War Kills A Child, We Are Responsible.

          This vile insane system that we live under has spawned endless wars, millions of deaths, devastation, and millions of displaced people, mass poverty and deprivation, with no end in sight. The babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media pumps out its biased misinformation about the "conflict" in Syria, but not a lot about the horrifying situation in Yemen. What started as a "civil war" in Yemen has developed  into an international power grab involving Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan and Senegal, all lined up against the Houthi in Yemen. As if that line up was not enough to be involved in another country's affairs, of course the UK would have to stick its nose into any conflict involving a Middle East country that has oil and gas. We are sending weaponry and military advisers, to Saudi Arabia to assist them in their battle in Yemen.

     The situation in Yemen is dire to say the least. In war it seems that the children are of no consequences, their deaths just mount up and become a statistic in a list of statistics. Not our children, so their deaths fade into the fog of lost memories. But every child has a family that is devastated and torn asunder by that death.

          As of March 26, 2018, at least 10,000 Yemenis had been killed by the fighting, with more than 40,000 casualties overall.
Getting accurate information on the death toll is difficult, but Save The Children estimated at least 50,000 children died in 2017, an average of 130 every day.
       The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has estimated that Saudi-led coalition air attacks caused almost two-thirds of reported civilian deaths, while the Houthis have been accused of causing mass civilian casualties due to their siege of Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city.

       All wars are vile and destructive, and in most cases completely unnecessary, but combatants that target hospitals must surely have reached the bottom of the barrel of humanity's dregs.

     Saudi Arabia has pressured aid groups to leave rebel-controlled areas of Yemen, saying that aid workers are at risk. In January 2016, a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders was hit by a rocket, killing four people. A bombing carried out by the Saudi-led coalition injured at least six people at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in October 2015.

       Remember, Saudi Arabia is the country that we are sending weaponry and military advisers to assist them in the battles in Yemen. Where does that leave our Honourable Gentlemen that sit around that symbol of privilege and power, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption?

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And Here Is The News---HA-HA-HA!!

        I always refer to the mainstream media as the babbling brook of bullshit, the reason being, in the UK at least, it is no more than an outlet for state and corporate propaganda. However, what amazes me is that so many people still think they are keep up with the "news" when they indulge themselves in its outpourings. The BBC comes in for the most "respected" news broadcaster badge by lots of people. Of course it won that badge by smoke and mirrors reporting and clever self prompting propaganda.

     The following article is well worth reading in full, it pinpoints just a little of the slight of hand "reporting" that favours UK state wars and Western corporate interests that is spewed out as "news"

      The extracts are from Gorilla Radio Blogs:

          On January 22, BBC News at Ten carried a piece by 'defence' correspondent Jonathan Beale reporting a speech by General Sir Nick Carter, the British Army's Chief of General Staff.
Carter gave his speech, pleading for more resources in the face of the Russian 'threat', at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), an establishment thinktank with close links to the military and corporate media. Beale began his BBC News piece with a prologue of raw propaganda, delivered in an urgent and impassioned tone:

'Russia's building an increasingly modern and aggressive military. Already tested in battle in Syria, using weapons Britain would struggle to match – like long-range missiles. In Ukraine, they've been using unconventional warfare, electronic cyber and misinformation. And they're even on manoeuvres on Europe's doorstep, with large-scale exercises near Nato's borders. Enough to worry the head of the British army who tonight gave this rare public warning.'

The essence of Carter's 'rare public warning' was that:

'Russia was building an increasingly aggressive expeditionary force and the potential military threats to the UK "are now on Europe's doorstep"... the Kremlin already boasted an "eye-watering quantity of capability" - a level the UK would struggle to match... Britain "must take notice of what is going on around us" or... the ability by the UK to take action will be "massively constrained".'

Carter continued:

'Rather like a chronic contagious disease, it will creep up on us, and our ability to act will be markedly constrained - and we'll be the losers of this competition.'

      The army chief's warning had been approved by the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
On News at Ten, Beale's reporting of the speech amplified the army chief's message – in other words, the Defence Secretary's stance - by deploying such key phrases as:

'Increasingly aggressive', 'tested in battle', 'Britain would struggle to match', 'manoeuvres on Europe's doorstep', 'near Nato's borders'.

     There was, of course, no mention of US/Nato encroachment towards Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union (contravening assurances given to Gorbachev), or the US bases and military exercises close to Russia's borders as well as globally, or the long history of US threats and major crimes around the world. Nor was there any reference to Ukraine which has routinely been reported as an example of Russian 'aggression'. John Pilger observes that the BBC along with others, including CNN, the New York Times and the Guardian:

'played a critical role in conditioning their viewers to accept a new and dangerous cold war.
'All have misrepresented events in Ukraine as a malign act by Russia when, in fact, the coup in Ukraine in 2014 was the work of the United States, aided by Germany and Nato.'

      Beale's credulous reporting of the army chief's speech was an exemplar of 'public broadcast' media whipping up fear to promote state interests.

Read the full article HERE:
      Then go and get your news from local and international social media and independent sources, removed from the chains that link mainstream media to the state and corporate interest.

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasow.me.uk

Keep the Focus On Target.

 

          Just a few more photos to help to keep in focus, the Israeli Zionist state's brutal genocide of the Palestinian people. The protest was held to show and gather support for the Palestinian people's fight for justice. It was held in Argyle Street Glasgow Saturday 26th May, outside Marks and Spencer's, store, a known strong supporter of the Israeli Zionist state.

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

Just Living Or Having A Life??

        There are many options offered to bring this system of economic slavery, down. One way of bring it to its knees is simply, stop buying their carp, or stop playing by their rules. Just opting out of the system might not be everybody's idea, but it does have an impact.
         Once again some nice level headed words of wisdom from Not Buying Anything.

          Making a living is not the same as having a life. To build a life worth living, one needs time for leisure.
I don't know about you, but I always thought that working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week 50 weeks a year was too much. Much too much.
Now, with "labour saving" technology, one can be in permanent work mode. But why?
        Soon labour saving will mean more than the appearance of cutting down on work, all the while increasing that work. It will mean cutting labour out entirely with AI and robots. Now there is a threat even worse than low paid workers in foreign countries.
"You don't like being in permanent work mode? You should feel lucky that you still have a job at all."
        No thank you. I have lived simply for most of my life so I could avoid such an outcome. My reasoning was that the less I needed to buy, the less I needed to work. And the less I needed to work, the less dependent I was on the masters and their perpetual work demands.
Unlike AI, to be human is to need leisure time. Messy, inconvenient, but true. Not working for a taskmaster means that I can indulge the amount of leisure time necessary to build a life.
       “The original meaning of the concept of “leisure” has practically been forgotten in today’s leisure-less culture of “total work”: in order to win our way to a real understanding of leisure, we must confront the contradiction that rises from our overemphasis on that world of work. 

        The very fact of this difference, of our inability to recover the original meaning of “leisure,” will strike us all the more when we realize how extensively the opposing idea of “work” has invaded and taken over the whole realm of human action and of human existence as a whole.” - Joseph Pieper

         I got out of debt. I saved as much as I could. Then, at the earliest possible date, I quit the endless work world.
       Now I do what I want to do, which is most certainly not virtually attending a meeting while I am on "holiday" or in the bathroom, or while out with friends, or in bed.
         If you have to work while on vacation, it isn't a vacation. If you have to work all the time, you are not getting the leisure time you need.
         No leisure, no life. Living more simply is one way to get the time you need, and deserve.

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

Lest We Forget!!

        By now our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media will have moved on from the brutal murder of 111 Palestinian protesters by the Israeli Zionist military machine. They will be onto some new spectacle, sensation, scandal, the sex life of an MP, gossip on the latest moviestar spilt up. Lots of popcorn and bubble gum trivia for the masses. However the persecution of the Palestinian people still goes on, day in and day out, the Israeli Zionist state is relentless in its genocide of the Palestinian people. So though the babbling brook of bullshit has drop the subject, we the ordinary people should not. We must not forget that this is 70 years of ongoing persecution, 70 years of land grabs by the Zionists, day and daily murder, arrests and repression of an entire people, held in the largest open air prison in the world.

