Dismiss The Capitalist Economic Arguments.

       I post the following article in full, though it is filled with what should be accepted and obvious to any anarchist/libertarian-socialist. It should also be obvious to the public at large, but sadly this is far from the case. It highlights the futility of framing your arguments in the capitalist economics frame. We have to see ourselves as other than economic units profitable or otherwise.

The article written by Panos Theodoropoulos appears in INTERREGNUM:

 

The Thief and the Cash Cow: Twins from a union of enemies

       As the Brexit debacle gets more surreal and confusing by the day, people in the UK are continually bombarded with information and propaganda. Whether or not the Brexit result was ‘about migration’ or, alternatively, was the outcome of a combination of various intertwined grievances, the issue of migration has played a dominant role in both right and left-wing arguments. These arguments shape ideas and create the ‘common sense’ which frames people’s thinking. And it is from these arguments that we can understand, and thereby confront, troubling underlying assumptions that are, most of the time, left unscrutinised precisely because they have already established themselves as an aspect of what their proponents consider ‘common sense’.

       One of these perspectives, which the right wing heavily relies on in its propaganda (an idea that is shared from Tommy Robinson all the way to the Conservative Party), is that the presence of migrant workers in the economy lowers wages and impoverishes working conditions. This is what I will call the ‘Thief Argument’. It forms an important pillar of their wider discourse, enabling them to say that they are not racist; they are simply stating the ‘obvious’, since ‘we have to look out for our own people first’. The left, once again in most of its denominations (from communists to the Labour Party), respond in exasperation, and in what they believe is a defence of migrant workers. They say that migrant workers are ‘good for the economy’ because they passionately work, staff the NHS and other vital services, pay taxes, and are disproportionately not recipients of state benefits. I will call this the ‘Cash Cow Argument’.

       Yet, despite their vehement proclamations of mutual enmity, these two sides are much closer than seems at first glance. In a manner not uncommon in UK political discourse (centuries of colonialism tend to leave their mark in a plethora of ways), both the left and the right tend to view migrants purely in terms of their economic costs or benefits to the host society. It is basically the same way that you view your car: if you think it’s doing a good job, you admire it; if it is underperforming, you want the problem ‘dealt with’. Yet, surprisingly for some, we have not come to these islands simply to work in your warehouses or to benefit from your patronising ‘protection’; we are more than machines. Furthermore, far from being confined to the realm of migration, these twin perspectives betray a wider conception of the human condition under capitalism as such. This article will attempt to very briefly dismantle these ideas, in the hope that we may at some point be able to forge more social movements that fight for the dignity of both locals’ and migrants’ lives.

      The ‘Thief Argument’ is probably my favourite, because of how easy it is to dismantle when you have a drunken conversation at the pub with one of its supporters. Yet it still needs to be confronted because it is strongly established in common discourses and propagated by powerful interests. In all its simplistic glory, the argument states that migrants, either in their quest for jobs and conditions better than the ones they left behind or due to the insecurity of their status, are willing to work for smaller wages and in worst conditions than the locals. This, they claim, creates a race to the bottom which impoverishes British workers. Everybody has heard it. It is propagated by the likes of Nigel Farage, UKIP, Leave Means Leave and sections of the Tory party. Recently it was given an air of credibility by the right-wing, anti-migration think tank Migration Watch UK and by a study conducted by the Bank of England which found that migration ‘impacted wages’ in the ‘semi-skilled/unskilled occupational group’. Its strength is in its simplicity; the argument seems straightforward and ‘obvious’, so much so that it has even polluted some of the Labour party’s ideas, with Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 echoing UKIP in placing the blame with international employment agencies which enable employers to ‘import cheap agency labour to undercut existing pay and conditions in the name of free market orthodoxy’.

        The weakness of this argument is that it ignores the wider social and economic conditions that create our common reality in the UK. To begin with what should be obvious, wages and employment conditions are not set by migrants but by the parliament and bosses. It is true that many migrant workers work in jobs that have low wages and worst labour conditions; yet, as I have analysed elsewhere, they are in these jobs because the UK economic system is designed by default to have them there. This is something that has been going on since the British empire; more recently, the government and employers capitalised on the expansion of the European Union in the early 2000s to provide cheap and insecure labour to many industries that were to profit greatly from it. Indeed, the principle of free movement of the EU is designed, and supported by big business in the UK, almost exclusively for that purpose. Weaker economies are artificially kept in a state of underdevelopment, which pushes migrant workers to the more ‘developed’ economies to serve as workers.

        For example, many warehouses and factories rely on agencies to provide them with temporary labour to fill their short-term needs (try to imagine the chaos in one of Amazon’s warehouses during the Christmas period). Employment legislation passed by the UK government allows insecure, short-term contracts which employment agencies use to essentially ‘rent out’ workers to the employers that require their labour. The agency usually pays the worker something around minimum wage (once again established by the UK government) while receiving a lot more from the employer than what goes in the pockets of the worker. The insecurity of the contract enables the employer to dispose of the worker once there is no need for them (while at the same time not needing to concern themselves with nuisances such as sickness or maternity pay), and the sheer volume of industries enable the agencies to consistently shuffle their workers from one location to the next, making profits all year round. On the other end of the equation, many migrant workers share some characteristics that are used by this government-business complex in order to boost profitability. These include de-skilling (the non-recognition of qualifications gained abroad), language difficulties, lack of information regarding trade unions and general labour rights, as well as an initial preference for a quick job to get settled down as fast as possible.

      As time passes and networks are solidified, occupations become linked with the people performing them, creating a cycle which reproduces itself (think of the ‘Polish plumber’ stereotype). If you have a look at ethnic community groups on Facebook, you will routinely find British employers advertising vacancies. Studies in the US have shown that the extent of employers’ preference to migrant labour is so deep that they have even drawn racialised, biological conclusions as to why certain ethnicities are better for certain jobs; for example, some believe that Mexicans are naturally suited to agricultural labour due to the design of their bodies. It is not the migrant workers that ‘take jobs’; the reality is that the whole economic system is designed to employ migrant workers in those specific conditions, purely to maintain profitability. In a study on the issue of migrant work, Anderson shows that the arguments that ‘migrant workers fill jobs that British people don’t want’ and that ‘migrant workers take jobs’ are equally invalid. Migrant workers simply accept the jobs and conditions that have already been established by the government and by employers, with existing migration controls playing a key role in creating precarious workers that are useful for profitability. The real culprits of the impoverishment of the UK’s working classes are the government and the bosses, and in these classes, migrant and British workers have a lot more in common than their differences.

While the ‘Thief Argument’ is pretty easily confronted through a basic understanding of how the UK’s economy works, the ‘Cash Cow Argument’ is harder to dispel because: 1) it usually comes, paradoxically, from an ideological source which claims to support migrant workers and 2) because it is actually true, but in its very proclamation is directly counterproductive to the purpose its proponents pretend to support. Yes, the UK economy has been designed to employ migrant workers at specific jobs, and as such it would be unrecognisable (and unimaginable) without them as it is currently structured. Yet how pitiful, weak, and dangerous is it to propose a group’s economic benefit to this society as the main argument in support of their value and humanity? While the right and the far-right hide their underlying racism behind economic arguments, the most vocal forces of the left betray, through their own proclamations, that they want migrants to stay in the UK only because of the benefits their exploitation brings to British employers. In doing so, they inadvertently support the wishes of capital more faithfully than their far-right opponents. The far-right wrongfully claims that ‘migrants are bad because they harm the economy’ and the left replies, very factually, that ‘this economy needs migrants’; in so doing, they prop up the very system they claim to be against. What is common in both of these perspectives is an infatuation with the health of the UK’s capitalist economy and a simultaneous conception of the migrant as purely an economic vessel, a thing, something with no value other than the profits it can or cannot produce.

       We need to be aiming for more than this. Anti-racism needs to be much stronger than a call to arms for capitalist exploitation of migrant workers. We need to highlight the common sources of the plight of both British and migrant workers, and foreground the objectives of solidarity, community power, and the overthrow of this economic system as such. The dominant ideological characteristic of neoliberalism is that every individual is no more than their productivity and their capacity to survive in an intensely competitive environment. This perspective has underpinned the state policies that impoverish and exploit British workers just as much as they do migrant workers. It is contradictory and damaging to argue against this system while at the same time proclaiming that migrant workers are welcome precisely because of the role they serve within it.

        It is probably true that the ‘Thief Argument’ and its variants played a significant role in galvanising support for Brexit. However, it is equally true that the European Union is a coalition of capitalist nations, warmongers and bankers. Plagued by diminishing power and resources, and not having set the correct foundations beforehand to challenge the twin assaults of both racism and neoliberalism, the wider left finds itself disjointedly and contradictorily arguing without a coherent ideological and political goal. Supporting the European Union in the name of fighting for the rights of migrant workers is incoherent; the policies of the European Union, in conjunction with the those of the UK’s governments, are directly those which keep our countries of origin in a constant state of underdevelopment and force us to seek work elsewhere. These policies stem from the same sources which both throw British workers under the wheels of austerity and which fortify migrants’ exploitation. As a brief side-note, it is equally incoherent and counter-productive to suddenly jump to support EU workers’ rights while ignoring the struggles of non-EU migrants (a fault that the ‘3  Million Campaign‘ is particularly guilty of), who have borne the brunt of the UK’s racist migration regime for far longer and with much more painful results.

       We need to organise to develop community power from the bottom up, free from political parties and outside of the dominant institutions which exist to give an illusion of freedom amid soaring inequality. We need to fight for ‘no borders’, not ‘better borders’. We need to fight for ‘anti-capitalism’, not ‘better capitalism’. We need to show how borders are part of the same structures which create the inequality and social collapse that anti-migration Brexiteers are raging against. History has shown that solidarity is forged in collective action. Through initiatives such as Living Rent, both migrant and Scottish workers fight in unison to improve their living conditions, targeting problems which equally affect them both. Radical trade unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World and the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain bring both migrant and local precarious workers together in a variety of labour struggles, showing that solidarity is stronger than division.  In the same spirit of solidarity, locals unite with migrants against detention and immigration controls through initiatives such as the Unity Centre. All of these initiatives combine to prove that we as humans, in all of our diversity, are capable of not only resisting the assaults on our living conditions together, but that we are also able to forge new ways of existing, outside and beyond the scope of capital and profit.

      We are much more, and much stronger, than our economic roles attempt to constrain us into being. An essential step, therefore, towards organising for emancipation is to completely and permanently expel any traces of the ‘Cash Cow Argument’ from our rhetoric, while at the same time consistently dismantling and ridiculing the ‘Thief Argument’. This will set the foundations for the development of a relatively coherent (different parts of the left will always have important theoretical variations) anti-capitalist and anti-racist movement. The issue is not whether migrant workers are good for the economy; the issue is the economy itself and the plethora of oppressive mechanisms that maintain and reproduce it.

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

War, A Money Making Machine For The Few.

 

 

      To any rational person it is impossible to look at "war" and find it justifiable. To organise a group of people to go out and kill another group of people, belongs to the realms of insanity. Despite this, war is always an important part of any state's agenda, preparations for war demand a very large slice of the state's wealth. A wealth created by the very people who will be sent out to do the killing.

     In modern warfare the idea of war is even more irrational, with its unimaginable destructive power. Forget all this crap about "smart bombs", when one of our "highly sophisticated" weapons of mass carnage hits a building, we are supposed to believe that everybody in that building and in the surrounding area were "bad people" and deserved to be incinerated at the whim of some foreign power.

    Then there is the environmental cost, modern wars are among the largest culprits of CO2 producers. While we murder our environment there is the human cost, the usual destruction of a country's entire infrastructure and the ensuing deprivation, misery, displacement of people and deaths by the thousands and over time millions of innocent people. 

     If you are a capitalist accountant, you must surely have to scratch your head at the sheer cost of war. Taking America as an example, (since they are the greatest purveyors of war on the planet), the cost to the US taxpayer of that county's wars since 2001, the start of the Afghanistan illegal invasion, (figures from information Clearing House), is an eye-watering $4.76 trillion, yes, $4,760,364,004,134. To put it another way, if you had that sum in your account you could spend $1 million every hour, 24 hours a day, and you would not run out of money  for 411 years. That volume of wealth blown up in smoke, in 18 years by one nation in the pursuit of war.  

     Of course in spite of that vast outpouring of taxpayers money in smoke and death, there are those who make billions from that money burning exercise.  That is the real reason for the existence of wars, the wealthy and powerful 1% who control our lives under this capitalist system, continually grow richer on the back of wars.

      On their shoulders lies the blame for the 1,455,590 Iraqis slaughtered since the US occupation of that country. They carry the blame for the 4,801 US military personnel sacrificed to swell their fat bank balances, and the 3,430 International troops slaughtered in that illegal invasion. All in the pursuit of wealth and power for the few. 

 "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it." - Madeleine K. Albright [In response to a question from Leslie Stahl, "We have heard that a half million children have died (as a result of Clinton's sanctions against Iraq). I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. ... is the price worth it?

Ah, the value structure of capitalism.

 

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

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes!!!

       "Out of the mouths of babes", I think the adult population should hang their heads in shame, at the state of the planet we are handing the next generation. The youth of the world are showing us how it should be done, From one concerned young girl in Sweden, we now have a world wide movement of youngsters taking to the streets against the insanity of our economic destructive system. The cause they are fighting for is one that none of us can escape, it is the survival of the human race. 

    We have to give these young people our unflinching support and take to the streets in solidarity with them. This is not a fun thing with a bunch of kids dodging school, these are intelligent concerned young people who are showing us the way. It is not just a local phenomenon, this is a world wide protest against the rule of our lives by the greedy corporate and financial juggernaut. A call for sanity and a stop to the rape and plunder of our planet just to feed a small cabal of rich and powerful people. What are we doing to our next generation when they can make statements like the one by the young Swedish girl who started this protest, Miss Thunberg,   "I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day." We are handing our youngsters a disintegrating planet and a future of fear. We can still do something about this poisoned legacy we are hand our children and grandchildren. We can join them on the streets across the globe, and take control of our and their future. Of course my own personal view is that the planet is not dying, but the planet is being murdered, and we know who by.

     Glasgow was no exception in this concern for the future, the young people of our city took to the streets on Friday and joined that world wide movement for sanity and a future. The banners that festoon the protest were loud proclamations of the truth that needs to be grasped, "Change the politics not the climate" and the truth that our "lords and Masters" view with blinkers on, "Stop denying our earth is dying", and a blatant truth that we should all grasp,  "If the world were a bank, it would have been saved." Who can deny any of these statements, from the mouths of our youth.

Some photos from Glasgow, thanks Keith.

      Two photos from Glasgow, courtesy of The Herald, (Colin Mearns Newsquest)

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UK/Ireland Decentralised Anarchist Festival.

        Last year London anarchists held a decentralised anarchist festival in place of the dropped London anarchist bookfair. It was a great success, and at the time I suggested that this idea should be replicated across the country in as many villages, towns and cities as possible right across the country, all on the same weekend. At the time there was some support for the idea but nothing transpired. I can't think of a better way to let people know, we are here, and to raise the profile of our ideas and beliefs. A  decentralised trans-UK/Ireland anarchist festival I'm sure would draw publicity and perhaps those new converts.

       The organisers of last years London anarchist festival have now come up with the idea that we should attempt to make this idea a reality. It is up to us if we really want a country wide publicity event to bring us all together and bring in new faces. Numbers matter.

 Callout for organising the Anarchist Festival 2019

News,
        Following the success of last year’s decentralised anarchist festival, we’re going to do it again, but this time with events not just in London, but across the UK and Ireland.
      The idea is simple: groups and venues put on their own programme of anarchist events, centred around the long weekend of 31st May to the 2nd June 2019. The programme is collated by us on our website and social media.

www.anarchistfestival.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/anarchistfestival
www.twitter.com/anarchistfest
      Struggling to think about what would be a good thing to put on? You can look at last years listings to see what kind of stuff happened last year., but don’t let that limit you! We welcome events on anarchism, it’s history, ideas and activity; as well as topics of interest to anarchism such as ecology, workplace organising, mental health, feminism etc. We will reject events that are racist, misogynist, transphobic or are otherwise oppressive.
      If your event is in London and you would like it included in the programme please let us know about it by emailing us at anarchistfestival@riseup.net
      If your event is NOT in London (anywhere else in the UK or Ireland) and you would like it included in the programme please let us know about it by emailing us at nationalevents@riseup.net.
      Please also contact us at those email addresses if you have a venue for use, but no events in mind.
      DEADLINE ALERT! Please be sure to submit your event by 1st May 2019 for inclusion in the programme. Any event submitted later than this date will not be included.
      Hope you can get involved – see you on the streets/ in the social centres!

Check out the leaflet below and feel free to print some out to put up in your local library/ university/ bookshop/ community space. If you’d like the PDF please email us and we’ll send it over.

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

ACE Events In Edinburgh.

       Our friends at ACE, (Autonomous Centre Edinburgh) are always busy, so here are a few more up and coming events that should have you heading in their direction.

SOME UPCOMING EVENTS AT ACE

PLUS MORE EVENTS ORGANISED BY FRIENDS OF ACE

Gilets Jaunes, Meet The Left Activists:
Sunday 17 March 3pm – 6pm
At ACE
Free All welcome

        We will be hosting two French Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) activists; Justine Chaput from the NPA (New Anticapitalist Party) and Maia Pal. Come & learn what the Yellow Vests movement is and what's happening over in France!
      Hosted jointly by ACE and the The Common House (London) our two speakers from France will speak in English via Skype.
      With an introduction by an activist from Common House recetly returned from several weeks in France with the movement.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2296310920400933/ 

Resist the Fascist SDL:
      Meet at the Robert Ferguson Statue on the Royal Mile, Noon on Saturday 23 March. Help resist attempts by the SDL to march through Edinburgh
https://www.facebook.com/events/1994571330850842/

Sisters Uncut
Open Meeting for new sisters
Ace 6.30pm Monday 25 March

Universal Credit: Not Fit For Purpose (Glasgow event)
        Come join the conversation and let's be the change we want to see! This is a free event with limited childcare places available. Saturday 30 March, 11 - 4 pm, Castlemilk Youth Complex.
https://www.facebook.com/events/789446804755132/

       For more events see ACE facebook @AutEdinburgh
and the calendar at www.autonomous.org.uk
      Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA
      ACE is open every Tuesday 12-3pm, the last Thursday each month 6pm - 8pm, and the first Saturday each month 1pm - 4pm
      Plus see ACE facebook and the calendar at www.autonomous.org.uk for special events and meetings
        Tel 0131 557 6242 - best to ring during opening hours, sorry we cannot guarantee to be able to respond to voicemail.

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

We The Poets.

        As someone who tries now and again to write poetry, I have always seen the “poet” as somebody with an obligation. To seek out and shine a light on injustice, and where suffering occurs, call out the perpetrators. Of course not everybody sees it that way, it is a simply a personal view.

We The Poets.
We the poets
must rise to hold the mirror,
not at romantic moon
dressing tress in silver web
but, at sadness in a child’s eyes
helpless face festooned with flies,
the listless look of hunger.
We the writers
must rise to hold the mirror,
not at hopes of superstars
pandering to an ego of selfish greed
but, at misery of the world’s maimed
duty done by smart bombs, computer aimed;
peoples crushed by pityless power.
We the artists
must rise to hold the mirror
not at views from penthouse windows
of meadows green and lush
but, at peoples broken by starvation,
at war, its brother deprivation,
capitalism’s bastard twins.
If across the planet as a whole
if we don’t stand up and play our role,
poet; heart of compassion,
writer: voice of conscience,
artist; eyes of justice,
we’ve cheated tomorrow’s generation,
hurried the planet to extinction.

 

       I have always seen words as powerful tools, they can be used to inspire for good or for bad. Our “lords and masters” use them with great skill in an attempt to keep the population submissive to their woven illusion, that we live in a democracy. Those who know different, surely have an obligation to dispel that woven illusion. Words can go a long way in bringing about the destruction of that dangerous and debilitating illusion.

The American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote:

     “If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.

       You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words. ... “

From Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames].

Pity The Nation.

“Pity the nation whose people are sheep

And whose shepherds mislead them

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars

Whose sages are silenced

And whose bigots haunt the airwaves

Pity the nation that raises not its voice

Except to praise conquerors

And acclaim the bully as hero

And aims to rule the world

By force and by torture…

Pity the nation oh pity the people

who allow their rights to erode

and their freedoms to be washed away…”

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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

A Wee Look At Glasgow's Bookfair 2019.

        For those who missed our recent Glasgow Autonomous Bookfair, thanks to Bob you can now have a wee sniff of what was going on. Hopefully this will make you determined to get to the next one and add your content.

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

International Women's Day.

To mark March 8th. International Women's Day

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

Let's Walk With The Poets.

       I often shout my mouth off about the insanity of this economic system that is grinding the planet and humanity to destruction, and struggle to come to terms of why it seems to garner support from so many of those being exploited and driven to extinction. There can be no rational justification for a system that, with no thought of human well-being, creates an unimaginable abundance of wealth as its main product, then siphons it into the pockets of a chosen few. While at the same time the multitude that produce that wealth, struggle to survive and millions fail in that struggle. There can be no way that we can look at this mad rush to extinction and state that there is a grain of sanity in its functioning.
        In my case it is not just a belief, in my heart of hearts, I know, and I'm sure you also know, that there is a better way to manage our lives. With some thought, a little imagination and the breaking of a few rules, we can bring about the demise of this suicide pact with the greedy and insane, and create that better, fairer and more humane world for all.

WALK WITH THE POETS.

My head has had enough of you,
you doomsday sooth-sayers, and
rationalists, that trap us in the world that is.
Go weave your tales of “can't be done”
to the dead, and those of no imagination.
I want to walk with the utopian,
the dreamer and the poet,
laugh with the child and sing with the wind.
Run with the deer, not with “the market trend”
Enough of, “this is the way it has to be”,
a world of poverty, wars and inequality.
Now, I'll create the world I want to see,
A world of sharing, peace and liberty.
I want the children to plan tomorrow,
the adult help them get there,
trees and flowers our treasured possessions,

with birds and animals their keepers.
Who wants a world that chains us to mortgages,
binds us to a labouring day, just to eat bread?
Who wants to spend their life, feeding fat-cats
while their own children go hungry?
No, this is not the world that has to be,
in our foolishness and misplaced trust,
this is a world that has slithered over us,
poisoning our mind, putrefying our spirit.
Let's call on the poet, let's welcome the dreamer,
let's take council with the utopian,
They'll help us create a better world for all.

 The following wise words from Not Buying anything:

       If you think that the world we live in today doesn't make any sense at all, you would be right. That is because our system doesn't have to make sense - it only has to make money.         If this system were a person it would be imprisoned, or committed to an asylum. Void of any moral compass, you would cross the street to avoid having to rub shoulders with such an destructive and unstable character, if it were actually a character. If it were a person, ecocidal capitalism might be manifested as something like The Mad Hatter, from Alice in Wonderland. "I am under no obligation to make sense to you."
- Mad Hatter

       Or perhaps as the hookah smoking Cheshire Cat, since the system is obviously under the influence of some very bad drugs. In fact, it is on one of the most destructive drugs known to humanity – money. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad. You must be, or you wouldn’t have come here.”
- Cheshire Cat

      They want us to believe there is no other way to conduct human affairs other than through fouling our own nest, and allowing the many to die from highly preventable causes, while the few gain obscene amounts of wealth. None of that makes any logical sense what-so-ever. But still, Margaret Thatcher famously told us, "There is no alternative", and many agreed with her. Not sociologist John Bellamy Foster, who is thinking rationally when he says,

“We have to go against the logic of the system even while living within it.”

       I agree, but what exactly is the logic of a system that is already looking for a new planet to exploit when this one is completely destroyed? If there is no possible alternative, then let's ponder impossible alternatives. Now is when we could use a healthy dose of creativity and imagination. Our capacity to dream of a better world can surely yield something better than the total insanity that has brought us to edge of destruction.
     Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll modeled the kind of thinking we need now. He said,

"Sometimes, I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

       I consider the impossible all the time, before, during, and after breakfast. I have to, because I need to inject a bit of sense in a world where there doesn't seem to be any at all.
      So I ask myself, "How about an impossible world where social relationships are not governed primarily by economics, however participatory, but by solidarity? How about an impossible world where ecocide is not an integral part of what we do?"
     I envision a system where billionaire outlaws are outlawed (not such a crazy idea after all). "Sure we destroyed the Earth", the billionaires will say, "but we destroyed it for profit."
       We have to start thinking of impossible ideas, systems, and methods. Why not dream impossible dreams?
      At one time any human would have told you that flying through the air in thin metal tubes for great distances was impossible. Or visiting the moon. Or polluting limitless oceans and the atmosphere, or cutting down expansive, seemingly endless old growth forests. And yet, all of those fall under the purview of the possible today. Who knows what "impossible" things we will achieve tomorrow?

“When the whole world is running towards a cliff, a person who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost their mind.” - C.S. Lewis

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

Where Is Our Righteous Anger?

      We should keep the focus on the depravity, savage brutality and vindictiveness of the Israeli apartheid state. On a daily basis it flouts international law, disregards human rights and proceeds with its planned genocide of the Palestinian people. While at the same time brands itself as the only democracy in the Middle East. The only way to get the truth told is to continually shout out loud about its continuing cruelty, viciousness, apartheid and genocide. 

This from Middle East Monitor: 

       Two Palestinian children have been killed in a blaze at their home in occupied Hebron after the Israeli authorities prevented the fire brigade from reaching them in time. The two children – one of whom is believed to have been just 18-months old – were burned to death in a fire at their home in the Al-Salaymeh neighbourhood of Hebron’s Old City in the occupied West Bank. One was reported dead late last night, while the second succumbed to the burns received this morning after receiving emergency treatment at the nearby Hebron government hospital. A third child, thought to be the dead children’s brother, also suffered severe burns in the incident and remains in intensive care, according to hospital Director Dr Walid Zalloum.
      The names of the three children have not been released formally, but Palestinian news site Palestine Today named the two who were killed as four-year-old Wael Al-Rajabi and his 18-month-old sister Malik. The local police spokesman, Colonel Loai Arziqat, confirmed in a press statement that two children had died, but did not offer further information.
      Though the emergency services were called, the fire brigade was prevented from reaching the scene by Israeli soldiers. In a video filmed last night at 21:50 local time (19:50 GMT), the fire engine can be seen trying to drive down a narrow street. The truck comes to a stop at a road block obstructing the way, while local residents implore the Israeli soldiers stationed there to “open the gate quickly, for the children.” The Israeli soldiers, however, did not yield to the onlookers’ pleas, delaying the emergency services’ response and preventing them from reaching the property. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
      Israel is no stranger to restricting emergency services’ access to Palestinians in need. According to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), citing the Palestine Red Crescent Society, since 2015 Israel has prevented ambulances from crossing checkpoints on 123 occasions. In addition, there were 386 attacks against Red Crescent teams across the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) during the same period, as well as 105 ambulances damaged.
       In December, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian child then prevented him from receiving potentially life-saving medical treatment; he died soon thereafter. Seventeen-year-old Mahmoud Nakhle was shot as Israeli forces suppressed protests around Al-Jalazun refugee camp near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. A few minutes later, the soldiers chased off a Palestinian ambulance, threatening the driver with their rifles and not giving Nakhle first aid themselves. Only after a quarter of an hour did the soldiers allow an ambulance to be summoned, but Nakhle died en route to hospital.
       Under international law, as the occupying power Israel is forbidden from preventing access to medical care and emergency services to the people living under its occupation. According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, “The occupying power must ensure sufficient hygiene and public health standards, as well as the provision of food and medical care to the population under occupation.” In addition, “Personnel of the International Red Crescent Movement must be allowed to carry out their humanitarian activities.” Israel, however, continues to breach this and other articles of international laws and conventions with impunity.

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Apartheid Israel And Genocide.

     I, like many others, understandably get "rather angry" at that grouping of pro-Israeli, Friends of Israel, who jump up and shout "anti-Semitic" at anyone who should have any inkling of a criticism of the state of Israel. They continually point the finger of contempt, and act as cheerleaders, in an attempt to vilify anyone who casts a critical eye over the affairs of that apartheid state. I for one don't think they are blind to the apartheid structure of the Israeli state, I do believe they see nothing wrong in the inhuman, brutal actions of that state. Their anti-Semitic protestations are an attempt to divert the public eye away from the reality on the the ground, perpetrated by the Zionist cabal that rule over that plot of land called Israel.  

     All the evidence is there, Israel is an apartheid state, the suffering of the non-Jews under it heel is there for all to see, but our millionaire pro-Israeli press look the other way. I would go further and state that the state of Israel is carrying out a planned, deliberate, slow, but brutal genocide on the people of Palestine. All this based on the insane belief that some 2,000 years ago, a man in the sky gave this patch of the planet to the Jews, and they will shed blood to hold onto that ridiculous belief, while the world turns a blind eye, or worse, aids and abets this inhuman, vicious insanity.

This from Information Clearing House:

The many forms of apartheid Israel

        While there is still widespread ignorance among most people in the West, as most readers of Mondoweiss will know by now, apartheid in Israel takes many forms. One more obvious form it takes is in the overt racism enshrined in Israel’s 2018 “Nation-State law” that discontinued Arabic as an official language and that is now being challenged in Court. Another obvious form is Israel’s continued blockade and frequent bombing of the trapped residents of Gaza (since 2005). That treatment is currently the subject of a preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court and has also been investigated by the United Nations, which has called for criminal investigations into the killings of protestors at the Gaza border beginning last March.
       As explained by human rights organisations such as Al-Haq and Palestinian Center for Human Rights, further argued by international law scholars John Dugard and John Reynolds and elaborated in a UN report, apartheid also takes the form of literally hundreds of insidious Israeli military orders. This includes Order 101 that has been specifically condemned by Amnesty International as making it impossible for Palestinians to legally protest. Israeli regulations make it virtually impossible for Palestinians to build a home. This is due to the fact that Israel’s land and zoning regulations are, according to Israel’s Basic Law, oriented around “preserving” the land for Israel’s Jewish inhabitants.
         But the most insidious manifestations of Israeli apartheid are the decades-long, everyday experiences of Palestinians. Farmers have to stand in long lines to reach their sheep in the agricultural village of Qalandia (that is surrounded by a high, concrete wall). Schoolchildren in Hebron cannot walk to school without being stopped daily by soldiers at a military checkpoint to check the contents of their schoolbags. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has heard numerous cases of official abuse against Palestinian women, including a seven-month pregnant woman assaulted at a checkpoint.
         So again, why are these widely-reported examples of Israeli apartheid being ignored?

Read the full article HERE: 

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Yellow, The Colour Of The Revolution?

       When ever a public protest in the West starts to disappear from our vomit spewing illusion creating mainstream media, it is wise policy to consider it is being successful. The Yellow Vests protests are hardly ever mentioned in our millionaire owned media, but the protests is still massive and strong after 16 weekends of street protests. Has the revolution changed its colour, has the black bloc been replaced by the yellow bloc?

This from Winter Oak:

        We had just positioned ourselves downwind from the teargas canisters that had been fired towards us from the ranks of riot police protecting the Sous-Préfecture, the French state’s HQ in Alès, southern France. Then suddenly we were coming under attack from the opposite direction. A squadron of cops was lurking, unseen, on the other side of the modern pedestrianised square and had started firing tear gas from behind us. Choking and with streaming eyes, we fled down a little side street which, ironically enough, turned out to be dedicated to the “martyrs of the resistance”.
        Passers-by, women with young children, stood gawping in the direction of the clouds of chemical warfare following us down the road. “Incredible!” said somebody behind me, astonished at the violent reaction to the protest. “They’ve completely lost the plot!” Suddenly there was an almighty noise and on the pavement next to us rolled a hefty rubber bullet, a “flashball”, which had bounced off a nearby wall and almost hit the little group of local onlookers. We scattered, for the moment. Some headed out of the town centre, only to be met with a baton attack by a marauding gang of cops. Others regrouped and carried on the fight, with reports of injuries from yet more rubber bullets.
        The police helicopter circled overhead, frightening the herons on the river Gardon, which flows through the town. This was all a far cry from the last report I filed from Alès for Red Pepper in December, when the Gilets Jaunes were handing out free Christmas presents to local kids. Today was Saturday March 2, Act 16 of the Yellow Vest uprising which has seen a broad cross-section of the French public take to the streets against President Emmanuel Macron’s neoliberal regime, with a ferocious determination that puts the rest of the Europe to shame.
       Alès was the location for a regional protest, uniting Gilets Jaunes from across the Gard department and beyond. There was a carnival atmosphere as the protesters gathered outside the municipal theatre in Alès, with a Batacuda band creating a lively rhythm as we set off on a tour of the town centre. The cops made a sudden and provocative appearance in the midst of the crowd before we moved and we were later told that three Gilets Jaunes had been arrested as they tried to join the protest. Others were stopped by police on the approaches to the town, which might explain why the numbers on the march swelled remarkably in the first ten minutes or so until we had easily reached 3,000.
        As ever, the protest was diverse and politically mixed, but there was a very strong showing from the local libertarian left, who had advertised the event on their networks. The loud refrains of “a-anti-anticapitalista” paid witness to their presence. The festive feeling, with hardly a cop in sight, lasted until we reached a roundabout next to the Sous-Préfecture. Here the police were lined up in full riot gear to stop us going anywhere near their masters’ property. After a short stand-off, we headed off down the road to the rail station, which was also heavily guarded by the cops, presumably because of the Gilets Jaunes’ successful track record in blocking railway lines. A back street led us back to the other side of the Sous-Préfecture and, inevitably, another line of police vans and robocops. It was not clear what sparked things off – someone told me the riot police had fired a rubber bullet at head level. In any case, things quickly escalated. Outraged protesters shouted the familiar chants of “everyone hates the police!” and “police everywhere, justice nowhere!” and the tear gas was answered with a hail of stones and the odd firework.
      Across France, it was the same story, not least in Montpellier, just 40 miles down the road from Alès. Every week the authorities and their tame media tell the public the rebellion is petering out, there is hardly anyone out on the streets, the whole thing is a flop. And every week they deploy thousands and thousands of tooled-up thugs to attack the Yellow Vests with batons, tear gas and grenades. After four months of revolt, those who hold power in France, and elsewhere, have ceded nothing. And those who oppose them are not ready to give up. How will this end? Where will this go next? None of us can say, because history is being written, in bold yellow lettering.

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My Tribe Is Humanity.

           Most people will openly condemn tribalism, but somehow a considerable number will embrace nationalism, which really is just a bigger tribalism. Nationalism, like tribalism needs to believe that its people are different, and in some way superior to other people outside its proclaimed territory. It also sees others as enemies and a threat to its perceived superior ways and culture. In the face of these “differences” the tribe/nation will always see itself on the higher moral ground. This proclamation of being different denies the existence of the common humanity, that golden thread that should link us all together. The existence of tribalism/nationalism is always a useful tool in the armoury of the wealthy and powerful elite within that given territory, as they can always call on the tribe to defend the elite’s privileges by citing an attack on our, “superior way of life” by “the other”.
         No matter the stupidity and destructiveness of tribalism/nationalism, we all carry some responsibility for its persistence, by our quiet acquiescence. We empower the elite, privileged cabal that fosters and gains from this illusion, by indulging in their voting pantomime, we finance them with our taxes, and many fall in line to fight their territorial wars.
       Embracing tribalism/nationalism is abandoning your individuality, and at the same time your commonality with the rest of humanity, and discarding your right to freedom of choice. At the same time you are endorsing a system of barriers between people, placing people on a scale of divisions according to their territory and culture. Our tribe is humanity, we are all human, we need each other if we are to survive and create that better world for all. We have to bring down the barriers, abandon tribalism/nationalism and make our borders evaporate. This will only happen when we finally destroy capitalism, the economic system that fosters and thrives on these divisions.

 

 Patriotism.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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Glasgow's Very Successful Bookfair.

      Glasgow's Autonomous Bookfair yesterday, Saturday 2nd. March was a resounding success. Literally hundreds poured through the door on a continuous stream, the stalls were plentiful, varied and colourful, the crowds friendly and showed considerable interest in the stalls and workshops. It was like a breath of fresh air to Glasgow's radical scene. As I said before, it has been a while since Glasgow held a bookfair, and the success of this one proves that there is a desire to support such events. Everybody gains, those involved and those who turned up. Leaflets, books and pamphlets etc., circulate to a wider audience, new contacts are made, old ones renewed, ideas cross between individuals and groups, all positive.

     All that remains to be said is a big thank-you to Mark and all those who helped make it possible, and for others to come forward and help organise the next one, and hopefully it will be an even a bigger event, and an annual one. 

Spirit of Revolt stall at Glasgow's Autonomous Bookfair 2019.

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Glasgow's Bookfair March 2019.

 

       Glasgow's first Bookfair in quite a while is shaping up to be a very interesting, exciting, informative and enjoyable affair. It all happens tomorrow, Saturday, March 2nd. So do try to come along, contribute your ideas, learn some new ones, chat and meet old friends and make new friends.

The details are: Glasgow Autonomous Space, 

Unit 11, 53 Kilbirnie Street G5 8JD

 

A ton of stalls, activities food and fun

The Facebook event can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/315574305908436/

​Discussions and Talks 11am-5pm

Fossil Free Glasgow - 11am

Shy Radicals - 12 noon

Go Vegan Scotland - 1pm

Sisters UnCut - 2pm

Ubuntu Women Shelter - 3pm

Herbal Unity - 4pm

Workshops 11am–5pm

Community Badge Making - 11am

Activist Printing - 12 noon

Bicycle - for under 12s - 1pm

Collective Comic Making - 2pm

Radical Singing - 3pm

Trans Poetry - 4pm

Plus

Vegan Food

Kid's Space

Rattle Library

Stalls 11am–5pm

@habeuscoitus

A.K. Press

Anarchist Federation

Aye-Aye Books

Books By Broads

Chav Solidarity

Class War Scotland

Community Badge Making

Couriers Network + IWW

Go Vegan Scotland

Hex Distro

Moral Decay Distro

Not Your Fault

Natasha Lall

O Panda Gordo

Plan C

Shy Radicals

Sisters UnCut

Spirit of Revolt Archive

Stories for Strangers

Unity Centre

Writers 4 Utopia Zines

Zarf Poetry

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The Prostitution Of Language For Political Gain.

 

         It is common place in today's political world to indulge in the prostitution of language for political gain, Orwellian double speak is the language of the politician and requires deconstructing and interpretation before digesting. Now however it has also invade all aspects of "news" reporting, meaning that dialogue in that field is practically impossible.

         Some words from my friend and comrade Stuart Christie, words that I fully embrace and would like the population at large, before switching on the TV or picking up a "newspaper" to repeat out loud at least three times.
   

        Don’t get me wrong, full disclosure: Jeremy Corbyn is, in my highly subjective opinion, a Cromwellian tosspot, albeit well-intentioned and principled — as far as anyone engaged in party politics can be principled. But the relentless, covert/overt, McCarthyist misinformation campaign—carefully orchestrated by a cabal of Likudnik Blairites and Thatcherites led by Tom Watson and Sajid Javid, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the media-owning political-economic elite (e.g. the Mail on Sunday’s recent blunt hatchet job on Seumas Milne, Corbyn’s strategy and communications adviser, by ex-SIS head (1999-2004) Sir Richard Dearlove), et al, — maliciously fusing anti-Zionism and opposition to the State of Israel with anti-Semitism, and painting Corbyn as a dangerous headbanger and latter-day Julius Streicher, isn’t doing a great deal for my irritability quotient or blood pressure. I know I'm banging my head inside an echo chamber here, but for the sake of my psychic wellbeing, I just had to vent some spleen. Just saying!

        Activist and academic Sai Englert explains why conflating Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism is "problematic".

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