The Murmur.

      As I have always said, nobody knows the spark that will ignite the fire. Police brutality goes on day and daily, in country after country, and there is an angry murmuring. George Floyd's public murder by the police, thanks to modern technology, circulated the world, that was the spark that ignited this fire. This was not a sudden and unexpected explosion, this is the release of decades of pent up discontent and anger, decades of having injustice heaped on you on a daily bases. George Floyd threw open a door through which our anger could run free and express itself and attack the causes of those decades of brutality and injustice. 

     Of course you'll get the so called voices of "reason" condemning the destruction and looting, but where were they when for centuries the wealth created by the many was continually being looted by the few, where were their voices when the few, through the state and corporate bodies heaped destruction on our home, the planet? In a society where the majority are continually being looted of the wealth they create, what the apologists for the state, the media, call "looting" is merely taking back some of what you created. The trillions paid to the corporate world as a "bailout", is nothing more than looting the public purse by the state to comfort the wealthy few. 

      Yes, this anger may subside, and authority take back control, if that happens, then the brutality, the plundering of public wealth, the gross inequality and injustice will return, and you will have to accept it, or ignite another fire. The state authority and its accompanying brutality will not melt away because you desire it to do so, it will require the full force of your anger to rid ourselves of that scourge. 

      This could be the birth pangs of a new world as it struggles to be born, trying to push its way from the darkness to a bright new future. The choice is ours.

The Murmer Of The Poor

Brokers, bankers, Earls, Dukes,
callous, mercenary, pirate crew
gasconading through the land
Bloated, pampered, privileged few.

Striding with selfish arrogance
plundering as you go
grasping at the fruits
the common people sow.

Take heed, you swaggering fat cats
in our world you don't belong,
that murmur you hear is the poor
rehearsing an angry song.

The day is fat approaching
when our chorus loud you'll hear,
then all your greed and treachery
will surely cost you dear.

A price you'll pay for being blind
to the hungry at your door,
oh, haste the day our angry chorus
becomes a mighty roar. 

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

Looters.

       Somethings I always expect when I visit Not Buying Anything, compassion, insight, respect and common sense. Qualities if we all acted upon, we would have arrived at that better world by now.

   Here are Gregg's latest thoughts on today's society.

Looters On A Rampage. 

 

      I was going to write about my garden, which is fully planted, but there is so much going on in the world right now I find myself needing to sow some ideas in the fertile soil of the internet first.
      So here goes with some random thoughts.
      * When you steal the contents of a store you are a looter.
     When you steal the contents of an old growth forest you are an enterprising industry leader.
     * When telling a lie, tell a whopper. Keep repeating it. If challenged, double down. 

      For example - "You are free." "We care." "TINA." "Corruption only happens in other countries." "You have Freedom of Assembly."
     * You can rob more money by owning a bank than by robbing a bank. 
     * There is never enough money for the people's projects.
     There is always enough money for propping up crony capitalism.
    * When you dump a load of steer manure on a CEO's doorstep you are engaging in "domestic terrorism".
     When that CEO dumps toxic shit in your drinking water he is engaging in "bringing jobs and prosperity to your community".
     * When a crowd of people are in the street (some with automatic weapons), disrupting traffic and screaming moistly for haircuts and a sit down fast food meal, they get a police escort.
     When a crowd of peaceful, non-violent, non-armed citizens are in the street screaming (also moistly) for justice they get pepper spray, rubber bullets and police infiltrators/provocateurs instigating violence to discredit their message.
    * When you try to save the Earth you are an ecoterrorist and will be rewarded with scorn and incarceration.
     When you succeed in destroying the Earth, if you are lucky, you will be rewarded by becoming a billionaire.
     I can see who the real looters are, and where the real violence is coming from.
      It is not the citizens I have seen in the streets, who are largely peaceful and compassionate toward each other and loving toward their communities.
    Right now the real looters are on a record-setting multi-trillion dollar rampage. It is the largest transfer of wealth in the history of large transfers of wealth.
     And the largest purveyors of violence on the planet are state authorities trying to keep our necks under their knees. "We can't breathe!"
     These truths aren't being reported while we are obsessing over The People's understandable reaction to an obviously messed up social and economic situation.

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

Crazy World.

       When you survey the world we live in you see so much blatant injustice, poverty, corruption, greed, violence and inequality, in the midst of unimaginable wealth. You see and hear the wealthy being applauded for their pilfering and greed, and you ask yourself, why do we tolerate this plundering of the common wealth by the greedy few. We could all write volumes of the way the world is being destroyed by that greedy few. There is another way to live, we could put it all right if we the many would only rise up and take control. There is a better world in all our hearts, we just need the courage to take control and start to build it here and now.

 THIS CRAZY WORLD.

In this crazy world,
             half dead from dereliction
             half brutalised from deprivation
             half drowned in a sea of greed
             half devoured by perpetual need.
Where
             war shrieks from East to West
             famine seldom seems to rest
             hunger stalks the layman’s life
             poverty kills with a silent knife.
We find
            a pompous pampered arrogant clique
            live a life that’s smooth and sleek
            far removed from want and fear,
            bought with another’s sweat and tear.
Yet
            not a word do they speak
            to aid the fallen or the weak
            preferring to kneel at luxury’s shrine
            repeating their mantra, “This is mine”.
Now watch them
            peddle lies of tongue and pen
            slyly hoard their plunder then
            with spurious sanctimonious phrase
            shed crocodile tears at man’s malaise.
Where
            is it written that masses must sweat
            deprivation and misery a constant threat
            covering the world in measureless wealth
            so the few can plunder with avid stealth?
In friendship
            let’s clasp each human hand
            with compassion try to understand
            our differences, our hopes, our fears
            dragging mankind from this sea of tears.
Creating
            a world where justice flowers
            the many reap the fruits of toiling hours
            a world of sharing, tending the others need
            an end to privilege, plunder and greed.

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

Silencing Dissent.

         The tentacles of the state's authority machine spread far and slither into a variety of places. Ever seeking to silence dissent, tie the lips of resistance, isolate the people from the true nature of society, and advance their desire for a submissive population.
       If you ever go on to espive.net, you would expect to find a plethora of views and information on autonomous spaces, resistance to injustice, support for migrants, direct action against repressive state actions, support for those in struggle for freedom, etc..
      However today you will find a very simple message that highlights how the freedom of speech is always under attack from those who oppose real change to this repressive and exploitative society that dominates our daily lives.
      Those who  desire freedom must always be on a war footing and ever vigilant, as the attack on our freedoms is relentless, surreptitious and backed up by repressive legislation, all moulded in favour of those in power.
 

     The following is the clear message you will find today if you click onto espiv.net: 

ENGLISH
Hello, comrades:
        We would like to inform you about the latest developments on the shutdown of the server.
          The information we received is that the server went out of order after an oral command of the rector of Panteion University to their computerisation section on the occasion of a complaint about digital piracy.
       More specifically, this complaint concerned two book titles that were uploaded in pdf format to one of the hundreds of blogs hosted by the server. We immediately tried to contact the rectorial authorities and work out a solution, wanting to regain access to the content of the blogs as soon as possible.
        The server, which hosts 850 blogs, has been located in Panteion University since the beginning of Espiv project in 2008. From time to time issues have arisen, and so far we have managed to overcome them and keep the server in place, at a public university in Athens (Greece).
       We understand that many things have changed over the last 12 years, and from time to time we have discussed the real conditions under which Espiv project continues to operate. However, it is our intention and desire to keep the server in place, with all political and labour collectives, neighbourhood assemblies and self-organised projects hosted on it.
     Our repeated attempts to receive a clear answer from the rectorial authorities fell on deaf ears. On Thursday, 28 May 2020 (a week after the shutdown), we received information that the rector will refer our issue to the next council of the senate of Panteion University, which is unknown when it will take place. One should not be too superstitious or naive to assume that all this is due to increased academic duties. After all, the command to shut down the server was given impressively quickly. With universities still closed and after a two-month lockdown, conditions were considered favourable to add another movement’s infrastructure to the long list of squats and projects recently suppressed. A choice that expands repression in the field of internet, imposing the normality of social media, digital snitching, and recording and surveillance of any information circulated on the internet, again showing that the role of the cop can be played well by all sorts of rectors and state employees. The choice to suppress an infrastructure that supports the expression of dozens of collectives within the antagonist movement can only find us against them.

      We will let you know of any further developments and mobilisations.

NO POLITICAL GAGGING LEFT UNANSWERED.
NOT A STEP BACK.

The administration crew of espiv.net

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

Regeneración.

        May 30th, last day of the month, so I suppose we just made it. Spirit of Revolt's "Read of the Month" for May is a copy of the paper, Regeneración. Started in 1900, in Mexico and continued in 1937 in Glasgow. Our Read of the Month is of the Glasgow version, from our MV Collection. Enjoy.

