There Is No Messiah, No Miracles.

      I believe it is safe to say that the vast majority of ordinary people are dissatisfied with the quality of their lives. Sadly, because of the bubble gum and candy floss propaganda, spewed out by our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, they seek the answers to that dissatisfaction in the very institutions that are responsible for their problems. Daily, in the midst of immeasurable wealth, we face poverty, hardship, homelessness, exploitation at work, wars, and a host of other injustices. In trying to answer these problems we continually return to the failed method of changing the government. We have tried them all, left, centrists, left of centre, right, right of centre and so the crazy pattern goes on. However, so do the problems, nothing is resolved in our favour, each new messiah falls from grace, and we seek a new saviour. By now we should have learnt that the persistent and naive routine of putting another party in power never has, and never will, fix our problems. Our problems are the result of the festering marriage between state and global capitalism, two heads of the same monster. The power of the state is in direct relation to the negation of our own power, we hand the quality and direction of our lives to others, and in doing so enhance their power over us.
        We will have to solve our own problems, by coming together and organising to take control of our own communities and workplaces, ignore the party political system that binds us to the dictate of an ideology, and destroy the capitalist system. There will be no Messiahs to lead us to the promised land, we will receive no miracles from on high, We will have to evolve our own strategies, hone our own tactics, form our own weapons, and create a revolt of strength and intelligence that will take no rebuke from the poisonous power of any state. Anything less will be a compromise with injustice, exploitation and inequality, it will be an acceptance that our earth can be plundered to destruction for the wealth and power of the few. 

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

Silent When I Should Be Screaming.

      Paper Chained is a journal of writings and artistic expressions from individuals affected by incarceration. We are currently seeking contributions from prisoners, ex-prisoners and family members of prisoners for our first journal publication. Please circulate this callout throughout your networks.
       If you are currently in prison, have experienced time in prison or have a loved one in prison, we welcome your contributions to this journal! If you know somebody who might be interested in contributing, please pass this information on to them.
        Attached is an information sheet that can be printed and mailed to prisoners and a poster you are welcome to print and display in your neighbourhood, workplaces, schools and other community hubs.
        Details about the journal and how to send in contributions can be found at our website: Runningwild (anarchist collective)

PAPER CHAINED JOURNAL – INFO FOR CONTRIBUTORS (PDF)

       The full horror of conditions within the prison system is not widely known by the general public, nor is the reasoning behind how people end up there. Books like this can help to get the true picture across, and perhaps we can then turn these hell-hole cages of injustice and brutality into piles of rubble.

      The following poem is from another similar book, "Silent When I should Be Screaming" and was dedicated to those unfortunate women who committed suicide in Scotland's Corntonvale Prison for Women.

Choices.

there's a man

in my bed

who wants

to kill me

this is not paranoia

I know this because

he drags me naked

from my bed

kicks me in the kidneys

twists my flesh

drags me over 

broken glass

he's always saying

he's going to do it

especially if I ever leave

oh yes especially then

or if I have another man

he'll kill us both

I'm afraid most of the time

but more than that

I am numbed by his

ranting accusations

fuelled by drink

and the past

I never know

exactly what

I have done

that warrants all this

Jan Coleman.

     

     "Silent When I Should Be Screaming" was published by Smeddum Press, printed by Clydeside Press, 1997, ISBN 0 9523868 2 8 

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

Too Old For The News.

 

        Something about living a long time, news never seems like news. Recently the Joseph Rowntree Foundation announced that almost one third of the UK population are living on an inadequate income. In its statement it said that during 2014-15, approximately 19 million people were surviving on less than the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). Mired in that 19 million group of desperate people are six million children, roughly 45% of all UK children, and 1.8 million pensioners. These depressing figures are up from six years ago when they were quoted as, 15 million, or 25% of the population.  

       Why do I not see this as news? Well has it ever been other? It is just bubble gum and candy floss to plaster across that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media. Through the years, as I have seen governments come and governments go, I have been reading figures like this. Under one government the figures improve slightly under the next they deteriorate, so we switch governments again, and the process goes boringly but brutally on its destructive way. Yes we the ordinary people wrestle small gains here and there, but slice by slice they are taken away from us, and we have to start all over again in the constant struggle to try and get a decent standard of living. Poverty has soared and then slightly abated, homeless has grown and then slightly abated, child poverty has increased and then slightly abated. However, none of these problems have ever been addressed  and solved. Nor can they, the system is incapable of solving these problems, or surely it would have done so by now. Have no illusions, the system has the wealth and the resources to sort it all out, but doesn't. Based on the profit motive, these problems are actual results of the system, a few must gain while the majority must lose, that's capitalism. So if you wish to see that 45% of UK children ceasing to be a statistic on a poverty scale, if you wish to see those 1.8 million pensioners live the remainder of their lives in reasonable comfort, don't ask for better allowances, organise to destroy the system that is responsible for these statistics of misery and anxiety. We must accept that it is a class war, and at the moment we are losing, but we have the numbers, the ability, the resources and the imagination, to turn that tide and be the winners of that better world for all.

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

Workers Know Your History, Simon Chapman.

          We must always remember our own, or the other side will airbrush them out of history, and we are the poorer.

       An obituary by Johnny Void taken from Freedom.

Simon Chapman, A Very Distinguished Fucking Anarchist

         Over the last couple of days the strangest thought has plagued me.  Two simple ugly words have kept emerging, only for me to lock them out and ridicule them as bizarre.  Simon’s dead.  Just to write it down feels like treachery.  Part of me looks forward to seeing him, to sharing a drink and dispelling this nonsense.  He’d say something wry, and witty and that would be that.  He was good like that.  Was.  Sometimes the shittiest word to ever have to use about a friend.

As part of a (temporary, and self-imposed) exile from all politics, I didn’t know his health had deteriorated so much.  We weren’t the kind of friends who lived out of each other’s pockets.  There are many who were closer to him than me and I wish them all my love.  But for almost 15 years he was always there.  At crap protests and good ones, festivals and parties, we’d find each other and we’d usually end up drinking together.  We shared a love of getting proper twatted and so we did that a lot.

        The London anarchist movement would have looked very different without Simon Chapman.  From the Movement Against The Monarchy to the Wombles, to May Day, several squatted social centres and finally Class War, Simon was an active presence both on the streets and behind the scenes.  Countless flyers were produced by him over the years. He helped organise dozens of gigs, parties, campaigns and demonstrations and I was lucky enough to work with him on several of them. Up until very recently he was still updating the Class War website.

          It was the streets where his heart lay though and he was no passive peaceful protester.  He got nicked all the time when he was younger.  He fucking hated capitalism, was never afraid to get his hands dirty and despised the police.  And he had good reason.

In 2003 Simon was arrested during a vicious police tear gas attack at a particularly fruity anti-capitalist protest in Thessaloniki, Greece.  It was claimed he was carrying petrol bombs in his rucksack and he was held on remand with charges hanging over him that could have seen him spend the next 20 years in prison.  Six other people were arrested and charged in similar circumstances.  All denied the allegations against them.  Photographic evidence soon emerged that showed the rucksack the police claimed Simon was carrying was not the rucksack he was arrested with.  It was a transparent fit up.

          The treatment of those arrested was obscene.  All were beaten savagely following their arrest. For the first few days of his incarceration Simon was left virtually blind after the police smashed his glasses.  He couldn’t see a fucking thing without his glasses.  Despite these abuses the UK’s Labour government did not lift a finger to help.  Neither did any other state. So the prisoners took the only action left available to them and began a hunger strike.

A militant Europe-wide campaign fast emerged demanding that all seven prisoners be released.  Greek embassies were picketed across the continent and in some cases attacked and occupied.  In Barcelona the Metro system was shut down during an international day of action in solidarity with the prisoners.  In the UK a relentless campaign targeted the Greek Embassy and Tourist Board.   Parts of Athen’s University were repeatedly occupied, whilst fierce demonstrations throughout Greece resulted in more arrests.

          In the end Simon didn’t eat for almost seven weeks. All the hunger-strikers were repeatedly hospitalised, such was the strain on their health. In the final days the prisoners stopped accepting fluids.  By now the solidarity campaign was at fever pitch as the risk that someone might die grew ever closer.  Mainstream media across Europe began to take an interest, lured by sensationalism and smelling blood.  Faced with international embarrassment, and concerned about creating seven martyrs who would shine a light on the corrupt Greek police, all the prisoners were released on November 6th 2003 and the charges against them dropped.  Simon came home.

Then, five years later, the bastards came for him again.  After repeated appeals from the Greek state prosecutor the charges against four of the original seven were re-instated.  In 2008 Simon was found guilty of a string of exotic sounding and terrifying charges including Distinguished Riot  and the creation, possession and explosion of bombs.  He was sentenced in his absence to eight and a half years in prison.

           Under the threat of a European Police Warrant, which was likely to see him dragged from his home by our own filth and handed over to the Greek authorities, Simon was forced to return to Thessaloniki in 2010 to appeal the conviction.  In the ensuing trial the police evidence was repeatedly demolished by the defence teams.  The case ended in humiliation for the Prosecutor with all charges  thrown out for all four defendants except for a hastily cobbled together guilty verdict of “minor defiance of authority”.  This misdemeanor was enough to justify the time those accused had spent in prison, although the six month sentence was suspended and Simon once again returned home.

             Simon was much, much more than just one of the Thessaloniki Seven.  But I suspect none who knew him well would deny the shadow these events cast over his life, and the impact they had on his health.  Of course our own state also put the boot in, subjecting him to years of benefit cuts, Atos assessments and at the mercy of London’s fucked private sector rental market.

          Throughout all this Simon stayed strong, never stopping fighting, or laughing and never losing his faith that a better world would one day be possible.  He was kind, and clever and both ruefully cynical and enthusiastically hopeful at the same time.  He was also more than just an anarchist.  As well as raising his fist, he also raised his daughter who he regularly spoke of with loving pride*.  His loss will leave a big hole in many lives.  The last thing he would want is tears, but he will get them.

           For myself, if you find me hassling you to come and find an off-licence with me at some boring, stale protest then sorry, but it’s because Simon isn’t there anymore.  And those are hard words to write, to accept as real.  I will fucking miss you mate.  I’m sorry I didn’t see you whilst you were so sick but glad my last memories of you are happy ones.  At least the bastards will never take you alive again. Rest well Simon, you deserve it.   Love and rage.

Johnny Void x

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

Ronda's Dark Past.

      Thousands visit the beautiful town of Ronda in Andalusia, in Spain, and are rightfully awestruck by its spectacular, rugged scenery, its breath taking cliffs and natural beauty. But what is the dark secret behind that magnificent bridge?
      The following is taken from a discussion page on the Spanish Civil War, can anyone comrade with well found, backed up knowledge, verify or deny either or both of the two statements in the quotes. It is obvious that the bridge was the scene of hate and vengeance, but what are the facts, are they distorted by mythology, or are they lost in the mists of history.

        I would agree with you overall that the anarchist groups had more blood on their hands than anybody else on the Republican side. And of course there has been a lot of romantic mythology about revolutionary ideals of every kind. But to keep things in perspective, we need to remember that the Nationalists murdered over 600,000 people before and after the war. That's four times the amount killed by Republicans or their allies. Most left atrocities were spontaneous and fuelled by extreme anti-Church hatred amongst the poorest workers and peasants. Nationalist massacres were well organised and planned in an attempt to eradicate not only Socialists, Anarchists and Communists, but trade unionists, teachers, intellectuals and even those whose relatives were working for the elected Republican government. I suggest you visit Ronda in Andalusia where Franco's Moroccan troops threw 2000 people alive off the main bridge into a 260 ft. gorge.
War is hell for everybody and a civil war is worst of all.

         I've seen that too and I don't disagree with it. But I've talked to people in Ronda about it. I speak enough Spanish to do that. They admit that this did happen in the first month of the war. But they also told me what happened when Franco's Moroccan Spanish Legion took over the town a few months later, lists were drawn up of all socialists, anarchists, and teachers etc. and all herded onto the bridge and thrown into the gorge. This became a regular occurrence over a year or more until their enemies were dead. People there have put the number killed at between 1500 and 3000 over a period of time. Some people may have exaggerated and maybe it's not widely reported as an atrocity as it was a more gradual policy of revenge and political cleansing. But that's what I was told and I have no reason to not believe them. What is clear, as I've already said, is that atrocities were committed by both sides. It was a civil war.

        Somewhere in there lies the truth and happy welcoming Ronda of today, seems to have no mention of that dark past. Which tends to make me think that the Nationalist figures are reasonably accurate, and the state has no wishes to mark or broadcast this part of its history.

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

Black Books.

       This is what I call good news, and that is always welcome, so let's wish them all the best.

New Anarchist Infoshop at the Klinika squat in Prague…

        is primarily a free place where everyone should feel safe. Because we know that safe area in this world based on exclusion and domination, is only illusion, we want to focus on topics and activities geared towards horizontally structured society.
       In infoshop you can find interesting books/magazines, pamphlets, zines, etc. from various areas. Black Books is for lectures, workshops, screenings, discussions, but also for meetings with people, on the program anyone can participate.
      “Anarchist Infoshop” does not mean a closed space only for anarchists, but a place where diversity is welcome. What is definitely not welcome is any manifestations of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, colonialism and other forms of oppression.

Let’s start by imagining the world differently.

opening times:
     From January 23rd, Black books infoshop will open 2 times a week.
Open will be on Monday and Thursday from 16 to 21 hours.

        May places like this bloom like wild flowers in a meadow, where the people run free among them.

        My last post for a few days, we are off for a long weekend to escape computers, facebook, blogs, etc. for a wee while. Speak to you soon.

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

Roamin' In The Gloamin'.

 The lights on the shore are the Lodge on Loch Lomond Hotel.

        At the week end we took a wee trip up the Loch to Luss, the scenery was spectacular with most of the surrounding hills capped with snow, forgot to take some photos. In the local hotel I enjoyed a plate of Cullen Skink, (A fish soup, from a fishing village on the east coats of Scotland, called Cullen, where, like most poor areas, food was simple and local. The soup is made from haddock, potatoes and cream or milk, the word for soup in that area was "skink" hence Cullen soup, Cullen Skink.) Later we went for a walk in the "gloamin'" (For those not familiar with the Scots tongue, Gloamin' is just as the light is fading.) Some may remember the Scots singer/comedian Harry Lauder, whose famous song was "Roamin' in the Gloamin'. A popular guy who went on to become a recruiter for WWI, and learnt the hard way the brutality and stupidity of war, as his son was killed in battle. Our wee roamin' in the gloamin' took us down to the Luss pier and in that fading light the view was something to behold, and I did remember to take a couple of photos.

 A wee zoom in.

Quiet and still.

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

Until We Win,Victories Borrowed From The Exploiters.

      One lesson that is important to learn in this capitalist world is that each and every victory we win has to be guarded vigilantly and determinedly, or our lords and masters will take it back. Generations of workers rights gained through struggle are rapidly disappearing and being replaced with zero hours contracts and "self-employed" status and other schemes of exploitation. The social care aspect of society is being removed under the banner of austerity. No gains in this society are permanent, it is a perpetual struggle to just stand still and hold onto what we have.

       Some months ago the Dakota Access Pipeline was halted by determined and brave direct action of thousands, and there was considerable jubilation. At the time I stated that this was not the time to have a victory parade, as it had not been cancelled, just stopped to consider the best route. Well now those water protectors are being pushed from the area by the heavy repression equipment of the state. The hard won victory is being swept away by brute force. That is how this system of exploitation works, it is a war between two irreconcilable sides, won aiming to plunder the Earth's resources for wealth and power for the few, the other side, struggling for a better life for all. Only our victory over capitalism will guarantee that better world for all.

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

Religion, That Poisonous Snake.

       One of the many poisonous snakes in our society is religion. It slithers its way into all aspects of our life, seeking to control our thoughts and actions, based on weird and bizarre fairy tales from a bygone age. Because, through the generations, religion has been the handmaiden of established power, it is gifted a badge of special privileges, by that power, so it sees itself beyond criticism, and the guarantors of morality, despite its own litany of centuries of scandals, corruption and frauds. It will always attempt to capture our children and soak their forming minds with their man in the sky bullshit, distorting their value structure to suit the church's aims of control, and to stifle their ability to think for themselves.
       Recently, in Glasgow, there has been another case of the Catholic church surreptitiously feeding its anti-abortion dictate into the minds of young pupils.

“The really concerning thing is that the pupils in question weren't told the nature of the Mass - a ‘gathering’ to condemn the 50th anniversary of the Abortion Act - until they were en route to the Mass.” St. Benedict's High School pupil.

Read the full article HERE:

(I call that lying and cheating)

        The purpose of education is to try to teach our kids to think for themselves and come to rational decisions based on evidence. No where in that is there any room for trammelled thinking based on magic, miracles and myths. There is no way that religion should be allowed to interfere with the forming minds of young children. If their invisible man in the sky, is so powerful and all seeing, why do his minions on earth need to indoctrinate the minds of children? Can't he sort it all out by himself? Or does he always need the assistance weak, confused mortal earthlings, who can't even agree among them selves what is really the true interpretation of their invisible leader in the sky's words.
        If you love kids, and you want to see them grow into happy and freethinking individuals, then you must fight to remove religion from contaminating their education.

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

Who Are They?

          There is an ever increasing number of people who knowingly and deliberately break the rules, ignore the dictates of political party leaders, occupy buildings, turn up at protests, and who at times, according to the establishment, create "mayhem". They go under different banners, but have one aim in mind. The babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, condemns them, and writes a false history regarding them. It paints them as hooligans, bomb throwing thugs, assassins, and worse. Who are they?

The Rebel

Rebel rebel break the rule,

What does it matter that a “wise” man sees a fool.

Not for you the herd’s dull beat

Making tomorrow, yesterday’s repeat,

Living out the life of a clone

Marching with the crowd but always alone.

Shaping your life from some dusty tome

Playing it safe, staying at home.

Rebel rebel break the rule

Swim in the sea, never the pool.

Live your emotions, feel the surge

Follow your dreams, chase the urge.

Make life though short, an exciting game

Not a mad march for fortune or fame.

Capture the moment, live it now

Being alive your only vow.

Rebel rebel break the rule

In the end, you’re humanity’s jewel.

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

Deaths In European Concentration Camps.

 

         The horrifying plight of refugees trapped across Europe, in nothing short of cattle pens, is blatant racist state sponsored torture and murder. No where in Europe is this brutality more evident than in Greece, with its concentration camps dotted around the country. If you think concentration camps in Europe are a thing of the past, think again. There is no rational explanation for treating suffering and vulnerable people in this savage fashion, Europe is awash with wealth. It is deliberate state policy that is traumatising and killing these unfortunate humans that are fleeing death and destruction, planned and implemented by Western imperialism's greed driven foreign policy.  Obviously, free movement of people across Europe is an illusion, a fallacy, only for the chosen few.

This from Freedom:

        A barbarity against human existence itself is evolving in Greece. A serial crime, orderly by racist policies of the Greek Government. Refugee camps located throughout the country are structurally linked to the devaluation of human life. Deaths which have occurred within them are not coincidences or bad luck, they are the murderous effects of State racism. Every day that passes and concentration camps remain open finds refugees imprisoned in them, death gaining more and more space among the living — it becomes a banal daily routine. We must fight for the contrary: such death must not become normal.

Amid the hardest winter of recent years, thousands of people sleeping in summer tents, without access to clothing and medical care. Over the past ten days three refugees were killed in the camp of Moria bringing the total number of deaths in the camps in five. Among those who lost their lives was an infant, and there have been and another seven suicide attempts. The murderous nature of the camps is more than obvious.

        When the living conditions in the refugee camps cost human lives, official authorities remain publicly silent, and when forced to say something make qualifying statements, that they have “not yet identified the cause of death.” Their clumsy attempts to insinuate that the deaths are merely from natural causes and that there ultimately might not be a real issue simply confirms the size of the devaluation of human life taking place in the camps. Living in a condition where everyone can die and the reason never made known transforms prevention into a mere fiction.

      Despite the efforts of the government to convince us to the contrary, nothing can humanise the existence of the camps. Our struggle against them, worldwide, must be intransigent.

      The solidarity movement to refugees, the class forces in society, everyone who from the summer of 2015 until today has stood at the side of refugees and have turned solidarity in a public, open and social power, must join forces to create a major pole of social confrontation against the Euro-Turkish migration agreement, and eventually, to overthrow it. It is our duty towards human lives threatened by the racist policies being imposed. It’s the debt of life against death.

• Stop the shameful agreement between Europe and Turkey.
• Brook no more deaths in the hell of the refugee camps.
• Offer accomodation of refugees within our cities, offer asylum and equal rights for health, education and work
•  There must be free movement in Greece and the European Union

Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative Rocinante

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

Seeds And Syllables.

        For those who don't read the comments on a post, these words of Gerry Loose were left as a comment by my comrade Loam, on the previous post about the Faslane protest. I found the words beautiful and inspiring and in my own small way thought I would try to scatter these, "seeds and syllables" a little bit further. Words are tools and can be used to fight our battles, help our ideas to grow, inspire others to action, comfort us in hard times, show others our dreams, link us in camaraderie.

      "Of course, I am a poet, not a fool. I do not think a poem will defeat a bullet; But it can affect the thinking of the man whose finger is on the trigger. I have read my work at the gates of Faslane, home to the British fleet of submarine nuclear weapons. There, among crowds, there are soldiers and policemen who stop and listen. Where could my words end up in their heads? When your loved ones approach, afraid of the darkness? I have toured the atomic weapons testing sites of the US deserts, leaving seeds and syllables - seeds of peace, and again, where those weapons were used in Japan. It is not because I am brave (I am not), but that I am human and like everyone I have met, I deplore war and do whatever is in my power, as a person of peace, as a poet, to speak against her and make people gather, to act in reconciliation".

Gerry Loose

 

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

The Longest Running Peace Camp In The World.

 

         A couple of days old, but well worth publicising as much as possible. For those who don't know, the Faslane Peace camp, on the shore of Gare Loch, outside the gates of the Faslane nuclear submarine base is the longest running peace camp in the world, 35 years on site protesting, organising and keeping alive the anti-nuclear battle in Scotland. More steam to your elbow.

From Contra Info:
 Faslane, Scotland: 
Lock-on blockade at UK nuke sub base in Scotland:

         On 2nd of February, starting 06.30 AM, five anti-nuclear activists blocked the pleasantly busy morning traffic at the south gate of Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde (yes, they’re still having this monarchy thing going on) in Faslane, Scotland. South Gate is one of the two main entrances to the base and open under a certain schedule: it doesn’t take all that much to clog up their routines. Base staff did its best to direct the traffic to the North Gate, but soon enough the tailback stretched from the North Gate to a distance of over two miles: we climbed on our caravan roofs and tried to cycle down the line to see the end of the traffic jam, but no chance.
         “I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit! It’s a cliché, but true! The struggle against nuke weapons should be as out of fashion as other 80’s monstrosities, but now with the likes of President Trump or Prime Minister Theresa May it seems we’re headed towards a new arms race”, says activist Molly Garfield. “May has stated ‘I think we should defend our country, I think we should play our role in NATO with an independent nuclear deterrent’, so there you go. Nationalism, militarism, WMD’s. Down with all that, I say.”
        The lock-on crew was accompanied by three legal supporters and a photographer. The Ministry of Defence police arrived to the scene in some 20 minutes. Around here, the legal supporters are supposed to have the right to snap photos, feed bananas to protestor’s and observe that the cops at least try to behave. This time MoD’s were having a rotten day. PC 470 (they just like to be identified, don’t they?) tried to bully the photographer off by threatening to “smash that camera if you don’t stop taking photos”, while other simply pushed two observers some 20 metres away, well behind a barrier of uniforms.
       Not that we would’ve minded much. We were busy being amused by their continuous mishaps. At 07:00 AM, the hobby level cutting team from the base arrived, asking for the suitable camera equipment: only to find out their colleagues couldn’t find any. Next thing you knew was that they’ve managed to get a bolt cutter stuck on somebody’s lock-on, unable to continue. Thus, the traffic jam kept building up and road was nowhere close to get cleared before they managed to bring in the actual cutting team. On their arrival, the photographer was also tossed from the scene and view to locked-on activists blocked with police vehicles.
        By 09.20 AM all five activists were arrested and transported to the nearest cop shop. The South Gate was closed for approximately two and a half hours. The action was conducted by hippies from the nearby Faslane Peace Camp: thanks for support, one struggle!
       “On times when taking a stand or expressing one’s opinions gets you ridiculed, labelled as a terrorist or lectured how protesting of any sort is futile, do the bloody opposite. Faslane Peace Camp is rolling on to its 35th year, but seemingly the world leaders and arm dealers are not allowing it to retire any time soon. You could imagine that a nuke sub base would a tricky or dangerous location, but this seems more like a sitting duck for anyone up for a little direct action”, Roxy Newton, another activist, emphasises.
         The action is the second protest to take place within a short time. Both sparked by the revelation of the Royal Navy misfiring of a Trident II D5 ballistic missile from the HMS Vengeance last June and questions surrounding the cover-up of the test results and general madness of nuke weapons. Activists were also keen to express their solidarity with the Put Down the Sword crew who’ve ably demonstrated that for all the hyperbole espoused by polemic, self-professed Christians, the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” ethos remains the central tenet.
       The Faslane Peace Camp is a permanent protest camp dedicated to campaigning and protesting against nuclear weapons and related madness since 1982. The camp, located next to the HMNB Clyde, is celebrating its 35th Anniversary this year, and it’s welcoming all interested individuals to participate the fun and games available. No racism, no homophobia, no sexism: just direct action.

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

Workers Know Your History, Spanish Civil War.

 

         It is always important that our history is recorded for future reference and learning, and also made easily accessible to the public at large, so it is great news I have just received from Anarchist Studies Network, (ASN)

Dear comrades,

      The last newsletter of the International Institute of Social History that a significant part of the CNT-FAI Archive (1934-1939) will be digitised, thanks to a grant given by the Dutch organisation Metamorfoze. That means that the digitised part in due time will be open to everyone in the world interested in the CNT during the Civil War.

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