Pandemic And Revolution.

 

      Before this pandemic started its jog across the globe, the world was awash with revolt. Most countries had some sort of mass protests on their streets, people were, more or less "pissed off" with the way the world was heading, they were alive to its inequality, corruption, injustice, human made ecological disaster, and violent destructive wars, they wanted a complete change of direction. In some of the countries the protests became open rebellion, an insurrection, Chile being one of those countries, I have been interested in seeing what the pandemic  and the governments actions have done to this insurrection, Has it quelled the desire for revolution, has it subdued the rebellion to acquiescence, or has it strengthened their resolve to use this as an opportunity to continue their struggle for a free and fair society?  I like their idea of the quarantine being seen as a general strike, obviously it won't end with the pandemic.

This from Anarchists Worldwide:

 

On a particularly chaotic Friday afternoon, Piñera inaugurated the nationwide chain reaction to the pandemic. Since the beginning of March, fear of the virus has slowly entered the conversation: between the agitated return to classes that seeks to be a replica (like an earthquake) of the October Revolt, the massive feminist demonstrations, the radicalization of the reactionary sectors and the imminence of the plebiscite, it is taking on more and more importance.

The international situation is no less complex. Last year saw the beginning of a new worldwide wave of revolts against capitalist normality, and the much manipulated “institutionality” seems to be collapsing from all sides, leaving room not only for insurgent creativity but also (and never so easily differentiated) for populism and fascism of all kinds.

The economy has been losing speed for some time, but the trade war between two declining powers, the manufactured rise in the price of oil, and the paralysis caused by the coronavirus, built the perfect storm to leave the stock market and its tangle of speculative fictions in free fall.

It is in this context that the disease arrives in our territory, with the state of exception still fresh in our memories. It starts in the upper classes, and we almost rejoice before remembering that they will not be the only ones to suffer its consequences. The government, always late, announces its measures. Clearly they are not enough, and their only objective is to ensure the free movement of capital. Some (the ones who see conspiracies at every corner) whisper that it is a strategy to cancel the plebiscite, that is apparently so dangerous. But we are clear that the intelligent fascist votes to approve, and that the government’s incompetence requires no more justification than its own class interests.

However, we have also seen how the situation has developed in other countries with a more advanced stage of infection. Simulations of insurrection, urban warfare and absolute states of emergency have been deployed on the streets of China, Italy and other parts of the world, with varying degrees of success. The Chinese state, famous for its repressive capacity, concentrated all its efforts on the containment of ground zero but, juggling to keep its economy afloat, left its regional governments free both to resume production and to sustain the quarantine. Beyond this it has been by far the country whose quarantine has been most efficient and effective (we won’t mention the United States, whose public policy is reduced to covering its ears and shouting loudly).

The Italian case is notable, more than anything else, for its resistance to quarantine measures and “social distancing”, a nefarious euphemism that refers to self-isolation, forced precarization disguised as “tele-working”, hoarding of essential goods, and the denial of any form of community. When the prisoners (who have always been overcrowded and immuno-compromised) were banned from receiving visits, the biggest prison revolt of this century began: 27 prisons were taken over, many people were killed, police and prison officers were kidnapped and hundreds of prisoners escaped.

In Chilean territory, the situation is uncertain. Pharmacies and supermarkets that were recently looted will soon be out of stock due to widespread panic. Public transport, a permanent battleground since the beginning of the revolt, will soon be avoided like the plague. The government has already banned gatherings of more than 500 people, but by now anyone who is listening to the government is listening. The military, who we assume have refused to leave again to keep what little legitimacy they have left and to be able to preserve their privileges in a new constitution, will not have so much shame if they can disguise their actions as public health. Real public health, on the other hand, weighs less than a packet of cabritas (translation note: a popular popcorn snack). And we have no idea what will happen with the plebiscite.

If elsewhere the pandemic was a trial of insurrection, here the insurrection seems to have been a trial of pandemic and economic crisis. Let’s keep the flame of revolt alive, and organize to survive.

We will now outline some measures that we consider worthy of generalization, more of an inspiration than a programme:

• Looting and organized redistribution of basic goods
• The use of student occupations as collection centres, shelters for homeless people and, of course, street fighters.
• The boycott of any form of distance work or study, so that the quarantine becomes a general strike.
• The immediate release of all prisoners as a central demand.
• Mass evasion in private clinics, free medical care for all.
• Rent strike, taking over empty houses.

The hood is the best mask! Evade the isolation of capital! Deny immunity as a police device! The crisis is an opportunity, raise your fist and attack!

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

Ashes Of Disaster.

        "From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success". We are certainly facing a disaster on a gigantic scale.. We can see it as disaster and just try to get through it, or we can see it as an opportunity. Mutual aid groups are forming up all over the world, not just in UK. As the present economic system crumbles and creeks as it nears collapsing point, we can with mutual aid groups start to create an alternative to the exploitative capitalist system. Power can move to the communities, mutual aid groups can link up and grow, communities can start to sort out their needs and not wait for our lords and masters to create a dependency on their power institutions. The present economic system is practically on its knees, let's make sure it can never rise again and replicate the inequality, corruption and injustice of the past. By coming together in mutual aid groups, with a long term view, we can grow the roses of success from the ashes of this disaster.  

The following from Roar Magazine:

       With the shutdown of businesses, schools and countless other institutions, millions of people are facing loss of income, housing and access to basic survival resources, including food. Confronted by popular pressure and the specter of civil unrest, states have begun to undertake a “disaster socialism” of uneven and often contradictory aid measures. Still, conditions of emergency are intensifying by the hour and the current biopolitical regime faces an existential crisis.

Under such circumstances, the need for self-organized infrastructures of mutual aid, care and resilience could not be clearer. In the coming weeks and months, rent strikes and other acts of collective refusal are on the horizon. How could these works of mutual aid flow into the construction of a dual power situation? As the system collapses, can physical bases of autonomy and solidarity transform our relationship to the state?

      At Woodbine, an autonomous space and organizing framework maintained in New York City since 2014, this is what we have been preparing for — to mobilize our networks, skills, knowledges and energy to coordinate and provide for each other, while simultaneously building the longer-term capacity to face an uncertain future.

Digital organizing

      Although the severity of COVID-19 crisis is unprecedented in recent memory, many people in New York City seem primed for the moment, as if they have been waiting for a crisis of this magnitude to arrive.

       Last week, Sandy Nurse, a co-founder of the MayDay Space in Bushwick and a candidate for New York City Council tweeted: “Movement folks: we know how to mobilize quickly and effectively. Time to get in formation. Start the conversations now w/ local social networks & hubs on collaborating what safe direct support may need to look like, & what does scaling-up and cross-neighborhood collab[oration] look like.” We shared her post across our social media platforms and received immediate responses from friends and strangers alike reaching out to collaborate.

      Experienced community organizers and newly activated neighbors alike have joined a dizzying flood of online coordination, from social media posts to Google docs, Zoom meetings and Signal threads. Just yesterday, a Google doc titled “Mutual Aid NYC” migrated to its own website, where hundreds of individuals are making plans for autonomous mutual aid and disaster relief on a local, place-by-place basis. This avalanche of online discussion, from resource guides and social media “hot takes,” shows that there is much popular insight about how to to navigate the crisis. But questions remain as to who, how, when and where these calls for action will be taken up.

Legacies of mutual aid

        There is a long history of radical mutual aid that links service provisioning with the construction of dual power. In New York, this has been led by organizations like the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, ACT-UP, and, in more recent years, Occupy Wall Street. Today, various decolonial and abolitionist formations have been established that involve mutual aid including Take Back the Bronx and NYC Shut It Down, which is already adjusting its Feed the People (FTP) program to the present crisis. These mutual aid projects exist alongside informal activities of interdependence, care and support that many communities already practice on a day-to-day basis. Now, New Yorkers are mobilizing these informal networks in more deliberate ways, aiming, for example, to connect vulnerable tenants with volunteers.

       The local experience of Hurricane Sandy provides an important example of both the possibilities and the limits of a crisis moment like the present. The self-organized “Occupy Sandy” was a city-wide infrastructure of spontaneous, self-organized disaster relief after the hurricane struck in 2012. Many leftist observers suggested that Occupy Sandy offered a prefigurative glimpse of “disaster communism,” an alternative, cooperative response to so-called “natural” disasters.

        However, in practice, Occupy Sandy functioned largely as a supplementary service provider within the void left by the state’s negligence. It never came close to becoming a sustained political formation, let alone one capable of forcing concessions from the ruling class. Most importantly, Occupy Sandy demonstrated a collective capacity to directly confront catastrophe. It served as a crucible for relationships, projects and spaces in the subsequent decade ⁠— including Woodbine itself.

        Understanding the legacies and continuities of mutual aid are crucial to acting in the current moment. However, none of us have faced the surreal condition of social distancing. What does organizing in real life mean now and what are our expectations of safety and responsibility?

The dilemma of “social distancing”

         As online attempts at mutual aid unfold, we must address the matter of real-life contact and physical space along with their ethical, medical and logistical dilemmas. While recognizing the urgency of “social distancing,” how can we prevent state-mandated isolation and quarantine measures from becoming tools of political demobilization? What does it mean to normalize quarantine as a necessary condition during an emergency? And what are our expectations when it comes to responses from the state?

        We know that there are experienced and trusted organizers all around us, and we also know there are dormant organizing frameworks and relations that will need to be revived and reactivated. We know that we will need to share skills and practices with groups throughout the country. There are many others out there — at home, online, wanting to help, to volunteer, to contribute — with skills, knowledge and resources beyond which any of us realize. There will be the need not only to provide for our friends, but also our neighbors and community members.

Continue reading HERE: 

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

Pandemic And Prisons.

        We all know, or should know, our prisons are overcrowded with poor hygiene, poor medical facilities, and are places with no freedom or possibilities of self isolating. They are incubation pods for the spread of infections, so what are our lords and masters doing to protect those who find themselves lock into this intolerable situation during this pandemic? We must demand that all prisoners should be in a position to self isolate, have the needed health care and hygiene necessary to survive this pandemic. To fail to do this is not just a case of cruel criminal neglect, but also an act of callous inhumanity. Prisons must not be allowed to become institutional mortuaries and reported as just one of those things that happen. Prisoners can and must be protected.   

This from Act For Freedom Now:

         In this moment of not knowing what’s coming next, the failure of this system is more and more clear: a world wired for ever-growing speed, circulation, and productivity, suddenly has to stop. In this moment when power gets more power, fed by the general panic of an unknown and new situation, there’s a pressing need to listen out and to fight for those who are most affected, those who already know what it is to be trapped, isolated and repressed.
        We will be publishing information, hoping to amplify unheard voices, and to break the silence that risks making an intolerable situation even worse. Now, more than ever, those caged by the state face precarious conditions, with low hygienic standards, very poor healthcare and overcrowded cells. While the ‘managers’ of the crisis carefully calculate how this or that measure can protect the political and economic order, the basic steps we need to take to slow down the contagion are clear: keep distance between each other, maintain good hygiene and avoid crowded places. Inside, this will be difficult or impossible for many. We are not going to ‘take this on the chin’! Prison makes us sick!
       Take a minute to share this poster, as an easy and first step to practicing solidarity. Email us with any questions. We won’t share any details without consent.

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

Plague, Fire, Revolution.

        We are in virtual imprisonment, today society exists in fascist form, with all and full control over the population in the hands of a few power mongers from the parasite class. All for our own good of course, but how long will the mass of people tolerate this situation of isolation, before there is an explosion. The longer it goes on the more frustration and pent up anger will display itself. How will it display itself? In petty outburst from individuals, or in mass outpourings of anger and frustration. When these explosions appear, what will be the response from the state? Probably more draconian measures to try to control the population, a permanent fascist existence for the masses. What will be the response to these tighter controls? What will be the aim of the explosion? Will it be an attempt to return to "normal" back to the old system of injustice, inequality, poverty for the many, opulence for the few, or will we finally try to build that better society for all, a fair society of mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and respect for each and every one of us. That explosion could be the door to that better world, it will be up to us how we take up the challenge that will come from an inevitable explosion if this situation continues for month after month. 

This from Plague and Fire:

        The pandemic we are experiencing is part of this situation, a widely predictable and almost predictable event that, most likely, will be repeated in the future with different actors – viruses, famines, climatic and atmospheric events – catastrophic.
        The consequent imprisonment of a large part of the population, caused by the current eco-fascism, could lead to situations of intolerance, rebellion, revolt.
      So those who have dedicated their lives to the practice of obedience in exchange for the security of compulsion, of obligation, suddenly discover that a sneeze can lead to an unexpected end.
      Without any more certainties, choosing to continue following the path of obedience can only offer the same uncertainties offered by its desertion, by the risky choice of the path that leads to revolt. An untracked path that leaves centuries of domination behind to explore a future of liberation.
      To trace this path, or at least to try to follow it, it is necessary to open a debate, continually discuss how dominion reacts to the evolution of events, understand how to hit it and how to support the riots that will erupt.

Read the full article HERE:

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

Tomorrow's World!!

      I penned this little depressing piece a good few years ago, but now feel it is more relevant today than it was when I first scribbled it down on paper. Of course we know the answer to our problems, get rid of the root cause, capitalism. You know it makes sense, your kids lives depend on it.  

Tomorrow’s World!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile

as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,

Chasing profit as it goes

firing millions of ordinary folk.

Raping and polluting land after land,

starting bloody wars.

Toxic waste, sweat shop wages

and oil covered sea shores.

Where have all the flowers gone

beneath this ozone free sky?

To join the birds, to join the fox

on yonder plutonium field to die.

Mercury fish, strontium lamb

trees that never show a leaf,

radio active beaches, toxic streams

good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.

In a world of epidemic, plague and famine

it’s bottled water and chemical food.

Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice

so you know its got to be good.

Beneath a sky that’s always black,

hurricane winds and endless drought,

its oxygen masks for the toxic air,

corporate profit’s what its all about.

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

The Crowd Is Silent.

      Most of us will remember 2008, the "crash" when the state rushed to bail out the banks with billions, across the world it was trillions. Afterwords there was anger from the public that the state could come up with those wagon loads of cash to help the banks get over their gambling debts and push us into years of austerity.

    Since then all has not been going well for the capitalist system. over the last 4/5 years or so the growth has been creaking to a halt, the bond market has almost died, and relations between the various power blocks has strained to breaking point, and most wise pundits agree, another, much bigger crash looms large. Across the planet people are on the streets in anger at the injustice, inequality, corruption and abject poverty produced by this economic system.  Barely a country doesn't have mass protests flaring up on their patch. 

     Could the states bail out the system with public money again, in such a climate of anger and open protest and rebellion? It would be quite a risk for the powers that be. Quite a problem to be faced.

     I have no idea how covid19 started, or where it came from, and I am no conspiracy theorist, but for our lords and masters it couldn't have come at a better time, and I have no doubt they will exploit it to their advantage to the utmost. With one fell swoop they have shut down the streets, Hong Kong streets are quiet, where are the Yellow Vests, the heat of the Chilean rebellion seems to have gone cool, Prague has lost its mass protests, Extinction Rebellion is extinct. What is more, the public, instead of being angry at another bailout, are demanding that the state pours in billions of pounds into businesses to help save jobs. Yes, companies will go bust, but that 1% in the billionaires club, will gobble up any surplus demand that appears after the dust has settled.

     However you and I will face the same call from the financial Mafia, the country's debt is too high and governments will need to take urgent action to reduce that debt. That means once again, you and I will face the raw teeth of mega austerity, all to save the economy. Which no doubt will plunder its way on until the next crash, or until we finally dismantle this whole plunder charade of the parasite class, and replace it with a society based on mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and free from the profit motive. A society that sees to the needs of all our people, not just to the pampered privileged 1%.

Champs-Élysées Paris, March 19, 2020. Where are the Yellow Vests?

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

Janetta McGinn

      It is with deep sadness that we learn of the death of Glasgow stalwart and comrade, Janetta McGinn.

A Farewll

Another comrade leaves the field of battle
Another comrade who always stood tall
Another of our warriors has left the field
Another brick has fallen from our wall

Who will step forward to take her place
Who among us will rise to her just call
Who will step forward to fill the gap
Who has the courage to replace her fall

The following from her family on Facebook post:

       Our much loved mum, Janetta McGinn died peacefully this morning in our home in Spain. She was 89 years old and she kicked ass for every day of her life. She was born with a fighting spirit that saw her lead campaigns and fight for socialism and justice all her life. She was never ever sentimental and wouldn’t like me posting this sweet love song that my dad wrote for her when they were young. I sang it to her in her last moments. With my mum you can kiss goodbye to a generation of good people that stood up for others. She never lost her hope for a better society, and she will be missed by many people that she helped throughout her life. We hope to have a funeral today in Spain and say farewell to her in another time in Scotland, with Arthur Johnstone singing and the Internationale playing, as she had wished.

Matt McGinn

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

Our Rights.

       No doubt we all have our opinions on what is happening to our society and why, what should be done and what shouldn't be done, also when does our rights need to be sacrificed and why. Also we need to ensure that whatever rights we lose, must be restored as their suspension is no longer required. The state has a nasty habit of stating it is necessary to curtail our  rights because of this and that, but failing to return those rights when the "emergency" is over. The present situation gives the state complete control over all aspects of our lives, even to when we can leave our home, where we can go and what we can do. Surely an unacceptable situation to be tolerated for any length of time in any society. Who will be the ones to say when we have our rights restored, obviously it must be us, the people, we can't trust the state as its aims are always control of the population. Be prudent, but be vigilant. 

 This from Act For Freedom Now:

France: “The Worst Virus Ever… Authority…”

About COVID-19, authoritarian delusions and the shitty world we live in…        The macabre death toll increases day by day, and in the imagination of each person takes place the sensation, at first vague then always a little stronger, of being more and more threatened by the Great Grim Reaper. For hundreds of millions of human beings, this imagining is certainly not new, that of death that can strike anyone, at any time. Just think of the damned of the earth sacrificed daily on the altar of power and profit: those who survive under State bombs, in the midst of endless wars over oil or mineral resources, those who coexist with invisible radioactivity caused by accidents or nuclear waste, those who cross the Sahel or the Mediterranean and are locked up in concentration camps for migrants, those who are reduced to pieces of flesh and bone by the misery and devastation caused by agro-industry and the extraction of raw materials…And even in the lands that we inhabit, in times not very long ago, we have known the terror of butcheries on an industrial scale, bombings, extermination camps… always created by the thirst for power and wealth of States and bosses, always faithfully set up by armies and police.
     But no, today we are not talking about those desperate faces that we constantly try to keep away from our eyes and minds, nor about a history that is now past. Terror is beginning to spread in the cradle of the kingdom of commodities and social peace, and it is caused by a virus that can attack anyone – although of course, not everyone will have the same opportunities to cure themselves. And in a world where people are used to lying, where the use of figures and statistics are one of the main means of media manipulation, in a world where truth is constantly hidden, mutilated and transformed by the media, we can only try to put the pieces together, to formulate hypotheses, try to resist this mobilization of minds and ask the question: where are we going?
      In China, and then in Italy, new repressive measures were imposed daily, until they reached the limit that no State had dared to cross yet: the ban on leaving one’s home and on moving around the country except for work reasons or absolute necessity. Not even during war would there have been consent to the acceptance of such far-reaching measures by the population. But this new totalitarianism has the face of Science and Medicine, of neutrality and common interest. Pharmaceutical, telecommunications and new technology will find the solution. In China, the use of geo-locating to report any movement and any case of infection, facial recognition and e-commerce are helping the State to ensure that every citizen is locked up in their own home. Today, the same states that have based their existence on confinement, war and massacre, including of their own population, impose their “protection” through prohibitions, borders and armed men. How long will this situation last? Two weeks, a month, a year? We know that the state of emergency declared after the attacks [translation note: originally imposed in 2015 following the Islamic State terrorist attacks in Paris] has been extended several times, until the emergency measures were definitively incorporated into French law. What will this new emergency lead us to?
       A virus is a biological phenomenon, but the context in which it originates, its spread and its management are social issues. In the Amazon, Africa or Oceania, entire populations have been exterminated by viruses brought by settlers, while the settlers imposed their domination and way of life. In the rain forests, armies, merchants and missionaries pushed the people – who previously occupied the territory in a scattered way – to concentrate around schools, in villages or towns. This greatly facilitated the spread of devastating epidemics. Today, half the world’s population lives in cities, around the temples of Capital, and feeds on the products of agro-industry and intensive livestock farming. Any possibility of self-sufficiency has been eradicated by States and the market economy. And as long as the mega-machine of domination continues to function, human existence will be increasingly subjected to disasters that are not very “natural”, and to a management of them that will deprive us of any possibility of determining our lives.
        Unless… in an increasingly dark and disturbing scenario, human beings decide to live as free beings, even if it is just for a few hours, days or years before the end – rather than shutting themselves up in a “natural” world, of fear and submission. As did the prisoners in 30 Italian prisons, faced with the ban on visiting rooms imposed because of Covid-19, by revolting against their jailers, demolishing and burning their cages and, in some cases, managing to escape.

NOW AND ALWAYS FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM!
[Originally published on Nantes Indymedia on 13.03.2020]

via Sans Attendre Demain, translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide

Read the original French script HERE:   

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

Economy Before People.

 

      Ever since I could read newspapers or listen to the radio, yes in my youth that was where you look for what as happening, I have listened and read stories of child poverty and homelessness. There was never enough money to sort these problems out, though each consecutive government promised to eradicate both, but only threw a pittance of the nation budget at these problems, both problems still exist to this day.

    Then  2008 comes along, and we have billions to throw at the banks, by simply making phony money and plundering the public purse. Today we are faced with Covid19, and the immanent collapse of large and small companies, and once again the phony money appears and the public purse gets plundered. We must save the economy no matter the cost but have to be prudent with the health and well-being of the public.

       The Chancellor has given a £12 billion package to help businesses, and is talking of more, but friends of the corporate pirates say, that's not enough and are saying that the government, (you and I) should under-write bank loans to businesses. So let them borrow to keep their fat salaries and luxury yachts and if they can't pay the loan back, well that's OK, we the Joe public will see that the banks get their money. Money for homelessness and child poverty, well we can't afford that, we have to be prudent and live within our means!!

     That's basically how the system works, the state works as a guarantor for big business, but can never have enough money to eradicate  the problems of the ordinary people, problems caused by the processes that keep capitalism alive, exploitation of the people. Don't worry about the debt when bailing out big business, we the tax payers will handle that.

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

Phony Money.

 

       There are some nasty words being mentioned in the USA, and it is not just because of covid 19, but the economic crash that will follow, which incidentally, has been brewing for a few years now. Those nasty words are "nationalisation" and "socialism", and what is more, they are not being mentioned in a derogatory manner, but as solutions to the problems the American people are facing and will face in the coming future. Truth being that we will all be facing the same problems in the coming years. We should be preparing in our communities now, not waiting until it hits us.

 This from Dr. Paul Craig Roberts:

        Economist Michael Hudson has for many decades studied the use of debt-forgiveness to restart economies killed by debt burdens. Debt forgiveness for corporations has a different implication than debt forgiveness for individuals. For corporations, forgiving debts lets those who financialized and indebted the economy and the population off the hook. To avoid rewarding them for the catastrophe they produced and to prevent widespread public outcry and distrust, nationalization is implied for insolvent companies and banks.
     Nationalization would be limited to insolvent companies and financial institutions and doesn’t mean that there would be no private companies or businesses. Additional nationalization could be used to prevent strategic companies from substituting their interests for national interests, which they do when they move American jobs and factories offshore. Pharmaceuticals could be nationalized along with health care. Energy which often sacrifices the environment to its profits could be considered for nationalization. A successful society has to have more driving it than private profit.
       For most Americans nationalization is a dirty word, but it has many benefits. For example, a national health care system reduces costs tremendously by taking profits out of the system. Additionally, nationalized pharmaceutical companies could be made more focused on research and cures than on profit avenues. Everyone knows how Big Pharma influences medical schools and medical practice in line with Big Pharma’s approach. A more open-minded approach to medicine would be beneficial.
        Socialist is another American dirty word, one that is being used against Bernie Sanders. I have not turned into a socialist overnight. I am simply thinking outloud. How can the economy recover when the population and corporations are smothered by debt? Debt forgiveness is the only way out of this debt suffocation. Can debts be forgiven without nationalization? Not without a huge giveaway to financial mangers and Wall Street. It is the members of the “one percent” who have received 95% of the increase in us income and wealth since 2008. Do we want to reward them for smothering the economy with debt by bailing them out without nationalizing them?
      The combination of an economy covered in debt and an unprotected population is clearly revolutionary. Do we have leadership capable of breaking out of interest group politics and ruling ideologies in order to save our society and put it on a more sustainable basis?
        Or will the economic hardships be blamed on the virus, the catalyst that ignited the debt timebomb? 

And a wee look at how the system works:



"When will we ever learn----"

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

Concrete Desert.

      Despite the system trying hard to set up a society where everything is controlled, the city offers up many possibilities of claiming free spaces, where we can function freely with our own desires, mutual aid and respect. All it requires is a little bit of organisation, imagination and ingenuity, and I'm sure we the general public have these in abundance, if we care to use them. The publication, "A Sea of Possibilities in the Concrete Desert" is along these lines and worth a read. 

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

 

Brochure from squatters and resisting spots in Madrid, Athens and Berlin
      ‘A sea of possibilities in the concrete desert: Territory, city and insurrection’ – Madrid & Berlin
       This publication is a compilation of texts that emerges from the discussions and the work we started in the wake of the event “A sea of possibilities in the concrete desert. Territory, city and insurrection” that happened in Madrid during June 2019 in Local Emboscada and Local Anarquista Motin. Is the product of a joint work of some comrades from Berlin and Madrid, that does not finish with the publication of this pages and pretends to extend the discussion that we have shared.
      What does it mean to take territory against the State and Capitalism? How can we take it through our struggles? How does it work domination in the territories that we inhabit? Does it mean our way of living in a territory a conflict with the system?

https://laemboscada.noblogs.or

Concrete-desert.cleaned

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

Important Information.

       Just when we need it most, at last, some decent information from a caring government.


     There isn't anything I can add to this info, except endorse it fully.

 Trump's strategy to combat the coronavirus,   pray.

+

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

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: 

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

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]

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

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?

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