The Lonely Wynd.

       As the national poetry month draws to a close, time for more personal thoughts.

The Lonely Wynd.

At the bed, death's waiting room,

the family muster,

with empty words wrapped in thoughts of death,

gaily chatter.

Outside, hungry birds feed, sing and fly,

their chirpy songs seems to call her death a lie,

but summer's sun

reaching through the window pane

sadly smiles,

knowing they'll never meet again.

I wonder,

in coma wrapped, what were your thoughts.

Pleasure,

looking back at what used to be?

Pride,

at how, to this life happiness you brought?

Perhaps it was a welcome rest from pain

a just pause in your long struggle,

alas too late, this emigma with me remains.

So rest, in your rest, peace be your gain,

for you dear mother, an end to trouble,

as love's boundless force could not break

death's firm grasp upon your heart,

passionless devouring cancer,

unmoved by prayer on our part,

took your hand along that lonely wynd,

death took time

fused the moment on our mind.

In the midst of family

alone dear mother you had to die.

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

Action Against Workfare And Sanctions.

       As the Crooks and Liars competition, (the general election) snarls and grunts its way towards the finishing line, we have been bombarded with economical magic formulae, which are supposed to transform our lives. There has been a myriad of variations on how to reduce the "deficit" allowing us to enter the promised land. Our lives are to be governed by what is good for business, the assumption being that if the CEOs of the corporate world are happy, then they will make our lives better. All bullshit of course.  

       As far as I am aware, not one entrant to the Crooks and Liars competition, has mentioned anything about stopping workfare, and getting rid of sanctions. These two planks of the capitalist "economic recovery" are without doubt responsible for untold misery in our communities. They are responsible for pushing people to food banks, skipping meals, not heating their homes, running up debt, and a host of other diseases of the capitalist system.

      This week sees the start of a week of action against workfare, (slave labour) and sanctions, (vindictive punishment of the vulnerable). Sadly most of what is advertised seems to be in London, hopefully as the week progresses we will see increasing protest events spreading right across the country.. Remember, workfare is an attack on wages and working conditions, and that affects us all.

Information from Boycott Workfare:

No workfare. No sanctions. Whoever wins we will resist!
      As the general election campaign gets underway we are already seeing politicians calling for more of the same policies. More workfare. More sanctions. Yet we know that these policies have been a total disaster. It is shameful that workfare and sanctions are supported by all the main political parties. This is why we are holding a week of action in the week before the election. We need your help to expose and challenge workfare and sanctions policies and the political lies that underpin them.----------

Read the full article and list of events HERE:

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

Reminder, Glasgow, Gallipoli Event.

Just a reminder on the Gallipoli event:  centenary event in Glasgow.

     April 25,Saturday, 1pm in the cinema room at the Centre for Contemporary Art at 350, Sauchiehall Street. This day marks the centenary of the World War I battle of Gallipoli, a disaster that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands. We will be showing part of a movie made by Peter Weir, and featuring a young Mel Gibson. The movie will be introduced by three short talks, one setting the context of the battle and the connection to Scotland, another on the enormous impact Gallipoli had on New Zealand and Australia and finally a talk putting this centenary event in the context of the counter program to the government's glorification of the war and of militarism. The movie will be followed by a discussion. FREE. All welcome. Sponsored by the Scottish Peace Network and the Industrial Workers of the World.

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

 

What If The Angels Don't Come?

Food for thought-----

 What If The Angels Don't Come.

Large appealing eyes framed in a heart shaped head

precariously perched on fleshless body,

sitting in parched desert amidst the dead

viewed with the sound of newsreel melody:

send some food, pray the dought will end

but,    what if the angels don't come?

Demented parent in poverty's claw

torn by desperation and despair,

every nerve exposed and raw

trapped in depressio's iron snare;

we pray her fortunes turn around

but,    what if the angels don't come?

Well trained soldiers stand on hot sand

heads bowed, automatic weapons firm in hand;

now aware of horrors of the battle field

reverent prays the receive God's shield

but,    what if the angels don't come?

Another war over,

to anguish torn families bodies come home,

father, mother, sister, brother,

painfully weeping from the marrow of their bone,

we offer prayers for families of the dead

but,    what if the angels don't come?

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

Churchill's Bloody Disaster, Gallipoli.

 

        Tomorrow April 25th. our imperialist state will bring out all its regalia, pomp and ceremony, in an attempt to turn one of its most brutal blunders into a show of glory, and claim another victory for democracy. The event that  they will "celebrate"  will be the centenary of the battle of Gallipoli, a stupid, needless, blood bath of young men, dreamed up by the racist, fascist, Winston Churchill. At the time it was such a blundering disaster that Churchill lost his position in the government. The pomp and parades will be an attempt to airbrush the disaster aspect of the blunder out of our consciousness, and have it photo-shopped as all glory and honour.

      Our imperialist state will always glorify war, it needs war to protect its power and privileges, and ever opportunity will be taken to show war with pride and glory. There is no glory in war, it is a tactic whereby states protect and enhance their power, at the expense of the ordinary people. 

From No Glory In War:

Anzac Day 25 April 2015: Gallipoli 100 years on
25 April 2015 marks the hundredth anniversary of the start of the British-led military invasion of Gallipoli on Turkey’s Dardanelle Peninsula, which resulted in over 200,000 dead and wounded in an eight-month period.

Gallipoli was a military disaster. Yet, a century on, politicians seeking to glorify the First World War, are calling the huge loss of life at Gallipoli "a price worth paying."

As the Australian government spends $300 million commemorating the WWI centenary, and using it to promote militarism and nationalist myths, veterans' groups have condemned the "nationalist circus" that Anzac Day has become.

The UK government, which is spending £60 million on its own nationalist circus commemorating WW1, has a number of Anzac Day events, including in London and Turkey. There will of course be little mention of Winston Churchill's role as prime mover of the Gallipoli catastrophe, which lead to his dismissal from the British government a hundred years ago.

Rather than celebrating the rewriting of history to promote new wars being waged on this 100th anniversary, it is important to remember what really happened at Gallipoli.

The No Glory website aims to capture the reality of what took place, with a dedicated page, Anzac Day 2015 - the Gallipoli disaster 100 years on, that has links to articles, videos, songs etc.

Among the features are two conflicting views of The Water Diviner, Russell Crowe's film about Gallipoli, which was Australia's highest grossing film in 2014. One reviewer says the film is anti-war, the other says the opposite.

And from that "revered" Western capitalist mouthpiece, The Wall Street Journal:

      The British government gave much consideration to the eventual division of the Ottoman lands once the straits were captured but very little to how the operation might ­actually be executed. The ­amateurish preparation and the resulting fiasco are ­recounted with sharp, taut precision in “Gallipoli: The End of the Myth,” Robin Prior’s near-definitive analysis of the campaign.
      The assumption that Britain would simply sweep to victory over second-rate Turkey was just the first of many errors of judgment. At each stumble, when a logical examination of the campaign would have had only one possible conclusion—withdrawal—Britain’s leaders doubled down, eventually committing a half-million troops to the Gallipoli ­Peninsula in a sequence of bloody landings and operations.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Urgent Call-out, For Net Neutrality.

      Despite the recent victory to keep net-neutrality on the Internet, the big corporations, as usual, don't accept defeat easily, and are trying to get their way, and control the Internet, by other means.

This from FFTF:

     If we don’t stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) it will do more damage to the Internet than any other deal in history.

That’s why today we’re working with hundreds of websites to flood Congress with calls demanding they oppose putting this secret deal on a Fast Track to approval.

Take action to stop the TPP right now

For Team Internet,

Fight for the Future

P.S. Looking for more information about the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Check out this overview.

Want more awesome more often?
* Like us on Facebook
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* Keep us fighting, chip in what you can.

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

Jobs, Economic Growth, Regeneration, And All That Crap.

 

         It was like a breath of fresh air, to see that young woman, jump onto Mario Draghi's desk and scatter his holy scriptures like snow in the wind. The pompous, untouchable, privileged, parasite, ECB president, almost made contact with the real world. His little bubble that protects him from real people almost burst. For a fleeting moment, his power and privilege vanished. There for all to see was the man, the vulnerable flawed being, who has grown to believe the power he has is his own, and not the power of the edifice that is built around him, and is there only by our submissiveness. When will we withdraw that submissive permission?
This from The Acorn:

        When a young anti-capitalist leapt on to the desk in front of European Central Bank president Mario Draghi when he was giving a press conference in Frankfurt on April 15, the look on Draghi’s face was priceless. Where was his security? Where was his certainty? Where was his unchallenged power to pontificate without any interruption from those who should know their submissive place in the social structure and stick to it?
       The impact of this one-woman protest (following on from the thousands-strong protests in Frankfurt a few weeks ago and hopefully continuing with the May 1 protests against the World Fair in Milan) is something that needs to be matched on a theoretical level. We heretics of the capitalist age need to blow a hole in the smug certainties of the neoliberal cult of which Draghi is part.
        Jobs, economic growth, regeneration. These are its holy words, the sanctimonious doublespeak that is uttered every time it carries out some new abomination.
        Like all such dogma, these terms “cannot” be challenged. They are supposed to be self-evidently desirable. From within the capitalists’ world, it is so obvious that “everyone” is in favour of jobs, growth and regeneration that they don’t even feel they have to argue the case.
But the truth is that it is precisely only from within their world that they make any sense. It is only by accepting all the assumptions that lie behind these loaded terms that they appear to be positive concepts.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Let's Roar.

There is no need to stand alone----

Let's Roar.

The problem's too big

the perpetrators unknown

you can't beat the system

all on your own.

So it's easy to withdraw

find your own little cage

turn a blind eye to the suffering

stifle your rage,

but the greed goes on

the poverty's still there,

you can't just leave it

for your children to bear.

Others feel as you do

eager to put things right

but locked in isolation

it's a hopeless fight,

so don't sit in silence

behind a closed door,

your voice can help raise

a whisper to a roar.

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

Election, A Propaganda Vehicle!!

      This Crooks and Liars competition, (the general election) has seen Class War put up candidates, and there has been much criticism from certain anarchist quarters. I personally see nothing wrong in useing every means available to raise the awareness that we are in fact in a class war situation. There is no doubt from Class War's stance, that even if elected, a very big if, they would not be taking part in the charade that takes place in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. They make it quite clear that this in no more than a propaganda event to help to bring the words, class war and anarchism to the fore of people's minds. I see it as a wonderful propaganda stunt and poking ridicule at the ridiculous. The same principles still apply, our dreams will never fit in their ballot boxes.

        Ian Bone can probably explain it better himself:

       Heckling at elections is more difficult now. Politicians are kept away from human contact by an army of minders determined to prevent any embarrassment and stick to the soundbite agenda with a slogan that will be pumped throughout the day. Paradoxically though – the harder it is to intrude into the election circus the more seismic is the effect when it does happen. Think Gordon Brown’s ‘that awful woman’ or the rictus look of terror on the politician’s face when confronted by a lone individual in front of the cameras. These lone individuals are modern propagandists by the deed – much feared and liable to blow the election apart with a few dogged words.

       A few of us in Class War have been heckling politicians on St. Stephens Green on important parliamentary days when the media set up camp. There, in front of you, are your enemies. You can be political or puerile: “I thought you were dead” has been said to David Steele, and the very wonderful “You made Peter Andre cry” to Kay Burley when interviewing Alastair Darling. We lamented in the pub afterwards that such occasions weren’t more frequent.

      But they are at election time, and to give it a national focus rather than a series of chance heckles we decided to stand candidates. By any means necessary means by any means necessary – not by any means necessary apart from voting.----------

Read the full article HERE:

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

Deported To Death.

   More on the latest death at Yarl's Wood, from Act For Freedom Now:

       Here in England, yesterday (Monday) a man died in Yarl’s Wood detention centre. According to a corporate media report: One female detainee, who asked not to be named, said the man who died was 33 and his wife was also in her mid-thirties. Both were on a visit to the UK from their home in India when they were arrested and detained in the family unit at Yarl’s Wood. The detainee said she thought the couple had children back home in India. “The man’s wife is in a state of shock. She was taken to the legal corridor but she is not speaking,” said the detainee. “The couple had just had breakfast and the man had been drinking an energy drink. Suddenly he collapsed and died.” She added that the couple had been in Yarl’s Wood for two months. “I think they came here with visitors’ visas. They said they wanted to see London but they were detained at the airport and brought to Yarl’s Wood. As far as I know he was healthy and not on any medication. He was very nice and so is she, they would make us all laugh. They were a lovely couple but now she is quite alone.”

