Obey.

        Most people will tell you that they are not influenced by advertising, that it doesn't have any effect on them. However the corporate world know different, that's why the spend billions of £s every year on advertising, they know it works and at times it is very obvious as more people surround themselves with things they don't really need and in all probability they don't satisfy the need they thought that had in the first place. Advertising is the powerhouse of consumerism, consumerism is the death of the planet, is that what we want?

The following is again some wise words from  Not Buying Anything:

Resisting Advertising Mind Manipulation

Advertising - what it looks like.

           Walter Dill Scott, the original American applied psychologist, published the first book on the psychology of advertising in 1903. The world hasn't been the same since. Scott outlined what he saw as desirable traits in a population that could be exploited by advertisers. In his book Advertising, he suggested people were "highly suggestible and obedient", then recommended ways this could be exploited to the benefit of advertisers.
        He believed that consumers were irrational, and therefore easily influenced, and I guess he has been proven right. Scott spent his career researching methods of social control and human motivation, and showed how people with something to sell could use these to influence consumer behaviour. He advised advertisers to use Direct Demand Commands in their campaigns. Such advertising will always tell you directly what to do.
"Use Our Product!"
"Don't Wait"
"Buy Now!"
"Click here"
"Act Now"
         And we all know how much fun it is to be told what to do.
        Marketing specialists help advertisers guide the consumer into and through what they call the "marketing funnel". Yes, that is a thing. “A direct response ad should always demand an immediate response with a clear call-to-action that compels the prospect to take action now.” - Stephanie Mialki
        I don't know about you, but I don't want to be manipulated and funnelled by anyone. The concept brings about images of cattle gates funnelling animals into an abattoir. Or children being funnelled in orderly single files into the educational meat grinder. The Funnel is a trap. Best to run, fast, in the opposite direction.
       Back to the pioneering mind controller, Scott.
       He tells early marketers that, “a human has been called the reasoning animal, but they could with greater truthfulness be called the creature of suggestion.” Thus begins the "funnelling" of the beauty and complexity of what it means to be human down to docile creatures plopping out of the skinny end of restricted ways of thinking. Harry Holingworth, another early applied psychologist, also worked for the dark side.
        When advertising was in its infancy he explained that good advertising had to do four main things:
1. Grab the readers attention.
2. Focus their attention on The Message.
3. Induce the consumer internalize The Message.
4. Cause the consumer to take action and buy, buy, buy.
        Mostly what they want to create is our obedience and compliance to them and their self-serving system. “For me," poet Charles Bukowski said, "obedience to another is the decay of self."
        Allowing ourselves to be suggestible and obedient to the consumer model of exploitation is to give up the very things that makes us who we are. It is inhuman to its very core. It is anti-human, and anti-life. A human needs very little to get by, and anyone that tells us differently has dangerous, selfish motives. They care nothing for our happiness or the health of the planet. 

 

Advertising - - -what it means.

        We should not wait - the only answer to the rank manipulation of our minds and wallets is to resist now, and resist hard.

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

Psychos.

How Western freedom is spread.

 

Two Afghans enjoying freedom & democracy Western style.

 

            Imperialist America and all the hangers-on are wringing their hands and saying why did America pull out of Afghanistan, they never ask the right question, which is why did America go in to Afghanistan in the first place. Twenty years of blood shed and misery for thousands of ordinary people, 3,487 occupation forces killed, of which over 400 were UK military personnel killed on another failed American act of imperialism. Nothing new there, in its Iraqi invasion and occupation the number of Iraqis killed is given as 1,455,590. The U$A spent $83 billion training and arming the Afghan army and built a government force of over 300,000, to see it collapse in two weeks, before a supposed small group of ragtag terrorists. The scenes at Kabul airport are a mirror vision of the humiliating and chaotic fleeing of U$A from Saigon airport as the U$A pulled out of another of its failed imperialist ventures in Vietnam. Sadly humiliation never seems to deter this imperialist monster, it still stomps around the world like some super warlord, when in fact it is made up of a pack of delude psychopaths. Putting aside for a moment the human misery involved in these imperialist acts of barbarity, the financial cost is astronomical, some where in the stratosphere. Since 2001 the U$A psychopaths have spent $5,440,149,688,148 of the American people’s tax money on wars, don’t ask me to read that number out loud, I just can’t grasp that amount. Think what that could have done for green energy, hospitals, education and other social services. 

The West bringing democracy to the Middle East.

