European Sweatshops!!

       That babbling brook of bullshit, the media, has give a lot of coverage to the recent deaths of garment workers slaving away in the sweatshops housed in the  building that collapsed in Bangladesh. Of course there is rightful outcry and anger, though any tears shed by the corporate world, will be of the crocodile type, cheap labour equals bigger profits. However that same babbling brook of bullshit doesn't report on the sweatshops here in Europe, they exist here, as else where in the world, and they are on the increase in European countries being raped and plundered by the financial Mafia's austerity plans. This report is from Greece, but where else in this so called group of European developed nations are the same conditions being experienced day and daily?

This from Contra Info:

We will either raise our voices, or be forced to work ourselves to death
     Radka Nikolova, 38, was a kitchen worker in the pizza fan store in Patras. On Monday, January 14th, 2013 she was found dead at work, locked inside the store. Early estimates said the woman died due to heart failure. The story was covered up.
     It is relatively known that a heart condition alone is not enough to cause someone’s death. But yes… with a job at pizza fan, our heart does not seem to last long enough.------

Read the full article HERE:

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Glasgow May Day 2013 And Photos.

 

      Glasgow's May Day parade set off from George Square today Sunday 5th. May, and marched through the centre of the city and across the river. It was a well attended affair with a myriad of groups displaying their colourful banners. 

     Though well attended, not well enough, this is our day, traditionally a workers celebration day, as well as celebrating our victories, it is an opportunity to show our strength and solidarity. Now more than ever that solidarity is going to be a necessary weapon in the coming struggle. We need to come together as one body of all the people, we are not fighting a multitude of individual struggles, it is one big battle, corporate capitalism against the people. At the moment their attack is relentless, while our response seems, at times, somewhat haphazard. That is a recipe for our defeat and a continual worsening of our living conditions. 

       The marchers got a reasonably dry day, if a bit windy. Some had difficulty in managing the banners as they marched into a strong wind. One group had to do some repairs at the side of the road as their banner suffered some minor damage from the strong wind.

      All in all, a reasonable show, if not noisy enough, not boisterous enough, and certainly not large enough.

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Anarchism, Marxism,

       In spite of my pocking a little fun, a night worth marking in your diary, I'm sure it will be both informative and interesting, as well as lively. 

       Friday 10^th May, with Ben Franks: 'Between Anarchism and Marxism: The beginnings and ends of the schism?'Discussion 6.30-8.30pm. Social 8.30pm onwards at Kinning Park Complex, 40 Cornwall St, Glasgow G41 1AQ

https://www.facebook.com/events/558999170798205/?ref=ts&fref=ts

      Benjamin Franks will introduce his recent work, 'Between Anarchism and Marxism: The beginnings and ends of the schism? (2012), which will be followed by group discussion of the questions posed. 
     "The standard approach, endorsed by orthodox Marxists and many anarchists, is to see an irreconcilable difference between anarchism and Marxism. However, the historical record shows that whilst Marx opposed – and was opposed by - leading anarchists prior to 1917 there was considerable positive interaction between diverse Marxist and anarchist groups. The division between the two, viewed as fundamental, I argue, is in fact the product of a particular form of political structure that dominated the revolutionary-left in the last century. Now that these hierarchical forms of organisation have been discredited, rediscovered and revised forms of Marxism have arisen that, once again, actively engage with anarchism."

     Hosted by The Strickland Distribution, with the support of Glasgow Anarchist Federation, Radical Independent Bookfair, Clydeside IWW.
All welcome!
(Refreshments available. BYOB.)
Kinning Park Complex, 40 Cornwall St., Glasgow G41 1AQ
http://www.kinningparkcomplex.org

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Austerity, A Beast With Blood On Its Teeth.

     Austerity is an ugly beast, it tears at the fabric of society, bloodying the present and devouring the future. It is not just a matter of cutting down on the cappuccinos, skipping a night at the movies, it's the spread of fear, the creation of bitterness, the struggle for survival. With austerity comes anger and to contain that anger, and preserve their own privileged position, the establishment unleashes its fascist dogs, intimidation and repression are necessary for the survival of their ideological beast austerity. Austerity never arrives by accident, it is called in to do its masters bidding. What is happening in Greece is neither an accident nor necessary, it is an ideological plan. What we should not forget is that the austerity beast is already prowling the streets of other countries about to start its ravenous feast and devour the lives of those ordinary people.

    This film is not the Greece I visited for many years, it has been changed, brutalised and its people impoverished, austerity has ravished them. All this because a bunch of corrupt rich politicians follow the grand plan laid down by another bunch of even more rich financial parasites who never live in the world they create, by their enforced austerity. 

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Iain Duncan Smith, Rat-bag!!

  

     It is always pleasant when some ordinary person gets a chance to speak their mind to one of those charlatans from the parasitic political class. It is even more pleasant when you hear the audience applaud that opinion.

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Asset Stripping On a Grand Scale.

       The fascist Troika, that governs Europe has dealt another blow to the income of the Greek people. Opap, the Greek government owned gambling giant, which last year made €505 million for the Greek public purse, I presume, welcome money to a state groveling for money, has been sold, on the instructions of that fascist Troika. A 33% slice of it was sold for something over €622 million, the exact figure is still “secret”, a price not much more than one year's profits. The fascist Troika has instructed the Greek government to sell of €9.5 billion of Greek assets, the Greek people's assets, by 2016. Anything that could make money for the Greek people has to be sold to the corporate world so that they can make that money. A country being punished for its debt, and the remedy is to cut of its sources of income. It is obvious that the fascist Troika's grand plan has nothing to do with debt reduction and more to do with asset stripping. Country after country is being forced to sell of the people's assets and hand the money to the banksters. All this brings the people's standard of living crashing down. What do we the people get in return for all this “austerity”, plundering? Why we get lots of pie-in-the-sky, after ten or more years of wage cuts/freeze. There will be a promised land waiting for you, if you will only accept a decade or two of groveling in the gutter you'll be just fine. Of course the parasites will not be joining you there in the gutter, no they will be laughing at you will the stuff their faces at some fancy banquet. Ah well, that's capitalism for you.

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Debt Reduction Leads To Debt Increase!!

     It's amazing how the fascist Troika stepped in, in 2011 with a cure to sort out Italy's debt and economic woes. It swept aside the elected government, installed a technocrat, “economic expert” Mario Monti, to rule according to their dictates. Severe debt reduction “austerity measures“, large lay-offs, wage freeze/cuts, the usual savage attack on the living conditions of the ordinary people, pushing Italy towards that corporate dream of a sweatshop economy. Now here we are in 2013 and according that other bunch of “economic experts”, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Italy is now in a worse state than when the fascist Troika stepped in, in 2011. When Magic Monti stepped in Italy's debt was 120.8% of GDP, with the expertise of the Troika at the helm, it is expected to reach 131.5 for 2013 and up again to 134.2 for 2014. So many “experts” getting it so wrong, all that has happened is that the public purse has been plundered, slashing living conditions, and the coffers of the financial mafia have been enhanced. This rising debt is another excuse to introduce even more severe “austerity measures”, slash public spending and raise taxes. Of course to you and I, that looks like a failure, but to the corporate world, everything is going fine. Another country in Europe is going the road of Greece, heading for deprivation, fertile ground for a sweatshop economy, to rival those similar conditions else where in the world. To corporate Europe, the only way to compete with Eastern sweatshops is to slash wages and conditions here in Europe, and they are well on the way, with Greece, Spain, Portugal. Ireland, Cyprus and Italy all on the rapid conveyor belt to deprivation, with other countries gaining momentum in the same direction.

     How far they will get with their profit crazed dream, will depend on you and I. Do we struggle to get them to slightly modify their desire for our deprivation, asking for a little bit better deal for us? Or do we realise that it is impossible to have “compassionate capitalism” and start to dismantle this exploitative greed driven system and create an economic system based on the needs of all our people? We have the resources, we have the numbers, we have the ability and imagination, I know we have the desire, all we are lacking is the will to start.

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Glasgow May Day.

 May Day, Glasgow Buchanan Street, 2013.

        Today, May 1st., May Day, has been celebrated across the planet, and rightly so. It is probably the most important day in the calendar of the ordinary people.  In some cities it was a massive display of workers solidarity, in others it was a more quiet affair, but there would be few cities that didn't have some sort of show. Though it should be held on May 1st. and is in lots of cities and towns, in others, Glasgow for example, it will be on the first weekend after May 1st.. That said, Glasgow had a small but colourful stall in Buchanan Street, put on by the Clydeside IWW and the Glasgow Anarchist Federation. The stalls attracted considerable interest from passers-by, and a lot of literature was handed out. There was of course, lots of old faces reappeared, just to be there and show solidarity, even if it was just for a few minutes and a few words with old comrades.

May Day, Glasgow Buchanan Street, 2013.

This report from Labour Start:

 

 

As I write these words, it's still morning in London -- and already LabourStart's front page is full of coverage of May Day 2013, the international workers' holiday.

• In Istanbul, police have used tear gas to try to block trade unionists from gathering in the city's central Taksim square, scene of an infamous massacre in 1977.

• In Jakarta, a massive workers' rally with more than 135,000 participants has shut down the Indonesian capital.

• In Greece, a general strike by workers protesting against the highest unemployment levels in Europe has shut down much of the country's transport system.

Your local newspaper or television station may be reporting all these stories -- but I doubt it. That's why we created LabourStart 15 years ago -- precisely for moments like this when we need to know what is happening in the labour movement all over the world.

Please make sure to visit LabourStart today and spread the word to your friends, family, co-workers and fellow union members.

Thank you -- and happy May Day!

Eric Lee

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Torture, A Brutal Tool Of Their Trade.

        We know every state does it, some more subtle, some more brutal, but they all have their methods. I'm talking about torture, it is a tool of the state and it will do everything in its power to hold onto it in one form or another. The more we expose it the more difficult it becomes for them, they have to work harder at justifying it, or concealing it, or devising new methods. Torture will continue until we rid ourselves of that shackle on our freedom, the state. That doesn't mean we should ignore torture until that day arrives, we have to expose it and campaign against it, when ever we get any information regarding torture. Never forget, it is a human being that is being tortured, no matter the name the state puts on that being, it may be an autocratic institution that sanctions the act, but it is also human beings that implement those actions.

This interesting article from Human Rights First:

       The argument about whether torture works is still raging. Four years after President Obama ended the torture program, torture proponents continue to claim that torture saved American lives and was necessary to find criminals like Osama bin Laden. Just last week, Condoleezza Rice said that because of torture, “we have not had a successful attack on our territory.”

       I served the CIA for 23 years, and I was directly involved in the “enhanced interrogation” program. I know from experience that torture not only undermined our values and Constitution, it made us less safe.

        The Senate Intelligence Committee has produced the most comprehensive report on the post-9/11 CIA torture program, based on a review of more than 6 million pages of official records. Those who have read the report say that it shows the CIA torture program was much more widespread and cruel than we thought, and much less effective at gathering actionable intelligence than torture proponents claim.

      However, the Obama Administration is sitting on this report and has delayed its release. On Friday, Vice President Biden supported the report's release. Ask President Obama to work with Congress to declassify the torture report.

      Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and national security experts (me included) have said publicly that torture did not lead to bin Laden or save American lives. But until this report is released, torture proponents will continue to argue that we should return to torture.

     Let’s be clear: torture is un-American, illegal, and immoral. Let’s end this debate once and for all. Urge President Obama to work with Congress to declassify the torture report.

Sincerely,

Glenn Carle
Former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats, National Intelligence Council
Author, The Interrogator

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May Day, Our Day.

           Wednesday May 1st. MayDay, Labour Day, Workers Day, call it what you will, but it is all about the ordinary people coming together to celebrate their struggles and their victories. A day to remember all those working class heroes, who struggled and fought for the betterment of all, fought for a society that sees to the needs of all our people. Organise your own celebration, make for the streets, make new friends, meet up with old friends. Make it an opportunity to re-new that vision of a fair and just society that is buried in all out hearts, show the strength of solidarity that will get us there. May Day, a time to re-new that Spirit of Revolt.

                                  

 

           Now more than ever we have to show solidarity, we have to come together to defend our standard of living. May Day this year is an ideal opportunity to show that solidarity with all the ordinary people of this country and across the world, to lay down a marker, as the pampered parasite political class make a ruthless and savage grasp to capitalise everything in sight to save their gambling spiv bankster friends and bond merchants, from carrying their own gambling debts. We are expected to quietly pay off the gamblers losses and stand by while they privatise everything they can lay their sweaty palms on, that can make them money. It is their world -- or it is our world, you can decide.

            May Day is a day to realise our strength and see that road to the better world we all desire.

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The Mask Of Anarchy.

      30th. April, last day of the month, last poem of the month, the day before May Day. I'm a great admirer of the poetry of William McIlvanney, I think I have read all he has written and some several times. So, with Labour Day in mind, I thought of this one from his book In Through The Head ISBN 1851581703 published by Mainstream Publishing Edinburgh.

    

Everyman: A Morality Play.

"Aye zur," Everyman said, as the Lord of the Manor

Raped his wife, sons and his daughters, and threw him a tanner.

"Aye zur," Everyman said, "that be bully for ee."

And he pulled up his smock as he bowed from the knee

with a delicate click of obedient clogs

And a tail-wagging movement he borrowed from dogs.

"Aye zur," Everyman said, "that be bully for ee"

"Appen Maister be wantin ma bollocks for tea?" 

With a father from north and a mother from south

He let every cliché find a home in his mouth,

Being taught as a man he would never fit,

He was skilled in the role of an identkit.

He learned his lines well until one fateful day,

Though his mouth still remembered the things he should say,

A slight twinge in one leg made him suddenly see;

"Get A grip. Human beings can't bow from the knee." 

"Ach, fuck this fur a play," every man said,

Took the lord of the manner and stove in his head.

       Since it is the last day of the wee poetry thingy, and tomorrow IS May Day, I thought, just for good measure, I might as well through in a few verses from Shelley's Mask of Anarchy.

The Mask of Anarchy.(extract)

'Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number,

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you -

Ye are many - they are few.

'What is Freedom? - ye can tell

That which slavery is, too well -

For its very name has grown

To an echo of your own.

'Tis to work and have such pay

As just keeps life from day to day

In your limbs, as in a cell

For the tyrants' use to dwell,

'So that ye for them are made

Loom, and plough, and sword, and spade,

With or without your own will bent

To their defence and nourishment.

'Tis to see your children weak

With their mothers pine and peak,

When the winter winds are bleak, -

They are dying whilst I speak.

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State Kidnappings.

      Two kidnappings in the middle of the night, two citizens pulled from their beds and surreptitiously dragged to a police station away from their homes. Actions of some dictatorial regime in some far off place? No, this is "democratic"  Europe, this is the normal state response to resistance to their policies, this is Greece. It could be Spain, Italy, UK, or any European country, they are all in the same big financial Mafia club. They will meet resistance with any force they feel is necessary, to carry through the corporatisation of the whole continent.

This from Contra Info:

Athens IMC collective
     * Translators’ note: In the early hours of April 10th, 2013, two fighters of the struggle against the gold mines in Halkidiki were kidnapped by the EKAM special police force from their homes in the town of Ierissos (located near the forest of Skouries). Hooded cops literally broke into their homes in the middle of the night, while they were sleeping with their families. Meanwhile, the local police station had been abandoned in fear of retaliation by the residents. Indeed, villagers of Ierissos stormed the police station and burned everything inside, as a first enraged response to the repressive operation. They also set up blockades in the area. Until the 14th of April, the two arrestees were held in the Thessaloniki police headquarters. On that day, prosecutors ordered the pretrial incarceration of both fighters on grave felony charges in connection to an incendiary attack on the Skouries mining site in mid-February 2013.

      The river will not flow back! No matter how hard they try to reestablish the 1967 junta, we will not allow that to happen!

Read the full article HERE:

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Youthful Traveller.

       April 29th., one more day to go, after today, of "poem a day" month of April. I hope you have had as much pleasure reading them as I have had posting them. It forced me to go back over pages I hadn't looked at for years, it kindle sparks that I thought had been extinguished.

Youthful Traveller.

Now,

firm in winter's bosom clasped

gazing back along a path

a path I never can retrace

wondering, when summer's blaze

cooled to autumn's seductive charm,

when autumn ran to winter's chill?

I saw no signpost mark the borders

no checkpoint with the list

bidding me declare.

So the sea of life I duely sailed

a smuggler to the last,

contraband I carry in my heart,

the joy of spring

mid winter's icy blast.

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The Soldierless War Is Here.

       The soldierless war creeps ever closer and closer. We can now strike at the heart of communities from a comfortable office. Young people can sit at what would resemble a games console and mark up their score in hits, oblivious to the terror and carnage that is happening as they watch a screen and push an innocuous button. A family wiped out, a village destroyed and they didn't get off their backsides. Drones, for surveillance, drones for destruction, drones for home and drones for abroad. Control and carnage from an air conditioned office block near you. 

This from Stop The War Coalition, CND, War On Want, Drone Campaign Network:

      Last Saturday saw hundreds march to RAF Waddington against the UK government's use of Drones in Afghanistan, now controlled from the military airbase near Lincoln. The largest demonstration against drones to date brought together Stop the War, War on Want, the Drone Campaign Network and CND and more than 600 members of the public to launch a national campaign against drones.
       The pressure of our campaign has already been felt after the Ministry of Defence was forced to admit just two days before the protest that the Waddington control centre is now in operation. But much of the secrecy about how British drones are being used, and the threat of new interventions, remains.
      A comment in January by the Secretary of State for Defence showed just how easy a new intervention might be when he had turned down a request from France to send drones to Mali because of the "unacceptable impact on our operations in Afghanistan". The question of whether or not British people want a new war in Mali was not even raised.
    The widespread media coverage on drones that Saturday's demonstration has provoked has started an important debate about their use and showed just how important a strong anti-drones campaign will be in the coming months.

Stop the War would like to thank all those who participated in Saturday's successful demo

• Read the report from Common Dreams on the Ground the Drones demo, including TV reports from Sky and the BBC
• David Shariatmadari argues that drones might be changing more minds about war now that killing is conducted from our doorstep

Sign our petition and share with your friends

• Already signed by former archbishop Dr Rowan Williams, Dennis Halliday (former UN Assistant Secretary-General) and almost 4000 others. Please sign our petition to call on the government to abandon the use of drones as a weapon of war.

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Pipe Dreams.

      Today we are back in Glasgow for our poem, it's from a wee book called Glasgow's McGarrigle, ISBN 1871009014 by Fat Cat Publications. It is the work of one of Glasgow poets of the 80's, John McGarrigle, the introduction to the book by Dominic Behan, states;

    "---McGarrigle's work is filled with anger and bitterness. It is bitter without being brittle and angry without self destroying angst. It is conceived in his soul, compressed in his wit and dedicated to what Mayakovsky thought the greatest cause in the world, "The liberation of mankind". He doesn't know about envy or despair but he does know what he has been denied a share of. John McGarrigle's mind lives on hope for the future, love for his fellows and the certain unshakable knowledge that its all gotta change. That's what makes him a great poet."

Pipe Dreams.

another burst pipe

another broken window

sometimes I think I'll scream

but usually end up

lost in a dream

of living in a nice house

somewhere

quiet and serene

away from the squalor

that I'm living in

but, I'd probably

end up lonely

for my friends and family

and end up

back in Castlemilk

dreaming of a nice house

somewhere

quiet and serene.

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Occupied Territory.

 

       The police are an occupying force for maintaining social peace in enemy territory. Where we the ordinary people live is not where the ruling class live. The reason this territory has to be controlled is simply because the system does not work in the interest of the ordinary people, and as social and environmental conditions worsen, the dissatisfaction has to be controlled, less it disrupts the well-being of the ruling class. However the nature of this exploitative system we live under, means that dissatisfaction will always be there among the ordinary people. Today as the ruling class are on a looting and plundering binge, anger among the ordinary people will grow and so will the brutality of the occupying police force.

      Across Europe we are seeing this unrest growing and in unison we are seeing the police brutality also grow. The people of Greece have felt the growth of savage assault on its streets on an almost daily basis as they are bulldozed into poverty and deprivation. Other countries where the “austerity” looting by the ruling class has been harshest the people's anger has been met with the same increase in police brutality.

     Only when we put in place a system that works in the interest of t  he ordinary people, will we see the anger disappear from the streets and the need to be policed by an occupying force become obsolete.

  

    

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Defending The Right To Freedom Of Speech.

      Most people know, or should know the poverty and deprivation that has been callously forced onto the ordinary families of Greece. Of course the people of Greece, like people anywhere else, when they are brutally assaulted, fight back. The state, of course, is aware of this and meets this fight back, with an array of methods. First and foremost is propaganda, mislead, confuse, and scapegoat sections of society, divide and rule. When this doesn't do the job then it is the bare-knuckle approach with violent repression, Greece is well down this path. Daily brutality against any organised protest, a free hand to right-wing fascist groups who are there to put fear on the streets. Also the state will deal harshly with any attempt by the people to communicate outside the state blessed institutions, the babbling brook of bullshit, the media is to be your only organ of information. Hence the Greek state has done its damnedest to close down Indymedia Athens and the people organised free radio broadcasts. The free flow of information by the people must be stifled, only the state message is to be heard.

       On April 25th. in Athens there was a massive demonstration against this attempted stifling of the voice of the people. Thousands took to the streets to defend Indymedia Athens and the voice of the people's radio.

     From Contra Info some of the slogans being chanted by the mass demonstration.

‘From Athens to Mexico, create thousands of indymedia sites so that repressors get wiser’

‘Indymedia is a voice from the streets; not one step back in the face of repression’

‘Pirate radios and self-organized spaces inside faculties; the academic asylum belongs to fighters’

‘This is how you do it right: take down the Greek flag and raise a protest banner’ (reference to the 24/4 action at Propylaea)

‘Cybersecurity is not feasible; proletarians/trolletarians have no IP’

‘10, 100, 1000 indymedia sites against a world filled with rotten media’

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War And Peace.

       Todays poem is from Selected Poetry by Herbert Read, 1892-1968, poet and art critic, proclaimed himself an anarchist but went on to accept a Knighthood. He is reported to have said that he only accepted it under pressure from his wife!

War And Peace.

The kind of war is chang'd: the crusade heart

out-shattered: flesh a stain on broken earth

and death an unresisted rain.

The horror loos'd all honour is lost.

Peace has pride and passion: but no evil

to equal the indignity of war, whose ringing anvil

wins only anguish. The weighted hammer

breaks the stretch'd tendons at the wrist

And leaves the soul a twisted nail

tearing the flesh that still would live

and give to words the brutal edge of truth.

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Hacktivism.

        On this episode, of Circled "A" Radio the host chickpea talks to Mike, one of the participant organisers of the UK Hacktionlab Network about their event, BarnCamp 2013; a rural technical skillsharing weekend open to people of all abilities and backgrounds focusing on hacktivism (hacking + activism), with workshops, entertainment, politics, and fun in the sun taking place on Friday 7th to Sunday 9th June. HacktionLab is UK tech-activist run project that aims to create regular convergence spaces where activists interested and/or working in the areas of alternative media, renewable energy, on-line video distribution, free software or any other form of activism that utilises technology can get together and plan how to better harness the technology (or not) to support grass roots social movements. Mike and chickpea discuss the importance of understanding the political aspects of using technologies in pursuit of freedom. This episode also features music recorded at Barncamp 2010 open-mic sessions.

ENJOY:

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