   And what happens to some of them that are deported from detention centres?

  
    On Sunday, the islamic fascist scum of ISIS released a video claiming to show the killing of 28 Ethiopian christians by their soldiers in Libya. Today, three of the people killed were identified by their friends and loved ones as Eritrean refugees who had been deported from migrant detention camps in Israel. Media Report HERE.

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

Boycott Israel, Support The Protesters .

       We all know that the Israeli state is racist and is engineering genocide of the Palestinian people, but for their own selfish reasons, practically all the developed countries in the West, look the other way. This makes them complicit in one of the biggest crimes against humanity in recent times. What makes their despicable support even more inhumane and unjust is the fact that when people stand up and try to do something about the arming and supporting of this racist regime, they are the ones that are punished.

       This is a call out from Glasgow Palestinian Action for support and solidarity with a group who tried to draw attention to our government and its industries support of the racist Israeli regime. There is about two weeks to organise and drum up support, these courageous defendants should not have to stand alone.

       Show solidarity with Glasgow Palestine Action, both inside and outside the Sheriff Court on Midday of May 6th, as the outcome of their claim that there is no case to answer for their protest against Thales is likely to be heard.
         Thales makes components for drones which are sold to the Israeli Defence Force and were used in the assault of Gaza.
          Four people audaciously occupied the roof of the building and unfurled banners reading 'STOP ARMING ISRAEL. ANOTHER SCOTLAND IS POSSIBLE', 'UK GOV, THALES, ELBIT, COMPLICIT IN GENOCIDE' and 'HOMES NOT DRONES' while five others blockaded both the front and back gates with arm tubes reading 'Free Palestine' and 'Boycott Israel'.
        Despite the overwhelming support of passers by the Crown have pursued charges of breach of the peace. We say there is no case to answer for these actions and ask for anyone who can spare the time to come down and show your support.

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

Buried Treasure.

As life glides on, what do we really value?

Buried Treasure.

Rich,     man I'm rich.

this life, this treasure chest of mine,

crammed full.

Those moments of ecstasy with forgotten names,

burning loves that broke the rules,

quiet meetings that burst into flames,

short lived loves

sealed with brittle vows.

Passions that sparked and flashed

bring warmth,    even now.

Ruby red anguish that shaped my heart

diamond friendships this world can't part,

a son that changed this world to gold

adding pride to my treasure chest.

A daughter brought radiance beyond compare,

of precious gems,    they gave the best.

These jewels, these precious stones

this bounty beyond belief

all mine,

outshine a prince's throne.

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

Death At Yarl's Wood.

      The UK, a country that proclaims to be a democracy, yet has detention centres jammed full of migrants who are treated as less than human. No human is illegal, we are all citizens of this earth, yet we allow these unfortunate people to be caged like animals. People who in many cases are fleeing war, persecution and death, and all we can do is lock them up. Others are detained on the arbitrary decision of some officious pumped up uniform.

A special call-out for solidarity from The Unity Centre:

EMERGENCY DEMO End Detention Set Them Free.

Thursday, 22 April at 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Festival Court, 200 Brand St, G51 1DH (turn left out of Cessnock Underground)

      Enough is enough, no more DEAD in detention. Calling out all our supporters to join us to protest for the death of Pinakin Patel in Yarl's Wood's family unit (Hummingbird) that happened yesterday (20/04/15)
     The demo will be at Glasgow Immigration Reporting Centre, during lunch break so people can join us. This is nation wide emergency as deaths keep on happening due to lack of adequate medical care and an abusive immigration system that keeps criminalizing migrants.

Feel free to bring placards and musical instruments or similar

Info on Pinakin Patel
      Two months ago Mr Patel and his wife, Bhavisha Ben Patel, came to Britain from India lawfully, on visitors visas. Immigration officers simply decided not to believe that Mr & Mrs Patel were genuine visitors, even though they have an 8 year old son in India. They were sent straight from the airport to Yarl’sWood, where they have been ever since. Two day ago the Movement for Justice demonstrated at Yarl’s Wood and women gathered at the windows, waving and joining the shouts and chants to shut down Yarl’s Wood and end detention. Today Yarl’s Wood women are angry. They know that, like so many others, the Patels were victims of Britain’s arbitrary, racist immigration controls and immigrant-bashing policies.
      They saw police, forensics and an ambulance come into the centre while Hummingbird detainees were shut in their unit; Indian women were angry that they could not speak to Mrs Patel because her phone was taken from her and she was confined to a room. They all know the Home Office &
Serco are preparing a cover-up. Far too many people have died in immigration detention just as far too many have been allowed to drown in the Mediterranean. We are building the movement to tear down this barbaric Europe-wide racist policy.

PLEASE SHARE WIDELY!
LOVE AND SOLIDARITY

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

Rank And File.

       “Our duty, which was the logical outcome of our ideas, the condition with which our conception of revolution and re-organisation of society imposes on us, namely, to live among the people and to win them over to our ideas by actively taking part in their struggles and sufferings” —Errico Malatesta

     An interesting article, "If it isn't rank and file, it isn't anarchism" from Anarchist Materialism:

     In order for the Anarchist movement to mature in this country, we must address a particularly troubling dilemma. Are we to continue our historical struggle within the working class or do we evolve into a professional class of labor organizers and bureaucrats?? Addressing this question isn’t only about disagreements in methods but in affirming an anarchist conception of organization from the base. Whether in garment factories and ports or in hotels and retail, our focus on the rank and file has always been obvious– without the revolutionary self organization of the workers, we will never overthrow this unjust system of economic and political domination.

Read the full article HERE:

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

The Poet Has Words Of Love To Tell.

Sometime we need to stop, clean our glasses and see where we really are.

WHERE ARE YOU?

Where are you youth?
I remember you well,
You showed me visions of a new world
Where poverty died a sudden death,
Peace reigned so long
We’d forgotten where the last soldier fell.
People loved and people laughed,
People danced to the troubadour’s song,
People listened when the poet spoke
For he had words of love to tell.
Nature triumphed over barren lands
Its bounty shared by all,
Grasping greed withered and died
Caring and sharing sounded his death knell.
Where are you youth?
We seem to have lost our way.
Our planet is pillaged and plundered
and left to rot and bleed.
As loud beats war’s barbaric drum beat.
There’s ethnic cleansing and corporate greed
The “I, me, egotism and guile”
Today’s dominant creed.
Now more than ever, dear youth,
Your transcendent vision, your brave tomorrow
Is our tragic world’s compelling need.

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

Poverty surrounded By Obscene Wealth.

      America is the shining example of how capitalism works, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, because of the tremendous wealth of that country, the difference is so very glaring. Over the past six years of the “recession”, America's wealth grew by a staggering 60%, more than $30 trillion. Capitalism, being what it is, over roughly the same period, the number of homeless children grew by 60%, and there are 16 million children on food stamps. While the pampered parasites of American capitalism have been stuffing their carpet bags with loot, the standard of living for children has plummeted.

       According to a UNICEF report, the four countries with the lowest child well-being are Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and America, America being 26 out of 29, scoring badly on all counts. The UK of course doesn't score much better being 16 in the 29 developed countries of the world. In that land of plenty, the good ol' US of A, more than half of all public school pupils are poor enough to qualify for lunch subsidies. Of course race also comes into the equation, almost 50% of all black children under the age of six, live in poverty. To see a country with so much wealth and so much glaring poverty, surely tells you that the system is rigged against the ordinary people. Common sense, humanity and simple decency tells you that there is more than enough to go round to give everybody a decent standard of living. However, capitalism, doesn't have common sense, humanity and simple decency, it only has greed perpetuated through exploitation. America is only unique in its quantity of wealth, not in its unfair distribution, that's part and parcel of capitalism in all countries across this capitalist world. Don't you think we could do better if we, the people, managed our own affairs and handled the distribution of the wealth, and let's not forget, we create all that welath, it is by right, ours in the first place. 

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