State Of Emergency?

 

       At the risk of information overload, here are some more thoughts on the coronavirus, the state's response and the state of emergency. I still maintain that it is up to the communities to organise and protect themselves in a rational and humane manner, rather than wait for the state's instructions and to quietly follow. Yi pays yir money an yi takes yir pick.

 This from Anarchist News:

Anarchists in Italy Report on the Spread of the Virus and the Quarantine        From one side, our lives are threatened by a new virus; from the other side, our freedom is menaced by nationalists and authoritarians intent on using this opportunity to set new precedents for state intervention and control. If we accept this dichotomy—between life and freedom—we will continue paying the price long after this particular pandemic has passed. In fact, each is bound up in the other, dependent upon the other. In the following report, our comrades in Italy describe the conditions prevailing there, the causes of the escalating crisis, and the ways that the Italian government has taken advantage of the situation to consolidate power in ways that will only exacerbate future crises.
       At this point, the strategy of the authorities is not aimed at protecting people from the virus so much as controlling the pace at which it spreads so that it doesn’t overwhelm their infrastructure. Crisis management is the order of the day, as in so many other aspects of our lives. Our rulers don’t intend to preserve the lives of everyone—they already wrote off concern for the destitute long before this crisis began. Rather, they are determined to preserve the current structure of society and their perceived legitimacy.

Continue reading:

This from Act For Freedom Now:

     INTERRUPTIONS …         There is nothing new about social life taking place at a distance. For a long time now people have been persuaded that the best way to communicate and relate is through the use of a device. Prostheses of the human being, the smartphone and its like, have transformed the way of being together, of being informed, learning, communicating, writing and reading.
      The next step is the robotization of living, technique pervading every place, every aspect of daily life. An overcoming of nature and the natural in favour of artificial beings and places. Such a scenario needs no social life, it does not need relationships, feelings, thoughts, it only needs order, discipline, regulation, machines. Maybe Dominion is trying to take a step forward and use a health problem, the spread of a virus, to reach generalized regimentation at least, the rest will then take care of itself. Science fiction comes to mind, but States have centuries old instruments to draw on without having to resort to the unknown.
       The social distancing imposed by laws prohibiting kisses and hugs and the suppression of most social activities, recalls states of emergency in which the rules of social life are imposed and must be obeyed so as not to run up against getting charged or being arrested. And indeed the establishment of red zones and checkpoints, limitation of freedom of circulation, obligation of home isolation for those coming from areas considered infected controlled by police, but above all the ban on gatherings, i.e. public meetings, is the police management of a health problem. Not surprisingly it is foreseen in the ten rules recommended by the Italian State to avoid the spread of the virus that in case of fever the carabinieri must the first to be contacted. But states of emergency are also the measures provided for in situations of conflict or insurrection, as happened recently in Chile.

Continue reading:

This from 325:

Coronavirus, Agribusiness and the State of Emergency’ by Silvia Ribeiro
       Much is said about the Covid-19 coronavirus, and yet very little. There are fundamental aspects that remain in the shadows. I want to name some of these, different but complementary.
      The first refers to the perverse mechanisms of capitalism to hide the true causes of the problem so as not to do anything about them, because it affects their interests, but it does deal with the apparent cure for the symptoms. Meanwhile, the State spends enormous public resources on prevention, containment and treatment measures, which do not act on the causes either, so this way of facing problems becomes a captive business for transnational companies, for example, with vaccines and medicines.
      The dominant reference to viruses and bacteria is as if they were exclusively harmful organisms that must be eliminated. A war-like approach prevails, as in so many other aspects of capitalism’s relationship with nature. However, due to the ability of viruses to jump between species, viruses and bacteria are a fundamental part of the coevolution and adaptation of living beings, as well as their balance with the environment and their health, including humans.

Continue reading: 

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Coronavirus And Prisons.

        While all of us try to take what precautions we can in protecting ourselves, friends, family and neighbours from this Coronavirus attack, perhaps we should also be thinking of those who can do nothing to protect themselves from this pandemic.
      I am of course talking about those individuals locked up in the state's cages of repression, the prisons. Most prisons are overcrowded, conditions are far from perfect hygiene, due to lack of facilities, ideal conditions for the spread of infections, with the individual having no control over their conditions. Prison guards live in the outside society and make constant contact with the prisoners. They could be carriers of the infection into an environment that has no way of protecting itself.
      What is being done to protect these individuals? Absolutely nothing, and the prisoners and their families are well aware of this lack of assistance for this section of society in our community.
      In certain cases the prisoners themselves are trying to draw attention to their precarious, and yet avoidable situation, and are rebelling against this gross injustice. We owe them our full support and solidarity, they are being treated worse than animals. They are being contained in unacceptable conditions no matter the dangers to their health and well-being. Prisons in normal times are an abomination, in times such as this, they are a callous, vindictive gross injustice and totally inhuman and unacceptable institutions.