     So the protests across the world must continue in solidarity and support of a persecuted people, the Palestinians. We must continue to raise our voices about the 21st. century genocide, that is aided and abetted by the Western governments. Our silence is complicity in the support, and supply of weapons, to the Israeli Zionist state. we have to continue to shout, this genocide must end.

     It is encouraging to see that a group of Glasgow citizens are keeping the protests going. Though again sad, that only one red and black flag present, held aloft by a solitary Glasgow anarchist, where are you all? Today, Saturday 26th May, they were out side Marks and Spencers Argyle Street store, a known strong supporter of the Israeli Zionist state, informing the the general public of the situation in Palestine. A genocide based on the ludicrously insane idea that an invisible man in the sky, gave this land to the Jews some 2,000 years ago. That is the belief that underpins this savage murder of thousands over the years. 

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

Death At Work..

The "gig" economy and zero hours contracts are now the shape of a life for a large section of the working class. It is pumped out as flexible to suit the individual, but in actual fact is just another way of employers saving money and cutting down on their responsibilities to the employee. They have no worries about paid holidays, sick pay and health and safety, and a host of other workers rights. As usual it is the employee bears the brunt of this stripping down of conditions, conditions that were fought for over generations are now being destroyed, all in the name of profit, under the false flag of "flexibility".

         The recent case in Philadelphia where a courier was killed while working and his employer washes their hands of any responsibility, brings home the brutal truth of this type of "employment". Unfortunately I will be unable to take part in this action of support and solidarity, if you can, please do, it is short notice as it is this evening, but please spread the word.

Hi FWs,
       This Friday (25th) in Glasgow at 6:30pm, George Square, the Couriers Network Scotland will be holding a memorial bike ride for Pablo Avendano- a food courier who was killed recently whilst working for the app 'Caviar'. The company refuse to accept their share of responsibility for his death and his friends and family have asked for solidarity actions.
        All are welcome. We'll have supply of black armbands for folks to wear in his memory.
         (If you don't have a bike, there are Next Bikes available in the Square that you can rent for free for 30 mins)
         "This Friday Glasgow Critical Mass will be dedicating their monthly bike ride to Pablo Avendano, a Philadelphia based bike courier and activist who tragically lost his life while working for courier firm Cavier last Saturday!
Come on down to show your support!
An Injury to One is an Injury to All!
The Streets are our workplace!"

Solidarity,

Chris - Couriers Network Scotland

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

Just A Wee Morning Rant.

Pompous defender of privilege Duke of Wellington receives a touch of Glasgow Humour.

  

       As you walk around our fair city of Glasgow, you get the impression that the ordinary people played no part in the development our the city. The city centre is festooned with statues, but none to the struggles of the ordinary people who tried to improve the conditions of the ordinary people and who fought inequality and injustice. Seldom do these people enter into the history curriculum in the education system, yes, I know, we have a statue to Mary Barbour, instead there is a catalogue of kings, queens, dukes and earls fighting for wealth and power, or it is the history of war mongers, who shed the blood of ordinary people to defend the wealth and power of the few, “captains” of industry or greedy entrepreneurs, we even have streets named after slave owners. Our city is littered with statues and plaques to these greed and power driven individuals, most of whom gained their fame and fortune on the blood and sweat of the ordinary people.
       It is encouraging to see various campaigns to have some of the statues of these symbols of power mongers removed. As far as I am concerned most should be scrapped, as they are symbols to the blood soaked defence of privilege, power and wealth, symbols of oppression of our people, and of people in the once blood soaked British Empire. The “British Empire” is just a sanitised name for the savage and brutal plunder of the planet for the benefit of the few, that army of parasites that control our lives.
       Nowhere do you see statues and plaques honouring those thousands of ordinary working class people who spent their lives struggling to change this society and free the ordinary people from poverty and oppression. That is our history, a history that we should rightly be very proud of, and do our utmost to keep alive to inspire us, our children and grand children to continue the struggle to bring justice to all and an end to poverty power and privilege.

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

 

Let The Prisoners Speak.

 

          Anyone with half a brain cell knows that the prison system is a state tool of repression and control, and has nothing to do with "rehabilitation". Prisons are also a place where people with learning difficulties, mental health problems and addiction problems and various other problems, are stored out of public view. They are places of violence and brutality where the human spirit can be ground down, where people are caged, and in most cases, in grossly overcrowded conditions. 

    The only humane approach to prisons is to demolish them completely, removing this scar from the face of our society. 

   There is a call out for all prisoners and ex-prisoners to let the world hear their stories, their experiences, their points of view. Bring the prison experience to the public at large, open their eyes and awaken their sense of humanity to the brutal savagery of the state prison system.

A call for contributions for a new publication.

       The Empty Cages Collective and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England is calling out to prisoners and ex-prisoners worldwide to contribute their writing to a new publication: Prisoner Writings on Prison Abolition.

         This publication will share prisoner voices in the prison abolition conversation. It will centre the experiences of people in prison and their ideas on questioning, resisting and dismantling the prison industrial complex – as well as building a world without prisons.

It will be published during the International Week of Solidarity of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners at the end of August 2018.

           Material received before the 1st June will be published in an interim publication distributed at the International Conference on Prison Abolition (ICOPA) that is taking place in London, England from 15-18th June 2018. It will also be distributed online, be posted to prisoners and shared with radical distributors across the planet.

Prisoners are invited to send letters, articles and artwork to:

Empty Cages Collective, c/o BASE Social Centre, 14 Robertson Road, Bristol BS5 6JY, UK

Or supporters can email typed-up contributions to: info@prisonabolition.org

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

 

Royal Statues, Symbols Of Brutal Conquest.

         A little reminder of how the British monarchy, as head of state, presided over the plunder and brutalising the planet. How they and their privileged parasites grew fat on the spoils of that plunder, riding roughshod over the indigenous people. Theirs is a history of brutal conquest and vicious control, a history written in the blood of millions of ordinary people across the globe. Statues of royalty are symbols to a bloody and brutal history for self gain and power. Thanks Loam for the video link.

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

Let Your Righteous Anger Burst Forth.

      At the moment, looking at our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, you would be forgiven for thinking that our world comprises of over privileged useless prats, prancing around in ridiculous attire, being cheered on by a mindless horde of adoring fans. All because our biggest social benefit family have decided to try to cement their family's privileged position by having another wedding. No mention in the babbling brook of bullshit's out pouring, of the strikes and mass demonstrations in France against this system that spawns these over privileged prancing prats.

        France is in turmoil with transport strikes, social service strikes and student strikes. Not to mention the brutal state attempt at the eviction of ZAD, which has been going on for weeks now. Groups from various sections of French society are calling and organising for a general strike. The simmering anger that has been bubbling away under the surface is starting to break through in an attempt to tear this rotten corrupt system apart. We should be supporting their efforts in any way we can, and be trying to bring to boiling point, that simmering anger that lies just below the surface in our own society. Years of a deliberate ideology of dispossessing the poor, has fuelled that anger, but anger without a target is like a blind archer behind a bow. We have to direct that anger at the root cause of our ever decreasing share of the country's wealth, that we the people create, capitalism itself.

       This from Enough is Enough:

           As we reported more and more people discuss an indefenite general strike on the French territory. In the coming week there are two major mobilizations: on May 22 and May 26. On May 22 students are mobilizing for the “Day of the Barricades”and the public services sector will go on strike.
        On May 14 there was a first meeting in Paris about the current mobilizations and a general strike. The meeting was organized in less than two weeks by Front Social and about 300 people attended. There is now a proposal for another meeting with activists of various general assemblies (railway workers, postmen, students etc.) to meet in the evening of May 22. Gaël Quirante (a union member of SUD Post 92) said during the May 14 meeting: “It is time to discuss how we go on strike, how to amplify the strike, how we generalize it, how we build a general strike. And a general strike is something different than just not working, it’s not only for those who have a job: a general strike means that at some point, with or without job, is a strike that raises the question of who decides in our lives.”

Read the full article HERE:
       
        The ongoing struggle for ZAD:

          Since the government’s decision to cancel the construction of an airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes (NDDL) on January 17, 2018, life on la ZAD—the Zone a Défendre (Zone To Defend) where the airport was to be built—has been a complicated series of conflicts about whether to negotiate with the government for the future of the land. Any lingering illusions that it could be possible to coexist peacefully with the authority of the state were dispelled this week, as the French government initiated what they hope will be the decisive eviction of this world-famous inspiring autonomous zone. To learn about the fifty years of struggle that led up to this moment, read our full history, “La ZAD: Another End of the World Is Possible.”

The latest from ZAD:

           The government has announced a second wave of evictions on the zad of Notre-Dame des-Landes. The operation could be launched as soon as May 15th. We have no idea how large or how long it will be. What is certain is that we cannot trust official announcements and that we will mobilise if faced with any new attempt to pick and choose, which living places on the zad they will evict.
           Despite those, from the government or unfortunately even from the movement, who try to sow divisions, label and increase tensions, we will maintain as wide as possible a common defense for all the living places, perspectives and activities that are intertwined on the zad.
         This is the line that we have wanted to hold, as much within the negotiations as with the various forms of resistance and mobilisations on site for several weeks. We thus invite everyone to be ready to react again on the zad and everywhere else from May 15th.

Read the full article HERE: 

 

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

Where Is The Righteous Anger?

       The recent weeks of murder on the false border between the Zionist Israeli state and the occupied territory known as Gaza, should have shocked and outraged the whole of humanity, but it didn't. The Zionist state of Israel's response was that its military thugs acted with great restraint. The UN Human Rights Council voted to lauch an investigation into the killing of 110 Palestinian protesters, the UK representative abstained, obviously not moved by the Zionists' murder of unarmed protesters. 110 unarmed protesters shot dead, 64 in one day, was insufficient to move the UK government.

     These Palestinian deaths were not something in the heat of battle, this was for the Zionists military machine, an outing where they could insult, laugh at and cheer when they deliberately shot a protester dead.

       This from Middle East Eye: 

          The extent of the violence against unarmed civilians, coupled with the fact that Israel has non-lethal options for dealing with demonstrations, has failed to evoke a significant public discussion in Israel.
          Even some of the most disturbing footage - such as the clip of a protester rising from his prayers only to be met with a bullet, or the woman holding a flag and nearing the fence and falling to the ground from a sniper's shot - have failed to evoke a collective sense of horror.
         When a Palestinian journalist was shot by a sniper despite wearing a vest clearly marked "Press," Israelis were quick to brand him as a "Hamas activist" or a "terrorist with a drone". -----
  ------And then the media got hold of a short video, just a minute and 24 seconds long. Once again, it showed a blurry image of an unarmed Palestinian approaching the fence, only to be shot by a soldier before falling to the ground. We've already seen other similar videos, and Israel did not get upset. But in this one, there was a soundtrack that made a difference: In the background, soldiers can be heard cursing and expressing overt, vulgar enthusiasm as the unarmed victim falls to the ground.

        All these killings were when the Zionist military machine was well out of reach of any harm from the protesters, and in the weeks of protests, only one Israeli soldier was slightly hurt by a stone.

        These state murders should not be allowed to drift into the fog of history, but should be protested in every city continuously until the Zionist state of Israel is halted in its cold blooded brutality, its genocide of the Palestinian people, and its continuous land grabs, and the Palestinian people are free to determine their own direction.

        This Saturday saw one such protest, held in Buchanan Street by the Scottish Palestinian Support Campaign. It was well attended, though in my belief, due to the magnitude of the recent brutal events, it should have been far larger. 

       One little criticism was that there was only one red and black flag there, held by a friend and comrade, with a couple of his mates, thank you, you know who you are. I believe that state repression is state repression, state violence is state violence, state murder is state murder, and we should be there on the street making our voices heard. 

  

Visit ann rky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk