Sunday 6 October 2019

The Web Of Illusions Woven Around War.


        Wars and their reasons are probably the most savage and brutal illusions foisted on the people of any and all countries. Wars are always labelled defence of democracy, for liberty, justice, to bring democracy to others, just wars, wars to bring peace. They are never stated to be for the growth of empire, to grow resources and markets, to stifle the growth of competitors in the big corporate battles, to fan patriotism and get the public behind the government. Part and parcel of this system and society of illusions that swamp our minds and blind us to reality.
An interesting excerpt from an article from Anarkismo: 


World War One and 100 Years of Counter-Revolution.
--------FROM THE WAR ON TERROR TO A NEW GREAT UNREST
        Despite the brutality of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, international opposition did deter the US military from bombing people on the scale of the Korean and Vietnam wars. At the same time, however, the US population's reluctance to sacrifice its soldiers compelled the US military to use a level of violence to protect its personnel that only increased opposition to the American presence. Unable to bomb people into submission or to win their support, US defeat was inevitable.
        This defeat later helped to encourage the Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East. Unfortunately, counter-revolutionary repression and civil war have, so far, crushed these uprisings. But the US and other Western governments still need to use troops on the ground to stabilise these counter-revolutions and people’s reluctance to sacrifice any more soldiers makes that an extremely risky proposition. Unable to unite their populations around wars in Iraq, Iran or Syria – let alone the Ukraine – Western politicians are, instead, keen to commemorate the national unity and futile sacrifice of past wars in a desperate attempt to pretend that we really are ‘all in this together’.
        With no concession to any historical truth, Barack Obama has praised the ‘profound sacrifice’ that Allied soldiers made in 1914-18 ‘to fight and die for the freedom we enjoy’. Meanwhile, David Cameron was so fixated on the idea of the sacrifice that British soldiers ‘made for us’ that he used the word ‘sacrifice’ eight times in one commemoration speech. Fortunately, if Britain, with its strong military traditions, cannot tolerate the sacrifice of 179 soldiers in Iraq, then no Western societies are likely to tolerate the sacrifice of vastly greater numbers in any new global war. Nevertheless, the Western ruling class are still hoping that people will agree to sacrifice their living standards in order to compete with workers in Asia and so, somehow, rejuvenate Western capitalism.[13]
       Such a sacrifice, such a ‘race to the bottom’, would be less bloody than the inter-imperialist competition of 1914-18, but no less pointless. As in the early years of the Great War, people will go along with government propaganda for a while but – eventually – they will realise that they are sacrificing their lives for nothing. Then it may only be a matter of time before we see social unrest comparable to that of the Great Unrest. And, this time, our rulers will have serious problems containing any such unrest because there is no easy way to divert people’s energies into war as there was in the Cold War – or in the Great War.
       The British Government’s desperate attempt to revive what Cameron called the ‘national spirit’ by commemorating the monstrous slaughter of 1914-18 is a good opportunity to expose the real history of capitalism and its counter-revolutionary wars. See http://therealww1.wordpress.com for information about future events and for more anti-war articles.
Read the full article HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Saturday 5 October 2019

Representative Democracy, The Great Illusion.

       This so called democracy we live in, is a world of illusions. Most people consider themselves free because they can choose from a box of goodies handed to them by unseen masters, but seem unaware that there are other boxes that they are not being allowed to see. The public's tastes and values are formed by manipulation, formed and shaped by deliberate propaganda from the media, the corporate juggernaut and state institutions. The information you get is what they want you to hear and see, and that invariably bears no relation to what is actually going on in the world. Concealment of the true workings of society is necessary for the survival of the powers that be, the greater the division between the elite, powerful controlling few and the ordinary person, the greater the illusions created. Truth would destroy this unjust and exploitative economic system, illusions must be generated and will grow at an ever greater distance from the truth.

      The vast majority seem to accept that poverty and deprivation, existing alongside unimaginable wealth, is just an adjustable hiccup in the system, but fail to see that the ever increasing wealth of the few is the root cause of all that poverty and deprivation. The illusions state that the economic system we have is the best, it's all there is, and the injustice and inequalities are caused by differences in ability and effort, but can be sorted by little adjustments here and there. That is the great big illusion on which all the others are built.
       History should tell us that these minor manipulations of the system to repair its little hiccups is just another fantasy to safe guard the small wealthy and powerful controllers of the system. 

        Of course others have been saying this for years and saying it much better than I ever could.
". . . in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them. " Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery.
      However it is not just in America that this enslavement of the human mind is in full control, it is the existing model for the capitalist world. Though there are signs that more and more of the public at large, are beginning to see through the illusions, their eyes are beginning to penetrate the smoke and mirrors and they see glimpses of the reality of the system that has for so long heaped so much misery on the population of the world. 
        "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country . . . we're dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . . it is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world." Edward Bernays - Propaganda, Liveright Publishing Company, New York, 2005, excerpts from pp. 9-19 
       Illusions are meant to be part of stage entertainment, not the world in which we live. Illusions should be fun, something you know is not true, you should then leave the theatre and re-enter the real world of truths, realities and facts. When will we all leave the theatre?
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Friday 4 October 2019

Spirit of Revolt, More Digitised Collections.


      The volunteers at Spirit of Revolt are as always busy trying to bring the people to the archive, and bring our history to the people. We are delighted to state that two more of our collections have been fully digitised and therefore you can now read them from the comfort of your home, library, cafe, etc. No need to make you way into the Mitchell Library to do so. Though you will always be made welcome should you wish to visit us at the Mitchell.

The two collections are:

GB243 T/SOR/23 Collection No. 23, Clydeside Hunt Saboteurs.

GB243 T/SOR/35 Collection No. 35, Shirley Sampson Collection.

      Enjoy perusing these wonderful and informative collections from the comfort of your home. Of course there is a wealth of information already digitised on our website, so you could spend endless hours in that comfy chair trawling through the thousands of documents, leaflets, booklets, posters, letters, photos etc. all from grassroots activities in your local Glasgow/Clydeside area, with lots from further afield. Have a look and let's know what you think. 
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

The Financial Mafia Fiddles While The World Burns.


       Our system propaganda machine, the mainstream media, continues to paint a picture that all is well within the system, with a few hiccups here and there. This despite the obvious impending collapse of the financial system that will bring extreme hardship and deprivation across the globe, moving it right across the developed world instead of containing it mostly, as it tries at present, in the poorer countries of the world. On top of that, there are massive uprisings across the globe by the people, against the brutal exploitative system that has for generations, heaped so much misery and deprivation on so many while lavishing untold wealth on the few. It is obvious to the thinking observer that something has to break and that break is not far off.
This from Its Going Down:
          The Demise of U.S. Hegemony: Analysis of a Revolutionary Heat Wave in Haiti, West Papua, Mexico and Beyond
Filed under: Analysis, The State
Abolition Media Worldwide 

A look at recent revolts in Haiti, West Papua, and Mexico and how they are linked to the decline in US imperial power.
       A massive revolutionary heat wave has swept the globe this summer, as militants have risen up with the intent to overthrow their colonial and imperialist foes. In the face of gruesome and relentless State repression, the people are nevertheless holding and gaining ground. From West Papua to Mexico, from Haiti to Colombia, from Honduras to Sudan and beyond, those who have long suffered the violence and indignities of occupation are declaring, unequivocally, that they have had enough. These and other uprisings around the world herald the demise of U.S. hegemony.
Recent Events in West Papua, Mexico, and Haiti

        On September 23rd, 2019, West Papuan revolutionaries burned down an Indonesian colonial government building in Wamena, as the insurrection in West Papua that began last month gained new momentum. In August, racist attacks against West Papuans in cities on the island of Java prompted widespread protests in the provinces, and roughly 2,000 West Papuan students studying in Java headed home early. Indonesia’s colonial occupation of West Papua and the racist violence stemming therefrom have propelled these protests into a full-on insurrection— and the Indonesian State has responded accordingly.
The State remains unable to suppress the revolution, despite many feverish attempts. At least 35,000 West Papuans have been forced from their homes, and an additional 6,000 Indonesian police and military personnel were deployed to West Papua earlier this month. Still, when police murdered sixteen West Papuans after students protested against racism, the people administered revolutionary justice in the form of flaming barricades and the torching of several buildings, including a government building and the airport.
         In Mexico, on the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of 43 Normalista students from Ayotzinapa, militants attacked the national palace where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador currently lives, a Christopher Columbus statue, and other commercial and government buildings in Mexico City. The Normalista students disappeared on September 26th and 27th of 2014; last week, roughly 4,000 people, including students and anarchists, took part in enacting revolutionary justice against the State on their behalf.
Targeted offices included those of Secretariat of Welfare, the Superior Court of Justice of Mexico City, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among other government agencies. In all, roughly thirty businesses and public offices were affected.

          On Friday, September 27th, revolutionaries throughout Haiti destroyed police headquarters, attacked residences of government officials, and burned a jail and courts to the ground. Insurgents there are fighting to overthrow the corrupt right-wing regime of Jovenel Moise, who is backed by the U.S. Four people died in clashes in recent days, with many reports of injuries. Moise’s government had siphoned off Venezuelan aid money that came through Venezuela’s PetroCaribe program, which had allowed Haiti to buy petroleum products at discount and on credit. The program has now been suspended, owing to both the U.S.’s interest in overthrowing the current Venezuelan government in order to install a new far-right puppet regime and its support of the Haitian State.
Faced with devastating fuel shortages and prices, the people of Haiti have set the island ablaze. In the capital city of Port-au-Prince, police were met with armed resistance; in Jacmel, the central court and prison were burned to the ground, while prisoners arrested during the last round of uprisings earlier this summer were liberated. In Thomonde, revolutionaries disarmed the police, who fled as their vehicles and substation were set on fire. And in Les Cayes, the office of USAID NGO Caris Foundation was ransacked and their vehicle was set on fire.
The Death of U.S. Hegemony

        While circumstances vary from one to another, these struggles are united in myriad ways. Not only are they all instances of anti-imperialist rebellion, but also among the sinister empires at the root of the oppression endured in West Papua, Mexico, and Haiti alike is none other than that of the United States.
        In 1957, eight years after having recognized Indonesia’s independence, the Dutch empire began a process that would allegedly allow independence for West Papua in 1972. What the Dutch did not know at that time was that twenty-one years earlier, a 1936 expedition had discovered an ertsberg (ore mountain) on West Papua. While various territorial claims had been made, the mountain remained uninhabited for over twenty years.
         Enter the twin demons of capitalism and imperialism.
The United States mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold negotiated with Indonesian army general Suharto to allow prospecting on the mountain. In 1962, after Indonesia declared war on the Netherlands, the U.S. and U.N. predictably conspired to have “interim” control of West Papua signed over to Indonesia. The Indonesian State, having just over a dozen years earlier liberated itself from Dutch colonial rule, donned the colonizer’s clothes and viciously repressed the people of West Papua, making acts such as singing the West Papuan anthem and flying the West Papuan flag illegal.
General Suharto, no doubt thoroughly a U.S. stooge by this time, became president of Indonesia in 1968.
            Similarly, the U.S. empire also colonized Haiti through both stooge deployment and theft of resources. In 2015, the U.S. successfully installed its Haitian stooge, Moise, by enabling former president Martelly— via his goons— to frighten and intimidate Haitians into voting for Moise (who Martelly also backed). In 2010, Canadian and U.S. mining companies unearthed gold, silver, copper, and other valuable metals— roughly $20,000,000,000 worth— in Haiti. This was just after the devastating earthquake that instantly killed up to 300,000 people and from which Haiti has yet to fully recover.
Roughly 15 percent of Haiti’s territory was under license to North American mining firms and partners as of December 2018, including the U.S. company VCS Mining, the Canadian company Majescor, and their subsidiaries. Predictably enough, as the people of Haiti struggle harder and harder to meet their most basic needs, North American colonizers continue to profit wildly from the island’s resources.
Hillary Clinton’s brother, Anthony Rodham, was a prominent player in the mining scheme, according to corporate VCS documents. (It should come as no surprise that Rodham has no background in mining whatsoever.) Rodham joined the advisory board of VCS Mining in October 2013, and a 2014 VCS memorandum touts his influential connections to the Clintons’ “inner circles” and “power bases.”
While President Obrador (AMLO) was fashioned in the style of a left-leaning crusader for justice during the most recent Mexican presidential elections, he has unwaveringly done Trump’s bidding since taking office. AMLO, who vowed not to do Trump’s “dirty work” with respect to abusing and oppressing migrants while on the campaign trail, has been deploying unprecedented levels of troops throughout Mexico, including his newly-formed and contentious Guardia Nacional (National Guard): an amalgamation of existing federal, military, and naval police.
         In spite of ample promises made to respect the autonomy of indigenous people, AMLO created the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples to manage indigenous affairs— an obvious attempt to undermine organizations such as the National Indigenous Congress, an anti-capitalist indigenous resistance movement focused on defending land and resources and protecting indigenous culture. In April, AMLO announced a series of megaprojects he claimed would improve regional development: the Maya Train, a new refinery in Tabasco along the Gulf of Mexico, the Trans Isthmus corridor, and the Plan Integral Morelos— all of which involve dispossession of farmers and indigenous communities. In some cases, construction and management have already opened to bidding by transnational corporations, including many that are U.S.-based.
        Trump personally sent a message to AMLO to assure the latter that the U.S. would invest in the Maya Train in particular. The area it will cover— approximately 1,500 kilometers, from Palenque to Cancún— is already overrun by big-box hotels, fine-dining restaurants and nightclubs which allow tourists from advanced capitalist societies to enjoy luxury on the cheap. By comparison, local economic benefits from this arrangement are minimal. Tourists are spared the sight of the wretchedly under-serviced neighborhoods outside of town that are home to the army of service, maintenance and construction workers whose starting salary ranges from $180 to $420 per month for a six-day week. One can imagine how far that goes in a city dominated by international tourism.
        That this by-colonizers-for-colonizers railway invokes the name of the first indigenous people of Mexico pours salt on an ever-widening wound. (It is fitting that so many harbingers of the end of the U.S. empire’s dominion should occur as we approach Indigenous People’s Day, October 7th— a day the State calls Columbus Day and that was meant to celebrate Columbus’s enslavement and murder of indigenous people, but is now being reclaimed by U.S.-based anti-imperialists as a day to commemorate indigenous martyrs and express solidarity with ongoing indigenous struggles unfolding across the globe.)
One remarkable thing about the present moment is that the three revolutionary uprisings explored above do not even amount to half of the total number taking place worldwide:
        On September 20th and 21st, thousands of people in at least eight Egyptian cities took to the streets to demand the removal of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a fascist who won both the 2014 and 2018 “elections” after running against no serious contenders and amid widespread voting boycotts.
Two days later, on September 23rd, students in Colombia rebelled in the capital city of Bogota and defended themselves in the face of violent repression by the police. This was the second clash between students and police there this year, and the third since current President Ivan Duque took office. (Under his regime, repression of student protests of any kind has become increasingly merciless.)
Three days later, on September 26th, roughly two thousand people demonstrated in Khartoum, Sudan to demand the immediate release of Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan, a Sudanese student who had been detained by Egyptian authorities and delivered a coerced confession on television.
         Still, this list is not exhaustive.
Revolutionary anarchists stand in solidarity with all oppressed people, and recognize the potential contained in this moment. We mourn those who have already fallen in these struggles, but are buoyed by the knowledge that the Age of Empire is coming to a definitive end. The revolutionary heartbeat is palpable and thunderous, pulsing across oceans, deserts, mountains, and hills; igniting fortitude and resilience like wildfire. Neither individual State actors nor their imperial puppet-masters can put out the fire that burns in the chest of the People.
We welcome the imminent demise of U.S. hegemony, and support all of those who continue to fight for liberation!
Sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182814172453998.html https://sfbayview.com/2018/12/merten-mercenaries-marionettes-and-the-media-blackout-on-haiti/ https://truthout.org/articles/amlo-in-office-from-megaprojects-to-militarization/
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Thursday 3 October 2019

Rotating Hunger Strike.

 
       Spending money on prisoners conditions is not a vote winner, so our political ballerinas shy away from such activities. Therefore the conditions in almost all prisons are atrocious. Overcrowding is a major problem, leading to psychological and physical health problems, aggravated by the treatment from the cage keepers. Obviously the abolition of the prison system is the only humane direction we should be taking, but in the meantime we have to stand up for the humane treatment of those who find themselves entangled in the loaded judicial system.

         Madrid, Spain: Rotating hungerstrike info + letter from Toni Chavero, anarchist prisoner



         Hi everywhere, we want to spread this info about the actual rotating hungerstrike in spanish prisons. The horrible situation in spanish prisons, tortures, deads, the basicly nonexistent medical attention,terrible food, bad communication inside/outside, aislation confinement for rebellious prisoners etc. etc. There are thousands of denouncements of this situation in the offices of the European Union Tribunals at least from the last 20 years. No one there cares about this nonexistent human rights in spanish prisons! So the prisoners, with the support of solidarious groups from outside, try to continue the long tradition of struggles against this fascist prisoner system in Spain. So from last September 1st a small group of prisoners started this rotative hungerstrike and Toni Chavero, anarchist comrade actually encaged in the prison of Estremera (Madr.i.p.) wrote this letter:
          [Madrid, Spain] Letter from anarchist prisoner Toni Chavero about the rotating hunger strike in spanish prisons
         Bunker of Estremera (Prison Madrid VII)
5th September, 2019
         Cheers, comrades, I am Toni Chavero. I hope that on the arrival of these letters you will find yourself with strength and courage. We need strength, determination and a firm position. I want to thank you, first of all, for joining these rotating hunger strikes. I have been on strike for five days today, but I didn’t even have to start it, the reprisals came earlier, I have been cut off from communications with three companions, for “reasons of security and good order of the establishment”. Since they lack the arguments or connections that lead to this intervention, they continue to violate our rights and freedoms through the nose, we will see what the court says. Although I know this goes on for a long time, I have set out to recover communications with my colleagues.
The dentist and the oculist don’t even call me. Reprisals or a Hippocratic oath? Or hypocrite?
          The objective of this strike is obvious and necessary: to demand the application of Articles 104.4 and 196 RP to the companions with chronic diseases, their release without the fascist requirement of having to be in terminal phase, I mean, dead, we’re not gonna stand for this. At least they won’t shut us up. That’s clear to us.
        On the other hand, we call for the repeal of the permanent prison that can be reviewed and, of course, for the disappearance of the hidden life sentences. Here I highlight the case of Antoine or Enrique del Valle, because right now I don’t remember any other name; it would be necessary to make a list of all the people subjected to similar situations.Comrade Antoine (Antonio Nieto Galindo), after 40 years, 4 months and 16 days of effective fulfillment, they want to kidnap him to France, these sociopaths, devoid of heart, unaware of the humanitarian spirit. Who are the killers here? All that remains is for them to claim article 100 of the old penal code of 1973: redemption of penalties for works, studies, cultural, artistic, creative activities, etc., etc., etc. We have no choice but to continue sending the writings about it to the incompetent, national and international bodies, you know the addresses by the compañerx out there.
After the end of the first 10 days, I think we should continue to send letters to these individuals, bodies, institutions In solidarity with the comrades who carry out the rotating hunger strikes. After the end of these first 10 days of September, begins the Peque companion (Courage, Angel!) and so, successively, continue, as I know today, ten more people. I know that they will enter, after finishing the comrade Peque, Aroca Lisón, Doblado, Hermenegildo, Tinoco, Marían Tapia… and I do not know who you are the others. Encouragement and many forces! We will reach the end of 2019 and beyond with these rotating demands, because we deserve it and because we can do it. Determination and iron positioning, I have no doubt. And thanks, inside and out.
          I want to thank the colleagues of Tokata and Grupo Pro Presxs of Madrid, for being the ones who have more contact with me, the fact of taking care of us despite the adversities. Thanks is to say little. To all the individual people, to all the Presxs Support Groups that I know you are there, to the Families, to the Solidarity Solidarity Groups all, thank you very much, much strength for the gatherings in the cave of the jailers (SGIP), the concentrations in Navalcarnero, in Albocásser. Thanks to the friends of Alcalá de Xivert (Castellón) for their “Desde dentro” (From inside), the voice of the prisoners and everything they do. Thankfulxs, compañerxs. Come on, add there the informative tables in Anarchist Book Fairs, Tatoo Cirkus, concerts, etc. You are the fucking rod! We feel you strong in here and we are grateful.
       A terrible fraternal and libertarian embrace. May the struggle for a society without cages not cease!
Rebellion and friendship! Also in memory of our compañero Xosé Tarrío and his nai Pastora.
We don’t forget you! Cheers to everyone.
Toni  
      Thanx a lot for the difusión of this letter-document of Toni Chavero. We animate to everyone to support this struggle with solidarity-actions!  You can also write to Toni directly; his address is:
Toni Chavero,
Centro Penitenciario Madrid VII, Estremera
Ctra. M-241, km 5.750,
28595 ESTREMERA (MD)
Spain
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Wednesday 2 October 2019

State Repression and Resistance.

        The state repression being visited on the district of Exarcheia in Athens against autonomous spaces, anarchists and migrants, continues  however, so does the resistance.
This from Enough is Enough:

        4 days after the evacuation of two squats (1) a few hundred meters west of Exarcheia, the Greek state continues its strategy of encirclement and penetration of the neighborhood.
        Originally published by Blog YY. Written by Yannis Youlountas. Translated by Autonomies.
       The vice is tightening around the rebel and solidarity district of Athens:

EVACUATION IN PROGRESS OF THE SQUAT “FIFTH SCHOOL” NEXT TO EXARCHEIA
         4 days after the evacuation of two squats (1) a few hundred meters west of Exarcheia, the Greek state continues its strategy of encirclement and penetration of the neighborhood.
        This time, it is on the other side, the south-east of Exarcheia, a large squat is being evacuated, in the precincts of a former high school abandoned.
        For now, Mitsotakis does not yet dare to attack the main historic squats of the heart of Exarcheia, especially Notara 26 and the K * Vox, but his desire to “clean up Exarcheia” persists, the desire have disappear a unique political and social experience that disturbs power in Europe.
        Once again, the State shows its true face: a hyperstructure aiming to control everything, not in the service of the large number but of the power that claims to govern us and forbid us to live otherwise.
        However, we showed Friday evening, by symbolically taking over the squat Spirou Trikoupi 17, evacuated at the end of August, a time of festivity over these last three years, that nothing is over and that we will not let matters stand.
         We are seeds. Seeds of utopias. We are not afraid of wind, rain or autumn. Not even of winter.

Yannis Youlountas, September 23, 2019
This from Ekathimerini 31st., August, 2019.

    Tensions simmered in the downtown Athens district of Exarchia over the weekend with several skirmishes between police and self-styled anarchists in the wake of a crackdown on squats and the Vox cafe, a hangout for members of the Rouvikonas anarchist group.
        On Saturday afternoon a group of around 40 people lobbed homemade firebombs and stones at a riot police unit on Tositsa Street, just hours after a smaller group attacked another police unit on Harilaou Trikoupi Street.
         No injuries were reported in either incident but police are on standby for possible revenge attacks by anarchists for evictions from four squats last week and the Vox raid which, Rouvikonas claims, caused injuries.
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Happiness Doesn't Come In Fancy Boxes.


        In this insane consumer society, "things" mean happiness, our propaganda media will continually tell you how much more fulfilled you will be if you get such-and-such car, mobile phone, or bigger flat screen TV, how much more beautiful and desirable you will be if you would just buy this cream, this lotion this super-duper hair treatment. According to the consumer society mantra happiness and success comes with things, more things more happiness, greater status. What a load of bullshit. We live in a society that has greed and perpetual growth as its driving force, a sure road to disaster in a world of finite resources. Infinite growth from finite resources is the world of the insane.
The usual words of wisdom from Not Buying Anything:


        The economy needs you to increase your consumption. Forever. That is the only way our economy can function, or rather, lurch and fumble from one crisis to another.
        Eventually, because the Earth does not have infinite resources to harvest, we will hit Peak Consumption. Perhaps we have hit it already.
        In my own life, my personal peak consumption was years ago, and my consumption graph has been falling ever since. So how is it that I have never been happier?
       A developed economy is dependent on the practice of infinite consumption and infinite growth. No growth means everything breaks down. Even if Gross Domestic Happiness does not grow, the economy must go on.
       If the consumer does not increase their purchases year after year after year, the economy is immediately headed for trouble. Consumer confidence is The Thing since a modern economy depends to a large degree on The Consumer.
       Think you don't have power? In the USA and Canada up to 70% of the economy is based on what you buy. Want to change things? Start altering your purchasing habits, and the system will notice right now.
       Or just do you patriotic duty and keep on buying stuff until we experience total collapse.
       Don't have money? Not to worry - the system will lend you some at a 25% interest rate.
       Don't need anything? Nonsense. There is always something to desire and buy. The infinite growth consumer model makes sure of that.

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

Tuesday 1 October 2019

Haiti, Born Of A Slave Rebellion, Returns To Rebellion.

     Haiti over the centuries has had more than its fair share of problems mainly from three imperialist powers, Spanish, French and American. Its people are among the poorest on the planet. 59% of the people of Haiti live in poverty, around 25% live in extreme poverty, and less than 50% of households have access to clean water. On top of this they have had years of corrupt puppet governments looting the wealth of the country. So it should be no surprise that the people are erupting in righteous anger. Born from a slave rebellion its people are once again in rebellion.
      At the moment the people of Haiti are destroying the institutions of a capitalism and a corrupt state. Petrol stations are burning the Haitian Union Bank has been looted and set on fire
This from Its Going Down:

       Revolutionaries destroyed police headquarters, attacked residences of government officials, and burned a jail and courts to the ground in different parts of Haiti on Friday. Insurgents are fighting to overthrow the corrupt right-wing regime of Jovenel Moise, who is backed by the US. Four people died in clashes in recent days, with many reports of injuries.
        In June, judges of Haiti’s High Court of Auditors said in a report that Moise was at the center of an “embezzlement scheme” that had siphoned off Venezuelan aid money intended for road repairs, laying out a litany of examples of corruption and mismanagement. The aid money came through Venezuela’s PetroCaribe program, which had allowed Haiti to buy petroleum products at discount and on credit.
       However, the program has now been suspended for more than a year because of the interests of US imperialism, which backs the Haitian regime and has supported coup attempts to install a right-wing regime in Venezuela. The suspension has meant that Haiti’s long-suffering people have been faced with an extra burden: an ever-worsening fuel shortage that has resulted in closed service stations, rising prices and long lines to buy petrol.
         In the wealthy suburb Petion Ville, entire blocks were set ablaze. Protesters successfully drove the police out of Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince’s poorest neighborhood. Revolutionaries completely destroyed the UDMO/police headquarters. Heavily armed units of police abandoned it after hours of attacks by residents with molotov cocktails and showers of rocks. The UDMO (Departmental Unit for the Maintenance of Order), who have murdered many Haitian people to protect the corrupt Moise regime in power, have been trained by the US state in Austin, Texas where an “Executive Leadership” training course was set up for Haitian security forces.
         In Gonaives, a city in northern Haiti, government offices were burned. In Port-Au-Prince, all government offices were closed, as protesters sang and danced in streets for the fall of the US/Trump-backed government of Moise.
Revolutionaries have blocked roadways with barricades, using anything in their disposal from debris to burning tires since early on Friday. The central court and jail have been burned to the ground in Jacmel, southern Haiti after prisoners arrested in the last round of protests were liberated.
        Police reportedly were met with armed resistance in the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. Armed individuals also reportedly attacked residences of government officials, including the head of the courts responsible for clearing Jovenel Moise of PetroCaribe corruption charges, Pierre Volmar Demesyeux.
Revolutionaries destroyed police headquarters, attacked residences of government officials, and burned a jail and courts to the ground in different parts of Haiti on Friday. The courthouse in the community of Petit-Goâve, southwest of Port-au-Prince, has also been set ablaze, according to people on the ground.
       Two Sogebank branches in Haiti were attacked by insurgents on Friday. They are no longer simply demanding the resignation of the fraudulently installed puppet president, but the end of the looting by oligarch families, like the owners of this bank, who steal 90% of the wealth.
        As Haiti comes to the brink of revolution, overthrowing the regime of Moise, insurgents are also attacking the systems of capitalism and imperialism that have enforced the poverty and despair of the Haitian people.

Info via https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj 

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Monday 30 September 2019

States And The Misuse Of Language.

         Governments adopt names that belie their intentions and ideology, Greece is no different. The newly elected government of Greece is called "New Democracy", yet its first priority is to attack and close down social spaces that work in a democratic fashion. The recent and ongoing military style attacks on social and autonomous spaces in Exarcheia are just typical examples of this misuse of labels. The poster might say "New Democracy" but the actions say "fascist". There is language in normal use, then there is the distorted language of doublespeak as used by states and their institutions. Below is just another account of this phony democracy at work, attacking those who don't obey their dictates or don't fit the model of big capitalism, all carried out under the false banner of citizen security and safety. Bullshit for the naive and subservient loyal followers.
 
         Today on Wednesday the 25.09 the State has again attacked. This time to little sellers that used to make a flee market in Victoria, Filis after the laiki agoras. An operation of State-Municipality Police, of the private security of the market and Civilians Cops accompanied with different vehicles like a garbage car, Municipality Police vans and an interrogation van (waiting in the beginning of the market) went through the market harassing the street sellers. The cops start checking people appearing with bags of things to sell. They checked their papers, and threw the bags in the trash. In an arrogant way they were even bullying the ones looking either poor or like Migrants to them even though they just carried bags of fruits bought from the ‘legal’ market.
        It was the second time that we observed this action of the State, so this time some sellers were more careful with their goods. They were waiting in the streets to see if they have a chance to sell some things. Meanwhile the cops got compliments by local assholes telling them that they do a great job! They were walking in different groups, security in the beginning followed by cops that were doing the checks together with Civilian cops looking in the bags. We are not sure if they arrested people today but we observed many identity checks and disgusting behaviour of the cops and their friends.
         This is the continuation of the State’s discrimination of the outcast and the irrational separation of legal and illegal. It’s more obvious than ever that racism and fascism are coming from State Institutions.
         We here in UK should not be complacent we are trundling along the road to fascism at an ever increasing pace, our recent parliamentary fiascos should make that obvious to anyone with half a brain cell. Other states across Europe and elsewhere are further along that road or are catching up. You cannot debate with fascism, you have to fight it head on with no quarter given. 

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Borders Mean Deaths.

 
        Everybody by now should be aware that migrants are the scapegoats of the world, a group of individuals and families that are stripped of all human rights and herded like cattle. All this to uphold the states demand for those imaginary lines on the map, borders. Quite often the worst cases of migrants mistreatment seldom reach our mainstream media, as the media doesn't want to upset their various partners, their particular state.

 An Afghan woman outside her "home" on Lesbos.

        One hell-hole where migrants are herded is the island of Lesbos, on this small beautiful spot is one of the many "refugee" camps, proper name would be concentration camps. In this camp built to poorly house 3,000 migrants are crammed 12,000 migrants, mainly those fleeing Afghanistan's many brutal dangers. Such conditions foster psychological and physical health problems fueled by desperation.
      In the early hours of Sunday morning in an act of desperation to try to further there demands to be transferred to better conditions on the mainland, migrants lit a fire in an olive grove outside the camp and one inside the camp and struggles with the police ensued. The result is one person dead, burnt to death, and later it was confirmed that a mother and child had died. 
       No matter how this is written up, the truth is that these deaths can be firmly laid at the feet of those who deem it is alright to cram 12,000 desperate fleeing people into a space not fit for 3,000. 12,000 migrants is the wrong term, it is 12,000 human beings, who for no reason of their own are relabeled stripped of all human rights and treated worse than wild animals. 
      Despite the plight of migrants when they reach Europe, conditions are such that thousands still try to flee their homeland because of destruction, death and abject deprivation, usually brought about by Western foreign policy. According to the Greek coastguard, on Sunday, a baby and a toddler were among seven people who died when a boat carrying migrants and refugees sank in the eastern Aegean Sea. Such desperation not only deserves, but demands compassion and support. However the state's insistence on borders will only prolong this human tragedy.

A human cry for help.
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Sunday 29 September 2019

Weekend in Wonderful, Wild Scotland.

 The cottage.

       It was Stasia's birthday on Sunday, not allowed to mention age, so we booked a wee cottage a few miles before Stronachlachar, for the weekend. I had cycled that route many years ago, but had forgotten just how rubbish the road is once you pass Kinlochard, As you head for Stronachlachar the road (a rather misinterpretation of the word) you find yourself on a winding up and down single track with potholes and passing place which are not much more that some rubble at the side of the road. We arrived at the cottage on Friday afternoon and just did some wandering around and settling in before lighting the log fire and settling done for the evening. Not much else to do in such an isolated part of the country. 

Loch Katrine at Stronachlachar.
Stasia thought this one funny because of the notice

Stronachlachar.


      Saturday morning, breakfast and then head for Stronlachachar, just about four miles or so, but what a lousy twisting hilly single track road, but the weather was lovely, lots of sun and not much in the way of wind. Stronlachachar is a pretty isolated spot at the head of Loch Katrine, Just a lodge a pier and a cafe. There are sailings from Trossachs end of Loch Katrine to Stronlachachar, great walking country, but road rather lousy for cyclists and cars. 

 Inversnaid.

Inversnaid waterfall.

Inversnaid Hotel.

Inversnaid Harbour.
 
     We then decide to carry on to Inversnaid, where you eventually run out of road. The stretch to Inversnaid is even worse than the previous stretch of road, the last bit is a sharp decline and full of turns and twists, and as far as I could see this stretch had no passing places, not for the feint of heart.




    Inversnaid is a beautiful spot at the head of Loch Lomond on the opposite side of the Loch from Duck Bay, Luss, Inverbeg and Tarbet. There are small passenger ferries connecting you to the other side of the Loch.
     It was a wonderfully relaxing break and as always the views are stunningly beautiful, a mixture of long lochs, rugged mountains and forests, though I cursed the rotten roads, long may it remain so isolated and retain that escape potential.
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Friday 27 September 2019

The Virus Persists.

      September, 27th. marks an anniversary of a fight back, and success, by ordinary people. It was on that date in 1936 that fascist Oswald Mosley lead a march of 1000 Blackshirt fascist in Leeds, however it didn't go unnoticed. They were met by around 30,000 locals who attacked them with all manner of missiles, some hitting Mosley. The locals continued their assault by singing the Red Flag and drowning out the fascist speeches. It is sad that today that the virus persists, we are still facing this fascist menace as it continues to raise it vile head from the sewers of society and spews out its divisive rhetoric. Our parliamentary pampered Oxbridge political ballerinas pay lip service to this fascist rise by their abhorrent derogatory language. Fascism will only be beaten and finally eradicated by the people, on the streets, not by the institutions of the state. Fascism and the state are very close relatives.

 

#OtD 27 Sep 1936 1000 uniformed fascist Blackshirts led by Oswald Mosley in Leeds were confronted by 30k locals who attacked them, pelted them with stones, hitting Mosley, and drowned out speeches by singing The Red Flag
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