Thursday 18 December 2014

The Underhand Dealings To Privatise Our NHS.

     Imagine you are a sweaty hand shareholder with interests in companies that gain from the privatising of the NHS, and by design or good fortune, you find yourself in a position to direct the direction of the NHS towards privatisation, what would you do? Well knowing the greed orientated motives of such a shareholder, it is no doubt they would push for more privatisation of that NHS. Perhaps you would say that isn't fair, those people should not be influencing the direction of our NHS, but they are there, and they are influencing the direction of our NHS, they're called MPs.
 
      The number of MPs with interests in companies that stand to gain from slicing of sections of the health service to the private sector is considerable. Then there are those who have financial links with individuals involved in the private heath sector.
      Is it any wonder that we see approximately a further £1 billion per year of tax payers money finding its way into the private health sector, when it could be going into our NHS and patient care. The system stinks, is riddled with self interest by financially greedy individuals, by any standard it would be deemed unfair, but we tolerate it. The millionaire cabal are gleefully slicing and dicing our NHS to their own personal gain, while we pay their salaries, and suffer ever increasing strain on our health services. They stink, they are corrupt, they are greedy, they are selfish to the extreme, they are beyond any form of trust. The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption with its pampered, privileged, parasitic bunch of crooks and liars should be flushed down the toilet. 
 
     Below is just two from each of the main political parties taken from a list of 215 compiled by Social Investigation:
     With that amount of private health care interest directing our NHS, how do think it will be developed?
1. Lord Ashcroft: Conservative benches and funder - Until 2010, held investments in two private healthcare groups. From his website 'Other business interests include significant investments in healthcare.' In 2010 bought a 34% stake in The Priory for £44m.
2. Lord Ashton: Conservative - Shares in Marsh Inc insurance brokers and in Zurich Financial Services AG - In a review for the Department of Health of the NHS litigation Authority - written by Marsh Inc, it recommended involving opening up clinical negligence cover over to private insurers. Zurich Financial Insurers said they didn't have the expertise but the Marsh review envisaged opening up a dialogue which might eventually give them the information they needed. The DoH unsurprisingly accepted the large majority of Marsh's recommendations. Lord Ashton also has shares in a private dental company called Smilepod Hygiene Ltd.
1. Lord Alliance: Shares in Huntsworth plc - a company whose CEO is Conservative Lord Chadlington – which donated £15,500 to the party in August last year and has given money every year since 2008. Denied it at first but Electoral Commission found them out. The same company that had Baroness Cumberledge as one of their non-executive directors. Heavily involved in lobbying and PR.  Article on Lord Alliance here.
 2. Baroness Barker:  Director, Barker and Woodard Consulting Limited (strategic advice to charities, local authorities and companies engaged in charitable activities. Income received from the Member's work in this connection is paid to the company. Baroness Barker has 50 per cent holding in Barker and Woodard Consulting Limited.  On the website it says Baroness Barker and Kirsty Woodward established the company in 2008, (though her interest was registered on 26/04/12).
On a blog post on the NHS from their website it says - "As we all know, it’s incredibly difficult out there for most third sector organisations, especially for smaller locally based/funded ones, and however much many organisations in principle disagree with the changes to the NHS, most organisations are also seeing it as an opportunity to tap into health service funds.
1. Baroness Billingham: Made regular contributions to Cumberlege Eden & Partners a training company for training NHS personnel and is a political networking firm that works "extensively" with the pharmaceutical industry.

2. Lord Carter: The head of the increasingly influential Competition and Cooperation Panel, is a7n adviser to Warburg Pincus International Ltd, a private equity firm with significant investments in the healthcare industry. Chairman Patrick Carter, or Lord Carter of Coles to give him his full title, was the founder of Westminster Health Care, a leading private nursing home company. He is also the Chair of McKesson Information Solutions Ltd, which delivers IT to “virtually every NHS organisation”
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Workers Know Your History, Castlemilk Housing Struggle.

 
     History, our history, the struggle for justice and making a stand against the authoritarian institutional mentality of the state and its apparatus, is a tool kit that we can use again and again, in future struggles. We record our struggles and our children have a box of ideas to carry on that struggle, without recording our efforts, our children go naked into battle.
    That is the purpose behind the archive Spirit of Revolt, a record of the people's struggles in our own area, a wealth of ideas for future generations to take that struggle forward. Without recording our continuous struggles we become a people without a history.
      One successful struggle from the not too distant past is a rehousing issue in Castlemilk, a large housing scheme in the south of Glasgow. Taken from Strugglepedia:

Community Action – Housing ; Fire bombed close rehousing issue

Injustice/ normal channels closed / bureaucracy /desperation /solidarity with experienced anarchist strategies/ planning direct actions/ increasing the agitation/ to bring the bureaucrats to the site/ impact on people as activists

John Cooper, John Cooper Taped and scribed by A Rice 17.7.12

      May 1983 there was a group of tenants who had been burned out their tenement flats, about 4 or 5 families. There had been an empty flat on the bottom landing and someone had thrown a petrol bomb into it, - in Castlemilk – east end, and the tenants – it was lucky that no one was killed in it. The fire brigade had to be called and people had to be rescued, by the fire brigade, a lot of them suffered from smoke inhalation, there was nobody living in the bottom flat that was empty but it was petrol bombed and it nearly killed everyone else in the building.
     And they people were put in temporary accommodation only as long as it took the council to paint the close and fix up any of the burnt doors etc , and then they were told that was their houses ready and they would have to go back in. And even at that point you could still smell smoke in the whole building . But they were told that they would need to occupy the houses again because that was it and there wasn’t any other accommodation for them. And the people pointed out that not only was the place still smelled of burning but still smelling of smoke that they were terrified to return to that place again in case a similar incident happened. They pointed out that an awful lot of them had almost been killed in it.
      But the Housing Dept. was completely unsympathetic about it. And they said that that would be the only housing that they would be offered and they could take it or leave it sort of thing. So again they had went to their local Tenants Association who went up to the Housing Department with them and basically had had the wool pulled over their eyes by the housing authorities who told them there was nothing that they could do about the whole thing. And as it so happened on their way out of the Housing Dept. one of them met me and another couple of the guys that were involved in the other activities in Castlemilk and they told us about their situation and we immediately said did you go to your tenants group and they said that’s him there that’s the guy there from the Tenants Group and we quizzed him and he told us Oh the housing Association have told us that there’s nothing we can do about it and we will just have to accept it.
     And the people said to us ‘ is that right do we just have to accept that and can they force us to go back in there? ‘ And again I asked the question again ‘ Well how determined are you?’ And they said ‘well we are very determined’. And I said well you can be very determined but you might end up threatened with jail or stuff like that and the people said well, we don’t care that’s how bad we feel about the whole thing.
     So we had a wee meeting with them, a good discussion about the whole thing they were adamant that they weren’t going to return to that tenement building so we said lets try to work out a strategy of how to approach this, obviously the next stage was to go and lobby the housing dept. again and demand to see the housing manager etc. etc. but what other things can we come up with?
     Despite the fact that a lot of the people there were political activists we were honestly stumped about what to come up with – we came up with a few ideas like we will go to see the housing manager , push him etc. do this and do that, but here a wee woman one of the tenants that had been burned out her house who had never been involved in anything before stuck her hand up and timidly asked , ‘See how we are basically homeless it would be a good idea for us to get a tent and put it in the grounds of the housing department and we will just live there we will just live in the grounds of the Housing dept. right outside and we all looked at one another because it was basically one of the best ideas we had ever heard! And we thought Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant! That’s exactly what we will do.
    And we did that the next day – we went in to see the manager pointed out that the people were not going to be returning to their tenement flats, had he another offer for them and he said that he ‘was not going to use that as another excuse for queue jumping’ and for trying to get into a better part of Castlemilk or whatever, you know.
     And of course the people were really indignant about that, it had nothing to do with that they had nearly lost their lives. So after a lot of arguing with him and him just refusing to help in any way whatsoever, we went outside, we got the tent that we had brought, and we pitched the tent and a couple of these collapsible chairs people sat outside the tent on that and from then on we started making posters and notices. Fortunately the bit of ground I mention about is right outside the door of the housing on a big triangle of ground I think there was a small fence at that point that you could just step over so we had the tent pitched and we started to hand draw notices and put them up on trees explaining to people going by and everybody that was going by we were able to tell them what was going on we were able to speak to them.
      So within a couple of days we had a couple of tents and tons of hand drawn notices up. People by this time that were going up and down to the shops because the housing office is right next to the main shopping area in Castlemilk so a lot of people had to pass it anyway and go up the lane that ran from the side of the housing dept down to the shopping centre . They had become used to what was happening and some people started giving us donations of money and then food and that was growing so we made a point of that we got big buckets and advertised what was going on and so on. And one day a guy passed and said ‘see how they poor people are staying in they tents would it not be better if they had a caravan and we said that would be brilliant. He said ‘I’ve got a caravan that I can give yous’.
     Well that night when the housing department was closed they had all went to their beds we brought the caravan in and lifted it over the wee fence. So the next day when the housing department authorities came in there was a caravan in the grounds. And by this time we had started printing up posters with the housing managers face on them and other posters saying ‘ cmon gies a hoose’ which was a reference to the Boys from the Black Stuff (TV) by Yosser, his phrase was ‘Cmon gies a job’ so we changed that a wee bit and as I say we had pictures of the Housing Manager’s face his name was Mugnaioni, I think so we changed that to Buggsieoni and posing as a housing manager for Wanted Posters and we covered the area with the posters and the trees with the posters and shortly after we got the caravan we thought lets extend this lets go and get another caravan and we did that so there was basically a couple of fairly big caravans and tents and stuff like that in the housing department. And every day that that was going on we basically occupied the housing department about 30 to 40 people occupying the housing dept. petitioning to see the housing manager and ultimately they sent for the police and 3 days in a row all 30 people were arrested by the police. And the police said, ‘now you are all under arrest, now will you all walk from here to the police station which was 50 yards away or whatever and we all said no you will need to send cars and vans. So they got cars and vans from the surrounding areas to come and take us all to the police station to charge us and then let us go so we immediately went back to the housing department and occupied it again. We got great public support, we got tons and tons of money and food handed in by people. Some people that were passing ended up joining the campaign it was absolutely fantastic. We’ve got an article originally written by Jeanette McGinn for Workers City which covers the whole event. I think eventually I think it lasted six months or so. And to cut a very long story short the people that the housing manager had absolutely refused to rehouse would never rehouse they could only take that tenement block or not got rehoused in houses of their choice ultimately after 6 months of struggle and the housing manager explained to us that it could all have been resolved a lot quicker if we had not have interfered in the whole thing. Which by then we were used to hearing all that when we come into conflict with the authorities that the thing would have been dealt with quicker if we had not have been involved but in reality what that would have meant is that they would have had their way . So that was a very successful campaign
    To escalate the whole thing we were going to take one of the caravans and take it down to George Square and ram it in the door down there.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk


Monday 15 December 2014

Greece, Europe's Brutal Fascist State.

       An extract from an article by Yannis Christodoulou translated by Anna Papoutsi, which shows the festering fungus that is the Greek judiciary and its partner the brutal corrupt police. Both the bulwarks of an equally festering and corrupt state.
      It appears that in Greece, with the extreme right government, supported by the mainstream media, an EU country with maximum security prisons and concentration camps for migrants, with forced labour in vegetable fields, with prisoners tortured, and police operations like “Xenios Zeus” [3], where the suppression of rights and liberties and the rampant police abuse have become the rule, the Greek judiciary has long chosen to side with the men in blue.

Read the full article HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Death Throes Of The Last Empire.


"------If we take a look back at our normality, we see that direct violence from the State and its institutions is not the most freedom-killing one, but rather carries with it a catalytic potential for revolt. No, the worst of all, and what could make the most freedom-committed of individuals rot away in a concrete landscape, is the bureaucratically administrated power: the Job centre, the Tax office, the Social insurance authority, the Social security administration, the Migration authority, the Prison institution, the Juvenile office, the Bailiffs and all of their capitalist collaborators (career coaching firms, asylum entrepreneurs, debt collectors, “children entrepreneurs”, etc.). Together with the morals enforced by society, telling us how to act and what our obligations are as slaves; religious and patriarchal structures in families and local communities… You should want to work, but no one wants to hire you. You get a job, but you’re not paid any money. You are promised asylum, but in the end you still have to go underground. You are supposed to be eager to learn, but your intelligence is defamed. It should come as no surprise that, because of all this, a hatred towards the existent is formulated, and conscious steps are taken to attack it. Rather it is worrying that so many keep submitting to these social relations.------"
 

     Does the above sound familiar? Continually running up against legislation, authority and other forces of conformity, that tell you how to run your life. Constraints at every turn to keep you in your appointed niche, a position of servility, necessary for the system to function, and you know it doesn't function in your favour.


     Over the centuries, we have had civilisations come and go, they rise and they fall, and another moves in, in another place. Today is different, this is the first world wide civilisation, it covers every corner of our planet. When this one collapses, and like every other before it, it will collapse, it will be a world wide explosion. We, the ordinary people should be aware of this imminent collapse and should be preparing the alternative ways of living, here and now. The alternative will be chaos of an unimaginably brutal complexity.
     We can change the world as the present system continues on its terminal decline, but it has to be the people with their new structures, new modes of interaction, the institutions of the old order are tainted and corrupt beyond use.


       The statement quoted above is an article in response to the recent riots in Stockholm. My reason for quoting it was to highlight the fact that the discontent of the people is spilling onto the streets in country after country, that discontent can no longer be confined to the party political meetings, or the committee meetings. Riots in Sweden, as in Greece, Italy, Mexico, America, France, UK, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, the Middle East, and Asia, point to the fact that it is becoming more difficult to keep the  system functioning, In which case it will become more authoritarian, more brutal, in its death throes, as it tries to hold onto power. For us to win, we should be preparing now, for that battle to the death. We, the ordinary people have an advantage, we, unlike the present system, have the desire, and know how, to live together.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Saturday 13 December 2014

Unofficially Qualified.


       We all struggle for "freedom" or our own idea of what that "freedom" is likely to be. The usual mantra is get "qualified" seek "higher education" and reap the rewards. I personally have always given the established education system a wide berth, that doesn't mean I haven't read a lot, on a wide range of subjects, but it has always been the subject matter that I wish to pursue, at the rate I wish to travel and to the depth I wish to take it. I long since accepted that the more I engage with the established system of "learning", the less likely I am to be free. Establishment figures putting the stamp of approval on my achievements would seem to saying that I have fitted into the mould in the way that I think. I have done the accepted things,I am now one of them. Hardly sounds like the bugle call to freedom


What this means in practice, for me at least, is that as soon as it starts looking like I am heading in the direction of acquiring a specific job title or job description, or getting involved in something that might require registration, certification or licensing, then I need to backtrack or head in a different direction for a bit, until everybody loses interest. In doing so I sometimes forgo some opportunities for an increased income, but that is the price of freedom. 
Read the full article HERE:

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

Friday 12 December 2014

TTIP = Corporatism.


 
        We all know, or we should by now, that TTIP is corporate domination being sorted out behind closed doors, by the private club of corporate parasites and corrupt politicians. It will lead to the privatisation of all public assets, and the corporate world dictating to governments to organise their affairs to the benefit of big business. It will give big business the right to sue governments if they feel that the government is in anyway impeding their profits. In a simple phrase, it will erase any shred of democracy that you may feel you still have.
This weekend there will be anti-TTIP stalls and signature gathering around Glasgow and Renfrewshire:
 TTIP Action Day, Scottish Greens Saturday 13th December

   This Saturday Glasgow and West of Scotland Greens will be out in various areas campaigning against TTIP – Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Join other Greens to support *street stalls, and door knocking to gather petition signatures* and build the campaign against TTIP. Please bring along any clipboards you have.

*East Glasgow*

Time: 11am-2pm // Location: Outside Tapa, Dennistoun
<https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Tapa+organic+bakery/%4056.170203%2c-4.8281548%2c8z/data=%214m5%211m2%212m1%211stapa%2c+dennistoun%213m1%211s0x488841549739fb7f:0x421a4049da7040c3?hl=en> //
Contact on the day: Raemond Bradford – 0743 556 8959.

*South Glasgow*

Time: Meet 10am upstairs in Costa Coffee, Shawlands
<https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Costa+Coffee/%4055.8250683%2c-4.2868614%2c15z/data=%214m5%211m2%212m1%211scosta%2c+shawlands%213m1%211s0x0000000000000000:0xab91d6487f08adcb?hl=en> //
Stall: 11am-2pm (location tbc on the day) // Contact on the day:
Jennifer Jones – 07738865651

*West Glasgow*

Time: 11am-2pm // Location: Outside Hillhead Underground
<https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Hillhead+SPT+Subway+Station/%4055.8752419%2c-4.2934647%2c18z/data=%214m6%211m3%213m2%211s0x488845cef7651901:0xbb916d37cef55843%212sHillhead+%28Glasgow%29%2c+At+Hillhead+Underground%213m1%211s0x488845cef700cb93:0x1b28a6dc4a6a1388?hl=en> //
Contact on the day: Kieran Wild – 07840863508

*Renfrewshire*

Time: 11am-2pm // Location: Paisley, Cenotaph
<https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/The+Paisley+Cenotaph/%4055.845612%2c-4.424058%2c17z/data=%213m1%214b1%214m2%213m1%211s0x4888493788bd23d9:0x2320db9d0c023b07?hl=en> //
Contact on the day: Ryan Morrison – 07983488001

*East Renfrewshire*

Time: 11am-2pm // Location:Clarkston, outside Edinburgh Woolen Mill
<https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/The+Edinburgh+Woollen+Mill/%4055.788684%2c-4.276457%2c17z/data=%213m1%214b1%214m2%213m1%211s0x4888479c060a7f55:0x4d7d9935b1201d10?hl=en> //
Contact on the day: Ciaran Roarty – 07983488001

*Inverclyde*

Please get in touch if you are interested in supporting a stall or door knocking in Inverclyde.

TTIP is a trade deal that will give global corporations the power to sue our Government for millions and wreck the NHS. Scottish Greens are campaigning to protect the NHS and worker’s rights from corporate attack. For more information, email Zara Kitson
atdevelopment@glasgowgreens.org.uk development@glasgowgreens.org.uk
>
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk


ACE In Edinburgh.


   Stuff to keep you amused, busy and informed, to the end of the year, if you are around Edinburgh. ACE events, as usual well organised and interesting.

   INFO from the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, 17 West Montgomery Place EH7 5HA
ACE is open Sats 12-4pm, Tues 12-3pm, Thursday 6 - 8pm
Advice and solidarity on benefits, debt, housing etc on Tuesdays.
    Leith Wholefoods, the Info Shop, Scottish Radical Library and free broadband available all 3 days.
Open monthly meetings first Wednesday of the month, 7.30pm at ACE
0131 557 6242 ace@autonomous.org.uk www.autonomous.org.uk
UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES AT ACE and in Edinburgh
*ACE mid winter fair.*
This Sat 13th December 12-4pm at ACE
    Come share a vegan friendly Palestinian lunch of hand rolled, sun dried maftoul, roast tomatoes with za'atar and juicy organic dates. All welcome.
     Beat the winter bugs with legendary Four Thieves Vinegar available to try or buy while stocks last. Traditionally used to boost the immune system against plague. Last chance to bulk order before the holidays.
     Best prices for organic, fairtrade wholefoods and eco toiletaries. Wide range available or bulk order what you wish. The wholefood co op is a not for profit organisation run by volunteers.
    Plus Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity stall with amber jewellery, embroideries, handicrafts and t shirts, all from Zapatista co-ops.
     And view the new photo exhibition for the 20th Anniversary of the occupation of Edinburgh Unemployed Workers Centre. The accompanying pamphlet UP AGAINST THE STATE is available for 3 pounds.
*Sun 14th 6pm - 8pm ACE Cinema*
     Come down to ACE this Sunday for the last of this year's ACE Cinema screenings; the seminal 7:84 Touring Theatre Company's production of 'The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black, Oil'.
    John McGrath's excellent play was recorded for the BBC's 'Play for Today' series under the direction of John Mackenzie, and chronicles with great humour and vivacity Scotland's own particular story of what happens when profit is valued above people and the earth.
Running time: 90 mins
BFI Screen Online entry:
Wikipedia entry:
Tues 16th 5pm - 7pm
Scottish Radical Library meeting All welcome
Sat 27th at Ace
Left over food social. Bring food to share if you can or your appetite if you can't. All welcome.
Also FOOD SOLIDARITY collection of cans or dried donations of food on the 27th.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Thursday 11 December 2014

Detail;s Of The Nikos Romanos Story.


     A detailed report on the story behind Nikos Ramanos, of the state's two standards of justice, one for bankers, and one for those who oppose the systems corruption. Bankers who robbed the banks of millions and charged with fraud, allowed to walk free, while those who dare to oppose this system are brutally assaulted and imprisoned and denied their just rights.
 Post image for Tides of relief: Nikos Romanos wins victory in hunger strike
Few doubt that the young anarchist was refused educational leave as a punishment for his ideas, by a government eager to show that it will not tolerate radical dissent. Romanos demanded from the state, which he intensely abhors, that it recognize his legal rights, which the state is supposed to guarantee for all. He never stole from the public purse nor from citizens; rather he attempted to rob one of the banks which was never brought to account for its part in the economic debacle of the country. No one failed to notice the irony of young anarchists being brutally persecuted for an unsuccessful and bloodless bank robbery by the very same people who treat those convicted of large-scale theft of public money and violent crimes with utmost lenience.
Read the full article HERE
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Statement from Nikos Romanos.


      The first public statement from Nikos Romanos since ending his 31 day hunger strike. This is a remarkable victory brought about by the courage and tenacity of this young man. We wish the strength to continue your chosen path.
From Act For Freedom Now:
 


Following 31 days of a tough and tenacious struggle, I end my hunger strike, having scored an important victory. The amendment voted in Parliament with me its single recipient, had important differences to the initial proclamation of the Minister of Justice, eventually meeting my demands – even if this involves me “wearing an electronic bracelet”.
The only thing certain is that this victory was an outcome of the political pressure applied for it by the people in struggle and  Combative Anarchy are indisputably the great moral, political and practical victors. The multiform revolutionary struggle and us, as political prisoners, resurface from this struggle stronger than before.
I raise my fist, sending the warmest regards and my unlimited love to all those comrades who stood by my side.
BY ALL MEANS!
SOLIDARITY TO POLITICAL PRISONERS
LONG LIVE ANARCHY
PS: A detailed text will follow in the days to come.
PS2: I would like to also thank the hospital doctors who refused to bow to the pressure by the attorney regarding my forced feeding, and who supported me to the possible extent.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Wednesday 10 December 2014

A Victory For Nikos Romanos.


      The best news I've heard in a long while, Nikos Romanos has won his right to study at university, he will be allowed to classes wearing an electric tag. This is a tremendous victory for this young man, but at considerable cost to his general health. 31 days on hunger strike will not leave him undamaged. What comes through in this case, apart from the determination and courage of Nikos, is the state's callous brutality in denying him is legal rights, to the point of near death. Perhaps the state was afraid that if Nikos died in prison, Greece would explode. Let's all hope he makes a full recovery and leads a long, full and active life.
Nikos Romanos after his arrest, and his 15 year old friend Alexis Grigoropoulos, who was shot in 2008 by a thug in uniform.

Announcement on Act For Freedom Now:
     Nikos Romanos has ended his hunger  strike after 31 days. The law that will be applied is that he will wear an electronic bracelet to control his movements while studying outside prison. Solidarity with Nikos Romanos and all those arrested.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Tuesday 9 December 2014

You Grow The Food, You Create The Energy!!!



         The picture in the UK is grim, we have had almost 5 years of wage cuts/freezes and rising inflation, a sure path to deprivation for millions. We are informed by our millionaire lords and masters, that the cuts so far are nothing to what has yet to come. This picture of falling income has seen food banks on a rapid increase, we are a nation of families that go hungry. Since 2007 food prices in the UK have risen by 32%, twice the average in the EU, with “experts” predicting matters getting worse, as they expect food prices to rise at twice the rate of inflation for at least a decade, with your shopping basket price rising by approximately 4% per year, until around 2022. When it comes to energy prices, they have been rising at 8 times the rate of earnings. Since October 1010, energy suppliers have increased their prices by 37%.
 
