Wednesday 17 February 2010

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE STATE.



    It won’t come with jackboots and book burnings, with mass rallies and fevered harangues. It won’t come with “black helicopters” or tanks on the street. It won’t come like a storm – but like a break in the weather, that sudden change of season you might feel when the wind shifts on an October evening: everything is the same, but everything has changed. Something has gone, departed from the world, and a new reality has taken its place.
    As in Rome, all the old forms will still be there; legislatures, elections, campaigns – plenty of bread and circuses for the folks. But the “consent of the governed” will no longer apply; actual control of the state will have passed to a small group of nobles who rule largely for the benefit of their wealthy peers and corporate patrons.
    So whenever some big media beast or Democratic “leader” steps forward now to say, “Gee, we were misled by these guys” or “Boy, if I’d only known before,” or some other craven, mealy-mouthed expression of self-justifying ignorance – tell them to their face that they lie. If they were ignorant, it was a willful ignorance, a co-opted ignorance, a bribed and bought ignorance, born from their desire to keep on feeding from the trough of power and privilege just as long as the slops keep coming. Wadded with power, privilege and nice pay packets, they were willingly deceived.

(Extract from: http://www.chris-floyd.com/
 
ann arky's home.

THE BRITISH STATE AND ITS EMISSARIES.

     Three recent books - Britain's Gulag by Caroline Elkins, Histories of the Hanged by David Anderson, and Web of Deceit by Mark Curtis - show how white settlers and British troops suppressed the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya in the 1950s. Thrown off their best land and deprived of political rights, the Kikuyu started to organise - some of them violently - against colonial rule. The British responded by driving up to 320,000 of them into concentration camps. Most of the remainder - more than a million -were held in "enclosed villages". Prisoners were questioned with the help of "slicing off ears, boring holes in eardrums, flogging until death, pouring paraffin over suspects who were then set alight, and burning eardrums with lit cigarettes". British soldiers used a "metal castrating instrument" to cut off testicles and fingers. "By the time I cut his balls off," one settler boasted, "he had no ears, and his eyeball, the right one, I think, was hanging out of its socket." The soldiers were told they could shoot anyone they liked "provided they were black". Elkins's evidence suggests that more than 100,000 Kikuyu were either killed or died of disease and starvation in the camps. David Anderson documents the hanging of 1,090 suspected rebels: far more than the French executed in Algeria. Thousands more were summarily executed by soldiers, who claimed they had "failed to halt" when challenged.
       Extract from an old The Guardian, Tuesday December 27 2005.
       The history of British Imperialism is littered with such horrors, as is all the empires of the past. Today we have the new imperialism, American Imperialism, and its more recent history in South America, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East show that it is following in true brutal and ruthless imperialist fashion.
 

THE NEW WESTERN FASCISM.

     Warrantless searches, phone tapping, torture, kidnapping, indefinite imprisonment without charges, denial of legal representation, a continuous assault on our civil liberties, you name it, all part of the free democratic West. We slumbered, we are now in the grip of neo-fascists with an agenda aimed at protecting a privileged elite and using the unbridled power of an authoritarian government to enhance and protect their wealth.
    They are not wearing black shirts, nor stomping down our main streets in their shiny black boots and they are not burning books. To most people Fascist means swastika waving rallies and chants against the Jews. They are wrong. Today’s fascists are radical, conservative, corporate, authoritarian nationalists. They always play the fear card, terrorists from abroad, al-Qaeda, the continuous war against the enemy over there, then claim they need the power to protect us.
    The longer we slumber the tighter their grip until all freedom and civil liberties are a thing of the past. They will not reverse the trend of their own accord, they will never willingly relinquish their power. This is no time for slumber, this is a time to challenge that power, the gangrenous marriage of state and corporate power must be broken, dismantled, atomised and buried in the dustbin of history. Power must belong to the people who make up our society or it belongs to the putrid, pampered, privileged parasites of the new era of the fascist/corporate/state. If we continue to slumber our children will inherit a world of violence, deprivation, control and punishment, while the elite gorge on the fruits of our children’s labour.
 

SCOTLAND AGAINST FASCISM.

