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movements across the world are coming together to take action – from
indigenous struggles to trade unions, from racial justice groups to
youth strikers.
The Covid pandemic means that not everyone can travel to Glasgow. That is why on the 6th November, we’re calling for decentralised actions worldwide. Wherever you are in the world, you can help bring climate justice to COP26. |
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issue 67 Aug. '08
WHO WILL DIE THIS WINTER??
Energy firm Centrica, owners of British Gas, recently announced a massive 35% price increase to take effect immediately. A day or so later they announced a profit of almost one billion pounds for the six months to June 30th. This was £100 million higher than the city financial spivs were expecting, this did not however, cause them to revue their price increase. So while the city spivs were rubbing their sweaty palms in greedy glee, the rest of us are probably sweating while thinking of our next gas bill, of course you will not be sweating come the winter when you cannot afford to heat your home. British Gas managing director, Phil. Bentley, stated, “We very much regret that we have had to make this decision at a time when many household budgets are already under pressure” I wonder, how cold will his house be this winter and how much pressure is his household budget under?
Every winter in Scotland there is an large increase in deaths among pensioners, mainly from cold related health problems. Pensioners and others on low income in this country cannot heat their homes properly during the winter and have to make that third world choice, “to eat or to heat”.
The recent fuel price increases will push even larger numbers of vulnerable pensioners and low income families further into the pit of fuel poverty. Many will die and others will suffer health problems that will stay with them the rest of their life.
Look around you, see the old and the low income families, try to visualise the ones that wont make it through the winter. Try to think of how they will die, their life slowly ebbing, their dignity disintegrating as the temperature falls and the dampness bites. As one of the richest nations on the planet are we prepared to see our friends and neighbours die in poverty because of the greed of shareholders? Are we prepared to stand by and feed the rich parasites at the expense of those around us? Or will try to change things so that we see to the needs of all our friends and neighbours, put an end to such indignities as death from fuel poverty and put all the natural resources in the hands of the people?
ann arky would be interested to hear how you will cope with this massive increase in gas prices and what you think should be done. annarky@radicalglasgow.me.uk
Population management is now supposedly the responsibility of everyone. Obedience to the state has been dressed up as solidarity. More surveillance is called freedom. All in the name of a return to normal life that appears as a mirage in the desert. Should we rehash for the umpteenth time a comparison to 1984? Its author might have thought that it takes a continuous and considerate effort to see what’s right in front of your nose; can we truly say that? Is it difficult to see what’s going on? Or is it that we speak different languages and will find no common understanding of life?
We could jump into the fray, unveil their lies, battle for the real meaning of words, uphold a correct perception of reality. But then we would be entering the realm of politics where we can only fight with words without radically changing the narrative. A stubbornness that can have its value to demonstrate the absurdism of society. But only by refusing to do politics can we challenge the power of this system over our lives. That also means that we cannot pretend to have solutions at hand for the crises we’re passing through. The existence of capitalism is based in the progressive destruction of the living conditions of all living beings.
The blackmail has always been the same; we should do as they say or our own survival is at stake. We’re held hostages in the name of the economy, the nation, and now public health. Our health is instrumentalised in their disgusting game of politics – the legitimisation for an expansive surveillance; tracing whom we met, where we have been, where we will go to. Expanding control to a level where it becomes normal that going to the movies necessitates carrying the right certificates and surrendering our data. Triggering the most basic of fears – the fear of death, of loss – they mobilize obedience to fulfil their dirty dreams of authority: lockdowns, curfews, border closures.
Seeing this summer which is marked by extreme weather, wildfires and floods – products of the exploitation of the planet – this will be more and more the reality of this society. There are no pragmatic proposals to be made. The wager stays the same, to refuse their game (false choices between quick and superficial fixes to real crises), to be lucid and sabotage the vicious cycle of domination.Summer 2021
Free download, PDF (A4)
Squatting is not a pastime, it is not a event perpetrated by casual criminals, it is a process forced on ordinary people in a society that has no regard for the right of people to have a place to stay. Squatting is a product of an inhuman system that allows rich speculators to leave property empty some times for years on end, in search of greater profit, while people desperately seek a place to live. The fact that the state will always come down hard on the squatter rather than the property speculator, who in all probability lives in luxury, is proof, if you need it, where the state's priorities lie. The housing shortage will never be solved as long as we perpetuate this system of state/corporate profit before people. A housing shortage keeps prices high allowing property speculators, banks and mortgage brokers to pile their ill gotten gains high in some off shore tax haven bank account. You would be a fool and extremely naive if you expect the present system to solve the housing shortage Decent housing for all will only arrive after we demolish the present system of state/corporate capitalism.