 

          When it comes to the welfare of the people, there is not enough money, when it comes to slaughter and imperialist adventures, money is no object. That’s capitalism as it is today.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Prisoners.

           You probably pass them without much of a thought, they sometimes look like a large factory or some business complex, sitting there usually quiet and uninteresting. But behind their bland walls there is a continuing tale of human degradation, misery and brutality in many guises. They are in fact state institutions for crushing human dissent. This is where the state throws individuals that don't fit into its authoritarian desires, a place to try to bury or break those who would dare to challenge its desire for omnipotence. 

      We must never forget those who find themselves enmeshed in this state process of attempting to crush dissent and never leave them forgotten to languish behind its cold unassuming walls. Prisons are a scar on the face of humanity an anathema to civilised thought.

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

        To argue and fight for a society free of domination can lead to people being thrown into the dungeons of the respective regimes. There, the bodies are to be locked up in the tightest of spaces and the resistant spirit put in chains, forged against the bare concrete walls.
        Those who are not willing to submit face a long, a very long time behind bars. But it is weeks of action like now in August 2021 that forge a bond between the people in front of and those behind the prison walls. A bond between people whose hearts beat for liberation and for freedom.
      One of the challenges seems to me to be keeping a vibrant solidarity movement intact over very long periods of time, because even as more and more states are officially renouncing the death penalty, they are shifting to locking people away for decades at a time. What may seem to some to be an even worse punishment, the sheer eternity of being locked away. In order to help the people in prison to keep hope alive, but also to give those comrades who are actively fighting in front of the walls the certainty that they will never be forgotten, action weeks can be an essential means of affirmation!
       I myself was arrested in October 1996, taken to Stuttgart-Stammheim, and spent the first 11 years in solitary confinement (in legal language, this was called “solitary confinement: uninterrupted segregation from other inmates”). Although the incoming/outgoing letters were read by the prison administration, and often copied, these letters were a bond to the people outside. This gave such strength, words cannot really describe it.
       The more often concrete physical violence is dispensed with in modern prisons, the more hopelessness, abandonment, isolation become the weapons of the regime with which the comrades want to be broken.
       In my eyes, the “Week of Solidarity” also stands for setting something loud and militant against this.

Thomas Meyer-Falk, z.Zt. Justizvollzugsanstalt (SV)

Hermann-Herder-Str. 8, 79104 Freiburg

https://freedomforthomas.wordpress.com

via: solidarity.international

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

Eton Boy!

          I sometime find it difficult to express my loathing for the political ballerinas who dominate our lives while they prostitute themselves to the corporate world for a slice of the plunder, wealth and privileges gleaned from exploiting the ordinary people. Pampered, privileged parasites of the lowest order. This little video goes some way to describing my feelings for one particular political ballerina come member of the financial Mafia. Enjoy a moment of truth. Thanks Loam for the link.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Iran.

 

        Not a lot coming out of Iran on the uprisings across the country, this little video goes some way to showing the extent of the uprisings. Let's hope that they receive the solidarity and support they will need and deserve from outside that little religious enclave.

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

Truth.

 

            Do you expect your government to be honest? Well they haven't been completely honest so far about our climate emergency, but I'm glad at last they have come out with an honest message informing us of the real situation, so listen carefully.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Anarchy.

        It is approximately a year since Stuart Christie died and the tributes still come in, this is a tribute to Stuart Christie from Kate Sharpley Library and AK Press. I'm sure comrades will be eager to place their order.

A Life For Anarchy 

 

       Over the last year have edited (and written an introduction for) A Life for Anarchy: A Stuart Christie Reader. The book contains a selection of Stuart’s writings (shorter political pieces and biographical tributes he wrote) and some of the tributes his friends and comrades paid to him.
      ‘We hope this book will give you a sense of the richness and complexity of his life. We also hope it will act as a memorial, given that we haven’t been able to meet up and celebrate his life. […]
       ‘We know that this is not the final word on Stuart’s life. Seeing the materials that people are sharing with us and the Stuart Christie Memorial Archive, we feel as though we are constantly learning more. We hope this reader gives you a sense of the breadth of his experiences, and celebrates his humanity, his morality and his intuitive grasp of anarchism.’ (from the introduction)
        Published by AK Press, it’s 280 pages long and copies will be available later in the year. Money from each copy sold will go to Stuart’s daughter, Branwen. We’ll share more information when we have it.

Salud, comrade!

Kate Sharpley Library Collective

[Top photo: Stuart working on Sanday]

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Cop-out26.

            There is a lot of excitement regarding the coming to Glasgow of the Cop 26 conference, our supposed time to remedy the failings of the past and put our planet's ecological balance to rights. However looking at the track record of these sort of things, I prefer to call it the Cop-out 26. There will lots of hot air, grandstanding speeches and photo opportunities for the good, the bad, and the ugly. I will also lay a bet that one of the world's largest polluters will not even get a mention, I refer of course to the Pentagon. This monstrous fossil fuel guzzling machine of mass destruction will sail on blissfully untarnished by any real criticism of its part in the climate emergency.

 

        The US military’s carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks, and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change.
        Greenhouse gas emission accounting usually focuses on how much energy and fuel civilians use. But recent work, including our own, shows that the US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries. If the US military were a country, its fuel usage alone would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, sitting between Peru and Portugal.
       In 2017, the US military bought about 269,230 barrels of oil a day and emitted more than 25,000 kilotons of carbon dioxide by burning those fuels. The US Air Force purchased $4.9 billion worth of fuel, and the Navy $2.8 billion, followed by the Army at $947 million and the Marines at $36 million.
       It’s no coincidence that US military emissions tend to be overlooked in climate change studies. It’s very difficult to get consistent data from the Pentagon and across US government departments. In fact, the United States insisted on an exemption for reporting military emissions in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. This loophole was closed by the Paris Accord, but with the Trump administration due to withdraw from the accord in 2020, this gap will will return.

        Roll on Cop-out 26, let's see what formula you produce to stop the impending man made climate disaster, and let's see how the various states follow through. Capitalism will trump climate change, unless we destroy capitalism, it will continue to destroy the planet and our existence on that planet. Just remember, Planet Earth has no escape capsule. 

Visit ann arky's home at:

 http://strugglepedia.co.uk/index.php?title=Main_Page 

Work.

 

           I wrote this little piece away back when I was first diagnosed with pleural plaques, the footprint of asbestos. As a young man in the shipyards, in later life I saw friends die from the horrible avoidable death of mesothelioma, lung cancer induced by asbestos. Asbestos might be banned but heading out to earn your crust of bread is still a dangerous activity. Accidents at work can and do cause death and serious injury and there is still a host of industrial diseases that plague the workers as they struggle for a decent living, this will not end until the workers control all of the means of production and distribution within the system we need to survive. Capitalism, in its necessity for profit will never eliminate these problems for the workers.

         We have come through the start of the industrial age and moved on to the hi-tec age, but every move into every industry comes with its on particular problems. Practically every industry is linked to an industrial disease. We have silicosis, lung disease prevalent among stone masons, potters grinders etc.. Then there is pneumoconiosis, mainly among coal miners, caused by breathing in fine coal dust and carbon dust. Arc-welders are at risk of manganism, manganese poisoning brought on by exposure to the toxic effects of the fumes from welding rods melting as the are used. Painters are at risk from neurological deficits from solvent‐exposure, which include impaired colour vision, cognitive defects, tremor and loss of vibration sensation. There are many more links with occupation and disease, but we are seldom told of these dangers when you apply for the job. Health and safety regulations go some way to protect workers from these dangers but usually these measures are re-active and only come after years of suffering and campaigning.
         As a young man starting my trade in the Clydeside shipyards in the 1950’s, I was ignorant of the dangers of asbestos, and as it was widely used, all of us were exposed to the horror of death from mesothelioma, an asbestos induced incurable cancer. It was not that the dangers of this substance wasn’t known, medical papers had been written about the danger from asbestos exposure as far back as the 30’s, but it continued to be used up to and including the 60’s. The employers didn’t abandon asbestos willingly, it took campaigning and legislation to finally attempt to get rid of this killer substance. That is the pattern in most of industries, its dangers are only restricted by campaigning and legislation. The profit motive drives industry, not the well being of the employee. Most industries can be made safe, but it usually requires investment in safety equipment and training and that costs money which in turn cuts into the profit. So safety in industries will always come lower down the ladder, and as times get harder, corners are cut in safety to prevent cuts in profit. The economic system we have at present does not lend itself to the welfare and well being of the workers, only when the workers control all the industries will their well being be at the fore front of production.

WHEN THE TIME-BOMB GOES OFF.

The bike just sits there,
dust covering its lovely sheen,
puffing up the Fintry Hills
well, it’s no longer my scene.
Y’see, as a Clydeside apprentice
I proudly learnt the tradesman’s skill,
little did I know then
the price, asbestos lungs that kill.
Now I just sit here through the painful day
gasping each mouthful of air, wondering
how can I make the bastards pay.
They new it was a killer
a time-bomb in our lungs
but, because it was so quick and cheap
they firmly held their tongues.
So what, if it cost the workman’s life,
there’s always a couple of new workers
in the care of the worker’s wife.
Please try to understand my anger
as I and others bear their cost,
a slow death from asbestos lungs,
a vibrant life lost.
Anguish for family and friends,
all in the name of profit;
now that really does offend.
Our anger without direction
is a blind archer behind the bow,
we have to use our anger
to smash the status-quo.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Pamphlets.

 

          We at Spirit of revolt are still unable to access our room because of covid19 restriction, but we keep plugging away at what we can still do. “Read of the Month” is still something we can continue doing. So here is our August offering from our Spirit of Revolt Archive. It is issue 1 of a little known pamphlet called “Prisoners of War”. Enjoy and then take a wee browse through our catalogue and feast on the amazing collection of serials, pamphlets, leaflets, posters and other memorabilia, all linked to anarchist, libertarian socialist ideas and history.

 

Visit ann arky's home at: 

http://strugglepedia.co.uk/index.php?title=Main_Page

Keelie.

           Bang on time, out comes the August edition, issue 21, of the Glasgow Keelie. As usual, packed with info, snapshot of the past and lots of what is happening here and now plus some of the shenanigans of our city council, that bunch that we house in the Kremlin in George Square that are hell bent on closing libraries, community centres, swimming pools etc. Check it out on line and you may be able to pick up a hard copy on the street and at events, look out for the rickshaw.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info 

Vote???

          For centuries now we have had capitalist representative democracy as the model for the world, what we should note is that this is a very clever pseudonym to give it appeal, it is not representative, nor democracy, but it is capitalism. What it has produced is a world with vast swaths of the planet living in poverty and deprivation, endless wars, a ruling cabal of ruthless billionaires and a planet that is heading for ecological disaster. This only exists because of our submissive attitude to the ballot box, the vote is the establishments hand out of paracetamol to the public, it makes them feel better but does nothing to cure their ills. Isn't time to change the way we structure our lives? Isn't it time we brought an end to this human disaster. Let's fashion our world on the bases of equality, justice, sustainability and humanity, free from the capitalist profit motive.

The following from Enough is Enough:

       Text from the German territory, where elections will take place in September: Who ever you vote for, we will be ungovernable! Going to the polls always means choosing the lesser of two evils. We don’t want to choose evils! 

#UNGOVERNABLE.

Originally published by Indymedia DE.

         Going to the polls always means choosing the lesser of two evils. We don’t want to choose evils!
         For centuries or even millennia, we have stood up for the equality of all living things, for the freedom not to harm ourselves and others, for fraternity worldwide!
         Freedom cannot be chosen, freedom has always been the freedom of those who take it. No matter which government plays its power games, we do not let ourselves be governed!
        We don’t let ourselves be banned from saving people on the high seas any more than we let ourselves be banned from creating places where people can get access and care, regardless of their purchasing power.
         We fight for a good climate of tomorrow, so that all those who come after us have a chance to live on a planet that we are willing to protect.
        We do not ask about origin, who you are is important, where you were born is not. The nation is against us, the nationality is only a game of the rulers to divide and disempower us.
        We empower ourselves, against any authority!
        We are paramedics, authors, lawyers, musicians, workers, anarchists, educators, artists, freelancers and many more!
        The ruling conditions are against you. If you are not useful to them, you will also be sorted out hard.
        We do not vote for the tyrants and their systems, for capitalism and its destructive power, for the authoritarian state and its oppression. We vote all this out and fight for a world society without domination of people over people!
         For a world in which it is worth to live. For a future full of meaning and valuable experiences.
        No government can ever bring us freedom, we can never be absorbed in their prefabricated identity structures. Only under.
        Who ever you Vote for, we will be #ungovernable! No matter who we vote for, we will remain ungovernable!
        Join the campaign and post your actions, events and practices from the world of tomorrow under the hashtag #ungovernable

 

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

Green???

 

           The world faces a crisis in CO2 emissions and the people are crying out for an end to fossil fuels among other methods of cutting those emissions, and hopefully in doing so save the planet and humanity. However, as we approach COP-OUT26, to be held in Glasgow later this year, the UK's response to this impending doom is to build a third runway at Heathrow to increase air traffic, have you ever seen a green jumbo jet? Another plan by the UK government that will be a slap in the face of those trying to cut emissions and end the of burning fossil fuels, is that they plan to drill more oil wells in the North Sea. At the same time they spout about being the greenest government on the planet, all hog wash and bullshit. These plans of insanity go ahead because a few millionaires could become billionaires and a spin off to their greedy leeches and hangers on. They are blind to the fact that they are driving at speed to suicide, which would be well and good, but sadly they will take us all with them, but we will not share in their looting of the planet. Not that it will make much difference, after the demise of humanity.
            The capitalist world will never work at saving the planet, there is too much profit to be made from plundering the earth's resources for personal gain. The profit grabbing enterprises of the capitalist economic system offers the corporate plunderers far too much wealth, power and privileges, at the expense of everybody and everything else for them to stop, they are junkies on a trip of power and wealth, fed by the sweat of you and I. We have to be the ones to stop this madness before it destroys us all and all life on the planet. This is not a painting of doom, this is a statement of facts.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info      

They Laugh.

They are laughing at us.

           So the pandemic seems to be in retreat here in the UK, during this pandemic the government poured billions of pounds into the coffers of big business, to keep their corporate friends form loosing too much of their ill-gotten gains. The debt just piled up, now it’s pay back time, that’s where you and I come in to foot the bill. Austerity the word that dare not speak its name, but is there in the guise of efficiency savings. To you and I that means closure of libraries, community centres, swimming pools, workers paid off, social services slashed and of course for many there will be a wage freeze (cuts in reality) as prices steadily move in an upward direction. Just announced is a £139 rise in energy prices for 11 million of us consumers as the price cap has been raised. The mountain of debt will have to be paid back as the financial Mafia set out their terms of repayment and demand their pound of flesh and it is you and I that will bleed, not the billionaire class who gained so much during this pandemic.
        During the pandemic while you and I struggled as best we could, the one class that saw their wealth balloon was the billionaire class. Just a couple of headlines make this very clear: Billionaires' wealth rises to $10.2 trillion amid Covid crisis and The billionaire boom: how the super-rich soaked up Covid cash and COVID-19 has made the super-rich richer. It’s time for a billionaire wealth tax and Billionaires got 54% richer during pandemic, sparking calls for "wealth tax" of course you and I know, there will be no wealth tax, and if there is it will be some small change they have in their pocket. That suggestion is just a paracetamol for the public, it makes them feel better but does nothing for their problem.
         If nothing else, this pandemic showed up the glaring inequalities inherent in this economic system. While you and I struggled to survive this pandemic the billionaire class and their government cronies, were laughing at us. It is long past the time when we should stand up and wipe that smile of their smug faces. The efficiency savings and our struggle for a decent life will continue and that struggle will become more difficult, unless we take on this billionaire driven system of greed, inequality and exploitation. It is a man made economic system, not the words from above written in tablets of stone. Let’s organise to bring it crashing down once and for all, we can create that better world for all.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

War.

Photo accreditation:

      A poem by a poet I know nothing of, Corbin Owens, but would like to know more, any info would be much appreciated.

A short man from Texas
A man of the wild
Thrown into combat
Where bodies lie piled
Hides his emotions
His blood is running cold
Just like his victories
His story unfolds
Bright, a white light
If there'd be
Any glory in war
Let it rest
On men like him
Dead men will never come back
Crosses grow on Anzio
Where no soldier sleeps
And where hell is six feet deep
That death does wait
There's no debate
So charge and attack
Going to hell and back
A man of the 15th
A man of can do
Friends fall around him
And yet he came through
Let them fall face down
If they must die
Making it easier
To say goodbye
Bright, a white light
If there'd be
Any glory in war
Let it rest
On men like him
Who went to hell and came back
Crosses grow on Anzio
Where no soldier sleeps
And where hell is six feet deep
That death does wait
There's no debate
So charge and attack
Going to hell and back
Oh gather 'round me
And listen while I speak
Of a war where hell is six feet deep
And all along the shore
Where cannons still roar
They're haunting my dreams
They're still there when I sleep
He saw crosses grow on Anzio
Where no soldier sleeps
And where hell is six feet deep
That death does wait
There's no debate
He charged and attacked
He went to hell and back

Corbin Owens

Visit ann arky's home at:

 http://strugglepedia.co.uk/index.php?title=Main_Page