Tuesday 2 December 2014

Down Is Up, And Bad Is Good.


 



       Remember all those news clips of the nut-cases punching and head-butting their way trough the throngs to get their hands on a TV/camera/kettle or whatever? It was Black Friday when the retail greed merchants were supposed to show us how prosperous we were by displaying mind blowing figures of how much better off we are because we all spent so much more than last year. Well I haven't seen the UK figures, but in the US it was a bit of a flop. Though that doesn't stop the propaganda merchants from turn a minus into a positive. In this crazy world of spin they can make you believe, (if you're daft enough) that down is up, and bad is good.

      Finally, what we said earlier about a surge in online sales, well forget it - it was a lie based on the now traditional skewed perspectives from a few self-servcing industry organizations:
     Despite many retailers offering the same discounts on the Web as they offered in stores, the Internet didn’t attract more shoppers or more spending than last year. Online sales accounted for 42% of sales racked up over the four-day period, the same percentage as last year, though up from 26% in 2006, the trade group said.
    In fact, it was worse: "Shoppers spent an average $159.55 online, down 10.2% from $177.67 last year."
But the propaganda piece de resistance is without doubt the following:
    “A highly competitive environment, early promotions and the ability to shop 24/7 online all contributed to the shift witnessed this weekend,” Mr. Shay said.
     So to summarize: holiday sales plunged, and Americans refused to shop because the economy is "stronger than ever" and because Americans have the option of shopping whenever, which is why they didn't shop in the first place. That, and of course plunging gasoline prices leading to... plunging retail sales, just as all the economists "correctly" predicted.
Goebbels approves.
 

Read the full article HERE:
 
 
       Sounds as if the American boom, is more American doom. The simple reason of course, is that in America, like the rest of the world, poverty is growing among the majority. Across the globe, wealth is being sucked up to that small bunch of parasites that control the financial Mafia and the corporate beast. It will continue to do so until we the ordinary people put a stop to it, by destroying capitalism and creating community based structures that see to the needs of all our people. Don't expect the vampire squids and parasites to do the changing for us, they'll willingly suck you to death, without an after thought.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Monday 1 December 2014

Solidarity In Action.


       A story that makes you feel good and fills you with hope. Refugees in Greece are having a hard time from the repressive fascist state and the fascist Golden dawn thugs. This episode shows the real face of the people of Greece.
From Xpressed: Where you will see lots of wonderful photos.

 Athens: 29/11/2014 – Junior High Students Visit Syrian Refugees (PHOTOS)
      On the 29th of November, students from the 2nd junior high school of Glyka Nera, Athens, visited the Syrian Refugees at Syntagma square. They brought sweets, clothes, toys and books and played with the children, expressing in this way their solidarity to the refugees’ struggle: the Syrian refugees demand from the Greek government to provide them with travel documents so that they can continue their journey in Europe. Most of them are on hunger strike since 24/11, while the government continues to ignore them.
      Let’s hope that more schools will follow the example of the 2nd junior high of Glyka Nera.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

World Domination Without A Bullet Fired.



        Wake up to the fact that TTIP heralds the corporate takeover of the world, world corporatism, and the end of any control over what happens in our own country. All EU and American governments will be bound by international agreement created by and for the benefit of the corporate monster. Profit will be the only rule, gain for the shareholders of the international corporate businesses at any cost. The planet will be mercilessly plundered and we will not be able to a thing about it. That is, if this goes through, and we sit back and do nothing about this trashing any vestige of democracy that we might have. It is world domination without a missile or a bullet fired.

From The World Development Movement:
       "Already, thanks to the insertion of ISDS into much smaller trade treaties, big business is engaged in an orgy of litigation, whose purpose is to strike down any law that might impinge on its anticipated future profits. The tobacco firm Philip Morris is suing governments in Uruguay and Australia for trying to discourage people from smoking. The oil firm Occidental was awarded $2.3bn in compensation from Ecuador, which terminated the company’s drilling concession in the Amazon after finding that Occidental had broken Ecuadorean law. The Swedish company Vattenfall is suing the German government for shutting down nuclear power. An Australian firm is suing El Salvador’s government for $300m for refusing permission for a goldmine over concerns it would poison the drinking water.

The same mechanism, under TTIP, could be used to prevent UK governments from reversing the privatisation of the railways and the NHS, or from defending public health and the natural world against corporate greed. The corporate lawyers who sit on these panels are beholden only to the
companies whose cases they adjudicate, who at other times are their employers." George Monbiot

 ------- Original Message --------
Subject: Stop the EU-US trade deal (TTIP)
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2014 00:58:40 +0000

Just to let you know.
What's the point of Scottish Independence if TTIP goes ahead?
We are thinking, acting Local, National, International.

The campaign to stop the EU-US trade deal (TTIP) is having great effect. As a result of growing public pressure negotiations have been delayed by almost two months. If we keep up the pressure, we can stop TTIP altogether.

The EU have now taken steps to publish some documents from the negotiations <http://euobserver.com/news/126670>, in a desperate attempt to claim real transparency. But this is still a long way short of open and democratic negotiations.

It has been a hectic few weeks in the campaign against TTIP as the media seems to be warming up to our message. Letters were published in the Financial Times
<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9ca27c46-69a9-11e4-8f4f-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk#axzz3KCBFgYFQ>,

The Independent
<http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/letters-transatlantic-trade-deal-is-an-assault-on-democracy-assault-on-9868874.html>

and The Guardian
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/18/we-demand-right-to-challenge-ttip>

n the New Internationalist
<http://newint.org/blog/2014/11/26/ttip-transnational-suing/>,
Independent Voices
<http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/were-already-pouring-9bn-of-nhs-money-into-big-business--and-ttip-will-make-it-worse-9882087.html>.
On Tuesday, our head of campaigns Polly Jones gave evidence to MPs on TTIP (here’s the Parliament TV coverage
<http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=16584> - start from 10:45:00) and our director Nick Dearden gave an interview to Russia
Today TV < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2D0qSfm898 (Preview) >. The campaign is also going strong in Scotland. This weekend we spoke at the Radical independence Conference
<http://www.wdm.org.uk/trade/wdm-and-radical-independence-conference>
Today Liz Murray, our head of Scottish campaigns, gave evidence about TTIP to the Scottish parliament
<http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/scottish-politics/eu-us-trade-deal-could-have-detrimental-impact-on-scotlands-economy-and-t.1417089007>.
Brighton TTIP Banner drop slim.jpg Banner drop in Brighton last weekend Our (self-organised) European Citizens’ Initiative is breaking records and is attracting hundreds of thousands of signatures. With your help we can reach 1 million signatures before the end of this year! If you
haven’t already done so, sign it here: www.wdm.org.uk/TTIP <http://www.wdm.org.uk/TTIP>

Faced with the growing campaign against TTIP negotiators are preparing a huge PR offensive to promote TTIP throughout the EU promoting TTIP, offering reassurances on the NHS
<http://www.nhsconfed.org/media-centre/2014/11/nhs-european-office-pushes-for-strong-safeguards-for-the-nhs>.

Articles blaming campaigners for the woes of the negotiators are starting to appear. If anything that shows that our campaign is working and that we’ve got the EU on the back foot on TTIP.
<http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ttip-deal-delayed-by-campaigners-hijacking-isds-consultation-1476771>

There are a number of significant events coming up:
This Monday, 1 December, 6pm there’s TTIP: Turning the Tide in Westminster
<http://www.wdm.org.uk/events/workshop-how-lobby-your-mp-ttip>. This mass training event, led by leading politicians and campaigners .

On Thursday 11 December, 7.30pm, the Trade Justice Movement are hosting a meeting TTIP Take the Power Back
<http://www.tjm.org.uk/latest-news/8-press-releases/354-ttip-free-public-event-london-11th-dec.html>
We are planning a mobilisation to Brussels on late January or early February to lobby MEPs, protest against TTIP and meet civil society activists from around Europe – watch this space.

World Development Movement and Many More.

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

Faslane Demo, Trident Must Go.





Scrap Trident demonstration at Faslane on November 30, 2014.

     The recent referendum on Scottish independence has certainly spark the Scottish people to voice their opinion in all manner of affairs. This was seen on Sunday, 30 November, at Faslane nuclear submarine base, where over 1,000 gathered to show their hatred  of this anti-civilisation weapon. Well done, thousands more are with you in solidarity. They came in bus loads from all over the country and marched on the gates of the base chanting such slogans as "Not here, not anywhere, Trident must go". It is obvious that the people of Scotland don't want this criminal weaponry on their land. This collection of unbelievable destructive illegal weaponry has no place in a civilised country. To rub salt on the wound, our millionaire cabal of Oxbridge parasites, that control our lives, is inflicting savage cuts to the social fabric of all our lives, while spending millions on this type of criminal weaponry. They have already spent £37 million on 12 new nuclear missile launchers, before the matter was debated in parliament, and are bring 14 more submarines to this base. The actions of war warmongering imperialists.

protest: Activists gather at the entrance to Faslane naval base near Helensburgh. Picture: Robert Perry
      Let's hope that the energy that the people put into the independence debate can be transferred to getting this criminal weaponry dispatched from this country. Perhaps we could then go on to change the whole structure of the society that we tolerate at the moment.

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

Sunday 30 November 2014

Enjoy The Ecstacy Of Your Righteous Anger.


       The poll tax was unjust, people got angry, and the poll tax was gone. People have the right to get angry at injustice, and if the powers that be, insist on pushing ahead with that injustice, the anger will surely grow. Today they seemed to have filtered anger out of our range of normal emotions. Get angry and you are told to seek anger management treatment, but we have a right to anger, it is not a crime, or an abnormality, to get angry, it is a perfectly human reaction. We live in a world where injustice mocks humanity, and violence is licensed by the state, where the system we live under inflicts poverty and deprivation on the innocent, anger should be the normal reaction. Here in this country when the system continues to push injustice in our face, such as workfare, bedroom tax, slashing of social services to appease the financial Mafia, while the country is awash with wealth, we have a right to anger. We should enjoy the ecstasy of our righteous anger.

Time To Rage.

Time to rage, like a river running wild.
Time to rise, to save the child.
Time to rage, like a mountain flood.
Time to rise, to stop the blood.
Time to rage, with righteous anger.
Time to rise, to point the finger.

Famine. misery, sickness, death,
stretch across these pleasant lands,
war, greed, hunger, blood,
sour the lovely desert sands,
charity, chat, quiet dismay,
is not enough,
prayers, thoughts, what MP's say,
is useless stuff.

Time to rage, like a river running wild.
Time to rise, to save the child.
Time to rage, like a mountain flood.
Time to rise, to stop the blood.
Time to rage, with righteous anger.
Time to rise , to point the finger.


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

Some Things Never Change.

       Came across this rather grainy movie, listen to the reporter's use of words, hooligan element, brave police, they are still at the same propaganda ranting today.
     The 1932 Jarrow Hunger March was held to draw attention to the plight of the jobless. Its final event was a mass meeting in London's Hyde Park. Official concerns about the potential for public disturbance led to a high police presence and some clashes ensued.


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

Saturday 29 November 2014

Glasgow, Anti-Racism March With Everybody And Their Dog.


        This year, as in the past, Glasgow's Anti-Racism March on Saturday 29th. November, was a friendly, colourful and well attended affair. I always find it exciting to part of a large gathering of friendly, like minded people, who are prepared to make a stand in favour of justice and equality, I could wax lyrically about it all, but instead, I'll let some of the photos tell the story.






























       Of course no march, protest, demonstration would be complete without its dancing dog.
 

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


There Are State Executions, And There Are State Executions.


     The state has many ways of killing its opponents, The state's vicious vindictiveness will willing see a person go to their death, especially if that person is one who exposes and fights the brutal repressive activities of that state. 
     Anarchist prisoner Nikos Romanos is on hunger strike since November 10, 2014, requesting to make use of educational furloughs from prison, to which he is entitled since September 2014. Nikos is currently in Athens general hospital Gennimatas, under a strong custody of the police. Physician Pantelia (Lina) Vergopoulou, who visited him today 28/11, reports that the comrade remains in a critical condition, threatened with life-threatening complications. Late at night over 200 comrades and friends of Nikos gathered once again opposite the hospital to send their direct solidarity (audio).
      Anarchist prisoner Yannis Michailidis is on hunger strike since November 17, 2014, as a form of solidarity with the struggle of Nikos Romanos. As of today Yannis Michailidis needed to be hospitalized, too, after he was diagnosed with bradycardia. Yannis is currently in Piraeus general hospital Tzaneio, under a strong custody of the police.
      Both comrades stand firm and continue their hunger strike.

Active solidarity across borders! Solidarity is our weapon for success!
Let's Not Live Like Slaves.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk