Hi, ann arky will be away for a few days, so the rants will disappear until I return, probably Monday.
See Yea.
views and poetry from an anarchist perspective.
Is it not time we sorted this mess out, and put an end to this greed driven system of exploitation, a system that produces an abundance, but puts the producers in poverty.Fellow Workers,We come before you as Anarchist Communists to explain our principles. We are aware that the minds of many of you have been poisoned by the lies which all parties have diligently spread about us. But surely the persecutions to which we have been and are subjected by the governing classes of all countries should open the eyes of those who love fair play. Thousands of our comrades are suffering in prison or are driven homeless from one country to the other. Free speech — almost the only part of British liberty that can be of any use to the people — is denied to us in many instances, as the events of the last few years have shown.The misery around us is increasing year by year. And yet there was never so much talk about labor as there is now, — labor, for the welfare of which all professional politicians profess to work day and night. A very few sincere and honest but impracticable reformers, in company with a multitude of mere quacks, ambitious placehunters, etc., say they are able to benefit labor, if labor will only follow their useless advice. All this does not lessen the misery in the least : look at the unemployed, the victims of hunger and cold, who die every year in the streets of our rich cities, where wealth of every description is stored up.Not only do they suffer who are actually out of work and starving, but every working man who is forced to go through the same dreary routine day by day — the slavery and toil in the factory or workshop — the cheerless home, if the places where they are forced to herd together can be called homes. Is this life worth living? What becomes of the intellectual faculties, the artistic inclinations, nay, the ordinary human feeling and dignity of the greatest part of the workers? All these are warped and wasted, without any chance of development, making the wretched worker nothing but a human tool to be exploited until more profitably replaced by some new invention or machine.Is all this misery necessary? It is not if you, the wealth producers, knew that there is enough and to spare of food and of the necessaries of life for all, if all would work. But now, in order to keep the rich in idleness and luxury, all the workers must lead a life of perpetual misery and exploitation. As to these facts we are all agreed; but as to the remedy most of you, unfortunately, have not given up trust in Parliament and the State. We shall explain how the very nature of the State prevents anything good coming from it. What does the State do? It protects the rich and their ill-gotten wealth; it suppresses the attempts of the workers to recover their rights, if these attempts are thought dangerous to the rich. Thus idle electioneering, labor politics etc. are not suppressed, but any effective popular demonstration, vigorous strikes as at Featherstone and Hull, Anarchist propaganda, etc., are suppressed or fought against by the vilest means. Moreover, the State pretending thereby to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, grants Royal Commissions on the Sweating System, the Aged Poor, on Labor in general, or select Committees on the Unemployed — which produce heaps of Blue Books, and give an opportunity to the politicians and labor leaders, “to show themselves off.” And that is about all. If the workers demand more — there is the workhouse; and if not satisfied with that, the truncheons of the police and the bullets and bayonets of the soldiers face them: — not bread, but lead!
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.ukThis weekend tens of thousands of people across Europe took part in more than 1,100 protests against the EU-US trade deal (TTIP). You may have been one of them. With this many people taking action, we could stop the TTIP negotiations.
Now is the time to take action to stop TTIP.
In just 5 days more than 500,000 people have signed the European Citizens’ Initiative opposing TTIP, a petition set up by more than 200 European organisations, including WDM. People across Europe are taking action against the increased powers TTIP would give to multinational corporations to sue governments and the effects the deal could have on our environment, food safety, public services and workers’ rights.
Help us reach 1 million signatures to stop TTIP.
Thanks to the thousands of people who have been taking action in the UK, TTIP is now being covered by the mainstream media. Local newspapers have printed hundreds of letters about TTIP, last Friday the Independent front page story quoted WDM about TTIP and the BBC Breakfast show covered Saturday’s massive day of action.
Take action now to make your voice heard.
Thanks for your support of the campaign against TTIP.
Together, we can defeat TTIP.
Best wishes,
Morten Thaysen, WDM
Jonathan Cook tells the story HERE:Gregg Roman, one of the leaders of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, told the local media: “Palestine is not in conflict with the US. The restaurant is stirring up conflict for the sake of trying to be relevant.”
Gregg Roman, one of the leaders of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, told the local media: “Palestine is not in conflict with the US. The restaurant is stirring up conflict for the sake of trying to be relevant.” - See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2014-10-10/jewish-group-tries-to-sink-palestinian-kitchen/#sthash.1MwN3Dow.dpuf
The following quote is from someone who gets what is happening to us and our world right now. Derrick Jensen, in his book A Language Older than Words asks:Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
"What if the point of life has nothing to do with the creation of an ever-expanding region of control? What if the point is not to keep at bay all those people, beings, objects, and emotions that we so needlessly fear? What if the point instead is to let go of that control?What if the point of life, the primary reason for existence, is to lie naked with your lover in a shady grove of trees? What if the point is to taste each other's sweat and feel the delicate pressure of finger on chest, thigh on thigh, lip on cheek?What if the point is to stop, then, in your slow movements together, and listen to birdsong, to watch dragonflies hover, to look at your lover's face, then up at the undersides of leaves moving together in the breeze?What if the point is to invite these others into your movement, to bring trees, wind, grass, dragonflies into your family and in so doing abandon any attempt to control them?What if the point all along has been to get along, to relate, and experience things on their own terms? What if the point is to feel joy when joyous, love when loving, anger when angry, thoughtful when full of thought?What if the point from the beginning has been to simply be?"
Just after dusk on Wednesday night in St. Louis, a cop killed 18 year-old Vonderitt “Drew” Myers. This is the third incident of cops killing black men in two months – sadly this is not above average. What is above average, though, is people's response to it. Like Mike Brown, there has been debate about whether he was fighting back, whether he was armed, whether stealing cigars or shooting at police is something you should be killed for. To us, this doesn't matter. We are against the police and all that they do.Read the full article HERE:
What has happened the last two nights in many ways is a continuation of Ferguson, but also something more. Here in St. Louis, the response to police killing people is now to take to the streets in retaliation. Though there is overlap between those who have been in the streets in Ferguson and in south St. Louis, there are other elements in play. The shooting happened in the Shaw neighborhood, near Tower Grove Park. The neighborhood calls itself “mixed-income” and “diverse” as a bragging right, but the class and racial tensions are very prevalent.
The officer who killed Myers was off duty but working for a private security company, GCI Security, hired by the middle- and upper-class residents. The marches were still very much focused on race and police, but also on class, explicitly targeting the upper-class as the source of their oppression. Compared to rowdy stuff in Ferguson, this group (also quite rowdy) was way more racially mixed. The following is a collection of reports from the last two nights.