     The anarchist paper Regeneración first produced in Mexico 1n 1900, Wikipedia-(Regeneración (Spanish: [rexeneɾaˈsjon]) was a Mexicananarchist newspaper that functioned as the official organ of the Mexican Liberal Party. Founded by the Flores Magón brothers in 1900, it was forced to move to the United States in 1905.[1]Jesús Flores Magón published the paper (along with Anselmo Figueroa, a leading member of the party), while his brothers Ricardo and Enrique contributed articles.[2] The Spanish edition of Regeneración was edited by Ricardo, and the English version by W. C. Owen and Alfred G. Santleben.[3] )
      Guy Aldred, Glasgow anarchist, started an English version in 1937 as the Organ of the United Socialist Movement. At Spirit of Revolt we have Volume, 1 No. 3 dated 7th March 1937, of this relaunch in our MV Collection.

Courtesy of Warwick Library, Read on line:

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

State Violence.

       Solidarity knows no borders, that doesn't just apply to those imaginary lines drawn by the various states across the planet. It must also apply to those borders between those under state incarceration and those on the other side who are still able to roam the streets. The prison population has been growing in most countries and most prisons are overcrowded, conditions are unhygienic and deteriorating, rules are vindictive and manipulated to repress and humiliate, they are cesspools of official callous violence. Added to this is the now constant threat of covid19 rampant in unhygienic, overcrowded conditions, with inadequate health care.
     Now more than ever those enmeshed in the states savage prison regime need and deserve our full solidarity until we finally bring down that border between incarceration and freedom. 

A poem by Eric King:

 

  

“If Tamir was named Andy from the Hamptons”

Every breath is an air of defiance
sparks flying I breathe fire
What happened in the Lorraine
happened in Ferguson & Batton Rouge
Police keeping cities safe
passing out freedom bullets
Black bodies not regarded as anything
more than click-bait and hot topics
If Tamir was named Andy
from the Hamptons
maybe it’d make a fucking difference?!
This isn’t gang violence, its state violence
its race violence, it shouldn’t exist but
so often does happen without outrage
from the privileged to well off
to be outspoken
This isn’t new it’s just finally on the news
cause people took to the streets
& when told to disperse they refused
So painful but its true
Blue Lives Murder

 

      The following open letter from Eric King anarchist prisoner in U$A and published in 325:

     This is my sixth year in prison and has easily been the hardest. After being accused of assaulting a lieutenant on August 17, 2018, I’ve been in the SHU since. The past two years have shown me a wide scope of state brutality: physical beatings and tortures, psychological games like being kept in bare rooms with no contact to the free world, and their legal power – bringing serious new charges that could carry 20 additional years. Resistance is not a game.
      During this time I’ve learned a lot; that A LOT of people get set up this way, that prison support is priceless, that they can always turn it up, and that WE can always turn it up also. Despite the harsh sanctions and restrictions, I’ve refused to be a wilting willow. Now has been the time to face them head on – whether legally with motions and pressure; casual bucking; hard bucking; leading protest for basic rights; having long talks about social, class, and prisoner consciousness; and organizing the other prisoners. Anarchists don’t hide.
     One thing I couldn’t have done this without has been the outpouring of support. Fiscal support to my canteen and legal fundraiser (keep it coming pls), the uptake in letters, those who sent magazines, books and articles after we won those rights. I let me supporters and Team know this wasn’t going to be a smooth ride, that resistance is in my blood, and they’ve stuck it out. People new and long lasting have shown up when needed most. We cannot fight on the inside, without you on the outside. We are fighting cases, fighting injustice, fighting the same battles happening in the streets, inside, in close quarters.
    Prisons need to be demolished, it’s a fight that can only be won on two fronts – unity inside and solidarity outside. We chop this dragon’s head off, relegate it to horror stories and museums of resistance. Together, it’s possible.
     Thank you to everyone who has helped in any way, whether being kind to my partner, donating funds, showing up to trail (August 10th, see you there!).

Let’s take FTTP literal, shall we?

Until All Are Rubble,

EK
Fire Ant Collective
IWOC

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

Social Control.

      We can be sure that the state will use this pandemic as a platform for experimenting with new social controls that it can tweak and introduce after this pandemic is over. Social distancing, limited numbers at certain events, will continue for quite a while, and will be enhanced and modified to increase control over the population. The longer it goes on, the more they hope the public will become accustomed to some form of these measure. We have to vigilant and determined to ensure that all those restrictions introduced because of the pandemic must be totally scrapped as soon as this pandemic is under control. They will not do this willingly, it will require our determined and organised effort to unsure this happens.

      The following is an extract from an article on the Greek state's actions during this pandemic, from Crimethinc: 

 

 

       Night is especially scary; teams of Delta police can be seen riding around in motorcycle gangs, beating and arresting people at random, chiefly non-white immigrants. On top of this, gatherings of 30 to 50 cops can be seen at various checkpoints, flagrantly violating the social distancing protocol that is the justification for the lockdown in the first place. This sort of opportunism would be comical if it weren’t so oppressive for the most vulnerable residents.
     However, disdain for the police behavior is widespread, even among residents who were annoyed by Exarchia’s squats and riots in the past. We are certain that when the lockdown measures are eased, resistance will return with a vengeance.
      The state has done everything it can to blame the public if social distancing efforts fail. The state and corporate media have spread fabricated videos of people not respecting social distance in order to turn Greek society against itself. The state is using this pandemic to experiment with martial law, even enforcing prohibitions on swimming and fishing. Such measures serve to test what Greek people will put up with in order to refine plans for future authoritarian efforts to change this society, especially considering that the IMF now anticipates an even worse economic downturn than the recession of 2008.
    All across the country, Greek police are ticketing homeless people for violating the lockdown as a consequence of lacking shelter, ticketing immigrants at a higher rate and targeting the most vulnerable on the pretext of enforcing safety measures. The Greek state has also evicted student housing throughout Athens, a step they likely hope will make it easier to privatize the university system in the future. They are also using the text message system via which residents request permission from the state to go outside to collect information about the general population.
     In short, the Greek state that slashed funding for medical facilities and accelerated the privatization of health care is dealing with the pandemic by escalating state control and social manipulation. In early April, when doctors and other workers at the Evangelismos hospital in central Athens tried to stage a demonstration demanding more protective equipment, an army of police swarmed in to shut it down. In addition to ordering direct assaults on medical staff, the authorities have also told Greek medical workers that they are forbidden to speak publicly to the press about issues relating to the pandemic.

Well worth while to read the full article HERE: 

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

Familiar Road.

     What a beautiful day, so ventured out on the dream machine to a familiar patch, but one I hadn't visited for some considerable time. A wee run around Milton of Campsie. Not the flattest of routes but well loved by yours truly. I'm sure they make those hills a bit higher each year, or so it feels. I'm sure there must be another reason I'm overlooking for that thought. 

      Stopped to take a couple of photos at the cafe I sometimes popped into for that obligatory plate of soup and coffee, It is of course closed because of this Covid19 beastie. No following camera woman Stasia on this route. The name of the cafe refers to where it is, near the Campsie Fells. 

    Across the road from the cafe there is a little garden with a marble bench seat. The inscription, which I don't think you can read in the photo, tells us that it was created in memory of one of our far too many politicians, Charles Kennedy, JP., and counciller, for this area, not to be confused with the other Charles Kennedy Liberal MP. 

      Another claim to fame for this wee village is that a farm in Milton of Campsie area was the birth place of Scottish radical, Thomas Muir.

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

The Crowd.

        I have always maintained, in this capitalist society, that dissatisfaction and anger is always present, simmering just below the surface. Sometime it displays itself in a small burst, isolated and then quietly fades, sometimes it can be a mass display by a large group of people, finds its way into the media, and then disappears. Then there are those times of course when it is an explosion of released energy fueled by anger and fury, thousands take to the streets and, like in Chile recently, attack the symbols of the system, they burn banks, police stations and loot shops. No matter how small or how large, they are all part of that discontent and subdued anger. Sooner or later it will explode and the existing system will not be able to put its exploitative and repressive parts together again. Well that, in my mind, is the aim of all those bursts of anger, large or small.

I Am The Crowd.

I am the crowd

I swim in the quagmire of poverty

its hooks, its barbs, tear my flesh

rupture my dreams,

I hold my breath for centuries

hoping to break through, gasp pure air.

Through the murky mire

I see bright things, shiny things sparkle

I see women in fine dresses, men in silk shirts

I ask myself,

why do I swim in this cesspool?

I want the light and warmth of rectitude

to caress my labouring body,

seeds of my dreams to bloom

like wild flowers in a meadow.

One day I will use my boundless strength

to haul this torn, battered being

out of the morass

onto the warm grassy bank,

when I do;

woe betide you, women in fine dresses

woe betide you mister in your fine silk shirt

should you ever try to get in my way,

for I am the strength of the world, I am the crowd. 

       The following is a piece on one of those small bursts of anger, a small display of that underlying discontent that one day will explode.

From 325:

Amazon Vans Sabotaged in Solidarity with Striking Workers by Lorenzo Orsetti Anarchist Brigade: North Carolina (USA)

      We are seldom compelled to claim the ways we choose to attack. We are not specialists, nor anarchists isolated from the acts of sabotage and theft that we know occur daily by employees within the Amazon monster. We generally prefer our actions to be just another strike amongst the many, adding to the already existent chorus of rage and discontent. As the crisis deepens and the feelings of isolation and helplessness appear to be sinking in, it is important to remember that one way of regaining agency in our lives is through attack and disruption.

      It is not only the corona virus that is making our lives unbearable, but even more so, it is our continued daily lives under capitalism and state control. Amazon and other tech companies are exploiting the virus, accumulating unheard- of profits and pushing their nightmare tech world. Amazon claims to provide a safe future for society all the while continuing to put its lowest paid employees in danger of infection, biding their time until they can eliminate those positions completely and replace them with automation and robots.

Along with all these reasons, we chose to sneak into one of Amazon’s parking areas and slash the tires of eight delivery vans – for the sheer pleasure of feeling alive and for the continuation of resistance during a confusing time. We know this is just one drop in a vast sea, but to quote a fallen comrade, “Always remember that ‘every storm begins with a single raindrop.’ And try to be that raindrop yourself.”

In solidarity with the striking Amazon workers!

       For ourselves and towards an eternal mayday for all of us!

– Lorenzo Orsetti Anarchist Brigade in North Carolina

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

New World.

          Obviously this pandemic has changed a lot of things, so as anarchists, we must change the way we think and act. This is new territory and will require new tactics and strategies, now is the time to debate them and try to form them into practice.

       The following article for debate is perhaps rather long, but an important subject can rarely but put into a few words, it's from Act for Freedom Now:

Porto, Portugal: Some thoughts on Covid and anarchists

PDF : Some thoughts on Covid and anarchists
        This text is born from the need to communicate and debate amongst comrades. It is born from the need to fight physical distance and the lack of face-to-face debate and it seeks to put onto paper some topics for discussion and analysis without any pretension of absolute truth. Most of all it’s a summary of certain discussions that happened within different groups and that, to us, seem important to share with a wider group of comrades.
        The process unleashed by the burst of corona virus has left the world, particularly the northern hemisphere, literally connected to machines; connected to machines at hospitals, connected to machines at home. Even Capital itself found its way of reproduction and sustenance through the machines.
       This text is an attempt to open a discussion starting from a concise and eventually mechanistic analysis on how the redefinition of life has been generated, how it is being politically managed through the introduction of a disturbing agent in the social body, and what the eventual consequences are, in daily life (many of which are already perceptible).
        We are interested in discussing how the declaration of a pandemic allowed for a set of freedom restraining processes and individual conditioning to be put into practice and what instruments have aided such a political program to be so efficient.
       We think that it’s in the passing, from the biological moment (the bursting of a virus), to the political answer given to it, that a whole architecture of fear is built. If in the past this construction was based on an external enemy, that in a way, was perceived as tangible (ie. “the terrorist”), nowadays it is based on an invisible and unpredictable enemy, that due to its biological characteristics, permits management based on physical imprisonment.
      Without wanting to debate the existence of the virus here, or its higher or lower levels of danger (we are not scientists and we don’t think that is the main issue anyway), it seems to us to be of extreme importance to discuss the political effects that arise from the response of the State and society, their immediate consequences in day-to-day life, and the changes that these will provoke in the way life is perceived and on the way social space is inhabited in the future.
      Since the very beginning of the so-called covid-19 crisis, one could witness the use of war-like speeches by the authorities, in the manner of a war that is created by the simple fact that is declared by alarmist speeches. This bellicosity of the speech seems to serve several, more or less obvious, functions besides the creation of fear in society. First of all this speech justifies the adoption of extraordinary measures that, in a so-called normal situation, would hardly be accepted. All the practice of confinement and restriction of life is justified by that exceptional moment of being at war with the virus.
       On the other hand, the perception of being at war leads society to congregate around the State and consequently around governments as the only pillars that can guarantee life on earth and protect the individual. It seems to us that this fact exists even when National Health Services collapse as was the case in Italy or Spain. Besides the catastrophic management of the situation, the State keeps on being the only cardinal point which society turns to.
        At last, the socialization of the warlike speech collectivized in the sentence “WE ARE at war against the virus”, also allows the perception of the one who revolts against the state of exception (lockdown) to be transformed and seen not as enemy of the State (by breaking its laws) but as an enemy of society and as a potential infectious agent. It is at this point that one can see the creation of a new internal enemy, not anymore as an enemy of the State but as an enemy of society and potentially of Life itself.
      Regarding the quarantine measures and the so-called “moral obligation of staying at home”, it seems to us that such procedures are only possible due to all the technological apparatus that surrounds us. The Internet and all the electronic gadgets make staying at home more bearable due to their ludic function and by allowing the individual to keep in contact with their loved ones and therefore to forget, to a certain point, their own isolation. These gadgets have also particularly been used to increase a collective feeling of panic. After going through the traditional media, it is through the social media networks and the Internet in general that a politics of fear manages to be implemented. All the “Stay at Home” speeches and the sentiments of policing one another, find in these apparatuses the perfect means for propagation, permitting a discourse created by official institutions to be felt as if they were something started by the general population and strongly defended by the ones “impacted” by such discourse.
      The quarantine and the so called State of Emergency provoke two kinds of movement: on the one hand, that of atomization through the reduction of the individual’s life to their more restricted space (home) and, on the other hand, that of a mass socialization of panic through the State’s war speech and through the amplifying of fear through the mass and social medias. It seems to us that it is in these two movements that the political project of fear put into circulation by authority is really played. When real life is based on the confinement of the individual and, simultaneously, social experience is managed by and lived through technological gadgets, this leads to a schizophrenic and paranoid existence.
      We think that it is in this duality that life will be based upon in the foreseeable future, even after the hypothetical end of the restrictive measures that are imposed on us now; the transformation of public space as a focus point of disease and, the atomization of daily life, no longer based on the classic capitalist atomism but in a new way of perceiving others, and space, as potential dangers to the individual’s life.
      We are not very interested in discussing here the technological hyper-surveillance that will follow the end of the covid-19 crisis because it seems to us that such surveillance and the means to put it into practice are already here. We also think that those discussions have been based more on a dystopic pessimism than on a will to analyse the causes and the mechanisms that are “injected” into the social body and that make individuals demand such vigilance or at least make them complacent with it. Surveillance and control have been around for a very long time and it was not the virus that created them. It is clear that there’ll be an increase of life’s robotization and an expansion of surveillance mechanisms, but it seems to us that these phenomenons would happen with or without a pandemic crisis and at most, crisis can only accelerate them.
       What we would like to discuss is the way anarchists perceived the crisis and the possibilities of action inside the social standstill that we were forced to live. Obviously panic and fear also hit us in one way or another, to some more than others, and maybe it was inevitable to be that way. As much as we would like it to be otherwise, anarchists are not a category apart from society and untouched by what happens outside our circles. It’s exceptional moments like the one we are now living in that better highlight our flaws as a movement and the lack of tools that we have in order to fight against what is imposed upon us. Proof of this is that, more or less everywhere, the majority of responses given by the different anarchist groups were nothing more that charitable actions. This critique is as valid for the groups that created structures of collection and distribution of food whose result is nothing more than the substitution of the charitable role of the State, as well as for all the other groups, in which we include ourselves, that due to inoperability didn’t manage to sketch or even debate strategies of action to confront the confinement. The incapacity to fight against a discourse that became the dominant discourse and to put out another version of things, another vision of the process, revealed once again our lack of coordination and how the absence of continuous debate and practice amongst comrades can become flaws that cost us a lot in moments like these.
       Lets take this exceptional situation as an opportunity to re-think our practices so far and to allow us to find more efficient ways of communication and political action in a way that, when the bill of the months of confinement starts to be charged, anarchists can intervene to demonstrate different paths and practices. Keeping our spaces going will be of extreme importance in the near future as well as the creation of production and consumption networks that move towards independence from the usual circuits of consumption and collective production and action that might spark revolt by creating political structures that would allow an attack to a new world that is already here; these are all proposals that, according to us, should start to be collectively worked on and this text is a call for that start.
       Because in a pandemic world, the only possible virus is Revolt. Some Anarchists from OPorto

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

Heroes?

      I received this from a friend, how the system managed to turn dedicated experts into mythical beings, workers into heroes, what happens when the fight is over? I was delighted to hear that the following article went out on BBC R4. I hope it gets a much wider audience, so share and spread.

         "I heard this guy on 'Inside Health' on BBC R4"
         He's Dr Michael FitzPatrick, a gastroenterologist in Oxford and Co-chair of the Royal College of Physicians Trainees Committee
          He said:
          'I want to talk about heroes.
Doctors & nurses are not heroes. Calling them heroes (or saviours or angels) is well-meaning, but unhelpful. I also worry that this narrative is being co-opted deliberately by some who seek to undermine the professionalism of the medical workforce, & to silence their voice.
          A hero is defined as "A person who is admired or idealised for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities”In the ancient myths, Heroes were nigh-on invincible. Those same themes live on, in war movies, in comics, in the Marvel cinematic universe.
         Many of these heroes are unpaid, rich volunteers. Thor is a king and a god. Tony Stark has more money than he knows what to do with. Batman is a rich recluse. They don’t work to pay the bills, feed the kids. They are also (semi) invulnerable. Bruce Wayne has his fancy armour. Iron Man his suit. Cap America his vibranium shield. There are no PPE concerns here - these guys bring their own to the party. And when they die, they do so - well... heroically. It was their job, their lot, to die in battle.
         And how do we reward heroes? Not with cash, that’s for sure. We clap, we cheer, we hold parades. We place them on a pedestal, one that does not allow them to come down to our human level. They don’t need appropriate working conditions, work-life balance, lunch breaks, or a mug of tea.
       And if a hero is struggling psychologically, what do they do? How does Ironman deal with his post traumatic stress and flashbacks following the battle of New York? How does Thor deal with his food binges and problematic drinking after Infinity War? By more work of course! More fighting! Bring me Mjölnir!
       So, as we can see, heroes are almost entirely the wrong comparator for healthcare workers. But does this matter? Aren’t the public and the newspapers and the media, just being kind and supportive? Am I just being a bit grumpy?
         I worry there’s a darker side to this.
        Because there’s another thing about heroes. They're only ever loved in the crisis. Batman goes back into hiding. Thor returns to Asgard. The heroes hide, they slink away. They're a threat now. No one wants to hear their thoughts on social inequalities or healthcare funding models.
      The hero metaphor is therefore a useful tool for those who don't want to hear from healthcare professionals afterwards. Don’t talk about PPE. Don't talk about student debt Don’t talk about public health or working conditions. Don’t talk about healthcare funding. Go back to the shadows.
       Now this is very different if we change that narrative to one that centres around professionalism: Because their views matter, both during the crisis, but importantly afterwards. They don't need medals, they need PPE and equipment and training. They don't work for claps, they work for remuneration commensurate with their expertise.
       So that's why I don’t think my colleagues are heroes. They are more than heroes, more real, more important, more valuable. They are highly trained, dedicated, caring professionals.
       Thank you to all my colleagues who are working so hard in this epidemic. My heart goes out to the families of those professionals who have died, both here and abroad. Thank you for your work. Thank you for your service. And I hope a grateful society will listen to you after this.'

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Righteous Anger.

 

        I doubt few can dispute the reasons for their anger, nor their description of the system. What surprises me is that there is not more displays of anger on the streets, after all the injustice and inequality and the brutal suppression of dissent is glaringly obvious.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

        In the night of 19th May, 2020 some bottles full of paint were smashed against the façade of the Bullenpostens in Oberstrass. Why?
Well, I think the question is why not. After all, the barbaric injustice of the dominant system during the pandemic is coming to light in strident colours. Applause for nursing staff in contrast with the billions given to Swiss/Lufthansa; lack of medicines in contrast with record arms exports; distribution of food supplies in contrast with the blessing of profit shares. Overcrowded refugee camps in contrast with empty luxury hotels. Just to give a few examples.
        Ok, it would be wrong to blame the Zurich police for all the devastation of capitalism. But what is true is that here as everywhere else the police are there to protect the system of exploitation and oppression. They do it every day: when they put on their uniforms in the morning, turn on the blue lights or go slow to terrorize our neighbourhoods with racist controls and other dirty tricks.
On May 1st they recently demonstrated yet again how seriously they take their task of being the armed wing of the State. While various forces took to the streets in diverse and creative ways against the pushing of the crisis towards the base, for solidarity and internationalism, the police – not being very successful – were only concerned to expel, arrest, confiscate and block everything moving.
     These bottles of paint are one of the many responses to the repression of the 1st of May. But even more than a response they are promises for the future: in spite of the rubber bullets and prison, revolutionary resistance will continue! And it will win because the order that the police protect is built on sand.
Solidarity means: together against capital and its lackeys!
Translated from Italian by act for freedom now!
via: frecciaspezzata

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The Illusion.

      I must thank Paul Cudenec for this article. It seems he has been inside my head and put into words the thoughts I have harboured for years but have never been able to put into a decent article. All the insanity of this system, the illusion of money, wealth is good, the rich should be respected for all their hard work, etc.. They have managed to turn that illusion of money into the only key to a decent life, and money as the key to happiness.
      During this pandemic the wealthy are having a ball, billions of that stuff you pay the government from you meager wages to create a social structure is now pouring into the coffers of the billionaire parasite class, more than the government has at the moment. When it is sorted out, the financial Mafia will be knocking on your door to pay back all the debt we handed to the super rich to help them keep their shareholders happy. Enter a decade or two of severe austerity. I have always liked Frank Zappa's quote used in the article, it is such an accurate description of the purpose and ruthlessness of the powers that be in our system of insanity. 

     The following is an extract from Paul Cudenec's article taken from ACORN:

 

 

          We all know that money is what makes this commercial world go round.
      The cult of money has swept away the traditional ethical codes of humankind and become the sole indicator of “value”.
        If something makes money, it is good. If it doesn’t, it is useless. If someone accumulates money, by whatever means, they are “successful”. If they don’t, they are a “failure”.
       But we also all know that money is not real. It consists of nothing more than pieces of paper, or electronic figures, which are universally agreed to represent something.
        For most of us, money is the whip that keeps us in line. Because we need it in order to survive, we are forced to spend the best decades of our lives working for money.
       Most work does not directly give us what we need or want. It is merely a means to another means, a way of earning money so we can buy various goods and services.
      The vast majority of people use money to pay for food and drink, shelter, clothing, leisure activities and whatever little luxuries are affordable in the part of the world in which they live.
     What about the really “successful” people, though, the people who have accumulated unimaginably vast amounts of money, at the expense of the rest of us? What does money do for them?
      It provides them with their lavish lifestyles of course – all their mansions and private jets and designer clothes and furniture and cars and plastic surgery. Money can buy people too, whether to work for their interests, massage their egos or satisfy their sexual desires.
      But most of all, and most worryingly for the rest of us, it brings them power.
     Lies are another important part of their domination.
      There is the lie that they “deserve” their wealth because they are somehow better than the rest of us – a total inversion of the truth since the obsessive pursuit of money speaks only of ruthless and sociopathic greed.
      There is the lie that all of this is somehow normal, that it is right and proper that a tiny elite are sitting smugly at the top of a pyramid of global exploitation which sees those at the bottom condemned to lives of abject misery.
      And there is the lie that this world of theirs is “democratic”, that we have the freedom to collectively determine the way we live.
      Anyone who is the slightest bit awake will have noticed that today this last lie is looking hollower than ever.
      With the totalitarian measures being introduced on the back of the Covid panic, it looks as if the ruling class have decided to finally ditch the pretence of “liberal democracy” and its illusion of freedom.
       As Frank Zappa warned: “The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater”.
      I am beginning to wonder if money will be the next illusion that is ditched by the ruling class.
       This is not going to happen quite yet, of course. The Covid crisis promises to be a bonanza for the richest of the rich, who will be greedily hoovering up all the wealth previously in the hands of small-scale businesses and individuals, as well as ramping up their relentless robbery of the working classes.
      Not only will the ultrarich benefit from “emergency” spending by the world’s governments, but their banking branch will be happily harvesting the interest on the debts run up to pay for it all.
     And of course there is all the Fourth Industrial Revolution technology in which they have invested, which will now be forced on us under the pretext of public health, and the planned monetisation of everything alive through the so-called “New Deal for Nature“.
      But, as we have seen, money is just a means to an end. It is the key to the door of power and, after a few more years of what we are seeing now, the ultrarich and their vitaphobic death-cult will have all the power that they crave.

 Continue Reading HERE:

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