       These two factors, food price increases and energy price increases tied to low or no wage increases, are enough to push millions more of us into poverty. When you factor in more cuts in the next five years, than we have seen in the last five, millions will move from poverty to deprivation on a massive scale.
 
        No matter which of the millionaire parties you may decide to vote for, if you are foolish enough to vote, It will make no difference. All the major parties are tied into what the financial Mafia have prescribed. No party will upset their financial masters, for fear of reprisals, the parasites will lift their money and go elsewhere. Bringing turmoil for the country, and our lords and master might lose control of the population as unrest could explode. Capitalism is not patriotic, that's for the peasants, it will callously see a country's infrastructure disintegrate into ruin, and to hell with the people, if its puppet politicians don't toe the line.
 
     No amount of lobbying your MP, changing the suited smiling face at the podium, or trying to change the party “from within”, will not make one iota of a difference. You may get a few more crumbs here, or an extra teabag there, but the trajectory of our living standards will be for ever downwards. The only hope is to dismantle the whole stinking edifice that is the capitalist system, and from its ruins build that fairer world that we all want. A society that is based on mutual aid, co-operation and voluntary association, one that is free from the cancerous profit motive, and sees to the needs of all our people. You grow the food, you create the energy, why do you go without?
 
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

Solidarity Has No Borders.


 
        An appeal for solidarity from Labour Start:









      Tomorrow is Human Rights Day -- and I'd like to ask for your help to get our brother Huber Ballesteros released from prison.
       Huber Ballesteros is one of Colombia's best known trade union and human rights activists. He is also one of the most threatened.
He was arrested on 25th August 2013 and accused of 'rebellion' and 'financing terrorism'.
He has still not faced trial.
     Huber is vice-president of FENSUAGRO, Colombia’s second largest union and one of the most persecuted, having had over 1,000 members assassinated in recent years. We believe it is because of his activism that Huber is being targeted, and are calling for his unconditional release, along with that of all other political prisoners in Colombia.

Please take a minute to send your message of protest to the Colombian government:

http://www.labourstart.org/go/freehuber

    And please share this message with your friends, family and fellow union members.

Eric Lee 
Copyright © 2014 LabourStart, All rights reserved.
 our website (http://www.labourstart.org)
Our mailing address is:
LabourStart

27 Muswell Hill Place

London, England N10 3RP


United Kingdom

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




The Mainstream Medis, The State's Tranquilliser.


Greece.
      That babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is meant to be a form of tranquilliser, to lull the populace in to a stupor, a befuddled subservience. Across the world the streets are alive with protests, riots and police brutality, but what do we get? A large helping of what Kate wore in America, how the Americans love her, and the children are beguiled by her charm. We are informed of how passionate Wills is about poachers living fat of the sale of ivory. I wonder just how much ivory lurks in the vaults of his family residence, and does he ever think about his entire family living fat of the sweat of others. No doubt we will never know.
Finland.
      From Greece to Finland, from America to Mexico, people are raging on the streets, but it is not considered news. Thousands poured onto the streets of Barcelona at the weekend, but you would need to search to find any info on that event. We did get a lot of coverage about the Hong Kong riots, but then again, they were rioting against China, an enemy of the Western imperialist, hence the cover. Police brutality is rife, in Greece, after a series of arrests at a demonstration, MP's went to the police station and were astounded at the blood all over the place as those arrested were beaten by the police once inside the police station. We hear of daily shootings and beatings by American police, and the case of the 43 abducted and murdered students in Mexico, beggars belief.

America.
      One would imagine that journalist would be highlighting this mass unrest, and asking questions such as why are our cities exploding, why is there so much discontent across the globe. But then they may come up with the answer, that it is the system we live under that is the real problem, that wouldn't suit their masters the media barons. They are the ones that are tasked with keeping us all in a state of ignorance and subservience.
Mexico.
      They peddle illusions, they manufacture a false world, and make you believe you live there. In this world of smoke and mirrors, truth is a crime, an act of rebellion. We are meant to believe that we live in a world of glamour and high fashion, where the highest aim is to be a “celebrity” where happiness comes in pretty boxes with designer labels. We are angry because we know the real world and it is harsh, brutal and unjust, we know it need not be like that, and we want to change it to that better world that lives in our hearts.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk