Stand Up For Peace.

      With what can be called world war III going on in the Middle East, we should never lose sight of the fact that with all the imperialist powers involved, there is every possibility of it spiralling out to a wider area covering countries beyond the Middle East. There is no guarantee that the bloodshed, death, devastation and misery, will be contained to that particular region, those involved will up the ante if they feel they are losing ground to their opposing imperial powers. There is too much oil and gas involved for the power mongers to walk away.
     With that in mind we should continually keep raising our voices against the militarist basis of the system we live under. We must make it clear to the powers that be that we will not tolerate this world based on military might and power.

     To that end the Scottish Peace Network in conjunction with others, holds a monthly vigil, in Buchanan Street Glasgow, against the militaristic nature of our society.
       August vigil will be held this Thursday August 25th. at the Donald Dewar statue at the top of Buchanan Street Glasgow, from 5pm-6pm. The weather is set to be fine so no excuse, turn up and raise your voice for peace and an end to this ruthless slaughter in the name of power. 

Thursday, 25th. August,
5pm to 6pm,
Donald Dewar Statue,
Buchanan Street,
Glasgow.

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

 

Rojava-Spain??

         Is Rojava, Spain 1936? Well the Turkish state seems to think so. After the recent bombing in the mainly Kurdish area of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's fascist psychopathic president, says, he will play a more active part in the war in Syria, which in his language, translates to, bomb the shit out of the Kurds involved in the Syrian war. Which of course will be Rojava. There are anarchists across the world who passionately believe that Rojava is Spain 1936 and put their lives on the line in support of that belief, and others without any reference to Spain see what is happening in Rojava as a spark of hope for the future of freedom for the individual, and the freedom of all humanity, and likewise, put their lives on the line. They deserve the support and respect of us all.

This from Insurrection News:

       When anarchism was born, it was born as a borderless struggle and as a struggle for a free world. From its inception as a political theory its proponents moved across territories to engage in the struggle, connected with comrades, and fought alongside those who struggled for liberation as virulently as they did.
        In New York we struggle on the backs of giants, yet still for a hundred years, against a massive state that never stopped its colonial, imperial incursions. Rojava has pried open the hegemonic monster of the state and illuminated the possibility of liberation in the struggle of anarchists worldwide; not just anarchists but all those who feel the inescapable draw of a free life.
        We are here to say goodbye to Jordan MacTaggart (also known as Ciwan Firat). He was an american anarchist and YPG fighter who gave his life for the liberation of Manbij: a key point in the struggle for Rojava and a city under the oppressive rule of Daesh.
       We salute you as a comrade who deeply knew the struggle we face here.
      We salute you for recognizing the importance of Rojava in our international struggle and for making the ultimate sacrifice to help keep the revolutionary struggle alive.
       We will never forget that when you lay on that field injured, you asked those of us who remain to keep the revolution going.
       For the sacrifice you have made we deepen our commitments to the struggle here, to fighting for the revolution in Rojava,
and to acting on all fronts of this battle with the dedication you have set.

Biji Ciwan Firat
Biji Rojava
Long live the anarchist fighters
Long live the revolution

-Anarchists of New York

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

USA Incarcerated Manufacturing Corporation.

         This post is to remind us that there is a prisoners strike planned for September 9th, in America's prisons, and why. Because of the utter appalling conditions, injustice and corruption of the whole prison system this strike demands our support. Caging animals is is seen as wrong, but we still tolerate the caging of humans, why?
           I doubt that the general public are aware that the so called leader of the free world, The Good Ol' US of A, is also the leader in incarcerating its own people. The US leads the world in nuclear power, and in general military power, to quell any resistance to its hegemony from overseas, but it also has a brutal system to quell any resistance by its own people to the tyranny of its savage system of capitalism.
         The American prison system is one big corporate money making machine, which recruits from the poorest and most disadvantaged sections of its communities. The judiciary in America is part and parcel of that corporate recruiting system. Once incorporated into its caged workshops, you are there for years, you lose all rights, and become a slave in one of the largest corporate money making enterprises in America. No union rights, no holidays, no days off, and punishment if you don't work hard enough.

Some startling facts from Policy.Mic:

      The U.S. imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. 

1. The United States has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's prisoners.

2. The total incarcerated population in the U.S. is a staggering 2.4 million — a 500% increase over the past 30 years. 
3. One in every 108 adults was in prison or jail in 2012.
4. One in 28 American children has a parent behind bars.  
5. At the end of 2007, 1 in 31 adults was behind bars, on probation or on parole.
6. Currently, 65 million Americans have a criminal record.
7. There are more people behind bars today for a drug offense than there were in 1980 for all offenses combined.

More facts HERE:

         The American corporate world have more or less taken over the prison system and are working it to create massive profits. It has nothing to do with punishment or rehabilitation, it is all to do with increasing the numbers of slaves and maximising the profits. 

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

Read the full article HERE

Episode 198: This week we bring you another installment of our Which Side: Lectures series. This presentation was given by the Tucson ABC on August 2, 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Boing! Anarchist Collective. The Lecture is called: “Prisoner Support for Prison Abolition: National Prison Strike September 2016“.

In this lecture, members of the Tucson Anarchist Black Cross discuss past and present anti-prison struggles in the United States. The aim of the lecture is to provide historical context to mass incarceration, detail past struggles against prisons and policing by prisoners and folks on the outside alike, and to discuss current forms of creative resistance to the U.S. prison system. The conclusion highlights ongoing efforts to coordinate a national prison strike set to begin September 9th of this year, and note how an abolitionist perspective can inform effective prisoner support work. #fsd

You can find out more about Which Side: Lectures and all the other podcasts in the collective by visiting: http://whichsidecollective.org

Help Contribute: Anyone is free to contribute lectures they’ve recorded from events they’ve attended or speeches they have given. We actually encourage it… So please send your audio or video recordings to Lectures@WhichSideCollective.org #fsd

Episode Sponsor:

This weeks episode is sponsored by Prisoner Support!

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

A Pause In The National Chest Thumping, until 2020.

      Now that the 2016 Olympics are over, what now? We have come to the end of the frenzied flag waving, the thumping of the national chest, time now to go back to your crap job and lousy wages, back to trying to scrape by on benefit, but now you are supposed to do that with a feel good factor. After all, look at all those medals, but also look at the billions of dollars that rolled into the coffers of the corporate institutions involved, and think of the billions of dollars of Brazilian tax payers money that made it all possible. Brazil, a country with stark differences, the usual capitalist opulence, and the obligatory capitalist deprivation. Millions living in slums and a crumbling infrastructure, being fed the syrup of illusion that they should be proud to have hosted this massive money making juggernaut at their expense. Think, who gained most from this extravaganza of nationalism, what will your quality of life be like next year, how much benefit from those medals will come your way.

 This from Anarchist News:

       The Olympic games are here again and while it’s sold to us a demonstration of peace and solidarity and the finest humans have to offer, it is often anything but that. In fact, in many ways, it is a reflection of the very worst of society under capitalism.
        The modern Olympics were established with the highest ideals, and a desire to foster peace. Instead they have become little more than a display of nationalistic pride and flag waving by nations who co-opt the efforts of the athletes to further their own schemes. From the very first games this has been demonstrated when the 1896 games in Athens led to a surge in Greek nationalism, and an eventual war with Turkey in 1897.
       The rich countries of the West also get the chance to reinforce their perceived superiority over the rest as the Games are heavily weighted in their favour. From the very beginning the Games were set up by European elites and built on western sports. Many non-western countries have long histories of indigenous sports and games that were ignored and continue to be. In response to this, Brazil saw the hosting of the first World Indigenous Games in 2015 where over 2,000 participating indigenous athletes from 30 countries, including 43 Māori athletes, competed in a variety of sporting events. These ranged from a few Western-style competitions (football, athletics) to many indigenous traditional games, such as xikunahity, a football-style game in which the ball is controlled only with the head.-----

Read the full article HERE:

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

A Fine Piece Of Wood.

 

     This Sunday found me cycling up the Loch, (Loch Lomond), a lovely part of the country. The weather forecast wasn't quite what I understood it to be, early cloud clearing, brightening up in the afternoon. In fact it was drizzle and rain most of the way to Tarbet, but it did clear up on the way back down the Loch. Still a wonderful place to be with a bike.

     The last time I cycled up the Loch I took a photograph of the Tarbet Hotel, and comrade Loam at arrezafe commented on the wooden table outside the restaurant, Saying he had an interest in carpentry, and he had not seen table legs put on that way.

      So to feed his interest in carpentry, I thought I would post this picture of the wooden seat across the road from the hotel, just up from the shore of the Loch. As you can see from the bike, it is a large chunk of wood.

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

The Violence Of The State's Minders.

       How can a person who is known to the authorities, and who under their instructions, presents himself to the local police station, end up dead during this visit and classified and buried as an unknown person.This is just another case of callous police brutality. The minders of state power know that the establishment will protect them, as they do their bosses dirty work. From America to Greece, from UK to France, police violence is well documented, but never prosecuted. However we should never forget that brutality, nor where they stand in relation to the ordinary people.

       This horrifying case of alleged defenestration is not the first in police history, and, sadly it will not be the last. 

(defenestration: While the act of defenestration connotes the forcible or peremptory removal of an adversary, and the term is sometimes used in just that sense,^[6] it also suggests breaking the windows in the process (de- also means removal). Although defenestrations can be fatal depending on the height of the window through which a person is thrown or throws oneself or due to lacerations from broken glass, the act of defenestration need not carry the intent of, or result in, death.) Wikipedia.

This from Contra Info:

      Open letter from the prisoners of Greek prisons to the jointly responsible ministers of public order and justice:
      On the 3rd of August 2016, the recently released—and former co-prisoner of ours—Pëllumb Marnikollaj goes to Patisia Police Station [Athens] to present himself before the relative authorities in fulfilment of the conditional terms of his release. Under up-until-now unexplained circumstances, he is transferred to Red Cross Hospital and, eventually, to the morgue. Shortly before being buried as of unknown identity—and despite the fact that his identity was known to the authorities—his relatives collect his corpse and allude to torture and defenestration.
       We are not the ones in charge of judging on what really happened. However, the number of reasons, which we have, not to believe the version of the Greek Police equals to the thousands of prisoners found in Greek prisons. It’s not merely the clumsiness in the way police attempted to cover the incident up; neither the fact that their explanations go against any common sense. (Come on, misters of the Greek Police. Who would believe that not only a prisoner, but even a citizen that visits a station to have his ID card issued would ever be allowed to roam around police offices, opening and closing windows undisturbed?)
     We have every reason to believe the family’s version of the needless death of our co-prisoner because every single one of us has endured the atrocities that take place inside the interrogation offices of police stations. We might not have had a first-hand defenestration experience; however, plenty of us have been under its threat as form of a not at all uncommon method of interrogation. We have, also, all been surprised by the fact that the windows of police stations are adorned with “flower boxes”.
      That we draw up this letter and make it public does not at all mean that we have the slightest hope for an investigation or that those responsible will eventually be held accountable. It’s already straightforward that we, the poor, the unemployed, the immigrants, all those who fill up your prisons are obliged to pay the price of our deeds. In contrast, those who brought us here by means of sweeps, batons and automatic guns will always enjoy the immunity that you open-handedly offer them, since double standards apply when it comes to decisions upon what is regarded as crime and what is not.
      Finally, we make it clear to all that we, as prisoners of the Greek prisons, do not intend to take sides in the game that the Greek and Albanian embassies play. We only want a reply. Even if we take the provocatively untrue version of the police seriously, Messrs. Ministers, is it the capacity of former prisoner or that of immigrant that allows a human being’s death to be dealt with such worthlessness that not even objects deserve?

PS: As an action of protest, we will be delaying our night return to our cells by one hour for three days.

Prisoners of Greek prisons

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

Squat The World.

        It's amazing how the logic of the state says that it is unacceptable that people should live in an abandoned building, and it is much better that they live on the street. That's capitalism for you, living in an abandoned building is too dangerous, much safer to sleep on the streets. Of course we all know that the state cannot allow the people to resolve their problems by themselves, it must always create the illusion that only the state and the corporate world can resolve our problems. Big business and the state are supposed to be the answers to all our problems, when in fact it is obvious that they are the root cause of most, if not all, of our problems. This video from Workers Solidarity Movement, (Ireland)

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

World War III.

       What do you call a war where every major power in the world is involved? I suppose it should be called World War III. The difference with this world war is that they are not fighting each other over a large expanse of the planet’s surface. Instead, they are fighting each other on one plot of land for control of the Middle East. Of course you’ll be fed the usual bullshit that all the major powers in the world are spending billions of pounds/dollars/roubles to help the Syrian people. One section are helping the Syrian people by trying to remove a nasty leader, the other section are helping the Syrian people by trying to maintain a wonderful leader of the people. 

     Meanwhile, the people of Syria are being slaughtered in their tens thousands, their towns and cities are being pulverised, and we have to believe it is all for the benefit of the people of that area. It is the only way to help them, we in the West are so altruistic. Our lords and masters only have the well-being of the people of Syria at heart. If you believe that crap, your brain has melted by watching too much TV. 

    No matter how they dress it up, we are in the midst of World War III, the power mongers have managed to localise their slaughter, and that mode of warfare will continue until one or the other can take control of the Middle East area and it vast resources, no major power will allow any other major power to control it all, hence the bloodshed. If they can’t resolve their blood fest with a clear winner, then in all probability, it could spread over a wider area, they will have no hesitation in doing so, remember 1914, then 1939, well nothing has changed, the power mongers are still empire builders.

     To end this insanity based on greed and power, we have to destroy the root, the state. The states of this world are the biggest terror organisations on the planet. They have the greatest fire-power, they do the greatest damage, and they kill the greatest number of innocent people. Until we resolve that problem, the death and destruction will continue.

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

Freedom From Religion.

       Why does religion get special treatment in our society? We are always hearing that in a free society you should be free to indulge in the religion of your choice. However freedom and religion stand on opposite sides of a chasm. Religion is an authoritarian institution, and in most cases, is interwoven with the power strands of the state. In almost all the countries on this planet, religion and state stand side by side holding hands in their attempt to control the people. All religions have a heritage of brutal violence against other religions, and more venomous brutality against those who disbelieve their particular fantasy. Religion must be seen for what it is, a control system, a system that demands obedience to a set of dogmas handed down from higher authority, therefore the enemy of freedom.
 

     If we seek freedom to live our lives in free association, and voluntary co-operation, then religion and all its authoritarian bullshit has to be our enemy. It is not, as it would have you believe, an innocent bystander that hands out charity, it is part and parcel of an authoritarian system that demands obedience. By constant struggle from ordinary people we have, to a degree, put a muzzle on the brutality of religion, but it is still inherent within the beast, they still have the desire to punish disbelievers. 

     To fight for freedom means that the gloves should be off in regard to all authority, state, judiciary, religion, and the rest. Authority comes in many guises, sometimes with a smile, sometimes with a helping hand, but behind its back, it always, but always, carries a thick stick. Religion is no different, it must be grouped with all the other authoritarians.

 

A to Z of Religions

Acclaim Arrogant Absolutes.

Bellow Bygone Beliefs.

Casuist Cackling Cabal.

Deadly Divine Dogma.

Embellish Earlier Errors.

Form Fearful Fundamentalists.

Gaily Gabble Gehenna.

Hype Holy Hate.

Ignorantly Idolise Illusion.

Justify Judgmental Jargon.

Knowingly Kindle Kulturkampf.

Lambaste Liberal Learning.

Machiavellian Mind Moulding.

Narrate Nescient Nostrum.

Obligatory Obnoxious Obfuscation.

Peremptory Pestiferous Panjandrum.

Quickly Quell Querists.

Redundant Reactionary Rants.

Suppress Scholastic Scepticism.

Totally Trammel Tolerance.

Ululate Useless Utterances.

Vaticinate Vicious Vengeance.

Wailing Wearisome Waffle.

Extol Excessive Exaltation.

Y? Y? Y?

Zany Zealous Zealots.

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

The Dear Green Place??

 

      After reading the previous blog, my comrade Loam at arrezafe sent me this poem. It gives a snapshot of life under the outpourings of the Tennant's chemical works. Incidentally, it mentions the street where I was born, Charles Street. However, the story I have heard of Tennant was not one of his "radicalism" but that he built is chemical empire on a stolen formula for bleach, stolen from a friend. Though I have never had this verified.

Thanks Loam for the poem.

      The following poem, recited by Hugh Aitken Dow at a St Rollox school reunion in 1875 illustrates the change brought to a once peaceful scene by the chemical works – known by many locals as ‘Dante’s Inferno’!

 “A busy, noisy, clam’rous spot
where trees, nor flowers nor fields are seen
where men by day and night are wrought
and holy calm hath rarely been.

Where fragrant zephyrs never blow
but smutty is its atmosphere.
When rains fall dense and winds are low
It’s sulphrous elements appear.

When winds blow south, a cloud by day
it may at once be seen and felt
for smarting eyes then own its sway
through muffled noises then ‘tis smelt.

There fiery pillars, gleam at night
from hooded chimneys, tow’ring high
and cast their vivid, fork’d flames bright
up to the troubled murky sky.

Thus fiery cross like, shineth clear
the cupolas of Charles Street
answering to McAndrew’s near
while Hamilton’s the call repeat.

There Vulcan’s strokes would fail to match
the Glasgow ironworks polka blows
his lurid fires would pace and din
‘fore Tennants countless furnace glows.”

http://www.roystonroadproject.org/archive/history/garngad_royston.htm

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

Opulence And Deprivation, Two Sides Of The Capitalist Coin.

       It is easy to look around this capitalist lunatic asylum we live in, and find injustice and inequality, it’s everywhere. In all our cities and towns, there are areas of opulence and areas of deprivation, but it is supposed to be the same country. All our taxes, rates and other deductions from our incomes and purchases, are meant to go into the one pot and be shared out fairly among the whole. Yet in any city there will be glaring inequality.
     I was born in Garngad, one of Glasgow’s many festering slums, it was demolished and the area renamed Royston. We moved to the Springburn area still in the north of the city. In its day it was a railway town in its own right. The Hydepark Locomotive Works was a massive employer in the area, as was the “Caley”, St Rrollox Caledonian Railway Works. In its day it was said the the Hydepark works made around 80% of the world’s steam locomotives, and the “Caley” was the largest railway repair and maintenance yard in Europe. Across the road from that was Tennants Chemical Works, again claiming to be the largest in Europe, which spewed out its toxic filth over Garngad and Springburn. They all disappeared and Springburn died with them. They knocked most of Springburn down and built a dual carriageway. 

        As a boy I spent lots of time in the Springburn Public Park, a large park with football pitches, bowling greens, cricket pitch, boating pond and wildlife pond, lots of green space and winding paths. It was also home to a wonderful botanic garden where I would spend hours wandering its corridors amazed at the array of exotic trees, shrubs and plants. It was also a wonderful place to go on a cold day and get lost in that humid heat.

 

        But Springburn is in the north of the city, not the West End, so things started to just run down through lack of funding. With the heart of Springburn gone, the botanic gardens was emptied and left to rot, now all that remains is a large rusting structure, resembling the massive rib cage of some long dead dinosaur. It has a fence around it with warnings not to enter as it is dangerous. Well, this is the north of the city, the people there don’t need a botanic garden, they can visit the one in the West End. Springburn was also home a fine red sandstone Victorian building, called The Springburn Public Hall. It was the beating heart of the district, hosting all manner of events from dances to meetings, form clubrooms to boxing events. It to closed and was left until the shrubs started to cover its ledges, it was declared unsafe and was demolished. Another land mark in the north of the city that was demolished was the Garngadhill Church, its spire could be seen for miles around as it was on a high part of the city, a well know landmark. The city fathers decided that it should come down, but there was such opposition to this, not so much the church, but the spire. The council caved in and the church was demolished, the spire remains with a bit of a garden around it.
         Now back to that pot of taxes etc. that is supposed to be spent fairly among our communities. If we move to the West End of the city, There are still lots of Victorian buildings, churches are not demolished, but when they are no longer required by the funny folk who talk to their friend in the sky, they are redeveloped into a venue, a fancy restaurant, pub or a place for music, theatre, poetry etc. Despite Great Western Road at the top of Byres Road being a nightmare of traffic jams, I’ll bet there are no plans to knock down a slice of the West End to make a dual carriageway to help the flow of traffic.
         Opulence and deprivation live side by side in all of our cities and towns, they are two sides of the capitalist coin, a system of screw you, I’m all right Jack. If you are looking to see that pot of your contributions spread fairly and where they are most need, then you will have to stop running to the ballot box. You’ll have to take matters into your own hands and demolish this insanity that is ruining millions of lives on a daily basis, while a handful of parasites live on milk and honey. However, don’t expect the parasites who hold all that wealth and power, to relinquish it by reasoned persuasion alone.

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