Down Bristol Way.

Bristol Tattoo Circus 3rd + 4th November 2018 

 

  

         We are excited to say Bristol will be hosting it’s first ever Tattoo Circus this year! Open at 10 both days and stuff going on all day and till late.
 

What’s going down?
       It will be a weekend full of tattoos from local and international artists and will be a chance to bring together folk from tattoo, DIY and anarchist circles. There will also be workshops on prison abolition, stalls, tasty snacks and music throughout the weekend. The principle of a Tattoo Circus is that it is a non-hierarchical, non-competitive and non-commercial event where nobody makes a profit. Everyone involved will be donating their time for free and all money raised will go to Bristol Anarchist Black Cross, a group focused on supporting prisoners and furthering campaigns for prison abolition.
 

History of the Tattoo Circus:
       The first Tattoo Circus happened in Rome in 2007 as a solidarity event, to support the anti-prison struggle and to create a space where tattoo culture and political activism could merge. Since its birth 11 years ago, tattoo artists from all over Europe (Barcelona, London, Thessaloniki, Bern, Athens, Madrid, etc.) have come together to co-create events with the aim of supporting political struggle of various kinds and also celebrating tattoo and DIY culture.

 

More information and full program HERE: 

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

 

Just Another Figurehead In The Capitalist Dictatorship.

        Another election and another right-wing swing of a government, Jair Bolsonaro, ex-army officer who sings the praises of Brazil’s military dictatorship of 1964-1985 and has defended its use of torture on leftist opponents, “I am in favour of torture — you know that. And the people are in favour of it, too.”
        This psychopathic, anti-abortion, racist, homophobic nonentity, has been handed the power to control the lives of the people of Brazil, his policies should be clear, as he carries the nickname of, “The Trump of the Tropics.” . Obviously big money was behind him, making sure their desired illusion was woven by the Brazilian, babbling brook of bullshit, their mainstream media. Fantasy answers to the people’s problems, appealing to the lowest common denominator, and bolstering poisonous nationalism.

         It shows the power and efficiency of the babbling brook of bullshit, when it can win votes for a man who sees nothing wrong in rape, his comment to female official, “I would not rape you because you are not worthy of it.”, and after having fathered three sons stated that his fourth child, a daughter, was his moment of weakness. Somehow the propaganda machine of the rich and powerful has persuaded the people of Brazil to hand over power to this lover of dictatorships. No doubt, with the control of the police, military and judicial system in his hands, he will go about hastily carving his own name on the list of brutal dictators that have shed the blood of millions of ordinary people, a list that has savaged the history of the ordinary people.
         For years now, we have all lived under the dictatorship of capitalism, and in countries where there is insufficient control by that dictatorship, up pops the “hero” who will make the country great again, who will take us back to the illusionary “good old days” when everything was fine and dandy. It has been said often and by many, that elections change nothing, this is not exactly true. Under the dictatorship of capitalism, elections function to change the degree of control needed to keep that dictatorship in power. This is what has happened in Brazil, with the aid of the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, backed up by big money from powerful people and corporations, this election will reshape capitalism in that country, giving it greater control over the people of that country and its resources.
       The enemy is not the dictator, the real enemy is the dictatorship of capitalism over the world’s people and its resources. Jair Bolsonaro, is just another figurehead of that dictatorship.

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

 

International Video Poetry Festival, Athens.

     If in Athens at the end of November this year, you will have the opportunity to visit The International Video Poetry Festival, well worth a visit. You still have time to send in your work to be part of this growing international festival.

 

 

    The yearly International Video Poetry Festival 2018 will be held for seventh time in Athens / Greece. Approximately 1200 people attended the festival last year.
       The 7th International Video Poetry Festival will run for two days in two different zones. The first day will be the Show Room Video Poetry. An unique zone that will include video poems, visual poems, short film poems and cinematic poetry by artists from all over the world (America, Asia, Europe, Africa). The second day will be the Live Improvisation Zone with multimedia poetry reading, concerts with experimental music and performances.
      We are inviting the artists – poets, video artists, performers, directors, producers – who want to visit the festival to present their art project at the Theatre. We can provide to them accommodation for 3 days (one day before the festival, during the festival and one day afterwards).
      The International Video Poetry Festival 2018 attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry.
       It is very important to notice that this festival is a part of the counter-culture activities of Void Network and + the Institute [for Experimental Arts] and will be non-sponsored, free entrance, non commercial and nonprofit event. The festival will cover the costs (2000 posters, 15.000 flyers, high quality technical equipment) from the incomes of the bar of the festival. All the participating artists and the organizing groups will participate voluntary to the festival.
       The Institute [for Experimental Arts] invites the artists and creators of video poems to participate from their side in our effort to cover the expenses of the festival without private or state sponsorship. For this reason we propose to the artists the suggested donation of 5 euro for the submission of their video poems.
       The participation is free and each artist can send more than one work ( 1 to 3 video poems for free). 

      The International Video Poetry Festival 2018 attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry.
      Void Network started organizing multi media poetry nights in 1990. Void Network and +the Institute [for Experimental Arts] believe that multi media Poetry Nights and Video Poetry shows can vibrate in the heart of Metropolis, bring new audiences in contact with contemporary poetry and open new creative dimensions for this ancient art. To achieve this, we respect the aspirations and the objectives of the artists, create high quality self organized exhibition areas and show rooms, we work with professional technicians and we offer meeting points and fields of expression for artists and people that tend to stand antagonistically to the mainstream culture.
       We would like to thank Dave Bonta from the influential video art site Moving Poems, a global site with the best video poems in the web that inspired us to create the International Video Poetry Festival in Athens and we cooperate since 2012 to spread out the announcement of the Festival each year so as to gather participations from all over the world.
           DEAD LINE FOR SUBMISSION: no later than November 20, 2018 (date of postmark)
      HOW TO SUBMIT A WORK:
      Click here to download and complete the submission form:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIWEeQd3VUQAF4anMUUobO6bdEYHRS1AwRUtSbz6XTY/edit?usp=sharing
      1. Your participation is FREE. Please you can add the suggested donation of 5 euro (or more) to the following bank account: National Bank of Greece 04664860451 Iban GR2101100460000004664860451 Swift (BIC) ETHNGRAA
       2. Please, send the submission material via email as following:
via email: your video poems in mp4 or mov file, definition (720 x 576, 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080) the submission form and photos in .jpg file (all these in a single wetransfer file) Email: theinstitutecontact [at] gmail.com
*please replace [at] with @ symbol to send email
       You can use wetransfer.com or any other FREE SERVICE to send us big files.
        3. It is very important to name your files (videos and still images, photos) as it is shown below:
       Title of video poem, Artist’s name, Countrry
      4. Be careful, you have to send only one email with the application form, the link to download, the video poems or the video poems archives, the still images of the video poems and any website of your art work projects
      5. We recommend you to add English or Greek subtitles to your video poems even if the spoken language is in English as it will be easier for people outside the English spoken world to understand it.
       We suggest you send your video poems through internet. Otherwise you can also post your DVD file in the following address
INTERNATIONAL VIDEO POETRY FESTIVAL
TASOS SAGRIS
159 KREONTOS
SEPOLIA ATHENS
GREECE 10443
      Please post it not later than November 20, 2018(date of postmark) to the International Film Poetry Festival, Athens. The Institute [for Experimental Arts] will inform you about your participation in early December 2018.
      International Video Poetry Festival photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/98573745@N03/albums/72157636930950693
       You can look here for some photos of previous poetry nights organized by Void Network and + the Institute [for Experimental Arts]:
http://voidnetwork.gr/2/5th-international-video-poetry-festival-sat
http://voidnetwork.gr/2015/10/20/speak-no-evil-poetry-even
       for more photos from Void Network art, events and actions :
http://flickr.com/photos/voidnetwork

       The 7th International Video Poetry Festival is dedicated to the Chinese radical poet and photographer Ren Hang, one of the leading lights of the new generation of Chinese photographers. Ren Hang was arrested many times for his sexually explicit, joyously celebratory photography. Although he was globally renowned, he never gained the recognition he deserved in his home country, in part because he was repeatedly denied the opportunity to display his work in Beijing and throughout China.
      Read more about Ren Hang to the following link:
http://artasiapacific.com/News/ObituaryRenHang19872017

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

Women On The March, Glasgow.

       Today, Tuesday October 23rd., the streets in the centre of Glasgow were greeted to a joyful, good humoured, noisy procession.  Care workers, council employees, were on strike for parity of pay with men, and held a procession, ending with a rally in George Square. As they noisily weaved their way through the streets of Glasgow, they were greeted by applause from the side of the road, though sadly, I must say, mainly by women. This is a dispute that has dragged on for about ten years now. It is strange that in a so called democracy they are still fighting for equality and justice. What is about fairness and justice that the powers that be don't understand?

     I would put the numbers about a thousand or so, a fair turnout. While watching the energy, solidarity, boisterous and vociferous nature of the whole affair, the thought occurred to me, that if we want a revolution in the UK, we should perhaps leave it to the women, they seem to come together in a much more rebellious nature.

     Some photos:

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

Cloned Cities For The Wealthy.

       This piece originally published in Squat-Net, but could equally apply to any modern city, as capitalism clones city after city in the interest of profit. Cities are now places for speculators to gamble their ill-gotten gains in the hope of ever increasing profits, and a place for the wealthy to flaunt their expensive toys and mingle in expensive restaurants. The ordinary, the poor, are pushed to the perimeter to make do as best they can, most of them now superfluous to the systems requirements. However, some are doing as we should all do, fighting back.

From Squat Net:

      Amsterdam: Today, October 17, the Mobiele Eenheid, a collective of involved Amsterdammers, occupied the old Gedempt Hamerkanaal 86. The building has been empty for over a year without any concrete plans for use in the near future. We plan to transform this badly maintained building into a non-commercial social center; a space by and for people to come together, exchange ideas and skills, work collectively and actively influence the developments in the city.
     We oppose the current developments in the city. Over the last 5 years the average price of a house in Amsterdam has gone up by more than 80%. Due to high rent many inhabitants have been pushed out (of their homes) and the city. Many are forced to give up their tenancy rights and live in anti-squats, currently a conventional alternative to renting, even though it enables real estate speculation. In addition, gentrification and tourism are changing Amsterdam. Space for people with a small wallet or non-profit initiatives have basically disappeared. The last free-spaces are currently under threat. Amsterdam is increasingly becoming an expensive, predictable, individualistic and exclusive city, whereas we want to live in a city that is diverse and inclusive.
       This is why we are opening up this space for the benefit of the local community and the residents of Amsterdam. Together we can create a stronger sense of community and a voice against current developments. Through a program with political debate, music, art and communal projects, we want to connect and involve anyone that wants to be a part of the city’s community and potentially participate in its development. Squatting unused property for public benefit has a long tradition in our city and we will continue.
      We run this place collectively and voluntarily. You are very welcome to pass by during one of our events, or to join and help out!

Mobiele Eenheid
Gedempt Hamerkanaal 86
1021 KR Amsterdam
info [at] mobiele-eenheid [dot] org
https://mobiele-eenheid.org/

Join Us page https://mobiele-eenheid.org/join-us/

      We see that the commercialisation, gentrification and growing tourism are making of Amsterdam an expensive and exclusive city. Amsterdam is becoming more individualistic, more monotonous and boring. Also, the city is now a playground for tourists and a board game for the rich, who speculate with the spaces of the city, entirely not giving a damn about us, the people who use those spaces, whether to live or to meet.
     We firmly believe that it is not the right of the rich to play with the buildings of the city or to decide what to do with them. Since we also enjoy a lot of having fun with and in the city, we decided to start playing, but we are doing it in our own way: we are starting a non-commercial, self-organised, autonomous, and free space.
     We see that the commercialisation, gentrification and growing tourism are making of Amsterdam an expensive and exclusive city. Amsterdam is becoming more individualistic, more monotonous and boring. Also, the city is now a playground for tourists and a board game for the rich, who speculate with the spaces of the city, entirely not giving a damn about us, the people who use those spaces, whether to live or to meet.

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

Ideas In Closed Circles?

       As anarchists are 100% for the abolition of the state, it surely follows that the state will be 100% against anarchism. Hence its propaganda mouthpiece, the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, will paint anarchists as mindless, violent advocates of destruction, and its biased and corrupt judicial system will deal with them as such. Because of this misrepresentation of anarchism, I have always been a strong advocate of showering our towns and cities with paper, leaflets, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, etc. all explaining what anarchism is really about. Our "propaganda" has to be stronger than theirs. I'm not dismissing direct action and other projects of autonomy, but without the general public getting to know what we are all about, they will still carry this media based caricature of anarchists in their minds.

      For a considerable number of years I produced a paper called "The Anarchist Critic", as well as walking through Glasgow's streets handing it out, to all and sundry, I would leave it at various places, on buses, in cafes and pubs, etc.. I'm not claiming I started a social revolution in Glasgow, but I do believe that I may just have altered some people's perception of anarchism. On a massive scale, I'm sure it would create a different view of our beliefs and why we do what we do. Social media seems to have replaced the paper in your hand, I know that social media has a place, but there are millions of ordinary people who never enter the world of internet social media, and we neglect them at our peril. Unless the general public are aware of our ideas, in times of crisis, when they look for answers, they are not going to pick up our ideas, if they unaware of them in the first place.

      I know it is easier to sit down at a computer and publish your thoughts and ideas, your activities etc. but I feel your are talking to a rather closed circle of the same group of "followers", and "friends".  On the street, everybody you hand your paper to is a stranger, somebody new, and day in day out, that is a lot of strangers getting what you  are trying to do and say. I have spouted this before, but I do despair that we are missing avast swath of people who are the very people we have to convince, our ideas are for their benefit, and their kids benefit.

      Will I ever see the return of "The Paper" popping up across our towns and cities, in our communities. Local info shaped around anarchist ideas, in your hand to read, to keep for reference, to pass on to friends and work mates? Not nostalgia, just a belief that we are missing a valuable weapon that would be a wonderful conduit for our ideas.

 

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

Wars And The Media.

       In the cycle of perpetual wars that we are mired in, we should remember the part the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, play in manufacturing acceptance of wars and the death and destruction that follows. They are the propaganda mouthpiece of the various states, and by misrepresentation, omitting facts, distorting evidence and ignoring consequences, they create the illusion that it is a "just war", a "noble cause". However, history tells us that it is always a battle of opposing power structures aiming to increase their power and wealth, or hold on to it against a competing power structure.

     In every war, it is the ordinary people that pay the savage price in death and misery of this insanity, while the wealthy and powerful gain the spoils from the slaughter.

     An event well worth making a point to attend is the coming film show and discussion being put on by The Scottish Peace Network, 

         On Wednesday, 31 October, 7 pm, Wellington Church, Glasgow Uni campus, the Scottish Peace Network will be screening a major portion of We Are Many-- a excellent film about the massive, coordinated, worldwide demonstrations on 15 February 2003 to halt plans for a war on Iraq by the US and the UK.
      This film screening and discussion is part of a series of events closing four years of counter-centenary actions and events aimed at telling the truth about the causes and consequences of the First World War.
       The truth then and now is that official lies and media manipulation play a big role in the build up to, and perpetuation of, war.
        Please join us for the film and discussion as we try to stay true to our goals and values: No More Wars. No Justice No Peace.

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

Aberfan, 52 Years And Hearts Still Bleed.

      October 21st. 1966 was a day of horror that took an nation to a dark place, that's the day that is remembered as the Aberfan tragedy. It was a cold damp morning that started as countless other October mornings had begun, but is now etched into the consciousness of the mining communities and beyond.  A day that took the lives of 116 children and 28 adults, from one small village in Wales. 

     A tip of coal mine slurry dumped on the side of a mountain, and on top of a stream and it grew and grew. On that fateful wet October morning, just after the kids had entered school, it started its unstoppable rush down the mountainside, fast and furious, like an unstoppable runaway locomotive. It encompassed cottages on the way down, before coming to a halt as it swamped and encased the junior school and all those inside. 

     Mining communities are well accustomed to tragedy, but what marks this one out is the fact that it mindlessly terminated the lives of 116 children, all innocent victims of a nation's greed for cheap coal.

This from the BBC:

 “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”

     The phrase is one of the most enduring and quoted of modern literature, an almost proverbial reference to the archaic and bygone.
      It is the opening line of LP Hartley’s 1953 novel The Go-Between, an eerie story set 50 years on from a tumultuous experience of an adolescent boy; an experience so devastating it propelled him prematurely into adulthood and ruined the rest of his life.
      The story of what happened in the south Wales mining village of Aberfan is a devastating one which dealt a similar fate to the children who survived it.
       It too is a story for which Hartley’s opening line could not be more pertinent.
       It is exactly 50 years since tragedy swooped down on Aberfan killing 116 children and 28 adults.
        Revisiting the "obscenity" of 21 October 1966, and its aftermath is a stark reminder of the incongruities of the past.
     Health and safety, counselling, accountability, litigation, compensation – at times met with derision – are the tenets of our modern day.
      Aberfan is an upsetting reminder of perhaps why and how much our society changed so much in little over a generation.

Continue reading HERE:

 The mistake that cost a village its children. 

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

 

Mortal Enemies, The State And Dissent.

      States across the globe, will always act against voices of dissent, any dissent is seen as a threat to their power and control. Anarchists tend to be at the forefront of opposition to any state, so they tend to be at the receiving end of the harshest repression. Across the world today there is a crack down on anarchist individuals, groups, autonomous spaces, squats, etc.. From Russia to Italy, from Spain to Philippines, from Indonesia to America, anarchists are being harassed, beaten, imprisoned and killed.

     This case is just one among the many that are happening on a daily bases, one  that our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will pass over without a mention. It is one from that "Land of the free", the good ol' US of A, but look and you will find them in abundance in every state, no matter its shade or shape. all those at the receiving end of this state repression deserve our full support and solidarity. 

This from 325:

Update on imprisoned anarchist comrade Eric King (USA)
     A quick update since Eric is still in the Specialized Housing Unit (SHU, segregation) and it is unknown how long he will be there. He still hasn’t received a write-up nor has he been brought up on charges, but is facing a precarious situation. Eric also has some new rules regarding mail. All paper has to be plain white or regular lined notebook paper. Envelopes have to be straight white or manila if sending something larger. Eric is also unable to receive cards.
   As folx know Eric has been through a lot of trauma recently and really could use support through mail and always always books. He was pretty badly hurt, he misses his family and really needs the community right now. Eric is so grateful for all the support, letters, and books he has received so far. We in the support crew are so appreciative of people showing our friend the love!
      Please keep Eric in your mind and heart, these are hard times and our friend will need a ton of solidarity and help in the coming months.
      You can find his Amazon wish-list here: http://a.co/gUbDsYs

Eric King # 27090045

USP LEAVENWORTH
P.O. BOX 1000
LEAVENWORTH, KS 66048
USA

As always, until all are free-
EK Support Crew
Tags: Eric G. King, USA

        This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2018 at 10:10 am and is filed under Prison Struggle.

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