No Freedom While One Prison Stands.

       Remembering the fact that America imprisons more people per head of population than any other country on the planet, almost 1 in 200 American citizens are behind bars, then it is not surprising that those caged humans do not take it in a submissive manner. Another fact about the American prison system is, on the whole, it is a corporate business and profit is God. This is also a trend that is increasing here in the UK. There has been a growing trend in America, of prison protests, and there are plenty, linking up and co-ordinating their efforts in an attempt to alleviate their brutal treatment and suffering. Demanding change can turn these inhumane cage factories into non profitable entities for the corporate world, and they will walk away. At present they are only making a profit because of the appalling conditions and the government subsides, a staggering $39 billion-a-year to fund America’s prisons with the total budget for incarceration being $60.3 billion. By 2020, the Department of Justice reckons it will be spending 30 percent of its budgets on federal prisons.

      There is no doubt what so ever, that prisons are factories, turning out merchandise and the labour is forced and extremely low paid, if at all. By any definition, that is slavery.

       The thirteenth amendment to the US constitution does not abolish slavery. It states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” (my emphasis). All prison systems in the US rely on prisoner labor to maintain the facilities. It is prisoners who mop floors, fix plumbing, handle paperwork, and do the many other tasks necessary to keeping the prison running. Prisoners are also farmed out to private corporations seeking cheap labor. All this labor is grossly underpaid (if paid at all) and compulsory; as many prisoners have explained to me, it is a modern form of slavery.

      There can be no place in a civilised society for prisons, prisons don't solve any problems, they only store individuals with problems, and in the process, creating greater problems for them and society in general. The dark shadow of the death penalty also hangs over the American prison system. No individual, institution or group, has the right to condemn another human to death. This barbaric tool of repression from a by-gone era, is a blot on the face of humanity. It also is an expense weapon of repression costing the American tax payer dear,  New Jersey spent $253 million-a-year at $11 million for each inmate. At the start of 2013, 3,125 inmates were on death row. Many prisoners spend many years in this appalling state, most spend at least a decade there, some more than 20 years, the longest time between a conviction and execution was 36 years. There can be no freedom while one prison still stands.

        US prisons may not be able to handle these changes; the current administrators almost certainly won’t. That is not our problem. If prisons cannot run without slavery and torture, then they should not run. Mass work stoppages and hunger strikes, with outside direct action support will make prison financially untenable. We will shut the prisons down. If the increasingly unequal and largely illusory class peace of American capitalism cannot survive without its prisons, then it too should and will end. We can and will abolish slavery and torture in US prisons, along with them we will bring down whatever institutions depend on these intolerable practices.

Read the full article HERE:

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

A Monarchy Democracy???

      The Queen's speech is one of those occasions when our Lords and Masters put on a display that shows the extent of the hypocrisy in the claim that we live in a democracy. There for all to see is the plundered wealth of the established power in this country. There for you to kneel before is YOUR monarch, sitting on a throne of gold, surrounded by pampered flunkies, The sham of representative democracy displayed to the world. 

        How can someone sitting on a gold throne, waited on hand and foot, mouth the words about "one nation"? The words that she came out with, "My government will bring forward legislation to reform trade unions and to protect essential public services against strikes," translates as, my government will make it impossible for public sector workers to defend themselves against the on coming savage cuts to their living standards. It also makes it almost impossible to "legally" have the right to withdraw your labour in the event of a dispute with your employer. Though if workers accept this form of serfdom should be up to them to decide, time will tell.

      How do you equate "one nation" with the pomp, arrogance and shear opulence of gold carriages, gold thrones, ladies in waiting and footmen, with food banks, fuel poverty, child poverty, unemployment, slave workfare and benefit sanctions? The lie is laid bare, it is their for all to see in one lavish spectacle, the inequality, the arrogant power, and they feel confident enough to say, " we don't give a shit" and flaunt it in your face. What's more, most people seem to swallow the whole spectacle as "tradition". It is a tradition that is there to let you know your place in this "one nation". 

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

Bereft Of dreams.

Sometimes it's hard to smile.

Bereft Of Dreams.

We live in a world, where

hopes and dreams are bought and sold

commodities of a cruel market,

always struggling,

robbed of our gold

the many are excluded.

Our hopes disappear in shreds

as poverty tears with its iron claw,

plundering our heart,

devouring our dreams,

creating a land where desire fears to tread,

love dies in anguished screams;

driving us into isolation,

separating each from other,

instilling fear,

when our will would have us form a chain

drag some bright horizon near.

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

It's Just Over The Wall!!!

      Everything is normal, well at first. The Glasgow slum, Garngad, where I was born, like all slums, was an unhealthy bog of deprivation, but not to me as a child, it was normal, it was all I knew. It was only when we look over the wall that we see, there is another world, and its different. Modern slavery is just like Garngad, it's the world we are born into, it is what we are trained to accept, it is “normal”. The “normal” doesn't equate with freedom. By our quiet acquiescence to institutions, traditions and the power of authority, we are enslaved, we accept the confines of our “slum”. There are those who have looked over the wall and seen a different world, a better world. Lets do to our modern slavery what we have done to our slums, knock them down and build that better world we can see over the wall.

An interesting article by Jason McQinn:

        Thus the whole set of modern institutions of enslavement (hiding behind these abstractions) have become the primary contemporary incarnation of traditionally rich and powerful bullies. This is the central fact of modern civilization, the paradigm upon which the entire social world rests: a system of enslaving institutions, in which people have been trained from birth to participate and identify, while also being trained to call the various forms of this slavery “freedom.”
       Especially amongst the most depraved slaves to modern bullies – those who sing their praises the most strongly, continuously and publicly, the people who make up the modern mass media, one cannot possibly count the times that identifications with these bullies are repeated over and over and over. For those who haven’t already gotten the message through exposure to parental submission and humiliation, or private and public schooling, the mass media (including social media) insist on telling us ad nauseam that we are beholden to “our government,” “our military,” “our businesses,” “our police,” “our laws” and on and on….
       In a world of modern slavery in which slavery is invisible because liberty has been largely reduced to following laws and orders issued, not (for the most part at least) by particular persons, but ever increasingly by abstractions (incarnated by institutions), is modern slavery still slavery when there are fewer and fewer people left able and willing to point it out? That remains to be decided. Where do you stand?
       We can each refuse idenfication with our enslavement by rebelling against it here and now at every opportunity. By refusing to let ourselves be encompassed in the silent consent implied whenever “we” or “our” includes the abstractions or institutions of modern slavery. It’s “their” system, not “ours” or “mine.” It’s the system of those who continue to believe in it, not of those who genuinely fight it. If you identify with it, you’re a part of it. The more you refuse identification with it the more its power is reduced by each and every one of us whenever we act on this refusal.

Read the full article HERE:

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

The Martyrs Stone.

   

     Not exactly my kind of cycling weather, 10/11 degrees and a strong westerly wind, but I had to escape.

The Martyrs Stone, on the Kirkintilloch-Kilsyth road.

      The original stone is on the ground. Another one by sympathisers, put up in 1886, stands beside it. The iron cage could do with a bit of repair work. Unless walking or cycling it's hard to view as the road has no parking provision and is very busy.

Situated beside the Kirkintilloch to Kilsyth Road, about a mile from the Kirkintilloch boundary, the monument is dedicated to two executed Covenanters, John Wharry and James Smith, who were put to death for their faith.

I believe their corpses lie in the field behind the stone.

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

I'll Willing Walk With Dreamers.

      I admit, I am a dreamer, I will willingly walk with dreamers. To paraphrase the words of a song, "if you never have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true."

I Dream.

I dream

A world where man

No other man will scorn,

Where love will bless the earth

And peace its paths adorn.

I dream a world where all

Will know sweet freedom's way,

Where greed no longer saps the soul

Nor avarice blights our day.

A world I dream where black or white,

Whatever race you be,

Will share the bounties of the earth

And every man is free,

Where wretchedness will hang its head

And joy, like a pearl,

Attends the needs of all mankind-----

Of such I dream, my world.

Langston Hughes.

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

The Ever More Piercing Eyes Of Big Brother.

    Anybody who thinks living under the heel of any state and its apparatus will not lead to an ever increasing invasion into their private life, is living an illusion. This march for ever more information of its citizens is essential for the state to keep control over those citizens. Big Brother is a son of the state, and it will continually feed that son. We here in the UK have seen an epidemic of CCTV, that has spread like some destructive virus, not by accident.

        As the technology behind CCTV rapidly develops, it becomes ever more intrusive, ever more clever at gathering details, from face recognition to demeanour analysis. This is all gathered, sifted, analysed and stored. Your every movement, that walk to the bookies, that crazy night out, who you meet and where. All details that can and will be, used to control.

      Police Scotland now confirms that it uses controversial face recognition software. So just remember when you next attend a peaceful and legitimate protest, march or whatever, your face is being scanned, compared and stored for future use. Under the prying eye of the state and its intrusive apparatus, "you are never alone". No need to take a selfie, just get access to the police database and you'll find thousands of images of your face from which to choose.

This from the Herald:

    Ms McInnes said the figures were "staggering" and showed Police Scotland was using "intrusive software" extensively. She added: "The photos of over 300,000 Scots are among 18 million included in the national database.

     "The combination of this database with the new facial recognition software has triggered concerns about the protection of our civil liberties. "It could be used to identify protestors at political events or football fans, stifling freedom of speech.

      "I also have real concerns that the privacy of innocent people could be compromised and they could be exposed to the risk of false identification."

Read the full article HERE:

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

One World, One People.

     

       As Bullingdon boy Cameron, beefs up his anti-immigrant  rhetoric, to satisfy the racist element in his Oxbridge cabal, it's good to see that the people on the street tell him where to shove his xenophobic ideology.
This from Rabble:

      This video going round the internet shows a day earlier this month when 2 vans of Home Office immigration thugs arrived at Peckham market, South East London. They started going into shops and asking people for names and immigration details. An angry crowd gathered shouting at them and they were forced to retreat, get back into their vans and fuck off.
We haven’t seen a full write up of this event as yet. But we know that these raids happen frequently in Peckham and in other black and migrant areas. And this is not the first time that they have been resisted and chased off.
We repost below an article from Antiraids network which gives a bit more background on what is happening with immigration raids in London recently, as the government announces an escalation in its attacks on migrants.

People in Peckham sent Immigration officers packing. First time in History. Power to the people. "Bad market" for David Cameron ' s squads.But watchout for their 2nd coming, it will be brutal. Question: in your own opinion, which you are entitled to, was it right to obstruct the immigration officers from carrying on their duty?.
Posted by Djali Journalist on Friday, 22 May 2015

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

The Brutality Of The Financial Mafia.

       The extent to which the financial institutions of the world have usurped the sovereignty of national governments is nowhere more apparent than in Greece. The extent to which this financial Mafia controls the shape and direction of any government becomes clearer and clearer with each "financial crisis". In Greece today, the people are being crushed into deprivation, the fact that they have voted in a "left" government does not mean that this situation will change. The minute that this government sat down at the table of the financial Mafia, they have accepted to play the game according to the rules of that Mafia, and that game ensures that all public assets will be handed over to to fill the coffers of the said financial Mafia. The only sovereignty they have is not to play the game at all, and this could be devastating for the people of Greece, but it could also be their opportunity for the people to take control and shape their country to their own desires. The power which the financial Mafia exert over the direction of a country is supreme, freedom will only come when we the people walk away from their gambling table and take control of our own affairs.

       In this article by Jerome Roos, gives an excellent and detailed explanation of the workings of the financial Mafia and the battle that faces not only the people of Greece, but all of us engulfed in this financial quagmire of greed.

     These three changes have been foundational to the generalized move away from widespread default, as was the norm prior to World War II, and towards the incredible track record of debtor compliance that has been established under the neoliberal regime of financialization. Ever since the Mexican debt crisis of 1982 — and the Latin American and Third World debt crises that followed in its wake — governments have generally tried to avoid a suspension of payments at all costs. As Harvey has put it:

    “What the Mexico case demonstrated was one key difference between liberalism and neoliberalism: under the former lenders take the losses that arise from bad investment decisions while under the latter the borrowers are forced by state and international powers to take on board the cost of debt repayment no matter what the consequences for the livelihood and well-being of the local population.”

Read the full article HERE:

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

A Tremendous Victory, The Rent Stkike.

      Spirit of Revolt is proud to work alongside Clydeside IWW, Scottish Peace Network, Document Human Rights Film Festival, and Fairfield Heritage Centre, in producing this event. The Rent Strike was a tremendous victory in working class struggle, an important part of our heritage, an event we can still learn from, and feel proud of all those who brought that victory to fruition.

 

Document Human Rights Film Festival – Spirit of Revolt – Scottish Peace Network – Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Present

We are not removing! Two films and a blether for the centenary of the 1915 Rent Strikes

Pearce Institute, Thursday 4 June 2015, 7pm

Free / donations welcome / Refreshments provided / Free crèche (please book)

Fairfield Heritage Centre (located a short walk away) will be open before the event

The 1915 rent strikes, which started in the back-courts of Govan tenements, were a famous victory in the ongoing struggle for decent, affordable housing, and an example of working-class solidarity in action. While the workers were risking their lives at the front, or their health in the munitions factories of the First World War, the landlords tried to increase the rents. But the women were not having any of that. They didn’t have the vote yet, but they had each other’s backs when they said – We are not removing!

Films:
Red Skirts on Clydeside (1984, 43min)
Introduced by filmmaker Jenny Woodley

When this film was made, the importance of women in the history of social movements on the Clyde had been all but forgotten. The filmmakers bring this history back from the archives through interviews with women who knew Mary Barbour, Helen Crawfurd, and Agnes Dollan. Hear how the sheriff officers got chucked into the midden and how the tenement back courts echoed with radical ideas!

You Play Your Part (2011, 24min)
Introduced by filmmaker Kirsten MacLeod

Twenty-seven years after the original film was made, Govan women reflect on their lives and roles by the Clyde in a unique collaborative women’s history film project.

There will be some time and refreshments between the films for anyone interested in the rent strikes centenary or in contemporary housing issues to meet and chat.

Free crèche will be available, please contact the organisers to book a place.

Fairfield Heritage Centre will be open until 7pm on this evening. A short walk from the Pearce Institute, featuring displays on shipbuilding and local history, including the rent strikes, in A-listed shipyard offices: http://www.fairfieldgovan.co.uk/heritage/

Earlier that day there is an event at Glasgow University on film and history, including films about the UCS work-in, Pollok Free State, and the Govanhill Baths. Please click here for details.

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

My Window With A View.

     This capitalist world drowns us in brutal contradictions, pays for opulence with misery and poverty, buys pomp and power with deprivation and death.

My Window With A View.

From my TV window on the world

I see the crazy ape

build mountains of meat

while, an arms length from my heart

a host of children die of hunger.

We with guilty silence play our part

deaf to tears that drop like thunder.

The crazy ape

casts fish back into the sea

not a length of a sigh from swarms

grovelling in rubbish tips.

Can't we hold our brothers dear,

why no righteous anger from our lips?

Now the crazy ape

hoards fields of wheat

yet, the distance of a tear-drop

hands beg a simple crust of bread,

a ritual only death will stop;

must justice wait 'till all are dead?

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

Unbroken Anarchism--A Crime!!!

       The varieties the of ways the state will conjure up to keep incarcerated those it feels are a threat to its power and control, knows no limit. A comrade is continuing to be held in a Swiss prison because, "his anarchism is unbroken". It appears that psychiatrists will only consider him for parole, if he distances himself from his ideology. A bit like the church during the Spanish inquisition. The brutality might not be as physical, but just as vindictive.

This from Contra Info:

      For some time the penal system is being aggressively colonized by psychiatry and psychology in Zurich as in prisons elsewhere. The report of the forensic psychiatric department from 31.3.2015 provides a “risk-oriented sanctions enforcement” assessment, a new evaluating development, since the report explicitly uses psychiatric argumentation only and for the first time formulates specific “recommendations”. Urbaniok’s psychiatry distributes contact prohibitions – defines political distancing or rather political renunciation as a requirement for conditional release. The big word is and remains the “crime-promoting ideology”!

We cite from the report’s controversial points:

• The legal prognosis is supposedly bad, since “he continuously strongly and actively delves in his ideology and is in contact with relevant comrades” which “can be seen in his statements as well as in his networking with the scene”.

• “It has been observed that MC’s attitude is solidified and imprisonment has not initiated a process of change.”

• “It may very well be required from a person like MC that he reflects on his statements – knowing of his influence and possible consequences – and that he is able to recognize statements of a more or less inciting content. To reduce the risk MC would have to distance himself from his conviction for which currently no evidence can be found” since he “is not willing to do any work concerning his crimes”.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Free Travel In A Beautiful Land.

        Another delightful outing on the dream machine, which means that you get lucky and see another couple of lovely snippets of our beautiful country. 

Enjoy:

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