This from Anarchists Worldwide:

For the spread of the revolt!
     About the mutinies in Italian prisons against the state’s measures against Coronavirus       For several weeks now the Italian government has been testing increasingly radical measures to restrict freedom in order to manage the Coronavirus pandemic.
       While isolation and control are becoming increasingly harsh on the outside, the situation is becoming unbearable on the inside. For two weeks now, the visits, work and recreational activities have been restricted. In recent days, people who were on day-release are no longer allowed to go out and special permissions are no longer allowed. This also means the deprivation of access to basic necessities and goods (food, clean clothing, money…).
      Following these decisions, the first mutinies broke out on Saturday the 7th of March, spreading to around thirty prisons in the space of two days throughout Italy.
       The methods of revolt are simple and effective. From the north to the south of Italy, fire spread from one prison to another, prisoners climbed to the rooftops shouting “freedom and amnesty!”, prison guards were taken hostage, bars were twisted, official documents were reduced to ashes. There are no more traces of law enforcement officers in some wings of the buildings. In Modena, the entire prison closed down because the revolts made it unusable.
The figures that are beginning to circulate speak of more than a hundred escaped prisoners. We wish them good luck!      As the smoke rises high in the sky, relatives and people in solidarity gather at the bottom of the prisons, either to shout their support or to organize street blockades, thus blocking the arrival of the police, the GOM (prison police) and the military.
     The revolt is intense, the repression is ferocious: water and electricity cuts, helicopters flying over the prison walls, police violence…There are at least 12 dead in several prisons. The bourgeois press and the prison administration speak of overdoses following the looting of infirmaries, however relatives of the prisoners [gathered in solidarity outside the prisons] have heard gunshots. And several prisoners are hospitalized in intensive care.
     At the same time, politicians of all kinds are trying to pacify by offering access to telephones or Skype, while asking families to calm their loved ones…but it hasn’t been enough to break their determination.
We send them all our solidarity!
     We don’t need to make analyses of the current revolts, they speak for themselves of the attack on a system that locks up and controls through fear and threats.
       By relying on an urgency and a generalized fear that they have helped to create, the different states place themselves as saviours in the face of the catastrophe and impose their logic and their measures on us. They compete in inventiveness to deepen control and surveillance and experiment with different tools for population management.
       Moreover, France is talking about setting up a specific system for prisons in the coming days.
       Apart from these situations, the reality of prisons is always disgusting.
Faced with imprisonment, there are always good reasons to revolt!

Coronavirus or not, in Italy or elsewhere, fire to all prisons!

March 11th, 2020.
[Originally published on Nantes Indymedia on 12.03.2020]

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Coronavirus V The Economy!!

 

        Do you have confidence in the UK Governments approach to the coronavirus and the protection of the people? Or do you believe that the government has other factors that it puts before the health and welfare of the people? Could it be, that thing that is treated as an entity above human value, "the economy" is being protected at the risk to human well-being? Big money must be protected as much as possible to unsure they hold onto their power and privileges. Is there a policy of doing what they can for the people with the minimal damage to the "economy"? After all it is a capitalist economy and that must be protected at all costs.

 I like the quote from Moon of Alabama

Our dear leaders are following the four stage strategy (vid):

In stage one: we say "Nothing is going to happen".

Stage two: we say something may be going to happen but we should do nothing about it.

Stage three: We say maybe we should do something about it but there is nothing we can do.

Stage four: We say maybe there was something that could have been done but it is too late now.

      It is not as if they didn't have fore knowledge of this virus, after all it was in early January that Chine and the world became aware of what was happening. Again a quote from Moon of Alabama

       Yascha Mounk follows my argument and gives a reasonable advice on what we can do to make this as pandemic as survivable as possible. Shut everything down that can be shut down. Increase social distance as much as possible. Avoid all live social contacts wherever possible. Do it NOW!
      One Tomas Pueyo explains in detail why we must do this immediately. (I checked his numbers and find no faults with them.)
       Wuhan city in China was shut down on January 23. Twelve days later, on February 4, the newly confirmed cases in Wuhan reached their peak and declined from there. This gives us the time delay from an infection to become a diagnosed and counted case as the shutdown increased the social distance and lowered the number of new infections.
      Each newly infected person itself infected two or three other persons. The growth rate was thereby exponential until they shut the city down. Had the city not been shut down on January 23 the numbers beyond February 4 would have gone higher and higher. That will happen in our cities and countries as our authorities are unwilling or unable to act as early and as decisively as the Chinese authorities did.
      Two days later, authorities shut down Wuhan. At that point, the number of diagnosed daily new cases was ~400. Note that number: they made a decision to close the city with just 400 new cases in a day. In reality, there were 2,500 new cases that day, but they didn’t know that.
      This means that we must all act now because today the numbers in Washington state and elsewhere are already exploding even though we do not know yet how high they really are. Those people who do get infected today will only become official cases twelve or more days from now when they will (hopefully) be diagnosed and counted.
       The key thing to do now is 'social distancing'. As our governments do not act decisively to achieve that it is our personal responsibility to do that ourselves. Everyone must do this to the best of their abilities.
       These numbers are not fantasies but today's reality:

       So there you have it, one set of opinions, our question should be, were our governments thinking first and foremost of the health and well-being of the people or did they have other concerns in mind, the economy, for example, when they embarked on their "plan" or did our capitalist masters abandon their capitalist beliefs and throw everything they could at the protection the people at all costs, or was there just a lack of any kind of plan?

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Coronavirus.

         I haven't posted anything about the coronavirus, reason being I don't know enough about the situation to make any real input. However I think this quote from 325 is worth repeating.

From 325:

      From my perspective, the responses of both the American and Chinese governments have been pretty much the same: pretend that the problem isn’t so bad and that there are systems in place to deal with it, use the epidemic to stomp on basic human rights such as being detained without trial and freedom of movement and accuse anyone trying to highlight the seriousness of the epidemic of being part of a conspiracy or plotting to bring down the government. The difference between the Americans and the Chinese is that the Chinese don’t pretend to be a democracy that pays lip service to the notion of being a government “of the people, for the people and by the people”.
     What people need is accurate, openly available and reliable information about what is going on so that we, as individuals and local communities, can take the necessary steps to protect each other. That means paying attention to the people who have expert knowledge about flu epidemics. It means not listening to some ignorant pissant sitting behind their computer peddling the latest piece of crap from the 8chan website, an anti-vaccination website or from a President who thinks the answer to dealing with an epidemic that has killed over 33,000 people worldwide is to hold a prayer meeting and to blame his opponents. It means using science and sense, not stupidity and authoritarianism.

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Fascists And Migrants.

      The situation at the European border in Greece has become a war zone. Turkey, to push for support from NATO and the EU has started to use migrants as bargaining chips to further its land grab into Syria. Migrants in the eyes of the state are not people in desperate need but a thing they see as a problem or a group that can be used to build on their poisonous patriotism.

     Meanwhile as the various states procrastinate on this flow of humanity, vigilante fascist groups do their dirty work for them. Along the Greek/Turkish border these right wing thugs roam the area hunting migrants, terrorising them and subjecting them to brutal beatings, while the authorities turn a blind eye. On the Greek island of Lesbos, these fascists have gather from other countries to to roam freely attacking anybody that's doesn't speak Greek. 

     all this goes on uninterrupted  under the surveillance system of the state. This freedom granted to the fascist groups to use migrants as prey for their demented hunting forays, tells you the true nature of the states that try to control ever aspect of our lives. As long as states exist, freedom will struggle for survival.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 

      Athens, Greece: On Saturday, March 7, 2020, anarchists and antifascists, anti-authoritarians marched through the downtown of Athens in solidarity with the migrants struggle, against all detention centers, against fences and borders. Against war, nationalism and fascism.

Greek vigilante groups in Evros are roaming freely the borders, terrorising and arresting groups of migrants that manage to find a hole through the fence, while in the greek island of Lesbos vigilante groups act like a mob that has set check points at the edges and the centre of Mytilene town (the capital of Lesbos island), verbally abuse any migrants in dinghies that reach the greek shores, attack and terrorize volunteers or NGO workers aiding migrants, smash their cars or violently beat them. Fascists from several european countries have flown to Lesbos island to take part in the mob that attacks anyone not speaking greek, migrants, NGO workers or tourists.

A school for refugee children has also been burnt to the ground by this right wing racist mob. Tourists, volunteers and NGO workers are fleeing Lesbos island because it’s not safe for anyone not speaking greek, except of foreign fascists and nationalists aiding the vigilante mobs.
        And while you would think that these despicable acts would be condoned by the majority at least of the people, the contrary happens. Racists, nationalists, conservative, neoliberals, right wingers, social democrats, even some self-proclaimed lefties, have united in a front, backing these acts or turning a blind eye on them.
      And when you hear their narrative, that the migrants are invaders and not people and that this is a war on Europe, you can’t help but remember another time when people were treating others like they were inferior, like the enemy and were applauding the attacks on people based on different characteristics and were applauding the burning of the enemy’s schools, shops and books, and they were laughing with the gassing of the “enemy” and were applauding the deaths of the “other” and then you remember this:
“First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me”.
     On Saturday, March 7, 2020, thousands of anarchists, anti-authoritarians, antifascists and people in solidarity in Athens, Greece, did exactly that. They chose to speak out, in defence of humanity against fascism, in defence of a world without borders, in defence of those who don’t have a voice because it has been choked by the teargas, the guns and the barbed wire fences at the edge of “Fortress Europe”.
athens.indymedia

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The Desire To Be Free.

      We all know prisons are meant to intimidate, subdue and repress individuals, to turn them into subservient subjects of the state, and also as a warning to us all, obey or else. However, the human spirit being what it is, the opposite frequently happens, instead of being subdued and subservient, a fire of anger builds up and often displays itself in open rebellion. The states response to this is always savage and brutal and the incarcerated must be brought under the control of the system, no matter the human cost. Despite this brutal state response, prison riots have been part and parcel of the inhumane prison system since the birth of these cages of repression.

        The most recent display of this righteous anger and rebellion in prisons and the state's brutal response, is still to a degree on going in Italy, in St Anna prison in Modena.

      This report from Act For Freedom Now:

      A revolt broke out today, March 8 2020 in the early afternoon, in St Anna prison in Modena.
        The fact was clearly seen from outside as three columns of smoke rose from the wings of the structure, as well as the significant coming and going of guards, and the presence of a police helicopter guarding the area.
Various relatives of the prisoners gathered, those in solidarity and other spectators from the surrounding area, seeing the GOM arriving in antiriot gear and distinctly hearing some shots.
       After some attempt at removal by the police, people still gathered in front of the prison, where vans, ambulances and prison minibuses were seen parading back and forth.
       At some point, after several requests for news by relatives, the Major of the Prison and an emissary from the prison director came out and told them that during negotiations with the rebels barricaded in the wing they had given them back their mobile phones in order to let them call the their loved ones. So they asked family members to answer the phone and convince them to come out.
      Towards the evening, in front of a large antiriot contingent, cops emerged escorting some of the prisoners, striking them while handcuffed; some were on stretchers.
       Already around that time some had escorted a bag containing a dead body.
It was possible to talk to some of the prisoners in the wing next to the field during the events, they gave news of transfers and that they would be the last to be transferred from the section, saying that they were being heavily beaten.
80 people have been transferred, apparently to Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza and Ascoli by at least four prison buses and other vans.
       The media of the regime reconstructed the affair as having started off from the workers’ section then spread throughout the whole prison where the prisoners would have burned mattresses and barricaded themselves in at least one of the structures, and apparently from some video seen taking possession of the armoury.
      Three people died during the revolt. Their identity and the exact cause of death has not been released. Another two are in intensive care.
     There is talk of serious damage to the structure and the destruction of documents. Important causes of the outbreak of the revolt would be the shutdown of visits and lack of mediators due to THE virus, as well as health safety inside the structure.
       Late in the evening there seemed to be rebels barricaded; THE SITUATION IS EVOLVING CONTINUALLY.

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Anarchists First!!

 

       Prisons, by themselves, are barbaric institutions of state repression, no matter the treatment the inmates receive. However it is within these institutions that the state sinks to the lowest level of depravity, callous cruelty and inhumanity. Those incarcerated in these swamps of inhumanity, see their very basic human rights abandoned at the whim of the state's mercenaries. Inside these state repression units, the normal rules of humanity no longer apply, you are there to be made an example of, you are used to deter you and others from any form of resistance to the state's control. Anyone who finds themselves enmeshed in this vicious inhuman system deserves all the solidarity and support that we can muster. At the moment it seems that, in many countries, anarchists are at the sharp end of this savage state treatment. "First they came for the anarchists---". Freedom can only rise when prisons crumble.

This from 325: 

Urgent news about comrade Ilya Romanov (Russia)

March 8th, 2020

IT/FR

       On February 18 and 19, there were rallies in Moscow in solidarity with Ilya Romanov, who, at the moment, is locked up in a penal colony in Mordovia [Eastern European Russia, near Nizhny Novgorod; NdAtt.]. In October 2019, Ilya had a stroke. Since then, he has been locked up in the penal colony hospital, a facility which is not suitable for treating his condition, which is still very critical. Indeed, the comrade is partially paralyzed (apparently half of his body is paralyzed). Ilya still has difficulty speaking, eating and being independent, even in the smallest gestures of everyday life. Ilya’s family and his lawyers were made aware of the stroke days after it happened, and the neurologist’s visit took place only two and a half weeks afterwards. He is not in any rehabilitation process and all the lawyers’ requests to have him transferred to a suitable hospital have been rejected; for weeks neither his family nor his lawyers were able to meet him or understand the gravity of his situation. It was not until November 28 that one of his lawyers was able to meet Ilya; The lawyer said that Ilya is paralyzed down one half of his body and cannot speak. He urgently needs the help of a speech therapist, as well as other doctors, but he is not allowed any specialist. Ilya is left to himself in a bed on a ward where he is locked up and he has been fed porridge for months. His neighbors on his ward in adjacent beds said that even the nurses in the ward never take care of him, but the inmates working there do it. On December 4, the medical commission of the penal colony again gave a negative opinion regarding Ilya’s transfer to a suitable hospital, because his condition did not seem serious enough to be incompatible with detention (!!!). The lawyers continue to use the legal channels and apparently his family has called to the European Commission of Human Rights.

     For those who do not know Ilya, some words on his journey: Ilya has participated in anarchist actions and demonstrations since the end of the 1980s. In 2002, he was arrested in Ukraine, accused of arms trafficking and of terrorism, as well as the preparation of an explosive device which was to be placed in front of a building of the Ukrainian secret services, to protest against the violent expulsion of a rally, Place Maidan, carried out by the police in October 2002. For this, Ilya was sentenced to 10 years in jail. On his release in 2013, he returned to Russia and had an accident during the manufacture of a firecracker [according to other sources, the device exploded while he placed it in front of a recruitment office of the army, in Nizhny Novgorod, October 26, 2013 ; NdAtt.]. Because of this accident, he had his left hand amputated and was condemned to another 10 years in prison, for terrorism, the sentence of which was transformed into nine years in a penal colony. He still has six years to serve. The way Ilya was treated is just one more sign of the brutality the Russian state has been using lately against anarchists. Ilya is a comrade who has never compromised with power, and that’s why they want to silence him.

Those who would like to help him and his relatives will find below the account number of his ex-wife and companion Larisa Romanova, as well as the Paypal account open for Ilya. Letters, postcards, expressions of affection are appreciated (when Ilya cannot read, there are bed neighbors in his ward who can help him. For obvious reasons, however, he will not be able to answer letters).

       For economic support: account n. 5368 2900 5608 4546 (holder Larisa Valerievna Romanova, bank: VTB)
Paypal account address: abc-msk @ riseup.net

To write to him:

FKU LPU num 21 UFSIN Rossii po Respublike Mordovija,
431200, Respublika Mordovija, Ten’gushevskij rajon, p. Barashevo,
Ul. Shtabnaja, d. 1,
Romanovu Il’e Eduardovicu (Bol’nica N. 2)
Russia

The address in Cyrillic letters:

ФКУ ЛПУ № 21 УФСИН России по Республике Мордовия,
431200, Республика Мордовия, Теньгушевский район, п. Барашево,
ул. Штабная, д. 1,
Романову Илье Эдуардовичу (Больница № 2)
Российская федерация.

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Liz Willis.

    Another month, another "Read of the Month" from Spirit of Revolt. For this  month, to mark International Women’s Day, Spirit of Revolt’s “Read of the Month” for March, is an article by Liz Willis, held in our John Cooper Collection, No. 3-52-1. It is a Solidarity Pamphlet No. 48. “Women in the Spanish Revolution” . Liz hailed from Stornoway, and was active in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and London as well as active against nuclear weapons at the Faslane nuclear submarine base. She died in 2019 from pancreatic cancer aged 72, . There is a very informative article on Liz Willis HERE.

You can read her pamphlet on line, courtesy of Libcom. 

Women in the Spanish Revolution. 

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Glasgow Women.

      International Women's Day, March 8th. Glasgow women can stand tall with a proud history of women who stood up and took their place in the struggle for that better world. 

    During the jingoism and the establishment's rampant patriotism pushing for everybody to get behind the imperialist war of 1914-1918, women in Glasgow took to the streets and faced the wrath of the media and large sections of the public in their drive for peace. This from Strugglepedia:  "--in June 1916 organised a peace conference in the city which gave birth to The Women’s Peace Crusade which became a dominant force in the anti-war movement. There is some variation on the actual date but June 10th 1916 is generally accepted as the birth of the Women’s Peace Crusade. A year later, June 1917 saw the Women’s Peace Crusade go national with the launch of the National Women’s Peace Crusade---"

     Collectively and individually, women of Glasgow have always played their part in the city's struggles, there is a catalogue of names some well known and others less known, but all played an important part in the fight for a better world for all. 

    To name  few from the past, in no particular order, and hope that their names and deeds will always be remembered and honoured by us all. 

Helen Crawfurd, Jane Hamilton Patrick, Mary Barbour, Ethel MacDonald, Helen Brown Scott Lennox, Rita Milton, Of course there are more, many more, and some we will never see in the history books, but who are just as important as all the others. What is more important is that there are as many or perhaps more women now standing up and taking on the battles of the day, let's make sure we note their actions and remember their names. We can learn from the past. A good place to look to see what Glasgow's women are up to would be the Glasgow Women's Library.  

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The Nobodies.

        Most of the time we are preparing for, going through, or analysing the results of "an election" somewhere in the world, it's like an epidemic we can't quite cure, and we are told this is democracy.

 

 Myth of Democracy.
      We no longer have a political party system, it is a corporate state. No matter what party you elect and no matter the different and wonderful manifesto promises, after the election it is just as before with perhaps a little plus or minus this way or that. The smile on the face of the new messiah may look more radiant than the last, but the price of bread still goes up. The few over privileged parasites that have control of all the institutions in our society have bought the political parties and are in bed with the military. Big business is all, and war is big business, so we will have war, bloating the coffers of the corporate greed machine until they bleed us all dry. To the corporate world people are dispensable, profit is the name of the game.
       Turning to this or that political party creates the myth of democracy and the results prove that it is no more than a myth, an illusion spun by the media, another institution, which is hardly likely to speak against its master and owner the corporate world.
     If we want a better world where we see to the needs of all our people then we have to break the hold of that corporate beast. Communities have to take control of all those institutions and run them in federation with each other based on sustainability. We have to eliminate the profit motive from all we do, and create for the benefit of all, mutual aid being the key. No matter how you try to shape capitalism, no matter how green you think you can make it, it is unsustainable and will never work for the benefit of all, it is an elitist and exploitative system that works for the privileged few parasites who own those corporations.

Why Wait For History's Verdict?
       It is obvious that when historians come to write about the capitalist era it will be written up as a dreadful failure for humanity. They will be able to write about the fact that at its period of highest development, approximately one third of the world’s population were well fed, one third were hungry and one third were starving. They will be able to detail the misery of those fifteen million children who died of hunger every year. In their learned papers they will catalogue the enormous wealth poured into unbelievable destructive weaponry and they will calculate that in the midst of all that hunger and starvation, the price of one missile could have supplied 100 nutritional meals every day for five years. No doubt their findings will also include that to feed this grotesque beast of privilege and greed it was necessary to pollute and plunder the earth’s resources to the extent of destroying the planet’s ecosystem. Their conclusions will obviously be that it was a cruel, vicious, unjust, hypocritical and unnecessary system inflicted on the population of the planet by a small band of greedy, power hungry, over privileged parasites.
      Why do we have to wait for the historians verdict? We are now aware of the type of system that has been created and the misery that it inflicts on vast swaths of the world’s population. We know that the greatest benefits go to the smallest group, a useless, pampered bunch of parasites. We also know that it is a man made system, not something written in tablets of stone. It is well within our power and our imagination to dismantle this abomination of greed and hypocrisy, and replace it with a system of mutual aid. A system based on free association, voluntary co-operation and sustainability that sees to the needs of all our people, a system freed from the greed driven motif of profit.
      We have the imagination, the ability, and the resources, all we lack is the will.

       I see this poem by Eduardo Galeano as encapsulating the foundations and the structural fibres  of capitalism.

 

The Nobodies

      Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that one magical day good luck will suddenly rain down on them- will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn’t rain down yesterday, today, tomorrow, or ever. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day with their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms.

The nobodies: nobody’s children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way.

Who are not, but could be.

Who don’t speak languages, but dialects.

Who don’t have religions, but superstitions.

Who don’t create art, but handicrafts.

Who don’t have culture, but folklore.

Who are not human beings, but human resources.

Who do not have faces, but arms.

Who do not have names, but numbers.

Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the police blotter of the local paper.

The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them. 

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Wyatt Earp In Uniform.

 

       The gun totting cop is becoming more prevalent on the city streets across the world. However I think that America still holds that accolade of the most Wyatt Earps in uniform roaming the streets. We must always remember that these macho psychopaths are armed, trained, supported and payed for by the state, (your tax money) as its guard dogs. I must admit that on my many visits to Athens, I always felt a little bit apprehensive when approaching the Greek police. I just didn't like their menacing swagger, usually in twos or threes, all with their guns strapped to their sides. There has been various cases of where the Greek police have shown their idiotic unbalanced macho instincts when confronted with something they just don't like, remember Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15 year old teenager shot dead by an armed cop, while out having a coffee with his friend. 

     Another incident of the Rambo attitude of the Greek police came quite recently and was met with mass resistance from university students and joined by others.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

       It all started on Monday 24 February inside the grounds of Athens University of Economics, when an off duty cop in plain clothes got off his bike and began harassing an immigrant street vendor outside the front gate. The policeman was spotted by anarchist students due to his boots and his helmet that bore the police insignia and was immediately confronted. In his panic, he began running inside the university grounds and managed to trap himself in a dead end corridor, pulled a gun on students and with his finger on the trigger threatened to shoot them while pointing the gun at them for at least 5 minutes, while desperately calling his colleagues on the phone to come and rescue him. The students, not losing their cool, but at the same time not taking a step back demanded he puts the gun down and exits the university grounds. Few minutes later scores of riot policemen stormed the university and attacked students during school hours with flash bang grenades and asphyxiating gas creating chaos because of one imbecile cop that thought he was a cowboy.
       Following these events, that shook the academic community, a protest was called by students on Wednesday 26 February from Athens University of Economics, that the incident took place, to the greek police headquarters, (2.5 km away). Thousands of people took part in the protest, demanding the university asylum to be reinstated (forbidding the police to enter any university grounds, as it was the case for decades, until few months ago, when the new right wing government abolished it).
      When the protest reached the police headquarters and after the main body of the demo had passed in front of the building, several anarchists attacked it with stones, using fire extinguishers to fog the policemen’s vision.
      Riot police brigades and police bikers charged into the crowd with their bikes, ramming people with them as a weapon and throwing them to the ground, chasing, attacking and arresting anyone they could. Many students managed to get into the metro subway station nearby but the police started to throw asphyxiating gas grenades inside the station and while they gave an order for the passing trains not to make a stop, in order to trap hundreds of people down there, in a horrific atmosphere of people breathing with difficulty due to the gas, while at the same time, disrupting the public transport by creating a problem to hundreds more passengers that were planning to get off the tube at that specific metro station.
        Following the events the students decided to occupy the Athens University of Economics on Thursday and Friday, 27 and 28 of February 2020. On Thursday, February 27, 2020, along with many people in solidarity from the occupied “Athens University of Economics” the squatters of “Vancouver Squat” that was evacuated by the greek riot police on November 2, 2019, took the riot police by surprise and symbolically reoccupied the squat lighting flares on the rooftop.

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

Isreali's Apartheid.

 

      Any observer of elections in the "democratic representative" style governments, will know that they change nothing. They may tinker around the edges, but will leave the power structure as before. What they can sometimes tells us is the way the majority think. The recent Israeli elections, as expected, left the Israeli state much as it has always been, but it did tell us that the majority of the population of Israel are right wing, believers of land grabbing and the persecution of those on the land they wish to grab.

     During the recent Israeli elections, Netanyahu made no secret of his plan to grab more Palestinian land for Jewish settlements and get rid of those who have lived there for centuries. Still the people of Israel said yes, that's what we want.

His nearest rival in the election was another right wing authoritarian, with just a slightly different shade of racism and race supremacy. How do you deal with a people with that mind set? 

I think Gideon Levy's article hits it on the head.

       You can be disgusted, you can be fearful, you can even be shocked, but you can’t deny his incredible talent: Benjamin Netanyahu the wizard struck again. Now he’s also an alchemist – take a serious indictment, scatter incitement, and win the admiration of the masses. You can be contemptuous, you can denounce it, you can even rise up against the nation that voted that way, but you have to respect its choice. To bow your head. It’s the will of the people. The people want Netanyahu.
      The time has come to recognize that fact: Israel is right-wing, hard right. Racism is politically correct, personal corruption makes no difference, as long as you guarantee the continuation of Jewish supremacy, rule over another nation, arrogance and hatred. Peace, equality and justice are for the weak. Not for most Israelis. They said it loud and clear on Monday, more decisively than in the two previous election campaigns: Netanyahu is our king. Netanyahu is the king of most Israelis.

Read the full article HERE: 

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Not News!

    This is just a wee blast from the recent past. I penned this about three years ago, but felt I wanted to spout it all again, as it is a train of thought that never leaves my mind. "When will we ever learn"

Too Old For The News.

    Something about living a long time, news never seems like news. Recently the Joseph Rowntree Foundation announced that almost one third of the UK population are living on an inadequate income. In its statement it said that during 2014-15, approximately 19 million people were surviving on less than the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). Mired in that 19 million group of desperate people are six million children, roughly 45% of all UK children, and 1.8 million pensioners. These depressing figures are up from six years ago when they were quoted as, 15 million, or 25% of the population.  

       Why do I not see this as news? Well has it ever been other? It is just bubble gum and candy floss to plaster across that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media. Through the years, as I have seen governments come and governments go, I have been reading figures like this. Under one government the figures improve slightly under the next they deteriorate, so we switch governments again, and the process goes boringly but brutally on its destructive way. Yes we the ordinary people wrestle small gains here and there, but slice by slice they are taken away from us, and we have to start all over again in the constant struggle to try and get a decent standard of living. Poverty has soared and then slightly abated, homeless has grown and then slightly abated, child poverty has increased and then slightly abated. However, none of these problems have ever been addressed  and solved. Nor can they, the system is incapable of solving these problems, or surely it would have done so by now. Have no illusions, the system has the wealth and the resources to sort it all out, but doesn't. Based on the profit motive, these problems are actual results of the system, a few must gain while the majority must lose, that's capitalism. So if you wish to see that 45% of UK children ceasing to be a statistic on a poverty scale, if you wish to see those 1.8 million pensioners live the remainder of their lives in reasonable comfort, don't ask for better allowances, organise to destroy the system that is responsible for these statistics of misery and anxiety. We must accept that it is a class war, and at the moment we are losing, but we have the numbers, the ability, the resources and the imagination, to turn that tide and be the winners of that better world for all.

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

The West And Slavery.

 

     Libya has slipped out of the media glare, except for the odd report about the nasty Haftar, who is attacking the "legitimate" government of Libya. For "legitimate" translate as hand pick Western stooges who were planted in to facilitate the Western imperialists wishes. This so called "legitimate" government has never had control of the whole country just a slice around Tripoli. The rest of the country is controlled by various factions, tribes, war lords, all squabbling for power. Haftar has more or less taken control of the oil, as far as the West is concerned, that's all that matters about Libya, oil. Though, for the moment, this bloody episode in Libya has stalled into a death creating stalemate.

    What the media has put into "forgotten memory" is why Libya is in such a state of turmoil, poverty, violence, corruption, destitution and death. This is all down to the West's engineered disposal of Gaddafi. Though I'm not one who kneels at the feet of Gaddafi, this western lead blood bath has been responsible for turning a country with a developed health service and education system, where the majority of the people were living in reasonable conditions, into a quagmire of poverty and violence, where the ordinary people are suffering death and destitution on a daily basis. Libya is now a territory controlled by warring factions, who see violence as their road to power. It is now a territory where slave trading is carried out openly, where African migrants are openly sold to the highest bidder.

    All this misery, deprivation, violence and death lies clearly at the feet of the Western "democracies" who engineered and supplied the armoury and the devastating air power to destroy this once developed country. The people of Libya continue to live under this quagmire of violence, corruption and misery, while the West has moved on to destroy our countries in its march for control of resources.

Libya's slave trade:

    By the time his Libyan captors branded his face, Sunday Iabarot had already run away twice and had been sold three times.The gnarled scar that covers most of the left side of his face appears to show a crude number 3. His jailer carved it into his cheek with a fire-heated knife, cutting and cauterizing at the same time.

From Ted Galen Carpenter:

A new report from the United Nations bluntly conveys the extent of the continuing chaos in Libya and the suffering it has caused. Yacoub El Hillo, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, stated that the impact on civilians of the country’s nine-year internecine war “is incalculable.” That horrible situation is the long-term outcome of U.S. and NATO actions, and it is well past time that guilty officials are held accountable for their disastrous policies.

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