Sunday 26 January 2014

State Repression.


Imagine if this happened to you:

        Your union is in a dispute with your employer.  You call a strike.  The employer agrees to negotiate.  The strike ends, the workers return to work. And then the government steps in, announces that what you have done is illegal, and arrests the leaders of your union.
     That's exactly what just happened in Fiji.
Among those arrested was Daniel Urai, who is also President of the Fiji Trades Union Congress. I met Daniel (pictured above left) at the LabourStart Conference in 2012 in Sydney.
      This is outrageous -- which is why the International Trade Union Confederation and the International Union of Foodworkers have launched a joint global protest campaign on LabourStart here:
http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=2169&src=lsmm
       We're demanding that the government release the jailed union leaders now. This is one of those campaigns that has a really good chance of having an effect because Fiji is dependent on tourism and goodwill from overseas.
    Every protest message we send can help ensure that Dan and his colleagues are freed.

Please make sure to share this message with your friends, family and fellow union members.

Thank you!

Eric Lee
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk


Change, Though Messy, Is Inevitable


      Our Oxbridge cabal of millionaires are singing in tune to the chorus of that fantasy song, “Growth, Growth, Growth”. We all know it is a fantasy tune, but for some reason or other, the singing crooks and liars, seem to believe their own words. Massaging dodgy figures to fit their illusions, and muttering, “You've never had it so good” from the confines of their pampered fantasy bubble, in a vain attempt to fool the public, this millionaire cabal live in luxury and denigrate those who suffer poverty at the hands of this system of corruption and greed. 
      The truth is that the world economy is still in crisis, the financial Mafia are worried. They see developing markets shrink and sovereign debt rising, and they start to sweat at the thought that they might lose their billions of ill-gotten gains. This would mean another attack on the living conditions of the already impoverished public, and even they realise that it would be a dangerous road to walk. In country after country, people are taking to the streets and doing their damndest to bring about real change. Riots, protests, occupations are the only road left open to the general public, as their lords and master, the financial Mafia, make brutal attempt after brutal attempt to get back their gambling losses. The next round of “austerity” could be a squeeze to far. How it turns out is up to us, it is also an opportunity for real change in the way we structure our society.
     This originally from Roar Magazine, and re-posted in Popular Resistance:
     This, in turn, raises another question: how will impoverished populations respond to the growing pressures on their livelihoods? Last summer Turkey, Brazil and Indonesia already experienced widespread social unrest. Thailand and Ukraine are currently witnessing massive anti-government protests. Just last month, Argentina descended into a bout of deadly rioting as policemen briefly went on strike. The International Labor Organization recently warned that a new global recession, by feeding already high rates of poverty and unemployment, will further contribute to the fraying of the social fabric.
      As Larry Elliot of The Guardian, just put it: “all the ingredients are there for social unrest.” It looks like the world will be in for a rough ride in 2014. Better fasten your seatbelts — the next phase of the global financial crisis may be about to get started. Cities will burn and there will be blood. It won’t be pretty.
Read the full article HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk



The State, Home Of Racism.


       A mixture of capitalist greed and religious differences has turned our planet into a world of poverty, misery and bloodshed. People fleeing the consequences of this festering toxic cocktail, face hardship, hatred and death. The journey of the migrant can, on occasions, be worse than the nightmare they are fleeing. Our system fosters racism by continually marking the immigrant as "different", "inferior", "scroungers", somebody to be feared, when in fact they are just like you and I, a collection of bus drivers, shop assistants, doctors, plumbers, taxi drivers, mothers, fathers, brothers and sister. All they are doing is trying to survive in an exploitative violent system, trying to do the decent thing by their families, or fleeing persecution. The state is the enemy of unity and solidarity between people, it is the protector of this inhuman, brutal system of hatred and exploitation.


   This latest incident by the Greek state, against a group fleeing from Afghanistan and Syria, although brutal and horrific, is by no means unique.




AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT

AI Index: EUR 25/002/2014
22 January 2014


     Amnesty International urges the Greek Government to carry out a transparent and thorough investigation into the circumstances which led to loss of life in the Aegean Amnesty International expresses its profound concerns over the loss of life of migrants and refugees including several small children near the island of Farmakonisi on 20 January 2014. In the early hours of Monday, 20 January 2014, a fishing boat carrying 28 migrants and refugees including many small children capsized and sank near the island of Farmakonisi. The group consisted of 25 Afghans including ten children aged between one and nine years old and three Syrians.
        Sixteen individuals including a child were rescued by the Greek coastguard. However, the bodies of a mother and a child belonging to the group were found by the Turkish authorities the next day. According to news reports, the bodies of two more women and two children washed up today on Turkish shores leaving six children still missing. Amnesty International has been informed that the survivors received medical treatment on the island of Leros and since then –except one- have been held in the Leros police station.
       According to the official statements of the Greek coastguard, the fishing boat carrying the migrants and refugees was found not moving and with no lights on near the island of Farmakonisi in the early hours of last Monday. The authorities said that in view of the bad weather conditions, a decision was taken to tow the boat to the island of Farmakonisi and that during the towing operation the migrants and refugees on board moved to the one side of the boat leading to its capsize and sinking. A search and rescue operation followed the incident which still continues.
     On the other hand, the testimonies survivors provided to the UNHCR according to a press release issued by the organization, resemble the testimonies Amnesty International has previously collected on push-back operations of the Greek coastguard – the practice of summarily turning back a group of migrants across the border towards Turkey. UNHCR press release reports that the survivors alleged their boat was being towed by the Greek coastguard with great speed towards Turkey when it capsized. The Greek coastguard, however, denied these allegations in a subsequent statement this afternoon and reiterated that the boat carrying the refugees and migrants was towed towards the island of Farmakonisi, not back towards Turkey.
      Push-back operations carried out by Greece deny people the right to explain their individual circumstances and raise any protection or other concerns. As such, they are in breach of Greece's international obligations and EU law.
     Amnesty International has continuously called on the Greek authorities to stop these push-back operations not only because they are completely unlawful but because they put people’s lives at risk as a result of the way they are being carried out. Testimonies collected by Amnesty and published in a previous report point to a blatant disregard for human life shown by the Greek coastguard during push-back operations carried out in the Aegean Sea.
       Interviewees who described being returned to Turkey from the Aegean said that their inflatable boats were rammed, knifed, or nearly capsized while they were being towed or circled by a Greek coastguard boat. They said their boats’ engines were disabled and their oars removed, then they were just left in the middle of the sea. Life-endangering practices were also reported by people caught after crossing Greece’s land border with Turkey along the river Evros.
      Amnesty International calls on the Greek authorities to initiate a thorough, transparent and independent investigation into the incident of 20 January 2014 off the Coast of Farmakonisi Island; bring to light the circumstances which led to loss of life and prosecute those who are responsible.
      The organization further calls the Greek government to investigate all allegations of collective expulsions (push-backs) and ill-treatment on Greece’s land border with Turkey and in the Aegean and prosecute officials involved. The recent loss of life on the Aegean is yet again another reminder of the dangerous journeys migrants and refugees have to endure to reach Europe. Since August 2012, at least 136 refugees, the majority of whom were Syrian and Afghan, lost their lives in at least twelve known incidents attempting to reach Greece by boat from Turkey. EU and member states should ensure effective search and rescue at sea by focusing their efforts into saving lives rather than protecting border

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Saturday 25 January 2014

Don't Drink From the Babbling Brook Of Bullshit.



       We all know that we can't believe what we read and hear in that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, but we have to have a means of finding out what is going on in our world. We have to be our own media, a way of projecting our dreams our ideas, we have to know what the people are doing in countries across the world, to communicate and show solidarity with the struggles that are happening on a daily basis in country after country. We have to learn from each other's struggles and move our projects forward, to turn our dreams to a reality and free ourselves from this nightmare that is capitalism with it attendant deprivation, wars, misery, and exploitation.
From Roar Magazine:

Read more about this project HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Friday 24 January 2014

Police And The Abuse Of Power.




     Scotland has a population of approximately 5 million, yet the Scottish police managed to carry out more than half a million stop and searches in eight months of 2013. Are they working hard to make sure they stop and search the entire population? Surely this number and nature of stop and searches can't be acceptable. We are already spied upon by an array of CCTV cameras in every street in every city, in pubs, buses, supermarkets, etc. and we have recently felt the horror of being spied on from the sky when it suddenly goes dreadfully wrong. We have to put an end to this snooping, spying, constant surveillance type of society. We are bring up a generation that will see it as normal to be scrutinised at every turn, to accept that privacy is a thing of the past. Everybody has the right to the dignity of privacy, and this can only be encroached on when there is "evidence" of wrong doing.

 Stop and Search in Scotland is an abuse of power
 
     Scottish police are conducting extra-legal stop and searches that have been banned in England and Wales and potentially violate the European Convention on Human Rights. The Scottish Government should ensure that police stay within the law and that people in Scotland have at least the same rights and protections as people south of the border. 
     SACC is alarmed by figures released by Scottish Police last week, which show that they carried out more than half a million stop and searches between April and December 2013. Worse still, police say that 70% of these stop and searches were not carried out under the statutory powers available to them. They claim that in these cases they had the "consent" of the people involved and therefore did not need statutory authority.
We would welcome any legal challenge brought by victims of non-statutory stop and searches, and we would like to see the public putting more pressure on the Scottish Government to bring stop and search in Scotland under proper legal control, as it is in England and Wales...
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk



 

Thursday 23 January 2014

See Through The Smoke And Mirrors.


        Do you not get really pissed-off listening to those pretty butterfly people who live in the rarified atmosphere of the political machine, spouting how the economy is growing faster than expected? All their meaningless phrases of dropping unemployment, economic growth, and falling inflation, seem like you are watching a fantasy movie, something far removed from the real world that you and I inhabit.
      Of those individuals who have come off the unemployment register, how many are in workfare schemes working for nothing? How many are on zero hours contracts getting four hours today, nothing tomorrow, and perhaps twelve hours next week? The truth is that in this country there are now more people in poverty and working, than in poverty and not working. While those pretty butterfly people in expensive suits, go on about the steady growth, they preside over a country that has more than 3.5 million children living in poverty, that's 27% of all children in the UK. Of course poverty isn't spread equally across the country, in some local wards the child poverty rate varies from 50% to 70%. Your post code will dictate the quality of your children's lives, no matter what illusions the political parasites spout. According to new research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the number of (childless) adults of working-age in poverty is predicted to rise by over 40% by 2020. It also shows that the 2020 child poverty targets will be missed and the number of children in poverty will increase unless drastic action is taken now.
      There is a kind of whoopin' and haulrin' from our political illusion weavers of the good times just around the corner, when in fact the whole global economy is tettering to a grinding halt, with all the attendant misery that this holds for you and I the ordinary people. Capitalism has succeeded in doing what it was set up to do, make a few people very, very rich, at the expense of the vast majority. It was never intended, nor could it possibly, see to the needs of all the people, they need to be exploited for that wealth to accumulate in the hands of the parasite class.


      The world is very rich in resources and skills, yet it is awash with poverty, this is no accident, nor unavoidable, it is the result of the economic system that is foisted on us by those who stand to gain the most from that system. Until we get rid of that exploitative system of greed, we are heading deeper into a world of deprivation, wars and misery.
This extract from an interesting article on A World To Win:
       With demand from emerging economies slowing, prices on the global commodities exchanges are dropping. The price of an ounce of gold – the universal measure of the value of commodities – dropped last year from $1,900 to $1,200.
      Deflation has another damaging result. The real value and cost of debt actually increases. Highly indebted countries, corporations and individuals around the world had better take note. Talk of a “recovery” is not only premature but entirely ignores what’s really happening in the global economy.
Read the full article HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk


Wednesday 22 January 2014

Greece, A Plundered Land.


    Greece has been out of the financial news recently, creating the impression that the Troika solutions are working. Its double speak Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, was blowing smoke and holding mirrors, as he stated that, Greece would leave the bailout program in 2014. In a national Television broadcast he boasted, “In 2014, Greece will venture out to the markets again,-----there will be no need for new loans and a new bailout”. Well it seems that this is Alice in Wonderland economics. With large loans falling due this year, “experts” say that Greece will default by May, August at the latest.
      According to recent figures, Greece showed a surplus this year of €800 million. However, the payments that Greece has to make this year amount to €31.6 billion, the loan funds available for this are €17.5 billion, their €800 million surplus is no more than coffee money for the corrupt government that oversees the plundering of the people of Greece. The figures just doesn't add up.
      The bailout is no more than a financial Mafia scam, the Troika hands bundles of money to Greece, however the Greek government can't decide how it should be spent, it is simply hands it back to the Troika as interest and capital payments. The dregs left at the bottom of the bucket, can be spent by the Greek government.     
      There is no way out for the people of Greece if they stay with the present economic system, all they will reap is more misery, poverty and deprivation as their future. In the economics of the financial parasites, people don't count.
The people have to tighten their belts if we are to get through these difficult times
                                                                                                                                    What the bailout does guarantee however, is that the Greek government is forced to sell off all its public assets, at knock-down prices, to the corporate friends of the Troika. For Troika, read “financial mafia”, made up of the EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank and the IMF, International Mankind Fuckers. You can rest assured that what ever solution that cabal of financial parasites come up with, will do nothing more than swell their already overflowing coffers, and it will all be at the expense of the ordinary people. In the end, Greece will be a busted, plunder country, all paid for by the deprivation of its people. Of course no country is immune from the festering influence of "the markets", we are all on the agenda for plundering.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Glasgow Against ATOS Monthly Picket.


       Glasgow against ATOS is a Grassroots disabled activist campaign opposing Atos (Atos HealthCare) and supporting rights of disabled people in Glasgow and beyond. On the last Friday of each month the group picket outside the ATOS offices in Cadogan Street Glasgow. The next picket will be Friday January 31 at 12:30.
    Ian Duncan Smith's "reforms" of disability allowance, is administered by ATOS and since they started their brutal campaign against the most vulnerable in our society, we have seen more than 1,300 people died after being assessed and told to start work related activities. Whichever way you look at this, it is unacceptable, Ian Duncan Smith has blood on his hands. Some disabled people have committed suicide after being assessed as fit to start looking for work. People who force vulnerable people into this sort of situation have changed the category from suicide to murder, and should be held accountable.






Photo
Photo From Glasgow against ATOS

Visit ann arky's home at www,radicalglasgow.me.uk

Monday 20 January 2014

How Long Before It All Explodes?



      Spain is home to almost one third of the Euro regions unemployed, with an unemployment rate of over 25% and it has been at that for six quarters in a row. That's a lot of misery, poverty and deprivation, while the financial Mafia keep screwing the people and muttering about adjustments and growth.
         “I’m glad I don’t have any children, because I don’t need to worry when I go to bed without dinner,” says Nieto, a Madrid native who last drew a salary in 2010.
Riots in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza,
Victory in Burgos
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/19/2014 - 13:04
     On January 10, riots began in the city of Burgos, Spain, when police attacked a protest against the gentrification of the working class neighborhood Gamonal.
http://anarchistnews.org/content/revolt-burgos-spain
     Riots continued for 4 consecutive nights, and afterwards opponents of the project to construct a ritzy boulevard through Gamonal continued mobilizing to block the construction.
   People in dozens of other cities organized solidarity protests. Protests were held in Madrid on the 14th and 15th, turning into riots both nights in response to the typically heavy handed response of Madrid police. On the 16th, solidarity protests also turned into riots in Barcelona and Zaragoza. In Barcelona, masked protesters smashed over a dozen banks, luxury hotels, Starbucks, Burger Kings, and other businesses, setting fire to a number of them, and pelting police with trash, bottles, and unprecedentedly potent fireworks that set the police jumping (in a city where riot police don't flinch when quarter sticks of dynamite go off at their feet). The protest/riot went all the way to the Generalitat, the seat of the Catalan government, where people continued to throw objects at police. Police reinforcements arrived, dispersing protestors, who subsequently attacked a police station on Las Ramblas and smashed more businesses in Jardinets de Gracia, a significant distance away.
   The same day, authorities in Burgos announced that the construction project was suspended.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk





Homeless With Kids In The Midst Of Wealth.



      It's a weird and cruel system that can produce so much wealth for some and yet others with kids are homeless. One of the richest countries in the world, a supposed developed civilised country, and we have young mothers desperate and depressed, because the can't get a decent home to raise their kids. This deprives these kids from developing at the proper rate and stifles their potential. An injustice that should not be tolerated in any civilised country. However, it is encouraging that some are coming together and taking direct action in an attempt to remedy their appalling situation. Let's hope the idea catches on.



       “Stop making people homeless. Stop making kids miss school. It’s not fair. You get to go home to your nice homes, while people here are struggling. People are here crying (they were – a woman in the office was crying, because she was homeless and trying to sort that out). They’re stressed, depressed. It’s not right. You’ve got a place here where you’re meant to help people. You’re meant to help people. You’re not helping people.”



Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Just One Day!!


      Wouldn't be nice, even if it was only for one day, if it happened, what might come out of it? But only you can make it happen!
Mother Earth
Privacy
Public
Date and time
24 June
Event Details
Calling all 7,118,591,000 of earth's children!!
Yes, The entire human race !!!

      The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, initiating a major cultural and political shift. [Source : Wikipedia]
     With Modern Social Media, I think we can do this again but on a much larger scale.
       Therefore, I am personally asking the humans of planet earth to once again start a new summer of love all over Gaia/Earth/Home…

In 2014 this Summer.

       In your own cities, in your towns, in your villages, in your own back gardens. Even in your own home!
     Gather in the spirit of peace and unconditional love and let us just have one big massive global party all over the world and a day when we focus on peace and love.
     Let’s have one day, maybe one week where we all come together as one worldwide human family, Leave our differences behind and be together as Humans.
Hosts
Hosted by Craig Thomson

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Sunday 19 January 2014

Toxic Tar Sands, Cancer And Profit.


     The grasping hand of the corporate world will devastate, communities and the environment, in its endless quest for profit. No risk is too big, no damage too great, as the fallout from their plundering and marauding, doesn't infect the marble halls of the world's stock exchanges, nor their shareholders bank accounts.

 
   
     The Alberta tar sands project is one of the corporate world's most brutal destructions of of pristine natural environments on the planet. It stretches for mile after mile of what used to be green mountains and abundant wildlife, but is now a filthy wasteland of sterile black slush. What is worse, is that to get at the oil in the tar, the companies use some of the most toxic substances in existence. This in turn finds its way down streams and rivers, into the water table.

 
Lake Athabasca is fed by the Athabasca River, which flows through the project region, and earlier studies have found unsafe levels of arsenic, mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in the lake’s fish, as well as in sediments, water and wildlife.
 
      Among the local population down river from the project, there has been an increase in cancers, Of course the usual vomit is emitted by the mouthpieces of the project, stating that the increase in cancers may be due to better detection and/or lifestyle. Obvious they can't or wont, see any connection between toxic water and wildlife, and increase in cancers.

 

    This rape and plunder of the planet will continue as long as the present system of capitalism exist. As long as the financial mafia control where the investments go, and the aim is increase wealth for the shareholders, you and I, and the environment, will just have to take what we get. It is their world, or it is our world, there is no middle road, no compromise.

 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Saturday 18 January 2014

Circled A Radio, And Ian Bone.


       The Circled "A" Radio show has reached its 100th broadcast, and to mark the occasion they are broadcasting a 30 minute interview with Ian Bone of Class War fame, and author of the book "Bash the Rich", 






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Thursday 16 January 2014

Spirit of Revolt.


       For a couple of years now, a group of volunteers have been working, tucked away in a wee room at the Mitchell library, at collecting local grassroots history. They are self funding, not attached to any political party, and don't collect any party political material.  The aim is to build a large and useful archive of the everyday struggles of the ordinary people, creating a place where the people can see and identify with their own history, and hopefully learn from that history, as they continue the struggle to improve their lives and the lives of those who will follow them.
     Already the archive, named The Spirit of Revolt, has a catalogue of 25 collections, with more still to do, and has made them available on their website, www.spiritofrevolt.info Apart from the catalogue as lists of what is available in the archive, we are also putting images of the items, on the website, for all to view. This is a slow process but we already have hundreds of images on the website and will continue scanning and uploading as best we can.
    If you are interested in the non party political struggles of the ordinary people or think you may have material that will add to that history, then send us an email at info@spiritofrevolt.info
Thanks to Bob at citystrolls, we now have a wee film to introduce you to this exciting, and I think necessary, project.   Enjoy:



Spirit of Revolt Archive Glasgow from City Strolls on Vimeo.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk



Tomorrow's World, A Privatised World??


      In this country we don't seem to be alive to the fact that there is an ideological driven policy of privatisation of everything, not just here in the UK but across the globe. Here in the UK it is happening in towns and cities across the country. The latest, and one of the largest city public assets to be considered for sale to the corporate world, is the Manchester Arena. Manchester, short of cash, has to raise more than £1 billion, so in come the corporate greed merchants and plunder the public assets. Because of the governments policy of "austerity", councils are short of cash and start to sell off the family silver to make up the short fall. They are selling off public art treasures, all public assets, to the private world. Of course we all know that the NHS is being privatised pieces by piece, energy, railways, telephone communications, Royal Mail, already gone, water, arenas, museums, all got to go to make a profit for the corporate greed machine.
      This is being repeated across the world in country after country, as corporatism attempts to gobble up the planet, but in some countries they are not taking it lying down. In Korea there has been a massive strike against the privatisation of their railways. Of course the government there like all the others, will attempt brutally crush any resistance to the financial Mafia's grand plan of, no public assets, everything privatised.
January 8, 2014 -- Labor Notes -- South Korea’s railway workers have ended a 22-day strike, the longest such stoppage in the country’s history. Though they didn’t win a clear victory, they succeeded in placing the issue of privatisation in public focus.
The government’s and management’s attack on the strike was ruthless to the point of recklessness, while the public’s solidarity and sympathy with the striking workers continued to rise.
And the full impact of the action has yet to ripple out. Amid rising political tensions, the country’s biggest union umbrella, the 700,000-strong Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), has called for a one-day general strike February 25.

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Only Doing Their Job.


     "Just doing my job", "just following orders", the cloak of the brainless, the cowardly, psychotic thug.


      The statistics beggar belief: in 12 years and 340 deaths at the hands of the police, not a single British policeman has been convicted. Nowadays many are not even publicly named. The anonymity extends 'impunity' protection throughout a policeman's security career, meaning no future employer will know of previous killings, and even further people killed by V53 in the future may not know that he has already killed. This anonymity appears to give today's Met. police firearms officers a license to kill, kill and kill again.
Read the full article HERE: 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Asylum Seeker Prizes.



      If you bribe government officials to come up with the decision you want, I imagine you would end up on some charge, like perverting the course of justice, or corruption, or bribing a public official. But what if it is the government department that is doing the bribing? I have no doubt it would be re-classified as incentivising staff or improving their conditions. Well that is what is going on with those officers who job it is to assess whether asylum seekers should be sent home.
       Home Office officials are being rewarded with shopping vouchers for helping to ensure failed asylum seekers lose their attempt to stay in the country. Official guidance obtained by the Guardian shows that immigration staff have been set a target of winning 70% of tribunal cases in which asylum seekers are appealing against government decisions that they should leave the UK. These officers are also incentivised by Home Office reward schemes involving gift vouchers, cash bonuses and extra holidays.
Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk