Following on from parts one and two of Daily Motion's three part history of the anarchist movement, here is part 3. The three part series is quite an extensive cover of the anarchist movement world wide, well worth viewing and spreading the word.
Sunday 19 November 2017
From Little Acorns Great Oak Trees Grow.
The people of the world are not going to rise up en-mass and create that better world. What will change the world in our direction will be the sum total of countless little actions across the planet. Small actions in every village, town and city, increasing until it reaches a critical mass, creating a change in consciousness, then it will be unstoppable and the world will be ours. Continuous small affairs, toy-swaps, book-banks, clothes-exchanges, surplus food sharing, skill sharing, and so on. All of this undermines consumerism, the life blood of this insane capitalist system, and draws a community together, then slowly the world changes. However, we must accept that this revolutionary change will not come with roses alone.
This from Its Going Down:
Last weekend, autonomists and anarchists organized a coat and clothes drive in the Downtown Modesto area, with hundreds of free items. The event was the end result of several days of organizing and collecting donations from the community including warm clothing as well as fresh apples, toothbrushes, and other free dental supplies.
The event itself was attended by over 50 people, and during the event we had numerous positive interactions with individuals who discussed everything from job loss to how to get involved in the future with upcoming events. We also put up a banner that read: “Free Clothes” in Spanish and in English, as well as the slogan, “Community Mutual Aid” with a circle (A), and flew a red and black flag. We did this to make clear that this event was not simply carried out as an act of charity, but instead to put forward a set of anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian ideas, reclaim public space, have fun, and also meet people in our community. Police drove by, but did not fuck with us.
In the past several years, attempts by the city, police, and developers to remake the Downtown core by driving out poor, homeless, youth, and the working class, have largely backfired. Many businesses have shut down, including the one grocery store in the Downtown area, cutting off access to the main supply of food for many elderly and impoverished people. But, there are signs that the gentrification machine will attempt to continue on the path ahead, especially in the wake of many stores shuttering, as we are seeing several new hip and swanky stores and bars openly in the Downtown. We can only assume that developers are hoping to accommodate displaced people from the bay area, while at the same time displacing us.
While we enjoy helping provide resources for those without, we also know that class society and the State will not collapse through an accumulation of either negative or ‘positive’ acts – or posts on anarchist websites. Instead, in the coming together and building of actual relationships, we can attempt to create new forms of power for the battles to come. Only several weeks ago, we found ourselves alongside over 100 others, remembering the life and death of Nick Pimentel, who was murdered by local police in South Side Modesto. Also, on the same day as our coat drive, a march was organized to protest attacks on DACA, and down the road from the giveaway, residents have been protesting harmful waste covered up by the city near their homes.
All of these struggles are connected, and across the divisions placed upon by by geography, neighborhood, gender, and race, we hope to build something that can overcome the systems of control and domination, and usher into being an existence worthy of the name ‘humanity.’
Thursday 16 November 2017
A Planet Of Crazy Apes.
Pinnacle Of Evolution
There's a crazy ape, who
by means of incredible intransigence
has mastered that art of carnage;
through dogged determination
in a ruthless rampage
raised the body-count beyond belief.
This crazy ape
creates the human chronicles
as a cruel callous calendar,
transforms our indulgent earth
into a primitive barbaric abattoir.
He struts across the land
with bumptious pride;
he's destructive, he's devious,
demands dominion
planet wide.
His claim to fame,
history immortalised in rivers of blood.
Even so,
this crazy ape called man, believes
he's the GODS' sublime solution,
progress's perfection
the pinnacle of evolution.
Our planet is a small entity in the grand scale of things, and we humans pride ourselves as being a peaceful civilised species. However we are the only species that kills for pleasure, personal gain and wealth. We are also unique in that we are the only species that with gay abandon, destroys our own environment, and that of all other species on the planet. We will, if we continue as we are doing, be the cause of the demise of most of the life on the planet, including our own.
I would imagine that to an alien species viewing our world from some far off galaxy, we would appear to be a savage, callous, self destructive animal, lacking compassion and in most cases reason. Our blood letting, over the centuries, across the planet, would turn all the oceans to a deep red. Our history is a litany of brutal wars, that never cease, of countless millions slaughtered, in the name of some false mantra.
Today we are at an extremely advanced state of technology, which could transform our world to a paradise on earth, but we use that technology to kill and control, all in the name of greed, personal wealth and power. Glance across our planet, and what you will see is the endless wars, engineered by greed, the stupidity of racism, and the desire for wealth and power.
Below is just a snapshot of some recent headlines, which doesn't include Lebanon. Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, Libya, and a host of other ongoing wars.
Wednesday 15 November 2017
Workers Know Your History, No Gods, No Masters, 2 of 3.
Following on from previous post of Daily Motion's part 1 of the history of anarchism, "No Gods, No Masters", here is part 2 of 3, 1922 1945. Enjoy, it's your history, it highlights our problems, and it points the way to the future.
Slaughterbots!!
The following short video paints a nightmare picture of technology in the hands of the power mongers, I don't know how far down the road we are to this type of technology, but I have no doubt what so ever, if we are not there yet, there are those working hard to get there. Only the people can stop this becoming a reality.
All the more urgent reason for us all to come together and bring down this system of insanity that is today's capitalist world. I don't think we have a lot of time on our hands, I'm sure the point of no return is very close indeed. Tomorrow is up to us, or it is their vision of total control.
Tuesday 14 November 2017
Digital Anonymity.
Some helpful information from a workshop at The Athens Insurrection Festival. We all use it, the Internet, we all know that it can be a powerful tool in our hands, but we also know that it can be a powerful tool for the state. This info is to try to add to your advantage, but limit the the advantage that the establishment has over you.
Download the info PDF HERE:As activists we must know the dangers of the cyberspace, and learn how to protect our privacy. Avoiding the use of telecommunication tools is not an option. But either we own the technology we use or the technology owns us.
Here are some basic concepts and tips from yesterday’s workshop. We publish this info and ask you to help spread it because information wants to be free
Glasgow, Free University, Self Determination.
Glasgow has always had an anarchist presence, it ebbs and flows, but never disappears, see Strugglepedia, for a glimpse of that history. The 80's and 90's saw a lot of creative activity from anarchist/libertarian-socialists and those of like minds. One such event was the "Self Determination" event at which Noam Chomsky was present. The Self-Determination and Power event was organised by a loose alliance
of the Free University of Glasgow, the Edinburgh Review. Not sure who
filmed it. But produced by Street Level streetlevelphotoworks.org
No One Forgotten, Nothing Forgiven, Solidarity.
It is a fact that our prison system, (the state's system of repression), is mainly populated by people with addiction problems, mental health issues and miscarriages of justice, all of these people should be elsewhere, receiving help with their problems or getting on with their lives. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, always spouts the false narrative that prisons are filled with "bad people", and they are put there by the "good" forces of "law and order". However, the history of our legal system and its prisons are a litany of miscarriages of justice and human misery. Once sucked into the penal system, it is extremely difficult to extract yourself from its callous and vindictive claws. The system never likes to show its flaws, the charade of impartial fair "justice" must always be protected, as a flawless system of fairness, protecting you and I. The lie must live for the system to survive.
The Bristol Anarchist Black Cross, is calling for solidarity in support of one such sufferer of the system's many miscarriages of justice:
The Bristol Anarchist Black Cross, is calling for solidarity in support of one such sufferer of the system's many miscarriages of justice:
ABOUT SAM AND HER CASE: Sam Faulder is an anarchist prisoner currently serving a life sentence in England. Sam is a miscarriage of justice who has done over ten years in the prison system.
She has been an anti-authoritarian her whole life and was relentlessly targeted by police because of her lifestyle choices. After serving nearly two years on remand, Sam’s trial was a disaster. Police corruption impacted her trial and her solicitor firm withdrew from her case three weeks before it began. Her need to appeal coincided with cuts to legal-aid and she has been trapped in the prison system ever since.
She is now working with Cardiff University’s Innocence Project on her appeal. Learn more about her case and appeal here: http://freedomforsam.org/about/ [1]
ABOUT SAM’S HEALTH: After ten years experiencing every abuse imaginable, Sam was sadly diagnosed with cancer in 2016. She has still not had
treatment. She has experienced intense medical neglect while being imprisoned in a for-profit prison, HMP Peterborough, run by Sodexo. Read the full story of her cancer situation here: http://freedomforsam.org/sams-cancer-timeline/ [2]
SUPPORT SAM NEEDS:
* Please send letters and cards with solidarity messages to: Samantha Faulder A1209CF, HMP Foston Hall, Foston, Derby, Derbyshire, DE65 5DN
* Please donate to her support fund: http://freedomforsam.org/donate/
[3]
* Organise actions and dedicate them to Sam, this will mean the world
to her!
* Pay attention to the website for action alerts about her treatment
* Share her story online
For more info please email bristol_abc@riseup.net
See the graphic here: https://bristolabc.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/support-sam.jpg
Links:
——
[1] http://freedomforsam.org/about/
[2] http://freedomforsam.org/sams-cancer-timeline/
[3] http://freedomforsam.org/donate/
Monday 13 November 2017
No Gods No masters, Workers Know Your history.
Daily Motion has produced a series of three excellent videos, No Gods No Masters, detailing the birth and growth of the anarchist movement, its rise and fall and rise again, over the years. It is important that we know, remember and spread our history, our history is what we are, and points to where we are attempting to go, workers, know your history.
This is the first of the three, well worth watching, enjoy:
No Gods No Masters - part 1/3 - 1840-1906 (cc... by lucyparsons
Solidarity And Mutual Aid, A Toy For Every Chld.
Though our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, has long since drop the plight of refugees arriving on the shores of Europe, in favour of sexit, brexit, the machinations of our political ballerinas and so called "celebrities", however, the flow of desperation and misery still continues. Some arrive on Europe's shore in a dreadful state of deprivation, others reach the shore washed up as dead bodies. Greece has an ever growing problem exacerbated by the new EU ruling that the Turkish border is closed and refugees can go no further. So the refugee camps in Greece fill up, the conditions deteriorate, and desperation washes over the entire trapped population of these camps. As adults struggle to survive and retain some sense of sanity and dignity, under these conditions, we mustn't forget the kids, their development being stunted and distorted in these inhumane conditions of detention, squalor and deprivation. Vast numbers of people with kids among them, drowning in a sea of authoritarian legislation engineered by the so called "democratic West"
Of course the idea of a community organised toy-swap/toy-bank, wouldn't go a miss here in our own country. Toys your kids have outgrown being donated and perhaps finding something your kids can use and enjoy. In doing so you would be helping to screw the gluttonous consumer drive that bombards us all at this time of year.Against apathy, racism and xenophobia, with anarchy and solidarity among the oppressed as our power, we are creating another solidarity initiative.
As an anarchist/ anti-authoritarian radio, we make a call to everyone; every comrade/ companion, squat, assembly etc. to participate either by offering toys or by undertaking similar actions in our cities and neighborhoods. Let’s make each city and neighborhood a place of struggle and solidarity.
Within the campaign, we collect toys in good condition (not broken or dirty). From today till the New Year’s Day, we deliver toys to the children of war living in refugee camps in Greece as well as to those children in need. If you want to offer a new one, please, prefer shops that are not labor camps or large multinational companies. Against the Christmas’ consumerism, we advocate actions without mediators which strengthen solidarity and anarchy’s ideal for the destruction of the capital and the state that generates fascism and wars.
Toys’ collection points:
– Κ * ΒΟΞ, Exarcheia – Athens.
P.S. The collection points’ list will be updated continuously.
Contact: radiofragmata@espiv.net
Free voices, shattered prisons
Radiofragmata
Sunday 12 November 2017
Solidarity Can Reach Through The Bars Of A Cage.
Solidarity has no borders, can't see walls, doesn't recognise race, it is the universal language of oppressed people, it is the foundation on which that better world will be built. This is a call for solidarity from inside the state's cages of repression, its machine for manufacturing submission.
From Contra Info: [Mexican prisons]
From Contra Info: [Mexican prisons]
Letter from comrade Fernando Bárcenas
To all rebel comrades I write to all those who build their paths of autonomy, to remember that within these walls we try to apart our vital time from the machinery generating moments of lucidity in a suffocating world… This is how, in those years, there were proposals of resistance, isolated struggles in forgotten areas, lost cry of rebellion in obscurity, collective moments of informal organization in the daily life of the open regime, that is to say, in the [prison] population in general, where, almost three years ago, came up the idea of creating a different space where prisoners could shout that we are enough from all this annihilation.
We know that the prison system is designed to subject our bodies and our minds to the structure of commerce and that is why we are not going to ask them to change, we know that money is the language of the powerful and that is why we do not have any requests, now we want self organize our lives on these walls because we know that what their social rehabilitation programs seek is to create submissive, repentant, and guilty human beings and this is why therefore they accept slave labor in the hands of prison officials.
Thus, the idea of founding an alternative library in the auditorium of the Northern Reclusory came up. But for this project of autonomy to grow and to allow its operation, we need your support and solidarity, because within prison we are more effectively repressed and therefore, this is a call to all those who know we are at war, we need you, only with you can we reach the strength to face the rotten logic of the system…
Do not leave us alone in building another space for autonomy, our struggle is no less important, we are also slaves, children of war, we are poor, called criminals and therefore we are marginalized, but together with you, we will prove that we are capable to live the freedom here and now, even being behind stone walls…
That is why we ask for support to maintain this project, the autonomous library in the North Reclusory.
With love and strength for all.
Fernando Bárcenas
Revolt In Songs.
The winter solstice is approaching and Spirit of Revolt have organised an evening of song, music, poetry and general merry making, to take place on December 20th 2017. By coming along you will have a night to remember, meet like minded people, make new friends, and at the same time be helping to support the Spirit of Revolt Archive. A unique and extensive resource of anarchist and libertarian-socialist history, I doubt if you will find a more comprehensive collection of this type of history anywhere in Scotland. To continue to expand this excellent resource, please come along and enjoy yourself while lending support to all the volunteers who make Spirit of Revolt what it is, a unique and living record of your history, with no connection to political parties or trade unions, an independent grass-roots history.
Spirit of Revolt Archives of Dissent invite you to:
REVOLT in SONGS
An evening of radical and dissenting songs, music and sound poetry. If you would like to perform please respond below or email hereandnowscot@gmail.com (send cc to info@spiritofrevolt.info)
Venue: Old Hair Dressers, 20-28, Renfield Lane, G2 6PH. 6:45 -11pm.
Artists include:
Dirt Roadsters
Jim Ferguson
Rab Fulton
James Kelman (tbc)
Brendan McLaughlin (more to be named)
Or turn up on the night and perform on the open mic.
£5 entry (or £10 including fundraiser donation to SOR)
http://spiritofrevolt.info/
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
Saturday 11 November 2017
A Safe Place To Lay Your Head Is A Right.
In this rich country and with winter starting to settle its grip on our cities there should be no need for a night shelter, but there is, desperately. So why would anybody knowing this need refuse to allow one to be opened? The need is there, it is up to the people who care to make sure that this shelter does open. A safe place to lay your head at night is not a luxury, it is a right, it's called civilisation.
It was discussed at a Glasgow Asylum Destitution Action Network meeting yesterday that there is local opposition to the opening of the new night shelter for destitute asylum seekers in Ibrox and such is the strength of feeling that the local Community Council may recommend that the shelter does not go ahead.
Reasoned debate about the need for the shelter has not worked (both Owen from GCP and Phill from the night shelter have tried) so there is need for voices of support.
If you or anyone you know lives in the Ibrox/Cessnock area and can go along to the next Community Council meeting- please go!
The new night shelter is greatly needed, particularly as it will have more places for men and places for destitute women. Please pass this onto anyone you think may be able to go along next week.
The meeting is on 15th November: Ibrox Cessnock Community Council 3rd Wednesday of month 7.00 pm
Clyde Community Hall, 41 Whitefield Road, G51 2YBhttps://maps.google.com/?q=41+Whitefield+Road,+G51+2YB&entry=gmail&source=g
London Bookfair ‘Won’t Happen In 2018’!!!
To all those who are familiar with the London Anarchist Bookfair will be aware that this year it was different, and seemed to descend into chaos and bitterness, not anarchist objectives. Stories vary of what and when, this and that happened, but what is clear is a lot of it shouldn't have happened in an anarchist environment.
The London Anarchist Bookfair has run for 34 years, however after this year's outcome, the collective that organises the Bookfair have decided not to do so again. This is sad to say the least, for years it was a wonderful focal point for anarchist ideas, comradeship, renewing contacts and making new ones. We need more of these events, not less. Let's hope that dialogue and anarchist principles will sort this problem out and we will see an even greater Anarchist Bookfair arise from this unfortunate episode, perhaps another city might take up the baton or London will see the re-birth of a greater event.
This is a short extract form a statement by the collective:
Read the full article HERE:--------We have been accused of “protecting a fascist” and of being transphobic ourselves. All of us in the collective have physically confronted fascists on the streets, at meetings and in print, and we are baffled and upset by these accusations. Accusing a person of being a fascist because you don’t like their views is dishonest and dangerous. We are not going to apologise for protecting someone being mobbed by a group of up to about 30 people, and, along with others, preventing an ugly situation from deteriorating further.Obviously a lot of people are going to disagree with this, but anyone who seriously thinks that up to about 30 people shouting and threatening one woman, and in the process intimidating disabled comrades and children, was a “beautiful moment of direct action” should consider taking a look at themselves and their politics.Finally to those who decided to smash and set off the fire alarm, and to anyone who thought it was clever – have you thought about the effect it had on the creche and older kids space, the numerous meetings taking place at the time, or relations with the venue? A number of children having to be led out of the older kids space were crying and talking about Grenfell. They thought it was a real fire and were really scared. This action definitely didn’t make it a safe space for them.The endWe are unsure how this debate within our movement (and beyond) will work itself out, as there is a wide range of strongly held views. What we are sure of is that next year there are people who would want us to ban those sharing the views of the leafleteers or those who stickered the loos, others who would want us to ban people who were in the group of up to about 30 or those who set off the fire alarm. We are not prepared to ban any of these people, and, while people think the way to resolve their differences is to disrupt and shut down meetings, like the Syria meeting last year, or the whole Bookfair this year, by shouting at and fighting each other, we haven’t the appetite or the energy to organise next year’s Bookfair.More positively and perhaps unsurprisingly we have had contacts from a range of people who do see the need for debate and discussion on the issues and the events. We don’t think our collective is the right facilitator but are prepared to work with anyone who, like us, would like to look at ways we work these (strongly felt) disagreements within our movement out face to face. If we don’t, the only winners will be capitalism and the state.
Friday 10 November 2017
The Cruelty Of Crimeless Detention By The State.
You move to another part of the planet, you cross those imaginary lines on the planet's surface, lines drawn by power mongers in the struggle for wealth and power. The minions of the power mongers decide that you shouldn't be on this part of the planet, so you are detained, locked up, you are "illegal", you will be forcibly transported back to where you came. No thought of why you left/fled your home, no thought to the relationships and friendships you have created on this part of the planet. The powers that be, decree that you are illegal, you don't fit their self-interested criteria, so you will be shipped back shackled if need be.
Of course, before you are packaged like luggage and dispatched, you will be detained, how long, you don't know. The conditions will be deplorable, there will self harming, suicides, mental breakdowns, violence and "unexplained" deaths. Your contact with the outside world will be censured, you are now a non-person, a piece of luggage to be delivered elsewhere.
This indignity, injustice and inhumanity goes on in out of the way establishments, meant to be kept from the prying eyes of the public. It is done in our name by the the puppets of the establishment. No person is illegal, borders are arbitrary lines drawn on paper maps by powerful elites, with no other purpose than to protect their wealth and power. Detention centres are unjust, inhuman and part of the vindictiveness of the state. They are prisons, and like all prisons the should be demolished.
Two dates to mark in your diary:
And:We Will Rise - Dungavel Demo Info + Dinner
11/11 17.30-20.00 Kinning Park Complex
Ahead of the demo at Dungavel on Saturday 18th November, come down to KPC to ask questions, get information and have dinner!
We will hold workshops on:
+ What to expect on the day
+ Legal questions about protesting and the police
+ why we are going to Dungavel
Followed by a tasty meal and maybe even some dancing!
Surround Dungavel - End Detention
18/11 11:00-18:00
Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre, ML10 6 Strathaven
Surround Dungavel - End Detention
WE DEMAND AN END TO DETENTION! NO MORE DEATHS! WE DEMAND ANSWERS AND JUSTICE FOR THE DEATH IN DUNGAVEL!
Brick by brick, wall by wall, detention centres have to fall In September, an unnamed Chinese
National was found dead in Dungavel. Yet we have been given no reason, no information. We need a full invesitgation. WE NEED ANSWERS! Locking people up due to their immigration status is racist, there is no way to operate a humane or safe detention system. Lets protest to shut down detention centres and end the inherently abusive and violent system of immigration detention that criminalises, detains, and imprisons people simply because they have chosen or been forced to migrate. The demonstration will take place outside Dungavel detention centre, in direct solidarity with the people who are currently detained. In solidarity with their protests against imprisonment and deportation, such as hunger strikes and resistance to forced removals. To make it clear that people on the outside want to come together in fighting against detention and deportation. This year has seen four deaths in immigration.This is a crucial time to send a message that Scotland does not want detention in any form, that no person is illegal. Surround Dungavel will be happening at the same time as Surround Yarl’s Wood, to show the Home Office that from Scotland to Bedford, Portsmouth to Gatwick. Their walls will fall. We are arranging coaches and we will release tickets closer to the date, but spaces are limited, so please if you can make your own way there do! Spaces for people who have experience of the immigration system will be FREE, to enable this to happen please support
here https://www.chuffed.org/project/surround-dungavel
We hold in our hearts those who are now or have been detained. YOU. ARE NOT. ALONE! END DETENTION NOW. We aren’t calling for a limit, we are saying “SHUT THEM DOWN”
Death By Ideology.
A young woman, mother of four, Elaine Morrall, aged just 38, dies. No doubt in some grand office the details will be recorded, name, address, date of birth, date of death, cause of death, then it will be filed, then forgotten. It will not be recorded as another unnecessary death from this cruel, vindictive ideology of capitalist greed and inhumanity.
Elaine had health problems, was on benefit, but had her benefits stopped because she missed an appointment regarding universal credit. Why did she miss her appointment? Well because she was in intensive care, in hospital. Elaine died alone, in her home, wrapped in a coat and scarf, she wouldn't put the heating on until her kids came home from school, she couldn't face the bills to keep warm. This is not an accident, this is cruel deliberate punishing the poor and vulnerable. There is not just the fact that Elaine died a horrible lonely death, but what will happen to her kids? Their lives have been difficult up to this moment, living in circumstance where their mother had to choose between eating, heating, now their lives will be shattered by the loss of their mother under these circumstances, what of their future, carrying the trauma of this ideological driven callous blow. No doubt our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will cry "SHOCK", "DISGRACE", then move on to the latest the rapturous news of the new addition to the UK's biggest benefit family, the Windsor mob, the latest sex scandal and how much such and such a football club paid for a player. But, will anything change?
This unnecessary tragedy is played out with callous vindictiveness, performed by puppets who see fit to carry out the ideology of their lords and masters, regardless of the consequences to those involved. This all takes place to a backdrop of millionaires and billionaires who shuffle their ill gotten gains from tax haven to tax haven, so as to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Our country is awash with wealth, while unfortunate individuals wrap themselves in coats and scarfs to keep warm, because they can't afford to pay the heating bills.
This is 21st. century Britain, the sixth richest country on the planet, a country where an army of parasites, the few, enjoy private jets, multi-million pound yachts, millions stashed in off-shore tax havens, pomp and ceremony of royalty, and the many struggle with poverty and deprivation, choices of eating or heating in our cold cruel winter.
Elaine Morrall's death is not an anomaly, it is the pattern of our society, for the vast majority, it is day to day struggles for a decent living, while we are surrounded by wealth plundered from the efforts of the ordinary people. This is capitalism, this is how it has always functioned, centuries of a system that fails miserable to see to the needs of the ordinary people. It would be naivety in the extreme to think that it can function other than it does. For justice for Elaine and the countless thousands in similar circumstance, capitalism must be destroyed and replaced by a system based on mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and freed from the cancerous greed driven motive of profit. only then will we be able to see to the needs of all our people. Will we wait for another few Elaine Morrall type deaths, how many will it take?
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
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