SCOTLAND UNITED AGAINST RACISM & FASCISM

SAT 20 FEB ASSEMBLE 11.30am ~ Ross Bandstand ~
Princes St Gardens ~ Edinburgh

RALLY AT NOON FOLLOWED BY MARCH

NO  TO RACISM & FASCISM

NO  TO ISLAMOPHOBIALEAGUE

NO  TO THE ENGLISH/SCOTTISH DEFENCE LEAGUE

YES  TO A MULTICULTURAL, MULTIRELIGIOUS, MULTIRACIAL, UNITED SCOTLAND

J O I N A DAY O F C E L E B R AT I O N

w w w. s c o t l a n d u n i t e d . o r g 

WHAT THE ARMY WON'T TELL YOU!


WHAT THE ARMY WON'T TELL YOU!
Look at the eyes, he’s shit scared, so would you be.
He’s trying to kill somebody and they’re trying to kill him.
 
. Do you want to know about death injury and trauma


. Do you know you’ll be cannon fodder for big business
 
Don’t listen to the spin, forget the travel and the training in trade skills. Think of Iraq and Afghanistan, think of more than 3,700 US soldiers dead, more than 320 UK soldiers dead, more than 25,000 US wounded and more than 8,500 UK soldiers wounded. Think of over 20 UK Iraqi vets. who have committed suicide.
Think of over 1,000,000 Afghan and Iraqi men women and children killed

The army is there to serve the needs of big business but we pay in taxes and if your foolish enough, you’ll pay in blood. Your life is worth more than cannon fodder for big business, embrace life not death.
THERE TO SERVE THE CORPORATE WORLD.


Tuesday 16 February 2010

STATE TERRORISM.

If we want an end to terrorism we have to stop killing other peoples children.

Our state terrorism kills more children than the suicide bombers.

THE NEXT REVOLUTION!!!

      There never has been a more critical time in humanity’s history, we are at the point of no return, if it is not already too late. We the ordinary people must create the next revolution which must be a revolution of consciousness. We have to break the mind set moulded by state power and corporate greed. A mind set that sees war as a means of progress, war as a means of sorting out international problems. War has never been to the advantage of the mass of ordinary people who are called upon to sacrifice their lives. The plunder always goes to those who advocated war but never see the front line at the time of conflict. They call on the people to make the sacrifice while they themselves walk the corrupt corridors of power, safe while they wait for the glory and the gold. It is time to see state organised violence at the behest of corporate greed abandoned as the last vestiges of our darkest hour, an era when we lost our humanity and allowed acquisitiveness to run rampant across the world.
     We have to realise that to allow the festering marriage of state power and corporate greed to exist is to continue the rape of the planet, the exploitation of its people and the spiral of violence and corruption. We have to come together to undermine the state and all it stands for, remove its strangle hold over our lives and take control of our own lives and the environment. The corporate world must be transformed by the workers into organisations controlled by those who work in them and for the benefit of all the community. We don’t need kings, presidents, prime ministers or boards of directors and their sweaty palmed shareholders to tell us how to live our lives. Their records can’t stand scrutiny, it’s a catalogue of arrogant cronyism, corruption, self centred greed, exploitation and violence.
   There is an alternative in spite of the established pack of rapscallions trying to preach “free market capitalism” as the only way. Control and decisions must come from the bottom up, we must take control of our communities and work in confederation with other communities to create a society based on free association, voluntary co-operation and mutual aid. Anarchism points the way, its the tool to create that better world of peace and justice for all. Only we, the ordinary people, can create a diverse and colourful world free for all our diverse and colourful human family to enjoy. We have to wake up to the fact that it is their world or it is our world, there can be no compromise, no half measure, tomorrow is ours or there is no tomorrow, and time is running out.

AN APPEAL TO LABOUR PARTY MEMBERS.

     To all those socially minded Labour Party members and supporters let me remind you where you are. You are in or supporting a Party that lied this country into an illegal, unjust and unnecessary war, with all the bloodshed and misery that has unfolded since. You give strength to a Party that has introduced extraordinary rendition, torture and secret prisons at the core of its “anti-terrorist” strategy. You are the life blood of Party that is, according to Amnesty International, ripping up the precious freedoms of this country. Your Party bailed out the banks and because of that is about to embark on a series of savage cuts in the living standards of the ordinary people.
       To stay comfortable in such a Party you have to swallow the lies and the spin and the sickening self justification and you will continually bleat about change from within. Such bleating has been heard from the loyal members and supporters since before the 60s. In all that time your Party has continually moved to the right. It isn’t working.
     Take your socially mind conscience out of the Party and on to the streets, join the thousands, perhaps millions would be more accurate, who wish to see real change by community based non hierarchical direct action. Grow up, cut the umbilical cord between you and the Party system, be a free thinking compassionate human being.
 

Monday 15 February 2010

WHY ANARCHISM?

Freedom and Equality: F u n d a m e n t a l l y, anarchism is the struggle for freedom. Freedom from the rulers and cor­porations who dominate our lives and are destroying our earth. Freedom for workers, women, and all oppressed people in all parts of the world. We believe that this sort of freedom can only be achieved together with equality and a fair distribution of resources.
Individual and Collective: A n a r c h i s t s believe in the inherent dignity and humanity of the individual. But this dignity and humanity can only be fully realised in a co-operative, egalitarian society. This is why we are in favour of working together collectively and being organ­ised. It is incorrect to equate anarchism with individualism or chaos.
Revolution: Anarchists understand that this truly free and equal society can only be achieved through revolution - meaning a complete trans-formation of society. This society cannot be ‘given’ to the people by politicians or bureaucrats. It must be built by the people from below.
Violence and Direct Action: A n a r c h i s m opposes the violence which is an integral part of capitalism and the State (this violence comes in many forms: war, patriarchy etc.). We believe that means shape ends - in other words, the way we struggle will shape the outcome of the struggle. This is also why we do not support the seizure of State power by authoritarian political parties. However, anarchists do believe in direct action - action taken by everyday people to cause immediate problems for the rulers of our lives. This includes strikes, boycott’s, work-to-rule’s and occupations. Both authoritarian communism (as in Russia, China etc.) and ‘labourism’ (ie. the labour parties of the world), have failed to solve our global crisis. We need a different path to a better world. Anarchism offers itself as a guide on that path.
What Might an Anarchist Society Look Like?
    The world’s resources would be held in common and shared with all the diverse life on Earth; People would manage their own lives, work and communi­ties, and everyone would have a say in decision making through decentralised forms of organisation;Relationships in all areas of life would be based on mutual respect and equality, regard-less of gender, skin colour, sex­ual orientation, disability, age, culture etc.; Work wouldn’t be boring and repetitive, but instead would be a means of voluntary self-expression and fulfillment; unpopular or difficult jobs would be shared; Education would be integrat­ed into daily life to produce free individuals who think for our-selves; Goods and services would be produced ecologically for human needs based on the principle “from each according to ability, to each according to need”.

SOCIETY BASED ON CAPITALISM, RELIGION, AUTHORITY & PATRIOTISM

SOCIETY BASED ON CAPITALISM, RELIGION, AUTHORITY & PATRIOTISM
CRAP for short. 

        Any alien looking in on our society must come to the conclusion that we earthlings love CRAP. It is all they will see as we scurry about working in CRAP jobs for CRAP wages and in what little “leisure” time we have we rush around buying CRAP. We spend precious time discussing the benefits of this piece of CRAP as opposed to that piece of CRAP. We weigh up the difference between this pair of CRAP trainers and that pair of CRAP trainers, this CRAP label and that CRAP label. We consider we have choices when we select this CRAP newspaper or that CRAP magazine from the avalanche of CRAP paper pulp on offer. One CRAP supermarket after another offers us an array of CRAP food and TV vomits endless CRAP into our homes and we flick from CRAP Big-Brother to CRAP house make-overs, from CRAP lifestyle programs to CRAP celebrity chat shows.
       Move to the realms of the “serious” CRAP and we have on offer CRAP political parties throwing up an display of smiling CRAP politicians, who, come election time, prance about offering CRAP policies in the hope that they can take their place in that CRAP institution at Westminster. What we get from the CRAP government of the day is such things as the CRAP war on drugs, that doesn’t work, CRAP tough on crime, that criminalizes poverty, CRAP war on terrorism, that is counterproductive,
    Capitalism, can produce nothing but an abundance of CRAP as profit is the only motive.
    Religion, produces CRAP freedom destroying dogma, based on the supposed mutterings of some airy-fairy gods.
    Authority, gives us a CRAP life based on surveillance and strict unbending laws.
    Patriotism, the last refuge of the scoundrel, gives us CRAP racism and generates canon fodder for the state’s endless wars.
     Is this the type of society that we want to bequeath to our children and their grandchildren? Should we not be taking control of our own affairs and producing to our needs based on sustainability? A world of free association, voluntary co-operation and mutual aid is possible, a world that accommodates us all as equals and prepares the world for the next generation rather than rob them of an existence. First we have to get rid of    C. R. A. P. Let’s start now.

DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS!!!!

ann arky's home.

Sunday 14 February 2010

ARE YOU ANGRY??? IF NOT, WHY NOT???

      The people are angry. The kids are angry because they have nowhere to go in this system, and the adults are angry because nowhere is their existence. Dead-end jobs mixed with broken down schools in this endless competition to see who can end life with the most possessions. It begins with compulsory education, with the idea that indoctrination is the same as education. Feeling trapped in the endless work load, in the endless department stores, surrounded by nothing but millions of people doing the same thing and consuming the same way, there should be no need of explanation why we're angry. It's about the government detaining citizens on nothing more than a hunch. It's about police officers having the malicious control over the life and death of those around them. It's about the richest people in the world getting rich from the work of others. It's about getting kicked out of the park by cops because you deter tourism and you're homeless. It's about travelling four thousand miles around the world so you can fight in a war only to enrich Western capitalism. It's about working all your life struggling to bring up your family then being told you need to bail out the banks and pay for it in cuts to your pityfull standard of living.  It's about getting beat up and torn apart, tortured and vivisected, thrown to the gutter after exploitation. And it's about swarms of people doing nothing but going along with it, buying the products that support the rich who bribe the ruling class. It's about. Consume. Obey. Exist. Consume. Obey. Exist. Consume. Obey. Exist.

THINK!

Commercialism!

"Since the 1970s the US oil company Occidental has been drilling in the Peruvian Amazon area. During that time it is estimated that Occidental has dumped 9 million barrels of toxic waste into the streams, land and rivers of the Achuar people."

UNDERSTAND!

State Power!

"Since 2001, more than 4,000 US troops have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 260 UK troops have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 1,000,000 Iraqis and Afghans have been killed in illegal invasions.”

QUESTION!

Religion!

"I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence." -- 1 Timothy 2:12

There are thousands of reasons why we are angry, pick one and join us.

WORLD STRIKE 2012!!!

     It is up to you.
The only way for this plan to work is for the message to be spread. The idea is for everyone in the world to know about the strike by the summer of 2012. Then, within a very short time, a new moneyless system will be brought about that will change the world completely.
FIRST: Ask in conversation whether the person you're speaking to would like the idea of a world where money does not exist; where everything is free; a world without rich or poor; where all human needs are met by society working together as a whole; a world without boundaries, people living together in peace and harmony.
      Most people will say yes. Basically, probably all human beings are anarchists at heart. But, they will say, it wouldn’t be impossible.
NEXT: Tell them about the Strike for a Moneyless World in 2012. If they like the idea, tell them to tell their friends. Those friends will tell others, and by the year 2012 everyone on the planet will know, and decide whether they are for or against the idea.
You might make copies of this flyer -

*WORLD STRIKE 2012*

If you agree that the abolition of money would be a fine solution to most of our problems, and that we could create a much better system where EVERYTHING - food and drink, clothing and housing, water, heating, education,health-care and entertainment - shall be FREE for EVERYONE - why not join the World-Wide Strike on the opening day of the Olympic Games in 2012?
The Strike will begin the moment the symbolic Olympic flame is lit - the signal for all who support the abolition of money to stop work and demand a new fair world of true freedom and justice.

*WE WANT A MONEYLESS WORLD*



http://yabanji.tripod.com/id10.html
 
ann arky's home.

LEGAL MURDER.

     The state of California recently reached a total of 700 people on death row It is astounding that a state within what is supposed to be the leader of the "free democratic world" can have 700 people lined up for execution, judicial murder. California now has more than twice as many death row prisoners than the so called “death” state of Texas, which had 331 as of January 11th. Florida, the state with the second largest number of death row prisoners, has 391 as of January 13th. almost half that of California.
     In these three states alone, there are 1422 people waiting to be executed by the USA. These figures are appalling and are showing an increase. In California the number of death sentences increased by 50% for 2009 compared to the last few years. Add to these figures the fact that America has more of its people locked up per head of population than any other country in the entire world and you begin to see the shape of that society. Of course the vast majority of all prisoners including those on death row come from the poorest section of the community. Even a blind greed drive politician can surely see this as disproportionate and also there must be a link between poverty and violence. These figures are not just a blip of statistics, it is probably no coincidence that the prison system in America is big business and there is money to be made from the incarceration of people, so no doubt this merciless medieval behaviour will continue to rise until we put an end to this whole greed driven, unjust, barbaric system under which we live.
 

Friday 12 February 2010

REPORT FROM LONDON LAUNCH OF ID CARDS FOR 16-24s

    This Monday (8th Feb) the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) began the next phase of the ID Card Con - targeting 16-24 year olds living in London. Minister for Identity, Meg Hillier invited the media to come and see the first 'volunteer' be fingerprinted at 8:30am. A dozen or more hardy NO2ID supporters mounted a chilly white protest in biting winds and the odd flurry of snow outside Victoria passport office. IPS security
decided to stay in the warm, and keep an eye on us through the window. Getting there half an hour before the minister meant we caught the media going in - and also coming out. Phil Booth gave interviews to ITV news and the Press Association cameras, and reporters from several London university newspapers. Guy Herbert spoke to news radio.
    Inside the passport office, according to one person watching, the volunteer actually referred to himself as a guinea-pig. Shame he didn't get the full message on the flyers we were handing out, which is *don't* be a guinea-pig. Bizarrely, one young man walking past our protest waved what looked like an ID card at us. He was turned away from the front door, but headed in by the side entrance. Members of the media said later he was a member of an IPS Public Panel - "independent scrutiny" groups, hand-picked by IPS - which may explain how he came to be issued with a card before the 'first' volunteer...
Glimpsing Ms Hillier through the glass around 9:30am, we rapidly relocated our protest round the corner. But to no avail. The Minister snuck out another way, leaving another decidedly low-key media event
without directly engaging her critics.
   For more information, flyers to download and print off, and notice of upcoming 'Stop the ID Card Con' events in London and across the North West, please visit: http://www.no2id.net/idcardcon/



Thursday 11 February 2010

SERIOUS TERRORIST OFFENCES - EXCUSE ME?

10 February 2010  Richard Haley  Full article can be read HERE.

      Mohammed Atif Siddique, who walked free on Tuesday after the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000, has been described as a "stupid young man." Stupidity at the age of 20 isn't a very serious flaw. Dunder-headedness on the part of Scotland's police and prosecutors is a lot more worrying. But what else can you call their doggy, excitable, unthinking pursuit of Atif Siddique?
      Their dunder-headedness was combined with a smart-Alec approach to the law. What else can you call the decision by the police to delay Atif Siddique's arrest until 13 April 2006, the very day that the controversial Terrorism Act 2006 came into force? That allowed them to add an extra item – encouraging terrorism – to the charge-sheet, in case the other charges wouldn't stick. The device was successful and the conviction for this essentially frivolous charge still stands, even though Atif Siddique has now been cleared of the main charge against him.
    All this might be amusing if it hadn't cost Atif Siddique nearly four years of his life and the stigma of a couple of terrorism convictions. It might be amusing if it wasn't eerily reminiscent of the Bush regime's over-wrought, pig-headed manoeuvres to incorporate torture into official US policy, or Blair's "now it's legal, now it isn't but it doesn't matter" approach to the war in Iraq.
     Counsel for the Crown said at Tuesday's appeal court hearing "Mohammed Siddique remains convicted of serious terrorist offences." It would have been more accurate to say "Mohammed Atif Siddique remains convicted on frivolous terrorism charges that should never have been put before a court."
      One of these charges is the smart-Alec charge under the Terrorism Act 2006, a law that Atif Siddique broke for less than a day. Perhaps he would have closed the offending website down before the new law came into force if he hadn't been distracted as a result of having been stopped by police a week earlier. As it was, he probably didn't even notice the new law. Who can blame him?

