All Fall Down.

     Listening to the Cameron millionaire cabal spouting about growth in the economy, and how we in the Uk are ahead in the European recovery, makes you wonder how well their medication for delusion is working. The latest “growth” is now thought to be cash being spent by those who have received compensation from the banks after being miss-sold some of the banks' favourite gambling scams. So as long as the banks keep getting fined and people keep getting compensation, people will keep spending, well those few on the receiving end of the banks con-fund. Hardly the signs of a powerhouse economy in growth. In countries claiming “recovery”, it has been a no-wage increase economy, so a no-growth recovery for the ordinary people.

      However it is not just the UK that is kidding itself on about “growth”, it is a Western malaise, the delusion of the perpetual growth maniacs. It just isn't there. The world economy is in decline, the world's financial institutions are in extreme stress condition. As America tries in vain to save itself, by limiting “quantitive easing” (printing monopoly money) it is adding to the chaos and worries of the rest of the world.

     What this means for you and I, is the threat of deprivation on a scale never witnessed before, as country after country tries to “balance the books” by slashing the social fabric, the living conditions, of the ordinary people. How do you balance the books when the world's total debt is in excess of $700 trillion, and the world's total GDP is only approximately $69 trillion? What this means is that if every penny of the world's wealth was put to paying off the debt, it still would not be clear in ten years time. To make matters worse, more than 90% of the world's money is not real money, it is funny money, phoney money, created monopoly money, it is illusional. Any wonder that the financial house of cards is about to collapse? We have to organise now for that inevitable collapse, we can create a better world free from the cancer of profit and growth.

This from A World To Win:

A contagion of capital flight is hitting Argentina, India, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Hungary and Turkey. A dramatic reversal in the global marketplace, which began in May and is accelerating with every new shock statistic, is forcing the governments of “emerging” economies to savage the living standards for their already low-income populations.

Each country has a different story to tell: worse or better attempts at managing their economies; higher or lower levels of foreign currency reserves; more or less extremes of corruption of government ministers; levels of civil unrest ranging from the benign to insurrectionary. But the source of the crisis invading their borders lies elsewhere, beyond their control. 

- See more at: http://www.aworldtowin.net/blog/sick-global-economy-hit-by-new-contagion.html#sthash.v4CoE9xp.dpuf

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Margaret Thatcher Day!!!

       Recently a bonehead Thatcherite Peter Bone MP, (well named) put forward a private members bill to change the August Bank Holiday to Margaret Thatcher Day. Due to the widespread distaste, (putting it mildly) for Thacher, and the misery she inflicted on millions of ordinary people in this country, this private members bill is a slap in the face to those millions. A petition was raise against this proposal, and has passed the 10,000 signatures which means it demands a response from the government. It would be good if it passed the 100,000 signatures as this would demand that the petition be considered for debate and would send a slap in the face to the boneheaded dick who proposed the bill in the first place. 

      Apart from plundering the public assets and devastating the living standards of the ordinary people, is this all these arrogant, duplicitous, mob of tricksters have to do with their time? What a cesspool of pompous, arrogant, dickheads, those Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption are, a home and breeding establishment for pampered parasites.
Sign it HERE:

The e-petition 'We oppose the proposal to change the August Bank Holiday to Margaret Thatcher Day' signed by you recently reached 45,630 signatures and a response has been made to it.

As this e-petition has received more than 10 000 signatures, the relevant Government department have provided the following response: The proposal to rename the August Bank Holiday as Margaret Thatcher Day has been put forward in a Private Members Bill introduced by Peter Bone MP. The Government receives many proposals to rename existing Bank Holidays in order to commemorate the achievements of particular individuals. However there is no precedent for naming public holidays after an individual and the Government has no plans to do so. Any changes to the names of Bank Holidays would be the subject of a full public consultation. This e-petition remains open to signatures and will be considered for debate by the Backbench Business Committee should it pass the 100 000 signature threshold.

View the response to the e-petition

Thanks,

HM Government e-petitions http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/

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One World, One Struggle.

     Pick your country and you find the people in conflict with the system. From East to West, from North to South, the system is in turmoil, people no longer accept what is thrown at them.

      The Middle East is explosive, Kiev is a battle zone, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Indonesia, Greece, all have the people on the streets demanding change. Though apartheid in South Africa, has gone as an accepted system, the people still suffer inequality, and injustice, as they still sweat under the capitalist system. In South Africa 80,000 platinum miners have been on strike for two weeks, despite their grinding poverty and the state's brutality. The strikers have turned down a 7% increase, but the strike is about more than money, it is about dreadful working conditions, injustice and inequality. The usual symptoms of a system that doesn't fit the people's world. One day we will surely pull all these battles together, after all it is one struggle, and with one massive movement, rid this world of the greatest crime against humanity, capitalism.

 

This from Popular Resistance:

     In South Africa, miners have rejected a 9 percent wage increase offer from the platinum industry as their strike enters its second week. Tens of thousands of members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, or AMCU, walked off the job last week to protest harsh working conditions. They are also asking for a living wage that will double their current wages. Tensions have been high between the sides, with the media reporting several acts of violence in mining towns.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Victory For Solidarity.

     Solidarity wins again. Time and time again the solidarity of the ordinary people, turns back repression. The truth we must grasp, when we pull together we win.

 This from IUF:

     Campaign success ! – Charges dropped against Fiji hotel leaders

    All police charges against leaders of Fiji’s National Union of Hospitality Catering and Tourism Industries stemming from a New Year’s Eve strike were dropped on February 2. Union President Dan Urai and five others, who had been free on tough bail conditions, were charged by the military dictatorship's police on January 9 with leading an “illegal strike” at Sheraton Fiji Resort and Westin Denarau Island Resort and Spa (both owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.) despite the fact that the union was negotiating with management following the brief industrial action.

   The union thanks all who supported the international campaign and will continue its fight against the unilateral withdrawal of benefits and for the elimination of the part-time work category which can deprive workers of retirement benefits

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

Silence Can Speak Volumes.

       The courage of silence in the face of repression is seldom easy, and those who choose that path can sometimes speak volumes in the defence of human dignity. The state is never a soft enemy, it can be vindictive, harsh, brutal, vicious, duplicitous  and unforgiving, and those who feel its wrath and maintain their principles are heroes. Jerry Koch is one of those heroes.

      This is not to say that I haven’t suffered – I’ve lost more during my incarceration that I ever thought possible. I grieve for every goodbye, and I doubt that some of these scars will ever heal. It is during truly difficult times that reveal what lives in the core of people, and that knowledge can sometimes be incredibly painful. But so too can that knowledge make us stronger; I take comfort from those of my fellows who have also refused to be made into subjects of this place. My own resistance is far from unique. It is found in those who have always said NO to those in power. My refusal to cooperate is my contribution to this tradition of defiance to arbitrary and repressive power. I will not cooperate. I will not be institutionalized. No compromise in this. I will not sacrifice my dignity in order to leave this place, and that’s not nothing.”

Read the full article HERE:

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

For Queen And Country And All That Crap.

     As the 100 years anniversary of the start of first World War draws ever closer, we should be prepared for the Cameron/Gove clan of duplicitous imperialist's, mounting crescendo of foul lies, that it was all for freedom and democracy.  What those who fought in that horrific shameful episode of imperialist greed, came home to, was not freedom and democracy. They came home to poverty and deprivation, while the imperialist decision making war mongers, pinned honours on their breast, stuffed their coffers with plunder and basked in the reflected glory of other people's suffering and deaths.

       As the year progresses, we have to organise to shine the light of truth on their hollow, sham pompous and hypocritical facade. We have to remember those British troops that the British military shot because they had suffered to the extent that they couldn't fight any more. They named it cowardice, in an attempt to cover their blood letting.

      The first World war was probably the most brutal imperialist fallout ever, where those who had wealth and power, got the people to slaughter each other in an attempt to enlarge or hold onto that wealth and power. There never was any thought of freedom or democracy for the people, on their agenda. It was all jingoism, smoke and mirrors, propaganda, as the aristocrats of the world scrambled to plunder what the could from each other.

    Let's remember it for what it was, imperialist greed, pompous arrogance of those with wealth and power, a sacrifice of a generation of ordinary people at the altar empire. We owe it to all those ordinary people who died needlessly, simply offered up as payment for territory, wealth and power to gratify the lust of the greed infested imperialists.

       In February 2013, Ben Griffin, former SAS soldier in the British army, Ben Griffin spoke at the Oxford University Union debate in favour of the motion "We Will NOT Fight For Queen and Country", explaining why he would no longer accept the lies which perpetuate war.

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

State Repression Of Unions.

  An appeal from IUF:

Fijian union leaders arrested after a strike at Starwood hotels

      Fiji is governed by a harsh military dictatorship which maintains a permanent crackdown on civil, political and trade union rights. Six leaders of the island’s hotel workers union now face trial on criminal charges – while their union is negotiating with the employer!

   
      We sent you this message two weeks ago, but the charges still hang over them. Please take a moment to respond by sending a protest message. Your voice makes a difference. On January 9, six union leaders from the National Union of Hospitality Catering and Tourism Industries were arrested and charged as a result of what the government claims to have been an "unlawful strike" that took place on New Year's Eve at Sheraton Fiji Resort and Westin Denarau Island Resort and Spa (owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.) at Narewa village, Fiji. Workers in fact held a spontaneous protest against the unilateral removal of their staff benefits.

     The military government declared the strike illegal and arrested the leadership of the union. Now they are out of jail but harsh bail conditions prevent them from exercising their role and their rights as union leaders.

       Although it is believed Starwood played no direct role in their imprisonment, the Company was responsible for workers taking action as a result of management's unilateral withdrawal of workers' benefits.

    CLICK HERE to urge Starwood management to use their influence to persuade the authorities to drop the case against union leaders.

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

When Does The Killing Stop?

 

      

      Day and daily vulnerable people are dying after being assessed as fit to look for work, and having their disability benefit cut by ATOS. This vicious penny-pinching scheme devised by Ian Duncan Smith continues to cause anxiety, stress and trauma and in a number of cases, death to some of the most vulnerable in our society. Despite this, our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, keeps very quiet on this matter. Thankfully people across the country are taking action to support and show solidarity with all those in the firing line of this brutal ideological attack by our millionaire lords and masters.

 

     

     The group, Glasgow Against ATOS, has been holding a monthly pickets on the last Friday of the month, outside the doors of the Glasgow offices of ATOS. This Friday, in spite of the dreadful weather, saw a very colourful and imaginative group once again show their support for those vulnerable people being victimised and to show their anger and disgust at this attempt at a cull on the working class.

 

Photos from Glasgow Against ATOS.

These figures are from Black Triangle Campaign, and though out of date give an indication of the devastation and misery caused by this unjust, brutal attack on the vulnerable in our communities.

Number of deaths for Jan. to Nov. 2011 = 10,600 - supplied by DWP via Atos from page 6 of following pdf

http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/adhoc_analysis/2012/incap_decd_recips_0712.pdf

THIS BREAKS DOWN THUS:

Those with Assessment not complete 2,200 (50.6 per week)

Those in Work Related Activity Group 1,300 (29.9 per week)

Those in Support Group 7,100 (153.6 per week)

Total number of deaths 10,600 (to nearest 100)

Jan to Nov inclusive is 11 months = 47.5 weeks

10,600 deaths divided by 47.5 weeks = 223.2 deaths per week

Total approximation in EACH group is 223.2 divide by 3

Approximation of deaths in each of 3 groups = 74.4 per week

1. It’s important to know how 73 (74.4) was sourced, and

2. That this number is an average within 3 different groups and

3. That the overall number of deaths is 223.3 per week

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

The Silencing Of The People.

        This matters, this is the squeezing out of you and I, the silencing of the little people. It has to be resisted, or our voices will disappear. This appeal from Avaaz:

      The richest 1% could now control what we all see on the Internet forever. It’s the apocalypse of the Internet as we know it, and will erase the democratic promise of an information highway for everyone the founders of the world wide web imagined.
       Together, our community has built on that vision, using the web to fight corruption, save lives, and bring people-powered aid to countries in crisis. But the US and the EU are on the verge of giving the richest corporations the right to show content fast, while paywalling or slowing down everything else. Avaaz’s ability to show the world citizen journalist footage from Syria, or run campaigns to save our planet is under threat!
        Decisions on both sides of the Atlantic are being made now. But tech innovators, free speech advocates and the best web companies are fighting back. If millions of us join them now we can create the largest call for a democratic and free Internet ever. Sign up now and tell everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/internet_apocalypse_pa_eu/?bwqhjab&v=34958
        Until now, any improvements in the speed and functioning of the Internet benefited all of us — if Rupert Murdoch’s ultra-conservative Fox News got a faster way to stream videos, it also benefitted independent media showing reality on the ground in Ukraine, Syria, or Palestine. Politicians called this “net neutrality” and laws protecting it used to exist in the United States until a court just struck them down. Now, the EU Parliament is threatening to pass regulation that give ISPs the right to carve up the web and control w hat we see, by slowing down or charging for sites that don't pay.
      But we can stop this. First, we will show up with massive global numbers into this week’s public meeting in the United States to decide whether to reinstate Internet protections. Then we will unleash a high powered lobby team to target the EU Parliament to ensure its committees listen to the public. This will be the big first step we need to win these important battles over the next few months.
Web providers like Verizon and Vodafone are lobbying hard for an Internet for the rich. And without a massive response from citizens, they could win, and put our whole community’s work at risk. Most of our Internet is located in the US and the EU so this affects us all. We don’t have any time to lose. Click below to join now:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/internet_apocalypse_pa_eu/?bwqhjab&v=34958
       When our community was less than half of the size it is now, we rallied and helped kill the ACTA treaty and stopped massive Internet censorship laws SOPA/PIPA. Today, we are more powerful than ever. Let’s now join together and ensure that what connects us all stays open.
With hope,
Pascal, Emma, Dalia, Luis, Emilie, Luca, Sayeeda and the whole Avaaz team
    PS - Many Avaaz campaigns are started by members of our community. It's easy to get started - click to start yours now and win on any issue - local, national or global: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?bgMYedb&v=23917

SOURCES:
On dangers of non-Network Neutrality (ABC news):
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/major-ways-internet-change-net-neutrality/story?id=21541399
Save the Internet
http://savetheinternet.eu/en/
EU telecoms market reforms threaten net neutrality and privacy (Wire d)
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-11/19/eu-telecoms-reform-concerns

Federal court strikes down FCC net neutrality rules (The Verge)
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/14/5307650/federal-court-strikes-down-net-neutrality-rules

Summary of BEREC positions on net neutrality (BEREC)
http://berec.europa.eu/files/document_register_store/2012/12/BoR_(12)_146_Summary_of_BEREC_positions_on_net_neutrality2.pdf

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Circled A Radio, The Poison Companies.

The latest from Circled A Radio:

      This week the poison industry, recalling stories from an old pub and a look at Wednesday's news. Also includes an interview with the man recently charged with assaulting UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
Listen HERE:     Circled A Radio.

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

Democratic Detention Of Victims!!!!

      Here in the UK the government spouts about us being a free and democratic country, yet there are hundreds of victims being locked in detention centres. It is certainly very undemocratic to lock up victims, instead of offering safety and support.

This from one who has been there:

     When I was 13 years old I was locked up by British authorities. My family was persecuted in Turkey for being Kurds and left in fear. My mother and I came to the UK for safety, to seek asylum. Instead we were locked in a detention centre in Bedfordshire. I saw what women go through when they are detained.

    Right now there are hundreds of women locked up in Yarl’s Wood detention centre. They need to be protected, not punished. That’s why I’m calling for the Government to end the detention of women who seek asylum.

     These women have not committed any crime. Many of them are held in detention while their asylum request is processed. But it’s possible to create an asylum process in which their cases are heard while they are living in the community. The Home Office should treat women who have survived rape and torture with dignity and humanity.

     Detention is very traumatic for women who have already experienced persecution. Allegations of abuse have been made against staff in Yarl’s Wood. Many women who are detained become suicidal and some of the women are pregnant. This is no place for these vulnerable women.

     My mother and I were finally released and granted leave to remain in the UK. I then spoke out for the campaign to end the detention of children. In 2010 the Government announced that it would end the shameful practice that saw "innocent children imprisoned". I know we can do it again, but need you to help me.

Sign my petition to Theresa May to stop the detention of women who have sought asylum.

Thank you for your support,

Meltem Avcil

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

Solidarity.

An appeal from Labour Start:

 

     Three leaders of the pilots union at Russian airline AEROFLOT -- Alexei Shlyapnokov, Valeriy Pimoshenko and Sergei Knyshov -- were arrested in October during a bitter fight to secure a collective bargaining agreement. 
      Their union believes that the three were framed as a retaliation for the union's recent success in a court battle. 
      The Confederation of Labour of Russia (KTR), a national trade union center affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation, and the Sheremetevo Trade Union of Airline Pilots have called for an international campaign to demand that the company negotiate rather than try to jail union leaders.

Please take a moment to show your support - click here.

Thank you -- and please spread the word!

Eric Lee

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

Glasgow Games Monitor.

 Glasgow City Council's plans for our city.

Info from Glasgow Games Monitor 2014:

Hi all,

      We have now booked a room in the city centre for regular monthly meetings in the run up the Games. The meetings are open to all and everyone on this list is welcome to come along and get involved. Lot's to be done! We also have two re-posts of some very sharp and funny analyses from the 'A Thousand Flowers' blog related to the Commonwealth Games - more like this please! 1. Next Meeting: 7-9pm. Monday 3rd February, Unite the Union offices, John Smith House, 145/165 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 4RZ. Meeting Dates: http://gamesmonitor2014.org/meetings/Contact: gamesmonitor2014@googlemail.com 2. Whose City? Are the Commonwealth Games Ruining Glasgow? (A Thousand Flowers):http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2014/01/28/whose-city-are-the-commonwealth-games-ruining-glasgow/ 3. Whatever Happened to the East End Subway Extension? (A Thousand Flowers):http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2014/01/28/whatever-happened-to-the-east-end-subway-extension/ Cheers,http://gamesmonitor2014.org/

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Glasgow's Bloody Friday.

      This Friday, January 31st. marks the 95th anniversary of Glasgow's Bloody Friday. A day when the state showed its bare-knuckles and brought the military onto the streets of Glasgow, to quell what it thought were the sparks of revolution. It showed that the British state, like all states, will go to any lengths to maintain its power. Glasgow's streets saw troops with fixed bayonets, machine guns and tanks, as the state showed it willingness to crush any attempt to change the power structure of our society. 

     That event was sparked by the desire of the workers to better their conditions and bring down unemployment by introducing the 40 hour week. The state showed what it thought of that idea. From then until now the workers have continued to struggle to better their conditions. Now however, the struggle has changed and is less about bettering our conditions, and more about defending what we have.

    Since the "crisis" the state has whittled away at what conditions we had won over generations of struggle. We have seen wages frozen/cut, energy price soar, social services decimated, working conditions savaged. We have seen the widespread introduction of zero hours contracts, a system whereby the employee has no idea how much he/she will earn in any given week. You are classed as in full time employment but can be laid off without pay for days at a time.

     There have been other attacks on our standard of living with the bedroom tax, the withdrawing of disability allowance, implemented by the brutal ATOS regime, Workfare, whereby you are compelled to work for no wages, and so it goes on.

 

     What the workers of 1919 wanted was an improvement in their living conditions through the 40 hour week, and this could bring 60,000 to 70,000  to mass on George Square, to show their solidarity, and take on the brutality of the police.

    Today we are trying to defend our deteriorating conditions, our standard of living is being attack on several fronts, what our forefathers fought for is being taken from us. Where is the 60,000 to 70,000 forming up to show their solidarity, voice their anger and be prepared to defend their position?

This from Strugglepedia:

THE DEMONSTRATION, BLOODY FRIDAY.
     On Friday 31 January 1919 upwards of 60,000 demonstrators gathered in George Square Glasgow in support of the 40-hours strike and to hear the Lord Provost's reply to the workers' request for a 40-hour week. Whilst the deputation was in the building the police mounted a vicious and unprovoked attack on the demonstrators, felling unarmed men and women with their batons. The demonstrators, including large numbers of ex-servicemen, retaliated with whatever was available, fists, iron railings and broken bottles, and forced the police to retreat. On hearing the noise from the square the strike leaders, who were meeting with the Lord Provost, rushed outside in an attempt to restore order. One of the leaders, David Kirkwood, was felled to the ground by a police baton, and along with William Gallacher was arrested.
RIOTS AND ARRESTS.
     After the initial confrontation between the demonstrators and the  police in George Square, further fighting continued in and around the city centre streets for many hours afterwards. The Townhead area of the city and Glasgow Green, where many of the demonstrators had regrouped after the initial police charge, were the scenes of running battles between police and demonstrators. In the immediate aftermath of 'Bloody Friday', as it became known, other leaders of the Clyde Workers' Committee were arrested, including Emanuel Shinwell, Harry Hopkins and George Edbury.
TROOPS.
     The strike and the events of January 31 1919 “Bloody Friday” raised the Government’s concerns about industrial militancy and revolutionary political activity in Glasgow. Considerable fears within government of a workers' revolution in Glasgow led to the deployment of troops and tanks in the city. A full battalion of Scottish soldiers stationed at Maryhill barracks in Glasgow at the time were locked down and confined to barracks, for fear they would side with the rioters, an estimated 10,000 English troops, along with Seaforth Highlanders from Aberdeen, who were first vetted to remove those with a Glasgow connection, and tanks were sent to Glasgow in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Friday. Soldiers with fixed bayonets marched with tanks through the streets of the City. There were soldiers patrolling the streets and machine guns on the roofs in George Square. No other Scottish troops were deployed, with the government fearing fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers if a revolutionary situation developed in the area. It was the British state’s largest military mobilisation against its own people and showed they were quite prepared to shed workers’ blood in protecting the establishment.

Read the full article HERE:

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