SPANISH CIVIL WAR, 75 YEARS AGO THIS YEAR.

PRESS RELEASE:      Files reveal full extent of British involvement in the Spanish Civil War.

        More volunteers may have left Britain with the aim of joining the International Brigades in Spain than previously thought according to documents discovered at The National Archives.

      This year marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936. Despite the British government’s official policy of non-intervention, thousands of men and women from Britain and Ireland were inspired by their political beliefs to fight in defence of the Spanish Second Republic. They were among the first of a generation defined by the fight against Fascism.

        The British Security Service, sometimes known as MI5, was interested in which British volunteers were defying the ban to fight in Spain as many were also suspected members of the Communist Party. 

      James Cronan, Diplomatic and Colonial Records Specialist at The National Archives, said: “The records show that the Security Service tracked the movements of around 4,000 people it believed were trying to travel to Spain to fight with the International Brigades, many more than previously thought. It’s not clear how many made it to Spain although we know that hundreds never returned. “The International Brigades brought volunteers together from all over the world in defence of democracy but few if any records exist of their service. That’s why uncovering a document like this is so exciting.”

      The list has now been digitised and is available to view online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/spanish-civil-war. It provides researchers and historians with a valuable new resource and is a good starting point for anyone wishing to find out whether a relative fought in Spain. The annotated list includes entries for the poet John Cornford, union leader Jack Jones and Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, whose famous book Homage to Catalonia detailed his experiences with the International Brigades.

CAPA; Refugees on the beach.

      The newly-digitised material contains more than 200 pages of names and dates detailing the movements of the men and women who left British ports on their way to the frontline in Spain and a roll of honour of those killed in action. A selection of index cards have also been digitised and put online for notable brigade volunteers including the classicist Bernard Knox, Irish Brigade leader Frank Ryan and George Orwell as well as recently deceased veterans such as Sam Lesser, Bob Doyle, Jack Edwards and Paddy Cochrane.

     A ceremony will be held on 2 July 2011 at the International Brigades Memorial in Jubilee Gardens, London to mark the 75th anniversary of the start of the conflict with two of the five surviving British veterans. Further commemorations are planned later this year.

Contact secretary@international-brigades.org.uk for details.

For media enquiries please contact Thomas Norton on 0208 392 5277 or e-mail press@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY -

- EMMA GOLDMAN'S BIRTHDAY.

      As the struggle of the ordinary people is set to become more harsh, we should always remember those who in their life gave so much to that struggle. We can learn from their deeds, their words and take inspiration from the way they lived their life.
     Today June 27 is the birthday Emma Goldman, born, 27 June 1869, died 14 May 1940, one of the many working class giants that took the full force of the state but never wavered in their believe, never lost their desire for a better world for all.

      On June 27, 1919 Emma Goldman spent her 50th birthday behind prison walls, where she was serving a two year prison term in Jefferson City, Missouri, for her conviction, along with Alexander Berkman, for conspiracy against the Selective Service Act of 1917 (for publicly speaking out against conscription). Today, June 27, 2011 we should take strength from the countless Emma Goldman's across the world and refocus our vision and re-double our efforts to carry on the struggle for that better world for all.
     
       Emma Goldman's writings and speeches touched on the full spectrum of human activity, she had clear thoughts on everything from love to death and all that comes between. Here are a couple of quotes from those two perspectives.
 

Cover of 70th Birthday Commemorative Edition pamphlet (Los Angeles: Libertarian Committee, 1939)

[Kate Sharpley Library]    

  

  Love:          

              Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other atmosphere.

     Death:

               As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian Czar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as an American President, it is hardly worth the effort. There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry — the most sinister and tyrannical rulers on earth. As for the gentleman who asked if free love would not build more houses of prostitution, my answer is: They will all be empty if the men of the future look like him.

        Responding to audience questions during a speech in Detroit (1898); as recounted in Living My Life (1931), p. 207; quoted by Annie Laurie Gaylor in Women Without Superstition, p. 382

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ANN ARKY IS HAVING A WEE BREAK.

      ann arky is indulging in a holiday on the continent for a few days and  will be back in the next day or so.

As always,    in solidarity, ann arky. 

        FREE FROM GOVERNMENT AGREEMENTS!!!

         Did you know that anarchists have been right all along!! A little bit of proof that citizens are not bound by agreements made by their government as they did not participate in that agreement and so by law cannot be bound by such an agreement!!!

         It is worth seeing the whole video through to the end, though it does seem as though he is drawing it out a bit but enjoyable never the less.

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DEMOCRACY vs MYTHOLOGY:

THE BATTLE IN SYNTAGMA SQUARE.

        I have continually spouted that the deficit reduction has nothing to do with deficit reduction. It is all to do with saving the banks and the bond markets from losing any of their illgotten assets and rescue them from their gambling excesses. The billionaire playboys gambled massively and lost, so now they want the ordinary people of the world to pay for their greed. Living standards will be slashed, social services will be decimated, unemployment will rise, pensions will be plundered and all public assets will be sold off at bargain prices to those very billionaire gamblers.

      All this is happening not because your government wants to destroy the social fabric of the nation, but because they are being dictated to by foreign billionaires and as they are in the pay of those billionaires they obey for fear of losing their own wealth, power and privileges. It is an army of occupation taking over all the decision making in their target countries.

      It is explained excellently in the following extract from STURDYBLOG. Please take the time to read the article in full and spread the details as widely as possible. This is your battle, it is not just something that is happening over there in some foreign land. It is here, it is our struggle, it is your and your kids future.

     "I have never been more desperate to explain and more hopeful for your understanding of any single fact than this: The protests in Greece concern all of you directly.

        What is going on in Athens at the moment is resistance against an invasion; an invasion as brutal as that against Poland in 1939. The invading army wears suits instead of uniforms and holds laptops instead of guns, but make no mistake – the attack on our sovereignty is as violent and thorough. Private wealth interests are dictating policy to a sovereign nation, which is expressly and directly against its national interest. Ignore it at your peril. Say to yourselves, if you wish, that perhaps it will stop there. That perhaps the bailiffs will not go after the Portugal and Ireland next. And then Spain and the UK. But it is already beginning to happen. This is why you cannot afford to ignore these events.

      The powers that be have suggested that there is plenty to sell. Josef Schlarmann, a senior member of Angela Merkel’s party, recently made the helpful suggestion that we should sell some of our islands to private buyers in order to pay the interest on these loans, which have been forced on us to stabilise financial institutions and a failed currency experiment. (Of course, it is not a coincidence that recent studies have shown immense reserves of natural gas under the Aegean sea).

       China has waded in, because it holds vast currency reserves and more than a third are in Euros. Sites of historical interest like the Acropolis could be made private. If we do not do as we are told, the explicit threat is that foreign and more responsible politicians will do it by force. Let’s make the Parthenon and the ancient Agora a Disney park, where badly paid locals dress like Plato or Socrates and play out the fantasies of the rich.---"

 

       We have to admit that the world at this moment in time is owned by gambling billionaires, they buy governments and plunder the planet. We can continue in this fashion and leave a future of deprivation and corporate fascism to our grandchildren, or we can orgainse in solidarity with all the ordinary people of the world and change the way our world is run. We can create a world based on needs, mutual aid and sustainability, we have the resources, we have the ability, all we are lacking is the will to start that change.

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        TOO MUCH TROUBLE TO TREAT CHILDREN!!!

         While our millionaire public school thugs, do their utmost to privatise our National Health Service at the same time as uttering camouflage statements like "the health service is safe in our hands" and "we are not privatising the health service" there are those who see the millionaire cabal's plans as an advance in the service, an introduction of the American model. For those who are not too familiar with the "American" model perhaps the following statement will give them some insight. It was taken from an American blog, you can read the rest of the blog HERE. It might help you to realise where this bunch of millionaire public school thugs are driving our National Health Service. 

        "Sixty-six percent of publicly-insured children were unable to get a doctor’s appointment for medical conditions requiring outpatient speciality care including diabetes and seizures, while children with identical symptoms and private insurance were turned away only 11 percent of the time, according to an audit study of speciality physician practices in Cook County, IL."

A don't wannt t' be discriminated against.

 

     “We found disturbing disparities in speciality physicians’ willingness to provide outpatient care for children with public insurance — even those with urgent and severe health problems. This study shows a failure to care for our most vulnerable children” said a study author."

 

    Never accept that a bunch of millinaires have your best interests at heart, they will always serve their own class. We most make sure that we do the same.

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TIME FOR RIGHTEOUS ANGER!!!

         As the Greek government tries to push through more "austerity" measures to appease the IMF and bond markets, the people of Greece are saying NO, enough is enough. The riots, strikes and now camps on Syntagma Square are proof of their determination. Here in the UK, we are also being hit with “austerity” measures for the same reasons, to protect the bond markets, the banks and to appease the IMF. However, to date, we in the UK seem to be taking it on the chin with the mythical stiff upper lip. There are those who might say that the reason for that is because we are not being hit as hard as the Greeks. Perhaps not, but we still have unacceptable poverty in this country and our “austerity” cuts have still to bite.

         Save the Children state that there are over 1.6 million children in the UK living in extreme poverty. No matter the illusions they try to weave, no country can claim to be civilised where over 1.6 million children live in extreme poverty. This is an increase on last years figure, the main contributing factor to this increase being because of huge increases in the cost of energy, petrol and food. According to the British Retail Consortium, families have seen the average food bill of £100 increase by £5 since last year. This continuing rising cost of living, has thousands more families struggling to to pay for the very basics in the home. What people have to cope with in the face of wage cuts, wage freezes and benefit cuts are such things as Petrol £1.37 a litre, diesel £1.42 a litre, and according to the Office of National Statistics, the last 5 years have seen the price of bread increase by 50%, butter by 57.7% and milk up 33%, on top of this gas is expected to rise by 19% and electricity by 12% before the end of this year. Obviously if you are on a low income, benefit or a wage freeze, then these factors are going to hit you hard, as you are obliged to spend a larger proportion of your income on the basic necessities. Last year over 61,000 people across the UK approached Foodbanks for help. Poverty is wide spread here in the UK but our millionaire, friends of the IMF and bank Mafia's hatchet job, has still to do its real damage. Will the UK people still continue with their orderly strikes, marches and banner waving, or will they vent the very real anger that they are already feeling? "Enjoy the ecstasy of your righteous anger", goes an old Korean saying!!!

 

 

TIME FOR RIGHTEOUS ANGER.

We talk of justice, we ooze compassion

you and I. Our comfort sure

with a gracious smile a token give

those “SO deserving poor”.

Where is compassion when children lose

carefree innocent play,

where is justice when children meet

hunger along the way?

Children who, in this world of excess

create a newsreel scene

cradled in a starving mother’s arms

expiring on your TV screen.

Forget the famine rationale

in a sickly syrup word,

mouthed by those crazy apes

until the truth is blurred.

Feel the anguish of the other

hear their pitiful cry

see hunger steal their future;

loudly cry out, why?

Then act out your righteous anger

fan the passions flame,

create a world of social justice

end this human shame.

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TEAPOT COLLECTIVE INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY, PAGE 13. 

         Time for the next exciting page from the Teapot Collective Introduction to Anarchy, we continue with page 13. Page 12 can be read HERE.

         "--Find examples of what life could be, put our ideas into practise in everyday life.

          Creating anarchy is helping your neighbours, stealing from your workplace, growing your own food, throwing a brick at a riot cop, organising a stamp-collectors club, babysitting for your friend, talking back, phoning in sick, not being what is expected of you. Anarchy is mutual aid, co-operation and not leaving your life to others to organise it.

      We don't see the mythical revolution as something that will just happen suddenly one day after we've polished some ideology. Revolution is a

process of individuals and collectives gradually reclaiming what's been taken from us.

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DOES RAPE CHARGE = INVASION?

 

LIBYA - Behind the phony ICC 'rape' charges: ARE NATO FORCES PREPARING A GROUND ATTACK?

The following is an article by Sara Flounders for    International Action Center.

        Without presenting a shred of reliable evidence, NATO and International Criminal Court conspirators are charging the Libyan government with conspiracy to rape -- not only rape as the "collateral damage" of war, but rape as a political weapon.

This charge of an orchestrated future campaign of rapes was made at a major press conference called by the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on June 8, 2011. The even wilder unsubstantiated ICC charge that Libya plans to mass distribute Viagra to its troops confirms this as the most tawdry and threadbare form of war propaganda.

          It is important to understand that NATO countries with the full complicity of the corporate media and the ICC are spreading this Big Lie in order to win support for and close down all opposition to a ground assault of Libya, something that would otherwise be unpopular both in Europe and the United States. This wild charge adds to the evidence of a massive escalation in bombing urban targets in Libya, the use of British and French helicopters that give close support to ground troops and the positioning in the Mediterranean off Libya of U.S. warships that can quickly land troops. The NATO alliance is desperate to put Libya beyond all discussion or defense and raise the NATO war to the level of a Holy Crusade to defend women.

         The charge of rape as a political weapon was spread -- without evidence -- against Serb forces to justify U.S. plans for the first NATO bombing campaign in the history of the military alliance in 1994 in Bosnia and was used again in 1999 in Serbia in the first NATO occupation. The rape charge was used to soften up the U.S. and European population for the criminal war against Yugoslavia. Now a similar plan is in the works for Libya.

        All too often widely fabricated lies are spread to justify imperialist wars. In 1991 the first war against Iraq was justified by outrageous charges that the Iraqi army had grabbed Kuwaiti babies from incubators and smashed the babies to the floor. This was presented as reliable “testimony” to in the U.S. Congress and in the UN. Months later it was confirmed as a total fabrication. But the lie had served its purpose. In 2001 the corporate media and U.S. politicians claimed that they had to bomb and then massively occupy Afghanistan to win rights for women that the Taliban taken away. The situation for women in Afghanistan and for the entire population has deteriorated further under U.S. / NATO occupation.

       Despite video and photo evidence that the entire world has seen through WikiLeaks, the International Criminal Court has never considered for a moment filing criminal charges against U.S. British, French or German troops. The pictures, videos and reports in major newspapers of sexual torture and humiliation at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by U.S. soldiers, the testimony by the U.S. soldiers involved in rapes, tortures, mutilations and executions in Iraq and Afghanistan confirms the brutal reality of U.S. wars. These wars have never been to ‘save’ women.

      As an African country, Libya can hardly expect a fair hearing or any form of justice from the ICC. The International Criminal Court created with high hopes of international justice in 2002 has been used against 7 countries – all in Africa. Meanwhile, the ICC has never examined U.S. drone attacks on defenseless civilians in at least 8 African, Arab and South Asian countries. Nor has it even touched U.S. invasions and occupations. Israeli bombing of the Palestinian people is “off limits”.

        This is an essential time to remind all people concerned about the rights of women that U.S. intervention or any imperialist intervention has never protected women. Even women serving within the U.S. military machine are not “safe”. According to a study published by the Journal of Military Medicine, 71 per cent of women soldiers have been sexually assaulted or raped while serving in the U.S. military. Women who have been assaulted consistently report poor medical treatment, lack of counseling, incomplete criminal investigations and threats of punishment for reporting the assaults. In 2009 the Pentagon admitted that approximately 80 per cent of rapes are never reported – making it the most under-documented crime in the military. In addition U.S. military bases are all too often surrounded by an entire sex industry of abused women forced by hunger, dislocation and lost families into work in bars and clubs.

      Rape in every society has little connection to sexuality and desire. It has always been about imposing power and domination. The "political rape" charge in this case makes no sense and has no basis beyond the U.S.-NATO desire to justify expanding the war against Libya.

Stop U.S.-NATO intervention in Libya.

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JUNE 30 - J30, - TOMORROW'S WORLD??

I have the hope that the day will dawn

when the Idea will conquer brutal force;

that after the struggle and the lingering travail,

another voice, more sonorous, happier than mine

shall know then how to sing the triumphant hymn.

 Jose Rizal, “Mi Retiro” (22 October 1895)

 

      The long suffering public sector workers are at last coming together in defence of their conditions. Having to face a full frontal assault on their jobs, pensions and living standards by the millionaire public school thugs, they have joined hands and called a strike for June 30. We have to realise that this is not their fight alone, all our living standards are under attack. Our social services are to be decimated to save money, to hand to the bond markets and the banks. Our public assets are to be sold off, to give the money to the bond markets and the banks. Ask yourself, how does this help the ordinary people of this country? Lower wages, work longer, less jobs, a privatised health service, an education system deprived of resources and no public facilities, everything corporate owned, is this a society that will benefit you and I? This is where we are going, unless we organise and unite to stop this advance of corporate fascism.

      On June 30, we must all show our solidarity with the strikers. Those not on strike should have a wee sickie, none of us should go anywhere near a business, buy nothing on that day, pay no bills. Let's make it a day of no commerce what so ever, hit them where it hurts, in their money. If you are not on the streets supporting the strikers then get on your bike, paint the shed, take the kids for a walk, read a book, visit your granny, you could even try and write your memoirs, but don't spend money in any shape or form. You can survive a day without spending a penny, literally, not figuratively.

       This should only be the first phase of a struggle to take society out of the control of the millionaire bankers and bond markets. The first step in turning society in a different direction, to change society away from the corporate towards a needs based society, built on justice and mutual aid. Strikes by themselves will achieve little, we have to have the desire to change the basic structure of a society that has failed the people time and time again. The present structure of society is based on greed and profit and only benefits the millionaire corporate class, asking them, “please sir can I have some more” is not the answer. If we want a decent world for our kids and grand kids, we, the ordinary people have to build it now. If not, our kids will be faced with another June 30 in an attempt to protect their meagre living standards and this June 30 will have been a waste of time.

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THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE V THE WILL OF THE BANKERS!!

SPAIN.

     Across Europe the so called people's representatives are slashing at the standard of living of the ordinary people, the very people the say that they represent. Voted in to carry out the will of the people they line their pockets, get into bed with the bankers, plunder and strip the public naked. While at the same time hand over all the public's assets to their friends in the corporate world.  

     If the "people's representatives" don't represent the people, then what do they expect? Do they expect the public to lie down and quietly take a beating, so as the banks don't have to pay for their gambling excesses? Should the people sheepishly walk into deprivation while the plunderers line their pockets? In the West the media applauded the "Arab Spring" will they now applaud the "European Spring".

GREECE.

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