YOU CAN'T EAT MONEY.

       

        This article first appeared on annarky 1 blog on April 6 2010 but I think it is worth repeating. It is just one field where the big money funds manipulate and speculate to increase their wealth at the expense of the ordinary people. Crisis after crisis is inflicted on the ordinary people to the benefit of the pampered parasites that feed of the people, all in the name of profit, it is called capitalism.

    

         "Over the last year we have seen food prices rise at an alarming rate with the pundits pointing in all directions as the possible area to blame. It is drought and other adverse weather conditions, it is the increase population, it is the bio-fuel drive, it is increase demand from the growing middle class in China and India and so they go on. There is absolutely no doubt these factors do play a part in the increase but what is driving the prices up quicker than any other factor is undoubtedly the speculators, “non commercial traders” as they are called in the financial circles.

        Before 2007 the percentage of trading in the world’s food markets controlled by speculators was about 12%, today it is 43%. That is a lot of extra money being pushed into the food market with the result that prices start to rocket. What we are talking about is greed little people with millions scurrying around looking of ways of turning their millions into billions and they don’t give a damn of the consequences to the rest of us. The other bunch of greedy speculators that are pushing the price of food through the roof are of course the speculators in the oil futures markets. We live oil, as it its price goes up so does food transportation, fertilisers and the energy required to process that food. These two groups are holding the world’s population to ransom in their quest for ever more millions for themselves and their shareholders.

       In 2007 before the prices started to shoot up there were 800 million people on this planet who could not get enough to eat, with the daily increases in prices this figure is also shooting up dramatically. We are now hearing of food riots in countries across the globe, the speculators are starving the world in an attempt to increase their already over abundant wealth. Our political “Leaders” are meeting here and there in capitals across the world and making noises but they don’t have the muscle nor the will to control the big corporate greedy beast that is devouring our planet.

       While those government representatives are uttering vacuous mush on the subject the developed governments are subsidising one of the elements of the price increases, bio-fuel. It is stated that by 2017 40% of the maize production in the US will be for bio-fuel. This will certainly increase the speculators wealth and will certainly help keep the internal combustion engine going but will do nothing but more harm to that ever growing, starving multitude of 800 million+ .

      This is the capitalist system, it is not set in tablets of stone, it is not the only way to organise our societies, it is a man made system that fosters greed in parallel with poverty. It can be removed and a fairer and more humane system set up in its place if the people so desire."

 

       Only when we organise to finally put the parasites and their greed driven system in the dustbin of history will we ever see an end to the suffering of millions of hungry people.

ann arky's home.

500 STRIKERS ARRESTED.

         This post from LabourStart should be acted on by as many as people as possible across the world. If India as one of the worlds largest industrial areas can lock up strikers without a murmer from the rest of the world it will become the pattern. Workers conditions in the developing countries are poor to say the least, to be imprisoned for struggling to improve them must be seen as a crime. Of course history tells us, that is the way capitalism works, in partnership with the state.

 

        The arrest of one worker whose only crime was to go on strike -- that's reason enough to get angry, and to protest and campaign. But what do you do when 500 workers are arrested?

That's the situation today in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where some 500 workers have been jailed following their strike against electronics manufacturer Foxconn.

That name should ring a bell -- Foxconn's Chinese factories were the scene of a series of worker suicides earlier this year.

In the next few hours and days, we need to flood the offices of state officials with the demand that all the jailed workers be released.

Please do two things right now:

Send off your message HERE
Spread the word in your union -- let's mobilize thousands in support of this campaign! 

Thanks - and have a great weekend.   Eric Lee  LabourStart.

ann arky's home.

THEY LOOK DIFFERENT, BUT--!!!

An image from an old Black Flag magazine, Vol.VII No.3 1983.

.

                                                                                                        Future cop. 

Nice cop.                            Not nice cop.                  Nasty cop.

Found in tourist spots  Has a degree in              Enjoys brutality

and leafy suburbs        harassment, expert          found in hordes at

helps old ladies find     in leaping from vans        peaceful demos,

the Post Office.        while wielding trucheon.  being cloned rapidly.

  It is amazing that there are still people out there who think that the police are there to catch muggers and burglars and fail to see that they are the states minders. The police are the step down from the military in protecting the establishment, its wealth and its power. The little bit about protecting you from the mugger is just a sort of spin-off. It keeps them in shape for their real duty, to keep you in your place.

      The picture below is from 1984 and shows you what community policing is all about. It was taken from the magazine Black Flag Vol VII No.7 1984. It was in Armthorpe in England 22nd. August 1984, (1984 dadadada). Why were they there? Well some miners were on strike to try and save their jobs and you can't have that. Today's public sector workers be warned, that nice cop who stands outside the council offices and gives you a smile as you enter and leave, you could meet him in a different role.

      
                                                                                                                                

ann arky's home.                                                                

WE'RE BANKSTERS, WE DON'T OBEY NO STINKING LAWS.

I fell in love with this photo and headline I saw on Politics in the zeros site so I pinched them both. Hope you don't mind Bob.

         Cuts, cuts, cuts, we’re all in this together!!! Or so the crap goes. We all have to tighten our belt, family allowance cut, benefits for the chop, libraries to close, sports centres to close, council workers on the dole, education funding getting a hatchet job and back door privatisation of the health service. Yep, it is all tough going, well except if your a banker. It seems that our city friends have decided to pay themselves a nice little £7 billion bonus package. I suppose that will go some way to making up for the loss of their family allowance. Let’s not forget that we the taxpayers handed them billions of taxpayer’s money to save them going bust. They then tell us we have too much debt and we will have to pay that debt off by getting rid of most of our social services. We pay twice, they get the bonuses. Hollywood couldn’t produce a more ludicrous farce. The problem is, that it is for real. It is real people that are going to end up on the dole, it is real kids that are going to see the education being shredded, it is real communities that are going to see their already minimal social amenities trashed, it is real old people that are going to find there is no care for them, etc. etc. etc.
      The “debt” is just an excuse for the corporate world to push for the privatisation of all social services. It has always been the aim of the corporate world to get possession of all public assets, everything owned by some corporate institution and all services available at a profit to them. No profit, no services, no money, no services. You will of course still be free to appeal to some charity or other when you have needs but not enough money.
      Why do we put up with a system that benefits the top 10% or so of society and screws, plunders, and exploits the other 90% of the people? Isn’t it time we took control of our own lives and told the pampered parasite profit junkies to, go eat your money, we don’t need you or your money. We can surely organise society in a much more fair and equitable fashion based on mutual aid and sustainability, not profit. A society that sees to the needs of all our people is there for the taking, we have all the means at our disposal, all it takes is the will to organise, occupy and take control. Never accept their perpetual mantra, that capitalism is the only game in town. It is not, it is a relatively new man made system of greed, being man made it can be man destroyed. There is an alternative that does not turn man against man but seeks co-operation between all peoples and has as its aim the equal well being of all people. It is called anarchism, anarchists are simple trying to move in that direction. Seek out your local group, join them and we can move much further along that road.
 
ann arky's home.

WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.

      

      As the Cameron/Clegg millionaire twins keep telling us, "We're all in this together." So let's put that into action by supporting the coming event.

Action for Refugee and Migrant Rights conference:

Glasgow, Saturday October 9th* 10am -- 2pm

Venue;

 STUC 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3 6NG.

      A networking and action-planning event, bringing together a wide range of groups working for asylum and migrant rights. With discussion groups, workshops, information stands, food.

An event organised by National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, with Church Action on Poverty and the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC).

supported by:

UNITY

Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees

Scottish Detainee Visitors

Medical Justice

Govan & Craigton Integration Network

Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network

    A programme of meetings and workshops will be published soon at http://www.ncadc.org.uk/october9

Food and refreshments will be available. Creche available - * but please contact to reserve a place for your child *

To book childcare, email: angela@gcin.org.uk

For more information, contact:
Michael Collins
Campaigns Coordinator, North
National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns
email michael@ncadc.org.uk
phone 0141 334 1333
 
 

ann arky's home.

POVERT OR DIGNITY?

       

      At the stroke of midnight 29 September Spain kicked off its general strike. As the day unfolds we will see where the will of the people lies. Will the people of Europe stop work with the Spanish and have fun with their families or will they take to the streets in protest. Hopefully it will be a mixture of both with a complete stop to all non-essential work across the whole of Europe. Why should the people of Europe allow their living standards to be hacked to pieces at the behest of the millionaires gambling club called the bond markets? Whose debt is it? Who screwed up their own honey pot? Who stands to gain with these cuts?

Who stands to suffer? Just some of the questions that will never be answered by the mouthpieces of the bond markets, ie; the politicians.

        We should however never lose sight of the real purpose behind all these cuts, not only will it safe guard the wealth of the millionaires club but will also transfer all public assets to the private sector, giving them even more of our wealth with which to gamble. This era is crucial, it is the final move by the corporate world to seize what remains of public assets, turning our world into a corporate empire where the people own nothing. No public spaces, no social services, everything bought from the corporate institutions. You can have what you want, but at a price that feeds the pampered parasites in charge of that corporate empire. There will of course be charities who will try to copy with the worst of the poverty and deprivation, co-operation and mutual aid will be seen as signs of insanity.

       They are about to attempt to change the world in their favour forever, it is up to us to change this world in our favour forever. Only by breaking out of the system of profit before everything and changing to wellfare of the people first and foremost based on mutual aid and sustainability can we hope to achieve that aim.

ann arky's home.

FIGHT OR RUN!!!

   

    Today France will again take to the streets in protest at the government's attempt to hack at the living conditions of the French people. This time there is expected to be in excess of two million people on the streets protesting at the government's proposals to raise the pension age from 60 to 62. Compare this to what is happening here in Britain. Here we are meekly accepting talk of raising the pension age to 70 and there hasn't been enough people on the streets to form a bus queue. Why the difference, our conditions are far worse than the French, yet we seem to be prepared to accept even more brutal cuts to our standard of living.

     Whatever meagre conditions we have, we have had to fight for every one of them. It has taken generations of battle and sacrifice to attain the conditions we have, and now we seem to be surrendering them without a fight. This is an insult to all those ordinary people how through struggle, tears and sometimes blood battled for the benefit of all our people. Are we simply going to see their effort wiped out so as to stabilise the millionaires gambling club ie; bond markets? 

    The Greek people have been protesting for months, Spain has had several general strikes, other countries across Europe have taken to the streets to protest the slashing of their living standards at the behest of the financial world. Here in Britain we have so far accepted without much of a fight, the beating that the powers that be are handing out. Do we realy want to return to the Victorian era of poverty?

    Next week, 29th. September is a day when we can show our determination to make a stand and try to change the world in our favour forever. After all the millionaires club is trying to change the world in their favour forever. Only the ordinary people can decide who is going to win, we take the beating or we stand up and fight.  

ann arky's home.

29th. SEPTEMBER- COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING BIG!!

       One week to go until the TUC planned day of action on the 29th. September. There is supposed to be mass demonstrations across Europe. Though the publicity doesn't seem to scream out at you, it seems more like a quiet affair for the loyal few. Well that might be the way they want it but it is up to the members to insist on a real mass action right across Europe not just a few high profile spots. Insist that your local branch organises for a full walk out on that day and where you don't get the support from your union, then there is nothing wrong in having a day off. Have a lie in, take the kids to the park, read that book you have been trying to get your head round. Go as a family to the movies have a day in the garden, but what ever you do don't turn up to be exploited on that day September 29th. You will probly start to like the idea of having a lie and then doing what you fancy and make it a regular habit.  All the workers have to do to stop this exploitive unjust system is don't turn up for "work". When the CEO of all the companies in the world decide to have a day off, nobody notices, we don't need them. However when the workers all take a day of, the world stops, they need us. We can change the world, we have the skills, we have the resources, we have the numbers, all we lack is is the will to take that one step, stop working until we have reorganised the world.

ann arky's home.

BED FELLOWS.

    Over the last few days I have come to the conclusion that when the Pope visits this country nothing happens in the world. There is obviously nothing to report, nothing of importance being said or happening. Every newspaper you pick up has page after page of photos of faces and crowds, headline after headline of the same event. Interviews with the mesmerised members of the "flock" who all make meaningless statements which we have grown to expect from the followers of this mass hysteria.

       All it shows is that the so called "newspapers" have nothing to do with news and all to do with propaganda. We are being drowned in a tsunami of irrational gibberish as if it was the accepted way of life of the people of this country. This is an organisation that is having trouble recruiting and swaths of those it has recruited are paedophiles and child abusers, only a very small number of the people of this country regularly enter the organisation's brain-washing units known as churches. It is a extremely wealth organisation that continually holds out the begging can, has repeatedly hidden abusers and silenced the abused. It preaches a dogma of repression against women and  gays, rants against the right of women to choose abortion and spouts the ridiculous rubbish that condoms spread aids.

     In spite of all its cancerous preachings, our media give it all the propaganda that it wishes, our mouth-pieces of the state, the politicians, give it the stamp of legitimacy. Of course the two corrupt power-mongers are well matched. 

    As long as the church and/or the state hold sway, freedom will be an elusive prize.

ann arky's home.

SEX AND THE POPE??

     

     We all know that the Catholic church preaches repression, sexual repression being at its foundation. Women are second class citizens as far as the Catholic church is concerned, unclean in fact. If it wasn't for Eve and her weakness we would all be living in the Garden of Eden, women are flawed. That doesn't say much for the creator, after all he only made two humans and got one wrong.

      This organisation is lead by a former member of the Hitler Youth movement who has presided over a cesspool of paedophiles and abuser.

      This organisation, like all religions, heaps suffering and misery on the lives of millions across the globe with its views on so many things from contraception, aids, gays and abortion, plus the influence it wields in the corridors of power, an influence out of all proportion to the number of the faithful practitioners. Poly Toynbee's comment in the Guardian is very apt when it comes to the Catholic Church's view on aids, " Ann Widdecombe's riposte that the Catholic church runs more Aids clinics than any single nation was like suggesting the Spanish Inquisition ran the best rehab clinics for torture victims." 

Read the full article here.

ann arky's home.

THE GLASGOW MAFIA STRIKE AGAIN!!

     Geesus, they never give up, you have got to hand it to them for persistence. I am of course referring to our beloved Glasgow City Council, also known as the Mafia in George Square, previously known as the Purcell Gang. They keep coming up with ideas to turn Glasgow's public parks into commercial buildings, private car parks or privately owned expensive play pens for the for those with a large disposable income.

     We have had the wonderful idea of turning part of Victoria Park into a car park, then there was the one about Botanical Gardens housing a night club and café, and we all remember the Pollok Park private play pen where you could have a shot on their swings at £45 a go. There was the other idea of a café and car park in Kelvin Grove Park and having been rebuffed on all of these baffling ideas they have come back with another attack on one of Glasgow's Public parks. This time it is a charity and café in Ruchill Park. These people seem to have an aversion to green spaces except around the leafy suburbs where they live.

     This latest attempt at hiving off Glasgow's public green spaces is in an area where there is an abundance of vacant ground lying derelict waiting for some sort of amenity to spring to enrich the lives of the community. If the Mafia in George Square wish, I'll take them by the hand round the district and show them acres of space for development that would not damage one blade of grass. To build privately run concrete and tarmac on the one green area in the centre of this district would diminish the quality of life in the area. There are all sorts of ludicrous rumblings coming from the mouths of the Mafia, “- it will bring visitors to the Ruchill Park area from all over Scotland and raise the profile of the park and the north of Glasgow.” Once again, turn it into a tourist attraction and to hell with the local people. Building on the park would be blatant destruction of the limited amenities available to the local people of Ruchill.

      Their other attempts to hand Glasgow's Parks to the private sector have been stopped, let's organise to make sure this latest proposed sale of our public assets is stopped in its tracks.

 

ann arky's home.

DON'T CAUSE THE POLICE HASSLE???

      

      So the fundamentalist Christian nutter Blair has cancelled his London book signing. The reason given must be a first for a British Prime Minister, he didn't want to give the police a lot of hassle as there would be protesters there. What a load of shit, how about all those other protests away back to the poll tax, miners strike, anti-war, G20.

     I can just read the headlines, POLL TAX SCRAPPED, PRIME MINISTER DOESN'T WANT TO CAUSE THE POLICE HASSLE. or how about. PITS STAY OPEN, THATCHER DOESN'T WANT TO CAUSE THE POLICE HASSLE, or the one we would all loved to have seen, BLAIR CANCELS IRAQ WAR, DOESN'T WANT TO CAUSE THE POLICE HASSLE.

    Oh Tony you have come to your senses far too late. With the blood of over a million citizens of Iraq on your hands and the death of hundreds of British soldiers, you now want to save the police some hassle from protesters outside a bookshop in London. Could it be that your reception at the Dublin book signing didn't fit into the perception you have of yourself. I imagine you like to see yourself walking around bathed in the light of public admiration, smiling benignly at your army of admirers. Sorry Tony, your fantasy world is just that, the illusions of a very dangerous self centred individual. Most politicians do damage to the public as they feather their nests, you Tony, have done immeasurable damage to the world as you amassed your fortune. I hope you can find no hiding place until you are brought to justice.

 

ann arky's home.

THE STATE SILENCES OPPOSITION.

      Photo from Glasgow Digital library.

     This Sunday, at 2pm. September 5th. there will be  ceremony at Sighthill cemetery to mark the execution in 1820 of two of Scotlands best known martyrs. Two men who were made an example of by the state to deter the ordinary people from thinking about changing the system to the benefit of the majority.

      Today the state might not use the same barbaric methods of silencing the public but they still have ways and means of repressing the voice of the people. We should never forget those who paid with their life for the right of all people to be represented in our society. We owe it to our selves and to future generations to remember and record their action, our history, so that we know the road we have travelled and the struggles that still lie ahead.

    The following is a transcript of a "penny sheet" of the day of the execution held at the National Library of Scotland. 

A Full, True, and Particular Account of the Execution of ANDREW HARDIE and JOHN BAIRD, who were Hanged and Beheaded at Stirling, on Friday the 8th September 1820, for High Treason, together with their Behaviour at the Place of Execution.

YESTERDAY, 8th September, 1820,

the preparation for the execution of these unfortunate men having been completed the previous night, this morning the scaffold appeared to the view of the inhabitants. On each side the scaffold was placed a coffin, at the head of which was a tub, filled with saw-dust, destined to receive the head. To the side of the tub was affixed a block. The clergymen of the town (the reverend Drs Wright and Small,) and the reverend Mr Bruce, throughout the confinement of the prisoners, were unremitting in their duties. The morning previous to the execution was spent almost solely in devotion and reflections, suited to the awful situation of the prisoners. About 11 o'clock a troop of the 7th Dragoon Guards arrived from Falkirk, and were assisted by the 13th Foot quartered in the Castle. At a quarter after one the procession left the Castle, and was seen to move down Broad Street, the unfortunate men in a hurdle, their backs to the horse, and the headsman with his axe sitting so as to face them. They were respectably dressed in black, with weepers. The procession was attended by the Sherift-depute and his Substitute, and the Magistrates, all with their staves of office. The troops lined the streets so as to permit the whole to pass slowly and undisturbed to the spot intended for the execution. During the procession, the prisoners sung a hymn, in which they were joined by the multitude. At 20 minutes to two o'clock, the hurdle arrived at the Court-house. Hardie first descended. He was followed by Baird, then the headsman. Hardie, by mistake, was conducted into the waiting-room. He bowed twice respectfully to the gentlemen who were present. The Reverend Dr Wright accompanied Hardie. The Reverend Dr Small, and Mr Brown, were with Baird. Hardie turned round, and observing how few persons were present, said to one of the clergymen, " Is this all that is to be present." Dr Wright read the whole of the 51st psalm. He then delivered a most impressive prayer; after which, a few verses of the same psalm, from the 7th verse, were sung by the prisoners and others present, Hardie giving out two lines at a time, in a clear and distinct voice, and sung the same without any tremulency. The Reverend Dr Small then delivered a prayer, remarkable for zeal and fervour ; after which, the 103d psalm was sung, Hardie giving out two lines at a time as before. The conduct of these two men while in the Court-room was most calm and  unassuming. Some refreshment being offered, Hardie took a glass of sherry, and Baird a glass of port. Hardie said something the exact import of which we could not collect. He begged the sheriff to express their gratitude to General Graham, Major Peddie, and the public authorities, for their humanity and attention; he then bowed to the other persons present, and drank off the whole of the contents of the glass. Baird then addressed himself to the sheriff, and begged to convey sentiments of a similàr nature. When they were pinioned Hardie mentioned to Baird to come forward to the scaffold. While in the Courtroom both prisoners particularly Hardie, seemed less affected by their situation than any other person present; his hand, while he held his book, never trembled. On their arrival at the scaffold, there was a dead silence. After a few minutes, Baird addressed the crowd in a very loud voice. He adverted to the circumstance in which he was placed, and said he had but little to say, but that he never gave his assent to any thing inconsistent with truth and justice. He

then recommended the bible, and a peaceful conduct to his hearers. Hardie then addressed the crowd. He commenced with the word " Countrymen." At something which we could not completely catch, and which we must not guess at there was a huzzaing, and marks of approbation. After a few moments silence as if recollecting he had proceeded too far, and had excited feelings inconsistent with his situation, he spoke again. He adised the crowd not to think of them, but to attend to their bibles, and recommended them, in place of going to public houses, to drink to the memory of Baird and Hardie, that they would retire to their devotions. After the ropes were adjusted, a most warm and aflectionate prayer was delivered by the reverend Mr Bruce. At eleven minutes before three the necessary arrangements being made, Hardie gave the signal, when they were launched into eternity. After hanging half an hour, they were cut down, and placed upon the coffins, with, their necks upon a block; the headsman then came forward ; he was a little man, apparently

about 18 years of age; he wore a black crape over his face, a hairy cap, and a black gown On his appearance there was a cry of murder. He struck the neck of Hardie thrice before it was severed ; then held it up with both hands, saying, " This is the head of a traitor." He severed the head of Baird at two blows, held it up in the same, manner, and used the same words The coffin were then removed, and the crowd peaceably dispersed.

Edinburgh;—Printed for William Cameron,—PRICE ONE PENNY.
 
ann arky's home.
 

WHO ARE WE?

Who are we if we don't know our past?

ann arky's home.

PLEASE DON'T HURT US???

      

         The European Trade Union Confederation is staging a European Day of Action on 29 September next. It will be made up of a Euro-demonstration in Brussels and trade union actions in the various European countries. The European trade unions will be demonstrating against the austerity measures adopted recently by many European countries, and to demand recovery plans in favour of quality jobs and growth.

        This is not enough, little pockets of demonstrators dotted around Europe will not have any effect on the powers that be. What is needed is an indefinite pan-European general strike. To call on the workers to politely form marches here and there asking the financial world not to hurt them too much is a retrograde step. We want to change the system, we don't want more of the same. If we want that better world for all, we can't simply ask for more of what we have just had. All the workers of this world have to do to change it for ever is just simply fold their arms. Stay at home, read a book, take the kids for a walk, go for a cycle, then organise your community and work place the way you want it to be, but don't turn up to be employed by the parasites, occupy your work place.

         This action by the European TUC should be expanded, it should be seen as the opportunity to grasp the moment and take control of our lives and free ourselves from the yoke of exploitation by the parasitical financial greed merchants and their state mouthpieces the politicians. We could take that step to start the creation of that better world based on mutual aid that sees to the needs of all our people and consign this system of greed and profit to the dustbin of history. We don't want to beg for work, we don't want to to say “Please don't cut my social services, my health service or my kids education but do keep exploiting me.” We want to change the world and only we the workers will do that for the benefit of the workers.

ann arky's home.

DEVELOPING WORLD FIRST,OUR TURN NOW!!!

    

        This was posted some time ago but I think it is worth repeating as it is more relevant now than ever before. As I keep spouting, the cuts are nothing to do with the "deficit" that is just the excuse. It is all to do with transferring public assets to the private corporate world. A look at history can often show you trends and directions and this trend of hiving off all public assets into the private sector has been going on for some time. It has created devastation in the Third World and now it is set to do likewise in the developed world. The so called "financial crisis" has allowed the big financial vultures to accelerate the process in the developed world. Be warned, it was the Third World first, now it is our turn!!

Extract from:    anarkismo

      Throughout the world, public services have been under attack for the past twenty years. Forming a central plank of the capitalist globalisation agenda, ‘privatisation’ and ‘competition’ are the seemingly unchallenged dogma of modern capitalism. The levels of privatisation which have taken place worldwide are absolutely mind-blowing. During the 1990s alone over $900 billion worth of public assets were transferred into private hands. Globally this agenda is pushed by the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The basic theory by which these bodies operate is that all decisions should be made on the basis of profitability alone. Economies in the so-called ‘developing’ world have been carved up under re-structuring deals called Structural Adjustment Programmes which have been like manna from heaven for international business. The World Bank website(1) , for example, “provides information on more than 9,000 privatisation transactions in developing countries from 1988 to 2003”. This information is presented as ‘revenue generating opportunities’ for international capital. The current phase of the WTO’s strategy for the imposition of its privatisation agenda is the General Agreement on Trade in Services – which looks to sell off such basic services as healthcare, education, housing, water supply, waste management etc. This strategy is driven not in the interest of the ordinary people of these countries but by the needs of international capital. As David Hartridge, Director, WTO Services Division put it quite succinctly: “Without the enormous pressure generated by the American financial services sector, particularly companies like American Express and Citicorp, there would have been no services agreement and therefore perhaps no Uruguay Round and no WTO.” (2)

          This privatisation agenda has had disastrous consequences for many peoples and communities in the developing world. According to journalist John Pilger (3)  

        “The introduction of school fees where there was previously free education has driven many poor families to withdraw their children from school, while hospital fees have put basic health care beyond the reach of millions. Although they acknowledge the harm which privatisation has brought to poor communities in the Third World, the World Bank and IMF still insist on prescribing it as an economic model. Water privatisation is just one example. The World Bank notes that water in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince costs up to 10 times as much from the private sector as it does from the public supply, and that poor families in Mauritania now have to spend a fifth of their household income on water. Yet both the World Bank and the IMF continue to force water privatisation on developing countries. During 2000 alone, the IMF made water privatisation or full cost recovery a condition of loan agreements to 12 African countries. The World Bank has promised Ghana an extra $100 million in loans if it privatises its water supply.”

ann arky's home.

THE CORPORATE SOCIETY.

     

       As I keep saying, the millionaire Osborne's planned cuts are all about transferring public assets to private hands, the deficit is just the excuse they needed. Let's look at one department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This department looks after a considerable amount of public assets and has a budget of £2.9 billion. It has to find savings of 25%, this of course will come with the usual lay-offs and pay freezes. It has also been mentioned that they will be selling off some of Britain's nature reserves, privatising parts of the Forestry Commission and stopping grants to British Waterways which looks after miles of canals and rivers. Think of all that wealth of rich land being sold to the friends of the millionaire trio, Cameron, Osborne and Clegg. No doubt, after the grants stop, the British Waterways will find it rather difficult to continue looking after all those acres of land that line those canals and rivers and will have to hold a wee fire sale to let the millionaire's club get their sweaty hands on that public asset of prime real estate.

        While we sit and listen to their phony ceremonies about all having to tighten our belts, they are busy stuffing their coffers with everything in sight. Every public asset will be transferred to private hands, the millionaires are having a field day at our expense, they have never had it so good. A team of their millionaire friends are in the driving seat and they know where they are going, straight to the bank with all our belongings.

        Unless there is an organised and forceful defence launched soon we will have nothing left to defend. You are looking at a corporate society where the public own nothing, no public libraries, no public parks, no public walkways along the canals and rivers, no public baths, no public parks and sports facilities. Everything will be corporate owned and you will have to pay through the nose for the simplest of activities, after all, profit is the name of the game they play. This is happening now, it is happening under our noses and will continue until it is all gone. It is easier to fight to hold what you have rather than fight to try to get it back.

       As long as we tolerate this millionaire run system of winner takes all and to hell with the hindmost we will have to continually fight to try to have a decent standard of living. We don't need them, they do need us to maintain their pampered parasitical lifestyle.

 

 

ann arky's home.

EXPECTING FAVOURS FROM MILLIONAIRES!!!

       

        The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has stated that the coalition government's first Budget has hit the poorest families hardest. It also stated that the measures announced in the Budget were regressive. According to their analysis this Budget will see the low income families with children lose most as a percentage of net income. Their report also suggests that cuts to housing benefit and disability allowance would see the poorest families lose approximately £422 between the Budget and April 2014. Two other statements are “Low-income households of working age lose most as a percentage of income from tax and benefit reforms announced in the Budget.” and “Those who lose least are households of working age without children in the upper half of income distribution.” The report went on to conclude, “once all of the benefit cuts are considered, the tax and benefit changes announced in the the emergency Budget are clearly regressive as, on average, they hit the poorest households more than those in the upper middle of income distribution in cash, let alone percentage terms.” This from an institution that can hardly be called left wing.

        Now is there anybody out there who believed this bunch of over privileged parasite millionaires would do it different? The Chancellor is a millionaire from a privileged background, 23 of his colleagues in the cabinet are also millionaires. They have no idea of what it is like to be poor, the don't even accept the idea that this system creates poverty. With their value structure, if your poor it is because you are not trying enough, it's your fault. So why spend money on those who just won't get up and get rich. They are under the illusion that they are rich because the worked very hard. So, if you work very hard, you could be a millionaire. From their privileged pampered background social services and benefits just make you lazy. They have no idea of the reality of the working class in this system of exploitation.

          We can never expect them to create a system to benefit all the working class, everything they do will be to the benefit of the corporate world, their world. If we want a better world for all the people in society we will have to do it ourselves. Only the working class can create a society that is fair and just to all and we can only do that if we take control of our lives and control of society and all that it entails. We must organise to take control of our communities and our work places, shaping them to see to the needs of all our people. Who needs a bunch of useless, pampered, privileged parasites to organise our world?

 

 
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NEW BUMS ON SEATS, NEW FACES AT THE PODIUM!!

       

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

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

ENDLESS BABBLE.

The questions arise. Why war and hunger?

Why does poverty continue to linger?

Why such need in a world of wealth?

Why put a price on a child’s health?

Confused and angry the public stand

gazing in disbelief at this pathetic band.

Those shiny politicians designed by spin

their street credibility paper thin,

the great persuaders looking the mood

struggling so hard just for our good!

Masters of the art of wheeling and dealing

exceptional experts at legal stealing.

Enter the Media, drowning us all in trivial text,

everything you need know

of scandal and sport, crime and sex.

Together they create a world of confusion

all fashion and style, a vicious illusion.

So no matter how often we point at need,

we always drown in a sea of greed,

no debate entered into, no answers found,

the waffle the babble goes round and round.

ann arky's home.

DON'T SWALLOW THE CRAP.

      

      Are we all daft?? Why do we accept this sort of crap?? We keep being told that there are hard times ahead and we are all in this together. The millionaire cabinet tell us that austerity cuts are necessary and we will all have to tighten our belts. On the surface it looks like that with food price increases running in double figures, pulses up 59% tea up 30% baby milk up 29% baby foods up 21% on 2007 prices, pay freeze and pay cuts, social service cuts, pension cuts, health and education being decimated and unemployment set to hit the stratosphere. Then you take a wee look at the millionaire Mafia that are shouting for these “austerity” cuts and you see a totally different picture.

          Lets take a wee look at how the millionaire parasites are doing. This is how some of them are suffering in these difficult times.

                                                 2009 payment  2010 payment  % increase

S. Hester, C.E. of RBS group      £164,000       £1.227m           648.2

M. Geoghegan, C.E. of HSBC    £1.67m           £5.68m             240.4

S. Wolfson, C.E. Of Next PLC.  £831,000        £1.737m           109.0

S. Rose, C.E. Marks & Spencer £1.77m           £2.606m             47.6

       How about Willie Walsh, the C.E. of British Airways, the guy who has been trying to screw the workers in that industry to the deck with wage cuts and savaging their working conditions. You can see how he has tightened his belt over the last year. In 2009 he had to struggle by on an austerity pay deal of £743,000 and this year so far he has managed to scrape through on a mere £1.024m a slight increase of 37.8% Yea, we're with you Willie, we are all in this together, we want more of your type of austerity.

          When will we ever learn, as the song goes. Do we need these hypocritical parasites feeding off us? It can't be beyond our imagination to device a social structure for society that sees to the needs of all our people based on sustainability. A society freed from the greedy profit driven motive and based on mutual aid. These so called Chief Executives are greedy, useless expendable parasites, I'm sure if the workers occupied their work palces they could run them better without these egocentric worthless appendages. They are no more than the gun slingers hired by the equally parasitical shareholders.

        Anarchists point the way to that better society for all our people, anarchism is the tool that can create a world fit for all our children and our grand children. A world of peace and justice, freed from the fear of deprivation and exploitation, a colourful world fit for a colourful humanity.

 

 

ann arky's home.

WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY, 16th.AUGUST.

     

        Workers should know their history, it tells you which side the the state is on no matter the government of the day. Every occasion when the ordinary people come together to try to improve their lives, whether it be to fight a closure, oppose a war or push for reform, the state always answers with force. It can be the heavy hand of the police or the bullets or sabres of the military and afterwards the state will peddle the usual lie about it being justified force. In this so called democracy the will of the people must be stifled at all costs.

        The 16th August is the anniversary of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, the outcome of a demonstration of 60,000/80,000 people in Manchester calling for parliamentary reform. A cavalry charge, 15 killed and estimates of 400 to 700 injured. Not an isolated incident by any manner of means. Prior to this in Glasgow 1787 the Calton weavers on strike for an increase in wages marched to the Cathedral in support of their claim only to be met by the military, 6 weavers were killed by gun shot. We can move forward to the violence that the poll tax demonstrators met, the striking miners, the G20, and so it goes on. All this should tell us the the state is never on the side of the people.

      We owe it to those who have suffered and died in the people's struggle for liberty and justice to keep alive that history, our history, the workers history.

Weaver's memorial at Abercromby St cemetary Calton Glasgow. 

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CALL FOR SOLIDARITY.

         

 

      A little behind but only received this in the form of a leaflet the other day and thought it deserves support, after all who will be next in their attempt to silence the opposition to their slash and burn policies? Trying to push one group out here and another out there is their way of trying to silence the public and frustrate any attempt at the ordinary people organising themselves against the millionaires' club.

Govanhill Police Attack the Right to Organise.

        On Tuesday (13/07.2010) Fight Racism-Fight Imperialism set out to hold one of its weekly stalls outside Lidl Victoria Road. Within 15 minutes of setting up we were approached by two police officers; Pc. Ishaque (badge number- G282) and Pc. Willie Neil (badge number-G480) who have tried to shut down our own and other activists stalls before but failed. Two FR/FI activists were charged with selling a newspaper without a permit ( which the human rights act 1998 allows us to do) and were also charged with obstruction. Our table and 13 FR/FI newspapers were seized!

Defend Democratic Rights! No to Political Policing!

        FR/FI will not be intimidated off the streets and will defend the rights of ourselves and others to oppose the wars, spending cuts and blatant corruption (e.g. Steven Purcell) of Britain's rulling-classes. I the period before the full crunch of the spending cuts is felt; lower the already miserable living standards of Glasgow's poor; police should be shown that they cannot attack our democratic rights without promting a fightback. Let the people of Govanhill decide who should be allowed to sell their newspapers, not a few coppers hiding behind their badges!

What You can Do?
Send e-mails of complaint to -SouthsideCentralCommunityPolicingTeam@strathclyde.pnn.police.uk
or phone 0141 532 5312 demanding our table and newspapers be returned and that all charges be dropped.

Support our right to sell newspapers! No to censorship!

L:eave your details for upcoming meetings and events or contact us at glasgowfrfi@yahoo.co.uk



http://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/



ann arky's home.

NOT ON SALE AT YOUR LOCAL SUPERMARKET.

          Ian Tomlinson is just one of a long line of victims of police brutality. To date no serving police officer has ever been successfully charged with killing someone. In spite of there having been more than 400 deaths following police contact in the last ten years, no police officer has ever been convicted of murder or manslaughter. Draw your own conclusions. 

“After 16 months of waiting, to hear nothing is being done is a complete joke. Today they gave us no hope. This experience has broken our family apart. The DPP has told us there was an unlawful act, yet no charges are to be brought. This is no justice - everyone has failed us.”

 Ian Tomlinson’s son Paul King

Photo and Paul King's comment courtesy of   Schnews 

  I'm aware that it might be last months news but it is of such importance that I think it is well worth repeating Plus don't you think the schnews photo makes the point dramatically?

GOT SPARE CASH? GET OUT OF YOUR COUNCIL HOUSE!!!

        

      You wait for years for a council house and then finally you get one and it is in an area that your happy with, so you're all sorted. You start to do the place up and settle in and feel at home, your sorted for life. Well, not any more. Our millionaire well coiffured twins have just decided to change the rules. Now you will only get a short term rental agreement, probably about 5 years. After that period a committee made up of a bunch of wealthy bureaucrats will assess you to see if your are now well-off enough to buy your own house and therefore no longer in need of a council house. What if you don't want to buy a house and you're quite happy in the area you're in? Well tough, you have been assessed as not being in need of a council house, so out you go. It could be that you have been there for years and one of your family has left home. Well those same well-heeled bureaucrats will now assess you has having a house too big for you needs and move you to another council house somewhere else. That is assuming that you haven't increased you income in that period or it could be both, too well-off and your family is too small.

         This is another little gift to their millionaire mafia friends in the lending business, another way of forcing everybody into debt with a mortgage company whether they like it or not. Council housing will only for the poorest of the poor who will be assessed every 5 years or so just in case their circumstances have improved and then out they go. The corporate world must be able to make money out of you if you have any at all. Why else are you there??

        Another glaring example of who the millionaire twins at the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption really work for, they know who their friends are. Do we know who are the friends of the working class? Well it is us of course, the working class, the only group that will look after the interests of the working class.

 

 

 

ann arky's home.

ANOTHER GREED DRIVEN THEFT.

      My aren't the political Mafia fickle? One moment they say one thing, the next they say another. For a while the Scottish SNP government was saying that Scottish Water would remain in public ownership, then some economist waved some magic numbers in front of their eyes, like £3 billion and suddenly they are considering handing over one of the Scottish people's most valued assets to the millionaire club of the corporate world.

      If this goes ahead, and I think it will, it will fit perfectly into the plans of the machete millionaire twins. Their strategy of slashing cuts has as its aim the final dismantling of all public assets of any worth and handing them to their millionaire friends, thus creating a society where nothing is there for the public good but merely to make money for their already obscenely rich parasite friends.

       Water is a natural resource and is so important that is should in no way be in the hands of the corporate greed machine. In their hands it will just another product to be sold or exported to the highest bidder. Having water run in your home when you turn on the tap will be at the vagaries of the market, need will not come it to it, cash will be the deciding factor. The poor will be priced out, and that essential product will become a luxury. Can you imagine flushing the toilet just once or twice a day to save money? Skipping the kids bath time as it costs too much? Just try to think how your life would change if you had a meter on your water and the price kept going up like gas and electricity.

       The Scottish people must organise to prevent this latest plunder of their assets, we have already seen the common goods neatly stashed away out their control. This plunder will go on and on until there are no such things as public assets. Then the corporate world will really have you by the balls and they will squeeze until your eyes pop and then leave you when you are an empty husk

 

ann arky's home.

YEP, IT IS THE SAME OLD NEW PLANS.

   

   No matter how far we go back in our history it is the same old story, the working class being screwed by the rich and powerful and a state that is hell bent on war. Since the "peace" after world war 2, the British state has been fighting in almost every corner of the globe. There were the colonial wars as the "empire" struggled to be free of the British yoke. Then of course there was Egypt, Korea,the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan to mention a few. During all this time the ordinary people of this country have struggle for a decent standard of living and now stand on the brink of a return to the Victorian era poverty. It seems that we can't afford a decent standard of living for the people but we can afford to send our young people all over the world to kill other working class people. Surely we can come up with a better system than this, you know that this system is fashioned to suit the millionaire parasite class and you know that there are alternatives. Isn't about time that we asserted our selves and showed our real strength and ingenuity and fashion that new society to suit the needs of all our people and to hell with the millionaire parasite greedy power hungry war mongers.

   The wee poem is from a previous attack on the working class and was written by one of Glasgow's own.

THE "FIND YOUR VOICE" RAP

"Do not despise the snake for having no horns for who is to say it will not become a dragon" (Ancient Chinese saying)

What do you say when you have no voice

what do you choose when you have little choice

When money talks and you've next to none

What do you say when the day is done.

Do millions have to demonstrate

against poor laws made by the state

for will they listen, will they hell

war propaganda is their main sell

What do you do when you are feeling low

thinking Bush and BLiar just have to go

Every four years there is a vote

The Party needs funds, will sell your coat?

What can you do when it is a crime

that it costs too much for TV time

Only the rich can air their views

to tell us lies and distort the news

So tell the aged, tell the youth

have the courage to tell the truth

Point out their every bluff

Shout it out "enough's enough"

By Paul Anderson 24 April 2004

ann arky's home.

GLASGOW SOLIDARITY NETWORK.

Friends and comrades,

         If you are interested in the Glasgow Solidarity Network but haven't been able to come to a meeting yet, you would be welcome at Tuesday night's all-Glasgow meeting, 7-9pm at Wyndford in Maryhill, former site of  St Gregory's Primary School: 186 Wyndford Road, Glasgow G20 8HF

        We're hoping for a good turnout to talk about publicising the network and ratifying a Constitution. For those who haven't heard about us yet, the Glasgow Solidarity Network, based most directly on the Seattle Solidarity Network, is a network of tenants, workers, claimants and residents of greater Glasgow that aims to build solidarity within the working class by taking direct action and winning fights against oppressors like landlords, employers and the DSS. Glasgow SolNet isn't affiliated with any political organisation but it is organised on non-hierarchical principles and aims to raise class consciousness and promote solidarity so that we can eventually take control of our own lives.

*Glasgow Solidarity Network all-Glasgow meeting:
7pm Tuesday the 3rd of August,
186 Wyndford Road, Maryhill*
(formerly St. Gregory's)

http://www.glasgowsolnet.tk/      glasgowsolnet@gmail.com

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