Peopele Of Glasgow Stand With Migrants.

 

       In city after city, in country after country that vulnerable group of human beings that are stripped of their rights, scapegoated and pushed to the margins, is an indictment against this callous capitalist system we live under. I am of course talking about migrants, an ever growing army of people fleeing everything from war, to persecution, from death, to deprivation, but in the eyes of any state, the crime they committed was they crossed those imaginary lines called borders. That somehow gives the state the right to herd them, ignore them, deprive them of all rights and persecute them. We cannot let this continue, they, like us, are human beings struggling to make a decent life for themselves and their families in a quagmire profit seeking big business, they need assistance, not persecution and exploitation. 

     I'm proud to see that the people of Glasgow are standing up and saying enough is enough, we will no longer tolerate this ideology of abusing those who through extremely difficult situations have had to flee their homeland, leaving their friends and neighbourhood, and cross those imaginary dividing lines, the state calls borders.

      Yesterday, August 20th, the people of Glasgow took their anger to the city chambers and loud and clear, let the powers that be know, that this callous and brutal treatment of migrants must stop and stop now.

Thanks Bob for the film.

Letter to the City Council:

       🔒🔒Today Living Rent "locked-in" Glasgow City Council with HUGE turnout of over 150 members and supporters from various groups across Glasgow!🔒🔒

      We've had enough. Serco is intent on making our friends and neighbours destitute in the search for profit and won't stop until all 300 locks are changed. It is time for Glasgow City Council to stop offering the people of Glasgow empty promises and feckless task forces. It is time for real action. We demand that the council:

        1. Set up an arrangement to provide emergency accommodation to all affected individuals, including those that have received a right to remain status. 2. For the council to make clear the timescale for providing an individual assessment of each person facing eviction.

      Their claim that they cannot legally provide accommodation is false. According to guidelines by COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities), Glasgow City Council have "a duty to safeguard the most vulnerable people in these situations, in many cases this includes providing financial support to meet essential living costs and other help from social workers to avoid destitution."

       Everyone has the right to a decent and affordable home, irregardless of their supposed "status" and when those in search of profit go after those made most vulnerable, we are all in danger. As such, we are no longer going to stand for Glasgow City Council's inaction. We and thousands of Glaswegians are standing by ready to resist by any means necessary.

#NoEvictions #StopSercoEvictions #Lockoutserco

Read more here: https://www.livingrent.org/lock_in_council

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Just A Personal Thought.

 

 

         As my years roll by I more and more go over my past thoughts and deeds and I think, yes, I could have done more, I could have perhaps tried harder in some cases, I could have done it differently. However, deeds that have been done, have been done, but can still be used as lessons for tomorrow, but there are some thoughts that have never changed, one in particular is that thought I have always harboured, of pride in being one of that great mass of people, who I believe will one day inherit the world, and transform it into a world that is built on justice, mutual aid, sustainability and respect for each other, a world that sees to all our people's needs and has catalogued war and capitalism as a long past history of humanity's darkest hour. 

I’m Proud

I’m proud of my people, proud to be one of them,

that great mass on society’s bottom rung.

Those who, with coal-dust under their nails

in their eyes, in their lungs

claw at the earths entrails.

Their brothers,

cement in their hair

in their mouth, in their ears,

oil ingrained in their fingers,

on their face.

Sisters, glistening with sweat

midst the ceaseless noise of machines

that throw out shirts, shoes, toys, carpets

for other people.

Those with soil and sweat stuck to their skin

smelling of the earth, feeding the multitude,

grinding out their lives in a harsh pitiless system

weighted down

with a sack load of half-dead dreams,

sometimes brought to their knees

by a tidal wave of despair,

never defeated,

groping in the dark to find tomorrow,

keeping hope alive;

they amaze me.

Somehow, from somewhere

in this cold, cruel

unforgiving scheme of things

they find love for their children.

Not a teaspoonful, not a cupful,

but buckets full, to bathe them in,

to pour over them.

They seem to know

that one day this world will be ours

and to take care of it

we will need those who have been loved.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Brutality Must Be Met With Force, It's Self Defence.

      No matter what country, no matter by what name you call them, police, police officers, cops, pigs, minders of the the wealthy, protectors of the state, sooner or later they all revert to form, sadistic, vicious, homophobic, macho, nationalists, who deem themselves to be above the so called law of the land. 

       In the US, 992 people were shot by the police in 2018, a number were unarmed. Across the globe and you will find reports of excessive police brutality, seldom if ever, are the perpetrators brought to justice., That's what they are there for, to protect the rich and powerful and look after their property, to keep the population at large under control, to protect the powerful and privileged who day and daily milk the system in systematic plunder and corruption. Some countries are worse than others, the example below is from Mexico, no doubt if you look you around the world, you will find other cases just as brutal or worse. In this case it is encouraging to see that the people didn't take kindly to the police brutality and rape, and decided to let their anger roar loud and clear.

Mexico City, Mexico: Angry rioting against police rape
August 18, 2019 by Act For Freedom Now:

12 August 2019

“Cops, pigs, rapists” 

       On Monday, August 12, 2019, hundreds of women took to the streets to express their anger at the patriarchal and sexist violence of the police. A few days earlier, four uniformed pigs raped a young woman aged 17 in the patrol car in the streets of Azcapotzalco province. This case echoes another, a little older, where a 16-year-old girl was raped by a police officer in the National Photographic Museum in the centre of Mexico City.
       The headquarters of the Public Security Directorate was the meeting point of the demo. On the facade of the State building, slogans have been traced to the bomb, such as “we are mean, we can be worse“, “cops, pigs, rapists” or “to attack one of us, it is to attack us all “… Then the procession left for a stroll in the streets of the city and covered the walls with a multitude of anti-police and anarcha-feminist tags; the protesters found themselves in front of the Attorney General’s building in Mexico City to settle accounts. Once in front, the more determined ones tagged the walls outside (“we do not need to be brave, we need to be free,” “pig cops” or “corrupt policemen“) as inside (on the insignia of the institution) and ransacked the furniture of the reception. The facade of the glass entrance also fell in pieces.
       The Mexican daily “El Universal” reports the attack on the building of the Prosecutor General’s Office with these words:
       “The situation turned to violence when a group of alleged anarchists tried to enter the public prosecutor’s office, the security guards immediately closed the glass doors. However, two young women broke them with stones and hammers.”
        Protesters also threw pink powder at Mexico City Security chief Jesus Orta as he made a statement to the press calling for calm and assured the protesters that the affair would be the cause subject of an inquiry.
        The following day, Tuesday, the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Scheinbaum, reported that six police officers had been dismissed after being identified as responsible for the alleged rape of the 17-year-old girl.
      Violence against women is a daily occurrence in Mexico. According to United Nations figures, nine women are killed every day in that country.

“Rapists, we’ll cut your dick“ 

[From the Mexican Press, August 12 and 13, 2019]

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

We Suffer And Die For Profit To Others.

          It always puzzles me why we tolerate a system where the majority do all the hard graft, and run all the dangers of the job, but hand the bulk of the wealth they create to the few, who do nothing and face none of the occupational hazards, there is something insane about this whole structure. There is always occupational dangers lurking in most jobs, and most could be eliminated but because of the system they are not, as that would cut into the profits for that greed driven few.
INDUSTRIAL DISEASES.
         We have come through the start of the industrial age and moved on to the hi-tec age, but every move into every industry comes with its on particular problems. Practically every industry is linked to an industrial disease. We have silicosis, lung disease prevalent among stone masons, potters grinders etc.. Then there is pneumoconiosis, mainly among coal miners, caused by breathing in fine coal dust and carbon dust. Arc-welders are at risk of manganism, manganese poisoning brought on by exposure to the toxic effects of the fumes from welding rods melting as the are used. Painters are at risk from neurological deficits from solvent‐exposure, which include impaired colour vision, cognitive defects, tremor and loss of vibration sensation. There are many more links with occupation and disease, but you are seldom, if ever, told of these dangers when you apply for the job. Health and safety regulations go some way to protect workers from these dangers but usually these measures are re-active and only come after years of suffering and campaigning.
       As a young man starting my trade in the Clydeside shipyards in the 1950’s, I was ignorant of the dangers of asbestos, and as it was widely used, all of us were exposed to the horror of death from mesothelioma, an asbestos induced incurable cancer, it can lie dormant in the lungs for 60 years or more, before suddenly bursting into action and triggering certain death. I have friends who have died from this slow and painful death. It was not that the dangers of this substance weren’t known, medical papers had been written about the danger from asbestos exposure as far back as the 30’s, but it continued to be used up to and including the 60’s. The employers didn’t abandon asbestos willingly, it took campaigning and legislation to finally attempt to get rid of this killer substance. That is the pattern in most of industries, its dangers are only restricted by campaigning and legislation. The profit motive drives industry, not the well being of the employee. Most industries can be made safe, but it usually requires investment in safety equipment and training, and that costs money, which in turn cuts into the profit. So safety in industries will always come lower down the ladder, and as times get harder, corners are cut in safety to prevent cuts in profit. The economic system we have at present does not lend itself to the welfare and well being of the workers, only when the workers control all the industries will their well being be at the fore front of production.

     I wrote the following little piece many years ago when I was diagnosed with plural plaques, the foot print of asbestos in your lungs. However good fortune smiled on me and I did carry on cycling and still do a wee bit at the grand old age of 85.

 When the Time-Bomb Goes Off

The bike just sits there,

dust covering its lovely sheen,

puffing up the Fintry Hills

well, it’s no longer my scene.

Y’see, as a Clydeside apprentice

I proudly learnt the tradesman’s skill,

little did I know then

the price, asbestos lungs that kill.

Now I just sit here through the painful day

gasping each mouthful of air, wondering

how can I make the bastards pay.

They new it was a killer

a time-bomb in our lungs

but, because it was so quick and cheap

they firmly held their tongues.

So what, if it cost the workman’s life,

there’s always a couple of new workers

in the care of the worker’s wife.

Please try to understand my anger

as I and others bear their cost,

a slow death from asbestos lungs,

a vibrant life lost.

Anguish for family and friends,

all in the name of profit;

now that really does offend.

Our anger without direction

is a blind archer behind the bow,

we have to use our anger

to smash the status-quo.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Travelling And Improving Your Health.

       It is heartening to see that more and more people are beginning to see the detrimental effects of that once much desired metal box with an internal combustion engine. They are becoming more aware of its gross inefficiency and the massive pollution it pours out, poisoning our lungs and destroying the planet's eco-system. We know there are answers, we just have to grasp them. As usual some simple words of wisdom from Not Buying Anything.

Biking For Food - - -And Energy Efficient.

          Gas engine cars were never a very good idea. I can see them pulling a dinosaur act soon, dieing in our driveways and being fossilized over the coming eons. Why? Because they are notoriously energy inefficient and nature does not reward inefficiency.
       An internal combustion gas engine offers a pathetic 20 - 30% efficiency. The remaining 70 to 80% of the gas in the tank is wasted as exhaust heat, mechanical sound energy, and friction loss, rather than moving the car from point A to point B. An electric car does better, operating at between 50 and 85% efficiency, but that still does not make it anywhere as efficient as a bicycle. A bike is the most efficient method of travel in the known Universe. It can be up to 5 times more efficient than walking, and is impressively more efficient than a car. 100 calories of energy will power a bicycle 5 km, while those same calories will only take a car 85 meters. A car is a more efficient mechanism for wasting energy than it is as a method of transportation.
      A 2015 survey of 44 countries found that only 1/3 of total respondents reported owning a car. That's about the same fraction of Americans over the age of 3 that rode a bike at least once over the last year. As part of my experiment in joining that 65% segment of car-free respondents, I have been doing bike-supported grocery shopping trips since our van broke down.
      The distance to the store is 7.5 km. Along the way the route descends from 500 ft to sea level.
       On my first trip, I used my travel backpack that has about a 55 L capacity. I carried home 7 kg of food, which got us nicely stocked up. The entire trip took me 1.5 hours, and it was much more enjoyable than driving. I was freed from the metal cage of the car.
      On a bike you are out there, in there, immersed in the scene and part of it all. I saw things I have never seen before while driving, even though I have blasted up and down this road a few times over the past 5 years. As I pumped uphill I revelled in the essence of trees and flowers and grass and soil and a million other things organic. I listened to several species of birds singing their songs.
     People greeted me as I pedalled by.

 Getting ready for the trip home with my groceries.

      Home is up in the hills in the background. I was the only bike in the lot on this day. After shopping it felt good to go outside to a waiting bike instead of our van. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy driving cars and vans, trucks and tractors. I have also driven limousines, the most insane, idiotic and inefficient vehicles on the planet. Yes, for a short while I did personal research on the rich of Edmonton, Alberta while working as a chauffeur. Brushing shoulders with the upper crust was interesting and strange. I have always enjoyed motor vehicles. Thing is, I love bicycles, too. And when I ride, it is amazing. Just not as fast. Which is good.
       On my first grocery ride I was so excited about my hill climb back home with all my food that I rode off like a kid returning home after a visit to the candy store. So excited that I forgot my bike helmet outside where my bike was locked up. It's gone. Other than that, biking for food has been a success. So far it is a viable method that is efficient, effective, and a whole lot of fun.
       I am going to have to buy a new helmet. Safety first.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Wee Blast From The Past.

         Wrote this little piece some years ago during the "Occupy Wall Street" protests, but think it is still relevant to day as when I scribbled it down. 

 

         I found this poster on the internet, it seems that these protesters have found most of the questions regarding this society, but have they found the answer? Certainly bankers are the bad guys in this affair, but it goes a little deeper than that, it is with the system itself that the real problem lies, the bankers were just following the natural path of a corrupt and unjust system. So getting rid of bankers, in what ever way you please, will not put the world to rights. We have to think beyond our anger and focus on our desires, what kind of society do we really want. Do we want one that is based on competition, profit and self-centred greed, driven by wealthy shareholders, where gaps in wealth are unimaginable, and deprivation drags millions of people into despair and an early grave? Or are we going to go for a society based on the needs of all the people, a community oriented society founded on mutual aid, co-operation, justice and sustainability? What's the point of all the occupations in the world if you keep the system and simple ask your lords and masters to, please give us a little more?

              So do we run a hate a banker campaign, or do we occupy everything and change society into something we would be proud to hand to the next generation, a society where we know, all our grandchildren will be nurtured to reach their full potential as decent human beings.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk         

That Big Weapon, Solidarity.

       It is always encouraging to see people come together in solidarity against an injustice inflicted on one individual. Time and time again solidarity and direct action win battles where appeals to adjudicators, and lawyers fail, or drag out for ages adding to the injustice. Solidarity is a weapon we should always have in our minds it does win battles, and it creates bonds and builds confidence in our ability to take control of our own lives. Lots of little victories can lead to the one final victory when we abolish this vicious system of exploitation for profit.

Another victory though solidarity:

      Report from Little Village Solidarity Network who recently won back lost wages through a direct action campaign.
Thank you to everyone who helped us fight the wage thieving bosses at Jojo’s Milk Bar! They finally paid up last week, after nearly a month of struggle, due to the pressure our picket was putting on their business.
We more or less shut down their ice cream shop on the evenings of Saturday Aug. 3, and Tuesday, Aug. 6. They paid up on Wednesday, delivering a check for $545.00 to Federico Ramirez.

        It is important to emphasize that solidarity as it was manifested via collective direct action is what rendered these results possible. It wasn’t by appealing to attorneys or the department of labor. This is only a small sample size of what is possible if we organize!.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Jackdaw Is Free.

        I love to see anarchist papers hit the streets, it is where we need to shout our ideas, it is where we meet total strangers and introduce them to our way of thinking. I love it even more when they are FREE.

From Anarchist Communist Group 

 

          Issue 6 of Jackdaw, the ACG’s free bulletin is back from the printers and is winding it’s way to ACG locals and stockists up and down the country.
       We aim to publish Jackdaw quarterly and it gets handed out on street distributions, demos, at meetings and can be found in radical bookshops and social centres.
      This issue is 12 pages and contains articles on climate change, Atos, immigration camps, Johnson, the Brexit Party, Essex libraries, No war but the class war, workplace notes and more.
         If you want to see the low resolution version, it can be downloaded from our publications page. Otherwise, pick one up.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Jackdaw-Is...

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Be Proud Of Our History, And Carry It Forward.

      History tells us that the struggle of the ordinary people has always been the only means by which they gain anything in the quality of life. To date this struggle has been endless, and will continue to be so until we finally take control of our own lives, free from the throttling and exploitative hand of state and capitalism. 

      The people of Glasgow have a rich and varied history of struggle through the ages, and that struggle still continues. We should remember those who took up the baton before us, we owe them much, and we should be proud to take up that baton of struggle today, it is our only way to a free and just society.

      To the memory of those valiant working class warriors of the past I will repeat a post I wrote in March 2015, I think it is important that we realise that today's problems are not something new, but are part of that same struggle our forefathers fought and we continue today, a struggle for a just society.

Workers Know Your History, Glasgow 1848 Food Riots.

   The citizens of Glasgow have always been a rebellious bunch, like other large cities across the UK, they have been involved in a long struggle to improve their conditions, and sometimes that struggle has been bitter and violent. You could say Glasgow has been a City of Rebellion, from the union in 1706, we had anti-union riots, and many more after that, some being violently put down, there was the 1725 Malt Tax riots, Feb 1800 crowds breaking into shops, and the troops called to quell their anger, 1812 the weavers strike, and so it goes on, with other protests and riots in between. However, today March 6th. marks the 167th, anniversary of the Glasgow food riots, back then society hadn't the safety valve of "food banks".

     The trouble started when the mass unemployed were expecting some sort of handout of provisions, which never materialised. The angry and starving crowds started marching through the main streets in the city centre, smashing their way into food shops, and went further, starting breaking into gun shops. The entire city centre came to a standstill all business closed. By now the starving angry and armed crowds were covering the city centre marching and shouting, "bread or revolution". 

     The authorities read the "riot act", the crowds were spreading into other districts of the city, breaking in to any food shop they came across. The city fathers called on more troops troops from Edinburgh. March 7th. crowds again gather in Bridgeton, a young boy threw something at the troops and was arrested. However the crowd were not having that, stormed the troops and rescued the young boy. It was then that Police Superintendent, a Captain Smart, gave the order to open fire, in the ensuing minutes, five of the crowd were shot, also a police officer was shot in the cross fire. For some days after this event crowds still lined the streets, however every public office in the city was securely guarded by troops.

       And so the struggle goes on, the rent strike 1915, the Upper Clyde work-in, 1971/72. In between the bitter and sometime violent struggles we have had an endless catalogue of smaller battles, but never the less important, and part of our history, a history that proves that it is only the ordinary people who carry forward this struggle for a better world for all, against an elite of rich and powerful, that will do their damnedest to hold on to their privileged position. So let's not forget those who challenged that elite, at times with great personal sacrifice and on occasions, death.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

To End Racism, Borders Must Fall.

 

        The translation may not be the best, the phrases at times a little confusing, but what is crystal clear is that this is a cry for help from people who have had their rights removed and are being treated abysmally by the state machine. What is also crystal clear is the blatant cruelty, gross injustice, inhuman treatment of vulnerable people and the open racism by the police and the state apparatus. However this is not unusual, it is standard practice in every state across the planet. Migrants that group of human beings stripped of their rights, set aside because of colour, race or country of origin, the normal routine of state policy no matter where we live. Only when we destroy the state system and remove all borders from every map will we see an end to this  brutal policy of divide and rule for the benefit of the few.

This from The Anarchist Union of Afghanistan and Iran: 

         The terrible situation of immigrants in the ậty̰ḵy̰ police station, Athens
         What I write, the situation of immigrants in the police station is a fire, which is written and published on the request of the immigrants that we were also prisoners.
         As if we don't exist, some of us have been here for three months, the first day when the police arrested and brought here, we were taken from the criminal prints and so that there is no news of them to even ask what the time is.
        Every day, every hour, we ask them to let us sign the refugee sheet but the police don't care and lie that we have called with ptrwrạly̰ (Ậlạdạpwn: main immigration center) right now and this is not our fault but petrov the phone They don't pick up or they're busy and...
        The food here is very very bad and not enough; some of us have committed suicide a few times and some others will do it soon because we are so tired, maybe this is the only way for the police at least Let's get us out of here for a moment.
         We don't have money and contact outside is very expensive, we have to buy a phone card which is also four euro call for four minutes.
Most of us are alone in Greece, but we miss our families, for the light of the sunshine, because there is a building in the only cell window, which can prevent the touch of sun on our skin.
        We need the help of people who are out, we need that they care about us, yes it is true that we do not exist on our paper (mention of not having any legal sheet in proof that they exist) but the truth is that We exist.
       August 13th, when the police moved me to court for the trial, the first thing that came in front of my eyes was a court full of immigrants, when I talked to some of them, I realized that the only reason for their presence here is That their first face does not look like the ạrwpạỷy̰ạn, so the police have stopped them to search because in the racist of the system, your skin bell is enough to be charged with being a criminal; the second they did not have any legal proof to prove exist.
       I read my political statement, in a court where the immigrants were under racist insult of police; I read it, when I was full of armed police police with a gun that killed 15-Year-old teen Alexis Gry̰gwrwpwlws; I read it once. That a few days ago, the same courts released her killer; I read it, when the judges looked into my eyes and lie that how the court and the police deal with the Greek and the immigrants are no different; I read it, When it was very clear that the presence of immigrants in the court was part of the criminal program to show the identity of the immigrant identity; this trial was a good example for ahwazi justice, read injustice.
        (Abtin Parsa's political statement on August 13th: I stopped giving criminal prints to the police, because I do not accept the charge of being a criminal, in fact, the real criminals are the police who are armed in the society and kill people. These were the police who shot 15-Year-old teen Alexis Gry̰gwrwpwlws, it's not us immigrants who are dangerous to the society, but these are the police, the government and police are trying to make us look criminals to be the reason for the presence of all this. Immigrants in the court are the same and racist thoughts of police)

(https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1599482/)

        What I said was not a personal statement, but it was a common pain and problem that has been forced to us by the society's oppression by the authority.

Abtin Parsa August 15, 2019

http://asranarshism.com/1398/05/24/15-august-2019-athens/

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Vicious Savegery Against The Poorest.

 

        What kind of society tolerates poverty and deprivation, then because of dogma attacks the poorest and most vulnerable of society, who are already struggling to survive on meager benefits, by removing those benefits, leaving them to starve or survive without income in a money orientated society? This is a vindictive and vicious subservience to an ideology of cutting money to social service to allow for greater tax benefits to the rich and the corporate world. These decisions are not god given, they are not the inevitable results of unavoidable circumstances. They are adherence to a dogmatic ideology of plundering the poor to maximise private wealth of the privileged few, in a corrupt system of greed and profit before humanity. This savage policy against the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, is designed and implemented by people with names, sitting in comfortable surroundings, completely out of touch and not particularly interested in, the circumstances of the needy in our society. It is how capitalism works, and we will not see a remedy to this viciousness against the poorest, until we destroy the inhumane system of capitalism.  

This from Welfare Weekly: 

Food Banks, an engineered necessity in the fifth richest country in the world.

          Charities have called for an urgent investigation into the Government’s flagship Universal Credit benefit and sanctions regime, as new figures reveal that over 250,000 people on the new benefit have seen payments slashed.
         Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that a shocking 256,000 Universal Credit claimants were hit by adverse benefit sanction decisions between May 2016 and April 2019.
        The data also reveals that 5% of Universal Credit sanctions have been for six months or longer.
        The DWP insist that sanctions are only ever used as a “last resort” and that claimants are helped to understand what is expected of them in exchange for payments, otherwise known as ‘conditionality’.
          Benefit sanctions have been blamed for pushing the poor to foodbanks.
       However, today’s figures have led some to believe that too many sanctions are being imposed unfairly and unnecessarily.
        From February 2019 to April 2019, 84% of all Universal Credit full service decisions resulted in a sanction, up 13% from November 2018 to January 2019.
        Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) called for an investigation into the sanctions regime and a moratorium on sanctions while this is carried out.
        CAS Social Justice spokesperson Mhoraig Green said: “The Citizens Advice network in Scotland helps hundreds of thousands of people every year and we have long raised concerns about cases where people have had their benefits unfairly sanctioned, leaving them without any income for a sustained period, causing them to require crisis support including foodbank referrals.
       “Today’s statistics show a worrying trend of an increase in the proportion of people facing a sanction since the introduction of Universal Credit.
         “People should never be left with no income at all as a result of a benefits sanction, there should be an urgent independent investigation into the sanctions regime, with a moratorium on sanctions during that period.”

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Folly Of Joining A Political Party.

       What are political parties, what is their real purpose? I see them as shock absorbers of the system of authority. While the state and its authoritarian agenda pushes against individual freedom and seeks total control over the population, there is resistance, that resistance would build up and eventually find a outlet in overthrowing the authoritarian shackles of the state. So it is important for the survival of that authoritarian state system to find ways and means of channeling that resistance into some dead end process, political parties serve that purpose. First they must become part of the system to participate, and will then defend the system, demanding that you put your anger into their ballot boxes and they will take you to the promised land. History tells us they never have, and logic tells us they never will. They are an embedded part and parcel of the state system of population control, nothing more and nothing less. Freedom lives outside the party political system, and dies when it enters the party political system.

This from Anarchists Worldwide: 

 

 

Exist / Resist  
       Two years have passed since the gendarmerie entered a piece of land, far away, where a Mapuche community still lives today, and started shooting. They entered shooting because this piece of land had an owner, an owner who had a huge amount of properties, and it bothered him that there were people who occupied one of them. That was the justification for the State to enter with its bullets, for torture and persecution, for imprisonment, for death.
      It seems frivolous to take to the streets on this date, as if a couple of numbers on a calendar makes more sense than any other couple of numbers when it comes to gathering, but at no time during these past years have we forgotten Lechu. We try in some way, to continue “the struggle”, fancy words that we sometimes use to mean solidarity and direct action.
      Because that is what was happening in Cushamen, solidarity and direct action. That’s why Lechuga was there, sharing and supporting a struggle that is no stranger to us, the struggle for life and dignity, against the State and private property.
      During this time, the State continued to fulfill its role, with more prisoners, even though the prisons are collapsing, with more vigilance and control, with more police on the streets willing to kill to defend the property of others. In two years the State accumulated several more deaths, killed in the barrios, prisons and police stations.
        The other arm of the State, the political parties, continued to do their job as well, pacifying and channeling the anger towards their ballot boxes.
      From the first moment they acted like police pointing at people while shouting “infiltrators” or protecting the church and the police from attack and today they continue to play the game of the good citizen.
         Left-wing parties and the progressive sectors call on people to participate in this voluntary civic service that is the electoral circus because know that when they stop channeling the anger that it explodes and forges bonds of solidarity that can go against their interests. They call on “the youth”, who are modern and think that violence is a thing of the past, to register and vote for them, protest must be a party. A party of democracy.
       Recently, someone who knows what it means to lose someone at the hands of the State said that “there are times when we have to destroy the world to build it again”, but today it seems that all we have to do is bow our heads and accept. They killed Lechu, in the same way that Rafael, La China, Maxi, Dario, Mariano, Luciano and so many others were murdered…and they want to make us believe that what we have to do is to demand justice from those who killed them. What we have to do is go out and destroy the world. We do not ask or demand anything!
Some Anarchists

(via Contra Info)

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Help Bring Our Family Together.

          As the far right continues to raise its vile head and spout it's divisive vomit, pitting people against people, we the ordinary people have to come together celebrating our differences, our different histories, our different cultures. We have to grasp the truth and realise that we live in a small planet with limited resources and we all belong to the same family, the human family. Any philosophy that divides us, destroys us, we can't survive living in our own wee small enclave at odds with and in competition with others. We can only survive by coming together in mutual co-operation and sharing those finite resources.
        Glasgow is home to a multitude of cultures, each with its own unique history, a history of struggle of ordinary people for survival.
         Glasgow has a history it can be proud of, of different cultures coming together and working to their mutual benefit and to the enrichment of our city's vibrancy. The people of Glasgow have come together time and time again to embrace that co-operation and mutual respect among its very varied communities. The most recent has been the Govanhill International Festival and Carnival, an event of joy and an exciting pleasure that does Glasgow proud.
       Coming up on the near horizon is another multi-culture festival a coming together of a variety of cultures and histories, part of the mosaic that makes human life so vibrant, so rich and so enjoyable.
       This one is to be held in that great wee town of Pitlochry, It is the Bing Anee Festival, so mark your diary and see if you can make your way there and help make the human family a richer and happier family than it is a present.

Details of the Bing Anee Festival:

 

 

            Please visit the Website pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
             or enquire via the Box Office Phone 01796 484 626
                                     www.rajpot.org.uk

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Solidarity Wins Again.

 

        One of the best weapons the ordinary people have against this repressive and exploitative capitalist system is solidarity. Time and time again solidarity wins battles, we may lose a few but we also win some and solidarity is the weapon that can deliver.

This victory from Labour Start:

         Erlan - now free. A little more than two weeks ago, I wrote to tell you about the sentencing of Erlan Baltabay, a trade union leader in Kazakhstan, to seven years in prison. Over 7,000 of you responded and sent off messages to the government of Kazakhstan demanding Erlan's release. Yesterday, we got the good news that the LabourStart global campaign launched by the International Trade Union Confederation and IndustriALL Global Union worked.
      Erlan was pardoned, and released from jail. Here is more information about his release from IndustriALL Global Union. And here is the statement from the Confederation of Labour of Russia (KTR) which first broke the news.
       Thank you very much to everyone who sent off a message, who shared news of this campaign by email and across social media, and to our volunteer translators who very quickly made this campaign available to trade unionists around the world in 18 languages.
        We don't always win these campaigns, but when we do it's a cause for celebration. But it's also a reminder of the five other campaigns we're currently running in support of trade unionists in Cambodia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland and Turkey. If you've not yet done so, please make sure to support these today:

Turkey: Reinstate municipal workers in Aliağa
Cambodia: Solidarity with workers at the West Mebun temple
Poland: Hutchison Ports must reinstate union activist Marek Szymczak
Philippines: Holcim workers demand justice
Pakistan: Reinstate the Karachi 8

        And please share this message -- and this good news -- with your friends, family and fellow union members.

Eric Lee

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Ever Further Ever Faster.

       Ever further, ever faster, eternal growth for ever and ever, the capitalist illusion, built on a cloud of greed and insanity. Of course now that the population at large are waking up to the environmental disaster from such a philosophy, they paint everything green in the hope of keeping the illusion alive. Where will it all end, in the elimination of the human species, or in the true awakening of the people world wide to the suicidal policies of capitalism.?

This from Shoal:

     Imagine the delight! In years to come we could all be zipping merrily across continents at almost the speed of sound through massive low-pressure tubes! Even better, we’re talking eco-chic sustainable speed, with fossil fuel air and motor transport reduced and the super-duper shiny new “Hyperloop” tubes powered by a host of solar panels. Following the stalling of plans for a Los Angeles to San Francisco route, US entrepreneur Elon Musk reported last year that he has now received some written authorisation to start work on a Hyperloop connection between New York and Washington, DC. Pods travelling at 1,200 kph (750 mph) would take passengers from one city to the other in 29 minutes, he said. The Hyperloop concept has been offered by one of Musk’s companies as open-source technology and various businesses have beens showing an interest.

      South Korea signed a deal to develop Hyperloop and is hoping the scheme will allow people to replace a three-hour drive from Seoul to Busan with a 20-minute trip. Plans are also underway in France for a 40-minute Hyperloop connection between Paris and Toulouse, while the first operational route could be in the Emirates, with a Hyperloop tube planned to span the 150km between Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes. The first stretch is due to be launched in 2020. India, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Indonesia are also said to be interested in building their own Hyperloops.

      Over the last few years, Musk and his cheerleaders have been making much of Hyperloop’s supposedly “green” credentials. Josh Giegel, president of Los Angeles firm Hyperloop One told the Inverse website: “We’re advertising, and we really believe in, a fully kind of green solution here.”

     The techno-enthusiast Digital Trends website gushed about the “fantasy of futuristic transportation” and declared: “The Hyperloop could revolutionize mass transit, shortening travel times on land and reducing environmental damage in the process.” Norway’s Green Party also jumped aboard the “renewable” high-speed bandwagon when it called for a Scandinavian Hyperloop connection between Oslo and Copenhagen.

     But potential passengers should prepare to mind the gap… between hype and reality. Christopher Laumanns of the degrowth.info web portal in Germany warned that there were a number of questions that needed to be asked about Hyperloop, such as “do we really want to go that fast?”, “is this the kind of technology we want?”, “who will profit from this?” and “what is the real, full ecological impact of this project?”. He told Shoal: “The hyperloop is a mega-infrastructure-project. These projects have a rich tradition of being way more expensive than the ambitious investor says they are at the beginning. “It will have a huge impact on the landscape, especially if the pods have to travel in a very straight line, just like highways and high-speed rail, which cut through landscapes, often with tunnels and bridges”. Plans reveal that the giant Hyperloop tubes would either run underground, as in the New York to Washington project, or be raised above ground level on pylons – in either case cutting swathes through vulnerable landscapes and fragile habitats.

      And what of the steel or reinforced concrete that would be needed to construct these continent-spanning tubes? Would this be sourced, manufactured and transported with zero environmental impact? Not exactly. Steel depends on iron ore mines, mainly opencast, and the production process involves high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, wastewater contaminants, hazardous wastes and solid wastes. Concrete, meanwhile, is made largely from cement and that the cement industry is notoriously one of the primary producers of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. On top of that, all the aggregates that make up concrete have to be quarried or dug out of the Earth somewhere, then transported, with further use of fossil fuel and other resources and increases in pollution. The inclusion of solar panels in the Hyperloop marketing vision is also something of a green herring.

       Enthusiasts for solar power often seem to conveniently forget that the panels themselves have a heavy environmental footprint, starting with the quartz mining, which threatens miners with the lung disease silicosis, and continuing with the caustic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide and hydrofluoric acid used in their manufacture. The process uses not only precious water but also large amounts electricity and there is a problem with waste. In 2011 residents of Haining in eastern China rioted for four days because the local solar panel factory was seriously polluting a nearby river, dumping toxic levels of fluoride into the water and killing large numbers of fish and some pigs.

      It is unsurprising then, that Hyperloop’s claims to be eco-friendly have been greeted with scepticism by environmentalists. Grayson Flory, editor of the Earth First! Journal in the USA, told Shoal: “The Hyperloop project is another example of dangerous greenwashing, pure and simple. “It is a blow against a sustainable future for the planet disguised as a solution to industry-caused climate catastrophe. Environmental claims about the Hyperloop demonstrate the dominant culture’s obsession with technological progress and speed over all else. “To prioritize high-speed transport over actual necessities for survival – such as non-toxic air, pure water, and thriving, intact ecosystems – is to ignore the very problem proponents of the Hyperloop claim they are trying to solve. “Increasing our reliance on and dedication to technology and industry is not a rational or holistic approach to problems caused by increased reliance on and dedication to technology and industry. “High-speed travel is not sustainable, no matter what new technology we use to make it appear so.”

     Laumann, in Germany, said the broader issue of high-speed transport was important from a degrowth perspective: “Capitalist acceleration creates the illusion of giving you more time, while it actually leads to a greater number of activities in the same amount of time, thus also creating more growth.” José Ardillo, author of books such as Les Illusions renouvelables (“Renewable Illusions”), also agreed that the contemporary capitalist demand for high-speed transport, which Hyperloop seeks to meet, was the underlying problem. He told Shoal: “The need for high-speed transport in modern industrial society comes within a wider historical context which was already underway at the time when the first railways were being built.

         “You could say that the first need for capitalism was to efficiently link energy resources with the centres of industrial transformation, on the one hand, and on the other, of course, with distribution networks. “The first war fought by industrial society at that stage was a war against distance. It had to nullify distance. Now contemporary industrial society is at war with time. “Once towns and centres of production across the territory are linked together, you have to eliminate as far as possible the time needed to move between them.”

       The great English writer and art critic John Ruskin died in January 1900 and so never knew the industrial insanities of the twentieth century, let alone the twenty-first. But when he wrote in the 1870s about the madness of the railways he could just as easily have been describing the hyperloopiness of certain contemporary high-speed projects.

      “There was a valley between Buxton and Bakewell, once upon a time as divine as the vale of Tempe”, he recalled. “You enterprised a railroad through the valley – you blasted its rocks away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely stream. “The valley is gone and the Gods with it, and now, every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton; which you think a lucrative process of exchange – you Fools everywhere”.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk