More info:
https://samidoun.net/event/auckland-palestine-human-rights-rally/
NAPOLI, ITALY
11:00 am Metro Toledo, Napoli. More info: https://www.facebook.com/giovanipalestinesi.italia/posts/2829767097086466
MILAN, ITALY
4:00 pm, Piazza Duomo/Arengario, Milan. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/giovanipalestinesi.italia/posts/2829767097086466
PARIS, FRANCE
3:00 pm, Fontaine des Innocents, Paris. More info:
https://samidoun.net/event/paris-protest-trumps-declaration-of-war-on-palestinians/
BARCELONA, CATALONIA (SPAIN)
6:30 pm, Placa Sant Jaume, Barcelona. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/comunitat.palestina/posts/2957069284326653
KOBLENZ, GERMANY
12:00 pm, Herz-Jesu-Kirche, Koblenz. More info:
https://samidoun.net/event/koblenz-no-to-the-deal-of-the-century-demonstration/
HAMBURG, GERMANY
3:00 pm, Steindamm 55, Hamburg. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/PalastinensischeGemeinschaftInDeutschlandEv/posts/3309641825727274
BORAS, SWEDEN
12:00 pm, Stora Torget, Borås. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/484555255807680/
GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN
1:00 pm, Gustaf Adolfs torg, Gothenburg. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/170475410928798/
HELSINGBORG, SWEDEN
1:00 pm, Söder, Helsingborg. More info:
https://samidoun.net/event/helsingborg-protest-the-trump-deal/
RONNEBY, SWEDEN
1:00 pm, Ronneby torg, Ronneby. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/pal.in.se/photos/a.777417652281878/2914966685193620/
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
2:00 pm, US Embassy, Dag Hammarskjolds Vag 31, Stockholm. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2692925357660447/
ODENSE, DENMARK
3:00 pm, Banegardspladsen, Odense. More info:
https://samidoun.net/event/odense-no-to-the-deal-of-the-century/
BERGEN, NORWAY
3:00 pm, Den Bla Steinen, Torgalmenningen, Bergen. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/637045693730573/
ENNIS, IRELAND
1:00 pm, The Height, O’Connell Square, Ennis. More info:
https://www.ipsc.ie/event/ennis-emergency-vigil-reject-the-trump-netanyahu-steal-of-the-century-ipsc
DUBLIN, IRELAND
2:00 pm, General Post Office, O’Connell Street, Dublin. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/185899832814621/
LIMERICK, IRELAND
3:00 pm, Bottom of Thomas Street, Limerick. More info:
https://www.ipsc.ie/event/limerick-emergency-vigil-reject-the-trump-netanyahu-steal-of-the-century-ipsc
LONDON, UK
1:00 pm, US Embassy, 33 Nine Elms Lane, London, More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2883478418385390/
MANCHESTER, UK
1:00 pm, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/281779089464036/
BIRMINGHAM, UK
3:00 pm, opposite Waterstones (by the Bullring), Birmingham. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/birminghampalestineaction/posts/2467249560203413
TORONTO, CANADA
1:00 pm, US Consulate Toronto, 360 University Ave, Toronto. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/120157812630391/
MONTREAL, QUEBEC
1:00 pm, Norman Bethune Square, Montreal. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2649259201840051/
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, US
1:00 pm, 11000 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/519680402004224/
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, US
1:00 pm, Copley Square, Boston. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/205983373778802/
DALLAS, TEXAS, US
2:00 pm, Dealey Plaza, Dallas. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1780900755375497/
HOUSTON, TEXAS, US
3:00 pm, Corner of Westheimer and Post Oak, Houston. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/173949043954721/
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, US
5:00 pm, Five Points Fountain, Columbia. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/UofSCSJP/photos/a.764959730266462/2645478312214585/

Sunday, 2 February

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
2:00 pm, Dam Square, Amsterdam. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/837728293341115/
BERLIN, GERMANY
3:00 pm, Brandenburger Tor, Berlin. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/806759639837552/
OSLO, NORWAY
2:00 pm, Stortinget, Oslo. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1405052866339368/
COLUMBUS, OHIO, US
12:00 pm, 15th Avenue and High Street, Columbus. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/200398221090879/
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, US
1:00 pm, Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2325279181096737/
VANCOUVER, CANADA
2:30 pm, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/172540570673079/

Monday, 3 February

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
2:00 pm, US Consulate General, Museumplein 19, Amsterdam. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/774905216326149/
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
3:00 pm, US Embassy, Boltzmanngasse 16, Vienna. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/566191377123146/photos/a.586026968472920/754733871602228/

Tuesday, 4 February

GIJON, ASTURIAS, SPAIN
7:00 pm, Plaza del Parchis, Gijon (Xixon). More info:
https://www.facebook.com/causaarabe.asturies/posts/2799750740083680

Friday, 7 February

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
2:30 pm, Rond-point Schuman, Brussels. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158109192094456&set=a.10151621688824456&type=3
HELSINKI, FINLAND
4:00 pm, Helsingin Tuomiokirkko, Helsinki. More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/186304922443411/

Sunday, 9 February

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, US
3:00 pm, Oakland (Pittsburgh). More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/487529305243500/

List of COMPLETED ACTIONS

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

Our Streets.

      While the propaganda machine of the Western capitalist system tries to portray a picture of a system working just fine, with everybody diligently enjoying the possibility of getting richer or perhaps becoming a celebrity, beneath this smoke and mirrors and facade of illusions, the people are on the streets in vast numbers trying to break the hold this system has over our lives.

      From Chile to France, from Ecuador to Lebanon, from Iraq to Sudan, the system is under attack by the ordinary people, calling, enough is enough. This is the time the various states unleash their guard dogs, those vicious psychopaths in police and military style uniforms, to beat, terrorise and intimidate the population, to get them back in line and subserviently accept their exploitation. However, it is getting harder and harder as the people gain in solidarity and lose their fear of the system's various control features.

      This from Catalonia, just another area where people are struggling for real change.

         The film is showing in London on the 6th. February, and Edinburgh on the 26th. February. Let's try to bring this film to Glasgow.

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

Time To Be Me.

        "Not Buying Anything" is a site I visit often, and the result is always the same, I come away feeling I have learnt a little bit more of what the world could be if we all open our eyes, but I also leave feeling more eager to pick up the cudgel and do what I can to help destroy this paralysing, corrupt, unjust exploitative economic system that is responsible for so much destruction, death and misery, that will, if not brought down, eventually lead to the demise of humanity by the destruction of the Earth's fragile ecosystem.

This latest from Not Buying Anything:

 

       Like Jean Weir, "I think I experienced society like an iron vice from the day I was born." That is the main reason I find living simply so attractive - it loosens the grip of that iron vice.
      Since I was young I felt the control and exploitation that I was swimming in constantly. I thought it might drown me.
      Because I was born a sensitive, I keenly felt the stings of an obviously unjust and hypocritical system. It was everywhere - in the "father knows best" family structure, at school, the mall, in the playground and on the streets.
     I wondered, and still do, why so few could see it. Can fish perceive the water they swim in? Maybe that is the problem.
     My desire has always been to be beyond sneaky methods of control used by parents, teachers, bosses, priests and society. That is why I developed a powerful connection to nature and wild places, and honoured my desire to be far, far away from the centres of civilizational control as often as I could.
     I wanted to be away from the set of laws that seek to control everyone except the rich and powerful, who are free to do as they please.
   I wanted to leave consumerism, its garish billboards and screaming advertisements, in the dust behind me. These are the rankest forms of control of all, being subtle and based on the best neuropsychology money can buy (over 1 trillion dollars a year now).
     A saner world would see them for the mind control that they are, and resist them at every turn.
    The consumer lifestyle lulls us into creating our own gilded cages, then willingly walking into them. The authorities don't even have to monitor us after our initial training, because when we leave our cells to work for our keepers, we go right back to them at night.
    The average person prefers the cage to the perceive dangers and discomforts of more natural surroundings. Things, they say, are not convenient in nature. Therefore, it is bad, and must be controlled, destroyed and plundered.
    This shows the level of control has been complete and total. When you can successfully tear people from the land you create displaced zombies, ripe for exploitation and prone to suggestion.
     So, at an early age I decided I would not work for this sick system if that was ever possible. I had no wish to aid them in their exploitations and predations. I would rather be poor and free than complicit.
     I would go on to disassociate myself from the consumer lifestyle as much, and as soon, as I could. A life of buying less would allow me to work less. Working less would allow me to live more freely.
      Time, I thought, is the most valuable resource, and I didn't want to spend all mine working for the man. Or woman.
      Living simply is not so much about saving the world for me, although that would be a nice fringe benefit. It is about getting out of that iron vice of society.
      It is about building a real and lasting freedom for myself, and for everyone else.

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

Religion, A Dictator.

     Because of America's brutal imperialist policies against Iran, some people will side with Iran, but we should never forget, Iran is just another corrupt authoritarian regime that wishes to control the people and enforce its own particular brand of dogma and ideology. Just like our own authoritarian states in the West, it has its secret police, it is riddled with corruption, it has its torturers, its large humanity killing prisons, its brutal minions who carry out the savage dictate of the regime. As in other states across the globe, there is no room for freedom and justice in their agenda. Corporate dictator, or religious dictator, is no choice at all.

This from asrananarchism:

       Only they who have lost their fear of death are in truly in love… My heart yearns for comrades who can hear my voice even though a more a dreadful and torturous prison awaits me for the crime of wanting to be a voice for the oppressed and my fellow inmates. Yet to be human is to endure the hardship of accepting responsibility, and there is no greater responsibility for the rebel than to stand with the oppressed. I must be the voice of people like Meysam, and thus refuse to fear Two Alef, 209, One Alef, and the regime’s other horrific prisons
        Meysam is an 18 year old youth from the Parand district who was arrested by agents of IRGC Tharallah military base for joining the protests against the increase in the price of gasoline that swept the country in November. Facing the charges of assembling and conspiring against the state, he is currently incarcerated in the 5th block of the Greater Tehran Central Prison. Despite his youth, Meysam’s hands are covered in callouses from being forced to be the sole breadwinner that his mother and sister depend on after losing his father to a traffic accident. He would work from dawn until midnight in the freezing cold of winter and the scorching heat of summer, delivering food on a motorcycle and pursuing his studies at night. After the sudden increase in the prices of gasoline, Meysam took to the streets to get his voice heard
       He says, “Even before the price increases, I was barely able to make enough to meet my family’s most basic needs. For me and others like me, traveling and leisure have always been out of reach like a mirage, but after the price increases, I can’t even afford the cost of rent, food, healthcare, and basic utilities. Who will answer our cries of agony with help?” Not only was there no help to be found, but his protestations were answered with blows from electric prods and batons. He was berated and tortured multiple times while his interrogator stood above him with a baton and electric prod and coerced him into confessing that he was taking orders from the United States and Israel and a member of so and so group dedicated to overthrowing the regime. Masyam asks “where the hell are America and Israel? I’ve never even traveled further than Shah Abdol-Azim’s Shrine! I just want to make enough income to live and an economy that isn’t corrupt. How does that make me an insurrectionist----

Read the full article HERE: 

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

Glasgow's Bloody Friday.

     Glasgow, January, 31st. 1919, "Bloody Friday", remember it, celebrate it, be proud of it, and all those ordinary people who took part in it.

    From my post last January 31st. I'll probably repeat it next year, and why not.

      A date that should be etched in the psyche of Glasgow's working class and its struggles for that better life, January 31st. 1919.
(http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7510) That was one of the many times the British state has shown its readiness to turn the military on its own citizens.
After WW1 there had been a struggle for a 40 hour week, in support of this a large demonstration was held on George Square, for some unknown reason the police started a vicious attack on the crowd, this in turn created outbreaks of violence across the city, at that point the state put troops on the streets of Glasgow.
However, these events never happen in isolation, they do not pop up from a tranquil environment, they are part of an ongoing connected struggle, a struggle that still continues to this day. Bloody Friday was not "an event" it was part of that chain of struggle between the desires of the ordinary people and the unyielding demands of the wealthy and powerful. It has not been finalised yet, there are more "events" going to happen along the way in this process. We should learn from our history that the powerful and wealthy elite will do what is necessary to defend their privileged position. Troops on the streets is not a symbolic display, it is a very real statement of intent. The Liverpool strikers during the Transport Strike of 1911 (https://libcom.org/…/1911-liverpool-general-transport-strike) found this out brutally, as two of the strikers were shot dead on the street by the military.

  Extract from The Rent Strike To Bloody Friday: Strugglepedia:

Glasgow's Bloody Friday 1919
Like all the events in political struggle it is difficult to trace the thread back to what brought it to this stage, Bloody Friday 1919 is no different. This was not just an attack on a large demonstration in Glasgow, it was the culmination of a series of radical events in Glasgow and the Clydeside area where the state showed its brutality. Perhaps we could even take it back to the 18th century and the radicals like Thomas Muir and others. However we can certainly take it back to the rent strikes of the first world war, the forming of the Labour Withholding Committee, (LWC) The Clyde Workers Committee (CWC) and the political climate of that period.
The Rent Strike
In pre First World War Glasgow there were a large number of empty houses, by the year 1915 all were occupied by incoming workers to the munitions and allied war industry trades. A shortage of workers and materials saw a lack of maintenance and the housing stock deteriorate rapidly. At the beginning of the war the landlords tried to implement large rent increases, at the receiving end of this were 7,000 pensioners and families whose men were fighting in France. This brought about the formation of the "Glasgow Women's Housing Association" and many other local "Women's Housing Associations" to resist the increases. A variety of peaceful activities were used to prevent evictions and drive out the Sheriff's officers. There were constant meetings in an attempt to be one step ahead of the Sheriff's officers. All manner of communication was used to summon help, everything from drums, bells, trumpets and anything that could be used to create a warning sound to rally supporters, who were mainly women as the men were at work in the yards and factories at these times. They would then indulge in cramming into closes and stairs to prevent the entry of the Sheriff's officers and so prevent them from carrying out their evictions. They also used little paper bags of flour, peasmeal and whiting as missiles directed at the bowler hatted officers. These activities culminated on the 17th of November 1915 with the massive demonstration and march of thousands through the city streets and on to the Glasgow Sheriff's Court. The size of the demonstration caused the Sheriff at the court to phone the Prime Minister of the day, this resulted in the immediate implementation of the "1915 Rent Restriction Act" which benefited tenants across the country.
The Labour Withholding Committee
This happened in a time of war, so it was obvious that by 1915 Glasgow and Clydeside had a very large class oriented militant grassroots movement and had forced the Government on this occasion to act in their favour. The rent strike was mainly a women’s organisation but the men were proving to be just as militant in the workplaces. Around the same time in 1915 during a prolonged period of considerable economic hardship for most industrial workers, Clydeside engineering employers refused workers demands for a wage increase. The insatiable demand for war munitions had lead to a rapid rise in inflation and a savage attack on the living standards of the working class. Workers were demanding wage increases to offset these repressive conditions. At this time Weir’s of Cathcart was paying workers brought over from their American plant, 6/- shillings a week more than workers in their Glasgow plant.
The dispute between workers and management at Weir’s rapidly escalated into strike action. The strike was organised by a strike committee named the Labour Withholding Committee (LWC). This committee comprised of rank and file trade union members and shop stewards. It was they who remained in control of the strike rather than the officials from the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE).
The strike started in February 1915 and lasted almost 3 weeks. At its peak 10,000 members of the ASE from 8 separate engineering works were on strike throughout Clydeside. The officials from the ASE denounced the strike and backed the government’s demands to resume work. It was this double pressure from the government and their own trade union that drove the workers from the various engineering works in Glasgow to form the LWC to give the workers a voice and to organise the strike to their wishes.
Although the strikers demands were not met, its importance is in the fact of it forming the LWC. A committee formed from rank and file union members that determined policy in the work place and refused to follow the directives from union officials when those directives conflicted with the demands of that rank and file.

Continue reading HERE:

http://strugglepedia.co.uk/index.php…

       https://radicalglasgowblog.blogspot.com/…/the-rent-strike-t…

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

Words, Our Weapon.

 

      Words are sharp deadly weapons, and are at our disposal every minute of the day. Let us use these deadly weapons as darts of truth that will help assassinate the system that continually tries to kill the human spirit that nestles in all our hearts and minds. 

This from Support Eric King:

A poem by Eric King

If words are as dangerous as bullets
and sharp as knives
Can we start filling the pages?
grinding our pencils to stubs
Turning ink into guillotines
prose the ropes onto their wrist
and rhyme these prison walls to paste
cause nothing else seems to be working
heads aren’t rolling, the streets are on holiday
maybe enough words can spark
a million fires in our hearts
which would create a million fires in the banks
a million convicts in the streets
Not giving a fuck about a voters box
Giving a fuck about having a life
our words can break these chains?
then gather our dictionaries
there aren’t enough thesaurus’ in the world
I need to fight more, I need to write more
My tongue has been shackled
I haven’t resisted, I haven’t insisted
More words, more battles, more victories
more poems, more struggle, more bumps
We’d be fighting w/our minds
dismantling the system that strangle us
Then turning those words into life
A life more important than burning & bombing
Enough magic, love, growth & life
We can grow into a space worth existing in
Our words can get us free

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

On Your Bike Mate.

       Imagine sitting on a bike for 60 minutes and powering your house for 24 hours? Well someone has just put this forward as a possibility, get fit and save a fortune. What more could you ask for?

This from Healthy Food House:

       Have you ever dreamt of powering your household without paying the huge costs? Can you imagine achieving it, and take care of your body figure at the same time?
     Well, this was the amazing idea of the founder of the Free Electric hybrid bike, Manoj Bhargava. He uses mechanical energy in the simplest way possible in order to transform an hour of exercise into supplying a rural household with energy for 24 hours.
       His mechanism is simple- the flywheel is activated when you pedal, and this powers the generator and charges a battery.

According to Bicycling:
      “The Free Electric is made with standard bike parts, which makes it easily fixable by any mechanic around the world. The bike is cheap, clean, and practical in terms of providing energy to those who need it most on a global scale.

Bhargava says:
      “Our target is to begin with India, but really it can be used anywhere. There are 1.3 billion people around the world who are still living without access to electricity.”
      Moreover, he claims that the Free Electric essentially creates “better health, more leisure time, better access to education, and opportunities for entrepreneurship—it could literally change the world.”
       Have you ever heard of a better motivation to start exercising? The featured video gives you an opportunity to see this bike in action:

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

A Corporate City.

       For more than a year now, we have been told that "austerity" is over, but like all words that flow from the mouths of our politicians, they should be taken with a pinch of salt. With the supposed "austerity" over, Glasgow has to make £50 million in cuts to balance its coming budget, (Evening Times). What does that mean? Well there are lots of proposals, all of which lead to handing over more of Glasgow's public spaces to the corporate world. A process that has been going on for years and will eventually lead to a city that is privately owned, where you will only be able to access it amenities if you have a nice fat wallet.

Photo: Scotsman.

     Among the suggested money saving proposals are such things as selling off the Gallery of Modern Art. It could become an lavish hotel with expensive restaurants, or a gambling casino with fancy eateries for rich tourists and wealth citizens. Of Glasgow's six publicly owned golf courses there are proposals to lose five of them, so all you folks who use them or live next to those fine green oasis, in our dear green place, can expect to see the rise of private housing estates, theme parks or perhaps more swanky hotels.

     Libraries, those places where you go to seek out info and pleasure, well they are deemed not really necessary, with proposals to close Maryhill and Whiteinch libraries. So you could be looking at a couple of new carpet shops, car dealers or office blocks in there place. There is more, much more in the money saving proposals that the city council is considering, in carrying out the financial world's plan of a city as a profit producing centre for the corporate moneybag share holders.

     When do we stand up and so, enough is enough, we will not tolerate any longer all our pubic assets being turned to money making entities for the greed driven corporate world. We do not want to live in a world where your only access to amenities is via a fat wallet.

     This privatisation of all that is public has been going on for years and will not stop until they have gobbled up everything that can make a profit. Slice by slice our National Health Service has been hand over, and is still being handed over, to private profit seeking companies, called "service providers". Our education system is being decimated by lack of resources while private schools and private academies are fostered.

     Only we the people can stop this plundering of the poor, the grabbing of public assets, all for the purses of the wealth shareholders. However, time is running out.

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

France Today.

        According to our mainstream media, everything in France is running as usual, the capitalist country is just getting on with the daily exploitation of the subservient public. Of course if you look a little closer you will find that particular narrative is a load of bullshit. Once again the media propaganda machine proves it is the illusion creator for the capitalist system, by omission and false reporting.

       This summary of what is really going on in France will give some idea of how far from reality or mainstream media is. It only reports revolution and insurrection in those countries that are on their list of "enemies".

       This from 325:

Compilation of resistance in progress

The rage is infinite. Every day, a blow, a strike, a revolt in the country. In order that the many initiatives do not fall into oblivion, and to give an account of the social situation, here is an attempt to compile the strikes and actions that have been taking place in France since December 5th:

RAILWAY: RATP (public transport in Paris, Enough 14) strikes for 45 consecutive days; Paris virtually paralysed during public holidays. Daily blockades of bus stations, often suppressed. A strike at the SNCF lasting several weeks, the like of which has never been seen before. Railway workers multiplying the actions all over the country. The strike was “interrupted” on January 20th to forcus on blockades. On December 5, the Paris-Lyon-Marseille TGV line was sabotaged. At the end of December, traffic on the lines in eastern France was considerably slowed down by bang signals. Several stations were attacked by protestors, particularly in Savenay, Bordeaux and Paris.

ENERGY: Several blackouts in December, notably in the Prefecture of Nantes during a demonstration and in the Bordeaux police station. Targeted blackouts in January: at the Rungis market, the CFDT (French Democratic Trade Union Confederation), Orly airport, etc. Power was cut off during the “low-traffic hours” for hundreds of thousands of households. On January 15th, the Gravelines nuclear power plant was blocked by employees, with fireworks being fired in front of the buildings. Other power plants threaten to shut down. In the refineries, rotating strikes have been taking place since December. The announced fuel shortage is not on the agenda for now.

PORTS AND DOCKS: Operation ‘ports morts’ in most major port cities. On January 15th, in Le Havre, dockworkers attack the New Year celebrations of the employers in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry by throwing big fireworks and smoke. The celebrations are cancelled. Several blockades in Montoir de Bretagne and Fos. Still in Le Havre, the strikers invade city hall and gobble up pastries and champagne of the mayor’s New Year reception.

EDUCATION: The premises of the academic inspection of Alès have been walled in. Outdated books were thrown on the rectors’ offices. Various flash mobs. Selective support of high school students who block their schools. In several schools, teachers are preventing students from taking the baccalaureate exams from January 20th. The minister promises “warnings” and “complaints”. Resignations demanded.

CULTURE: The Paris Opera gave a series of street concerts. Open-air performance of “Swan Lake” with orchestra and ballerinas at Christmas. The choir of Radio France interrupted the New Year’s speech of the boss on January 8th with the performance of Verdi’s “Slave Choir”. On January 17, striking technicians and artists disrupted the programme of the Rouen Opera House and gave a concert in the street. The Louvre is blocked. The castle of Versailles on strike. The French National Library is on strike and has hung banners.

JUSTICE: Lawyers are camping out in front of the court in Bobigny on January 15th. The lawyers of Paris confiscate the files in the “comparution immédiate” (practice of immediate presentation to a criminal judge in case of arrest), plead in many cases for non-appearance and have the accused freed. In Rennes the lawyers plead for the release of all foreigners who are imprisoned in prison camps. In most courts the lawyers’ robes are laid down. The New Year’s speech of the Minister of Justice was interrupted in Caen. All 164 bar associations are on strike.

INDUSTRY: Work stoppages and strikes. On January 17, workers in the aeronautics industry in Clermont-Ferrand threw down their overalls.

HOTEL BUSINESS: On January 20th, Macron invites the bosses to Versailles. Two workers refuse to serve the prime minister: They were fired on the spot. Others write protest messages on their plates, causing great tension in the organisation of the ceremony.

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: More than one million protestors were in the streets on December 5. Almost 2 million on December 17. In the following days of the general strike, more than one million people demonstrated. Serious clashes in Paris, Rennes and Nantes in December. Record number of burned cars on New Year’s Eve. On January 7, the multinational BlackRock is attacked by railway workers . On January 9, several trade unionists were injured during horrific repression in Paris. Numerous offices of En Marche (La République en Marche, Macron party) were attacked. Emmanuel Macron was evacuated from a Paris theatre on January 17. A journalist arrested / The presidential restaurant La Rotonde burned down the same night. Heavy repression against the yellow vests demonstrating in Paris on January 18.

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Men Kek Bissa

         Sorry a day late for Holocaust Day, January 27th. However I thought it was worth remembering that the holocaust was not a one ethnic group cleansing. It included others the regime found not suitable for their distorted vision. Different ethnic groups and those whose political views didn't fit, were also eliminated, though are seldom mentioned on this memorial day.
This from Travellers Times:

 

The Gypsy Camp at Auschwitz - a poem by Raine Geoghegan 24 January 2019

         February 1943: At Auschwitz-Birkenau, a family Gypsy camp was set up in a wooden barracks. August 2 1944: Over 4,000 Roma and Sinti men, women and children were murdered in the gas chambers. January 27 1945 at 3pm, Soviet soldiers reached the camp and found only one Rom among the survivors.

The Gypsy Camp at Auschwitz
the branches on the trees bend and sway
leaves fall and settle on the ground
sunlight seeps through mottled clouds
and all is quiet 

a woman with long red hair
picks a blade of grass
holds it up to the light
remembering her husband
the shape of his mouth
how he spoke her name, Narilla 

men kek bissa: we will not forget 

an old chal with silver hair
takes his hat off, feels the warmth of the sun
on his head
his chavo was four years old when they were imprisoned
a year later he was taken and was never seen again
he had dark curls and hazel eyes 

a chavali runs into the arms of her mother
who remembers she once had twelve chavies
all had hair the colour of the darkest earth
and eyes like wolves 

men kek bissa: we will not forget 

winter birds mourning on the branches
the earth remembering
how it has given refuge to the dead 

no longer dead leaves trampled underfoot
they have become wild breathing flowers
growing in the dust.

       “Except for a few survivors, a whole people unique in its life-style, language, culture and art, was wiped off the face of the earth. The death of the Gypsy Nation was more than physical; it was total oblivion.” Azriel Eisenberg, Witness to the Holocaust, 1981 (New York) taken from Danger, Educated Gypsy, selected essays by Ian Hancock.

      (Romani jib: Men kek bissa – we will not forget; Chal – man; Chavo – boy; Chavali – girl; Chavies – children).

Raine Geoghegan

To mark Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27th, 2019.

(Main photograph: Roma children during the Second World War. The photograph would have been taken by a German soldier somewhere in the Balkans around 1942-3. Outcome unknown. Picture courtesy and (c) Bob Dawson) 

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Newspeak.

 

       I have always thought that George Orwell was much underestimated and not read by enough people. His words have predicted where we are now, and what the future holds if we don't stand up and protect our individual freedoms. As he points out in all his works, truth is truth no matter the ideological line handed out by the powers that be. A freethinker is the enemy of ideology and dogma, and is the road we should always try to walk.

     The following is a short extract from an article in Acorn on George Orwell, it is well worth reading the complete article HERE:

Extract:

 

       Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense… If both the past and external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?” (24)
      Winston Smith’s struggle to keep a grip on objective reality, to know that two plus two makes four whatever the ideological demands of the Party, is a central theme of Orwell’s novel.
      The character tells himself: “Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s centre”. (25)
      The Big Brother system has invented a new language which controls people’s minds by making heretical ideas impossible to even formulate.
       One of the Party members developing Newspeak tells Smith: “You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words – scores of them, hundreds of them, every day”. (26)
        He explains: “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it… By 2050 – earlier, probably – all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed”. (27)
      In the face of this truth-denying dogmatism, Orwell insisted that any authentic radical should always remain free to reject the dominant official ideology: “He should never turn back from a train of thought because it may lead to a heresy, and he should not mind very much if his unorthodoxy is smelt out, as it probably will be”.
      While co-operating with others to some extent, a free-thinking radical had to fight the capitalist system “as an individual, an outsider, at the most an unwelcome guerilla on the flank of a regular army”. (28)
      In Woodcock’s words, Orwell was “a good and angry man who sought for the truth because he knew that only in its air would freedom and justice survive”. (29)

Read the complete article HERE: 
      

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Kill The Drivers.

      It is difficult to get through the day without thinking, talking or reading about "climate Change". Facts keep pouring over us, extreme weather conditions, desertification, flooding, etc. but still there are doubters. However, among those who say they accept climate change is happening and accept that it is our way of life, spout, change your personal life style to an earth friendly lifestyle. We can go vegan, live frugally and plant a tree, but nothing will change, as the real culprit of our disaster impending future, is the economic system that rules this world. While you live frugally in you humble abode, the system is still spending millions on advertising  exotic holidays in far away places that you can fly to in a greedy fossil burning jumbo jet or sail to on a massive pollution distributing luxury liner. The corporate world is still hellbent on growth of their particular enterprise, continue mining the earth's resources at an ever increasing rate and transforming them into must have "luxury items" that will, according to the label, enrich your life, they are spending millions on trying to get you to consume more. its millionaires and billionaires will continue to have their private jets, their super luxury yachts and massive personal estates and mansions.

       Your changes in your personal life style may make a micro difference in this impending disaster, but the real culprit is capitalism, as it can't survive without continual growth and it couldn't survive without the authority of the state, they are co-joined twins dragging us over a precipice, they are the architects of our planet's death, they are leading humanity on a suicide drive, and the crash is close at hand. To appeal to the psychopathic corporate self-seeking greed driven drivers of this car crash is futile, we have to take direct action and stand up and destroy the entire capitalist/state economic model or crash with them. Remember, spaceship earth has no escape capsule.

This from 325:

Table of Contents

A concern of ‘each and every one’
Green capitalism
Forecasts and the misery of the political world
Smart cities
        In the past weeks we could experience relatively high temperatures again. So one heat record year beats the next. British climate researchers recently presented a model to calculate the temperature rise in the metropolises until 2050. Vienna is one of the cities most affected, with a temperature rise of 7.6 degrees Celsius compared to 1850, the year that is more or less considered the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
       The consequences of global warming are melting of sea ice and glaciers, sea level rise, thawing of permafrost soils (which will release even more CO2), growing drought zones and desertification, increasing weather extremes, extinction of species, etc.
     In addition, there would be further social, political and economic aggravations. Like famines and water shortages, deaths and illnesses caused by the enormous heat and epidemics, wars over dwindling resources and usable territories and a global migration movement. Just to name a few.
       To pick out just one aspect here: If we remember how the political classes and European politicians reacted to the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015. When we saw how borders were militarized, plans of action developed and powers for the military and police expanded. Not to mention the agitation of the mass media and the general racism, nationalism and panic that has been fostered by politicians, media and other opinion makers. And this was about a more or less still calculable number of people, in relation to what will happen if more and more parts of the earth become uninhabitable. Depending on how fast and drastically these developments will take place, we are talking about the largest migration movement in the history of the human race!
      The fascists and conservatives have already spoken of mass migration in 2015/2016 in order to propagate their policy of isolation. Concepts such as the “great exchange” have come up since then and various horror scenarios have been fantasized in order to achieve a racist and nationalist mobilization. Thus it is not foreseeable what reactions a migration movement of several 100 million people would trigger.

A concern of ‘each and every one’
        The ‘Point of no Return’ is crossed! Climate change is a reality, the changes are already happening, they can be felt. And these developments cannot be stopped by individual waste separation, energy saving, veganism, etc. Many appeals are directed at consumer behaviour. So the problem is made an individual problem of each of us. You can do something about it yourself’, ’10 things you can do to stop climate change’.
         They’re supposed to tell us: We humans are all in the same boat. We are all responsible for this. So change your lifestyle… Repent and become better people!
       This equates the responsibility of business, industry and the political sector with the responsibility of all of us. Every question of class and ownership is thus eliminated. But are we really all responsible to the same extent as those who actively earn money from the fact that our whole world is going down the drain? I don’t think so!

Read the full article HERE: 

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Surveillance Epidemic.

       There is a lot of concern by several states over the coronavirus in China, with fear that it could become an epidemic, and rightly so, but there is another epidemic that most states are willing and trying to spread, it's called surveillance. This particular virus is spread by authoritarian states and seeps into ever aspect of our lives. From a few CCTV cameras it has now spread to every pub, shop, street, public transport, hospital, bank and a multitude of other places we frequent. This particular epidemic has morphed from a simple camera to an extremely complex system among its tentacles are number plate recognition, monitoring and profiling individuals as they do what ordinary people do. The latest development in this particular epidemic is "facial recognition". This new phase has been silently developing in cities across the UK, waithing for the moment it can be set among the people, and we now learn that London will be hit with a full blown version of this anti-human rights virus.

       The Met in London have just announced that they will unleash this new phase on the general public in that city. This despite the fact that EU lawmakers are mulling over a temporary ban on this part of the epidemic, to safeguard individuals rights, as part of their risk assessment to regulate AI

      When it comes to the abuse of human rights we can always rely on the UK government to go it alone.
     This technology is lurking in cities across the UK all waiting to flip the switch and and get a good look at your face as you go about your daily chores.
     I don't know if it would work, but perhaps before we go out we could all wear very large sunglasses, a large nose from a joke shop, plus very large ear muffs and paint our face various colours, and finish off with a large floppy hat. Might be worth a try, at least it would brighten up our cities and towns.
The following From TecCrunch 

       The Met says its hope for the AI-powered tech is that it will help it tackle serious crime, including serious violence, gun and knife crime and child sexual exploitation, and that it will “help protect the vulnerable.”
     However, its phrasing is not a little ironic, given that facial recognition systems can be prone to racial bias, for example, owing to factors such as bias in data sets used to train AI algorithms.
       So in fact there’s a risk that police use of facial recognition could further harm vulnerable groups who already face a disproportionate risk of inequality and discrimination.

         Yet the Met’s PR doesn’t mention the risk of the AI tech automating bias.
Instead it makes pains to couch the technology as an “additional tool” to assist its officers.
       “This is not a case of technology taking over from traditional policing; this is a system which simply gives police officers a ‘prompt’, suggesting ‘that person over there may be the person you’re looking for’, it is always the decision of an officer whether or not to engage with someone,” it adds.
        While the use of a new tech tool may start with small deployments, as is being touted here, the history of software development underlines how potential to scale is readily baked in.
       A “targeted” small-scale launch also prepares the ground for London’s police force to push for wider public acceptance of a highly controversial and rights-hostile technology via a gradual building out process… AKA surveillance creep.

Read the full article HERE: 

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