    

WAR = BIG BUSINESS.

   While the various governments make belly rumbling noises about climate change and carbon footprints, continually telling us how they are trying to save the planet by giving you cheap roof insulation etc. and at the same time asking you to turn your thermostat down one degree, only boil enough water for one cup of tea, and walk or cycle to work. What they never discuss is the carbon footprint of war. War is probably the highest carbon footprint of any human activity. However it is a policy of keep quiet about that one. War is big business, war helps the economy, war creates jobs, war puts billions of tax payers money into the coffers of  big business, war is the state's biggest business. Think of the waste of transporting and maintaining thousands of personnel half way across the globe, armed to the teeth and continually exploding millions of tons of armaments and replacing them, at the same time destroying the infrastructure of some poor country and in the process killing thousands of innocent, old and young people. While in the same breath, saying we can't afford care for the elderly, nursery places for the young and affordable housing for all.

CORPORATISM/FASCISM.

     The British government's decision to sell off the search and rescue facilities is another step towards a totally corporate run country. The corporate world has already made inroads into the health service and education among other aspects of the social structure of this country. This latest hand over of public assets to the corporate world could have very far reaching consequences. I can see the day when you had better not take to the hills or go for a sail without your credit card. Rest assured that the corporate world are not doing this for humane reasons. How can you morally make money out of somebody in a life threatening situation? If you are ever lost or injured in a blizzard on the Scottish hills, perhaps your credit rating will decide whether they send a helicopter or a dog sleigh team. After all, business is business.
    The march of corporatism is the march to fascism, it was Mussolini who said, that it should not be called fascism but corporatism as it was the coming together of the state and the corporate world. Who should know better what fascism is than the man himself, Mussolini. The more we tolerate this march of corporatism the harder it will be to have any control over our lives. We should be organising against that cancer in our society, the growth of corporatism. Society belongs to those in that society, not to a faceless bunch of corporate parasites. Only a mass grass roots movement can ever hope to halt the growth of this cancer.

Saturday 6 February 2010

CRISIS/OPPORTUNITY???

     The present time is probably the greatest opportunity we have ever had of bring about the demise of the capitalist system. The capitalist world is in crisis, the claims of recovery are not really believed by the big money. They see countries that are carrying massive debts that they can’t service and see the spectre of sovereign debt defaults. That debt of course is tax payers' money that went to "bail-out" the financial parasites of the capitalist world. The so called stimulus hasn’t worked, "The real concern is that the whole recovery is nothing more than poorly-directed government stimulus which has simply had the effect of boosting asset prices," according to David Morrison at GFT.
   The big money club’s answer to the problem is to force countries to start a prolonged and vicious series of cuts in social spending, education, health, benefits, etc. allied to tax increases that will fall mainly on the average to poor section of society. This will be accompanied by selling of off the country’s assets to the private sector, at bargain prices of course.
   This is where we come in, the governments of these debt laden countries will have to legislate these events into being. We will be the ones that will suffer, not the chief executives nor the government ministers. We have to start now and organise and take to the streets demanding an end to any idea of cuts on our standard of living. Not in this city and that city, but across the country and in each country.
   The European countries most at risk of defaulting on their debt are Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland with Britain bringing up the rear. Portugal has already managed to stop the government from implementing its proposed cuts and Greece will probably have massive resistance on the streets as that government tries to please its money master in the financial world.
    Without a successful and massive attack on our living conditions the capitalist system will fracture and start to fall apart. If we want to change the world to one of justice and mutual aid, seeing to the needs of all our people, then we have to prevent this savage onslaught on our conditions. Communicate across borders, organise across borders, act across borders. To the working class there are no borders, we are all at the receiving end of this attack by the parasite class as they struggle to hold onto their power and privileges.