The following from Enough is Enough:
Image: Demonstration against housing crisis in Amsterdam on September 12, 2021. Image by Indymedia NL.
Originally published by Woonprotest Twitter account. Translated by Riot Turtle.
Yesterday (September 12, 2021, Enough 14) we had a great protest and a powerful march. But we have to dwell on something else: after the march, people tried to squat a building near Dam Square which has been empty for a long time. The riot police prevented that from happening and in the process the police used excessive force. Among other things, a person who was already fully enclosed was hit on the head with a steel baton. We are deeply shocked and condemn this police violence. Our support goes out to the people who were injured, suffered trauma or ended up in jail.
Let it be clear: we are pro squatting, we said that on stage, we said that in the media and so we are still saying that now. Squatting should be decriminalized because it is part of the fundamental housing right. Indeed, squatting plays an important role in the fight against parasitic investors who leave many good residential properties empty. The real problem is the prioritization of the interests of speculators who do not care about our housing and our right to have a place to live. Squatting is the result of inhuman mismanagement.
We are also working behind the scenes to take concrete action on this and to do something about it because this is unacceptable.
Again, our deep thanks to all the people who were there, who couldn’t be there but support us and are part of the movement and everyone who supported us. This has to be a tipping point. This is the beginning of a new movement.Woonprotest, September 13, 2021.
Further reading: Attempted squatting action on Graven Street and police brutality [Amsterdam, Netherlands]
Addition by Enough 14: All arrestees from Sunday were released again.
During the last 18 months many former consumers have said "Bye-Bye" to Buy, Buy, Buy. Either by choice, or by force, or both, many are joining the ranks of anti-consumer survivors across the globe.
If the power brokers ever succeed in "restarting the economy", many of those former consumers will never say "Hello" to consumerism again. They are finished.
Many can see that it may be prudent at this juncture in history to switch from being a consumer to being a survivor. Unless you are very rich, you can't be both.
When you leave consumption as a way of life behind you, it is possible to see the way forward more clearly.
Survivors are focused on growing a garden and raising their own food. They are busy investing in social capital and their local community and economy.
Survivors look for ways of circumventing the negative effects of corporate and government control of our lives. They make changes that allow them to operate outside of the matrix.
Making a conscious choice to become self-reliant and resilient as a family, group, or community means becoming active survivors rather than continuing on as passive, dependent consumers.
Eventually we will all need to reject the mindless waste of the Buy, Buy, Buy propaganda we have been subjected to for far too long. Bye-bye.
Two events that have been prominent in our mainstream media recently have been the Afghanistan withdrawal and the American 9/11 revenge attack. These two events have had our political ballerinas spouting sound bites, hand-wringing, finger pointing and the usual flag waving, while spewing out patriotism, that poison that leads to fascism and war. Of course we know that 99% of all of that media bubble gum and popcorn is pure unadulterated bullshit.
With that little comment I thought I would share these two videos with you. Thanks Loam for the links.
Visit ann arky's home at;
As most Westerners remember 9/11, a dreadful tragedy in which almost 3,000 people died, a disaster which was a retaliation for Western imperialism from those who resent it most. It was an incident that marred so many innocent lives and those are the people our hearts must go out to in sympathy. However 3,000 deaths are dwarfed by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, that have died at the hands of the Western imperialist foreign policies. From the Philippines, 1899-1902, Vietnam, 1969-1973, Iraq, 2003-2011, Afghanistan, 2001-2021, are just some of the Western imperialists foreign policies that have turned so many against the West.
A brief history of Three Mile Island nuclear disaster.
Nuclear power can never be green and can never be safe, apart from each one being a ticking time-bomb, remember Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima. Cleaning up the site where a nuclear power station was can take years and in some cases the ground can't be used for hundreds of years. It is estimate that the ground where Dunreay nuclear research facility stood will be out of use for at least 300 years. Then there is the problem of getting rid of the waste from these radioactive monsters, the only thing they can think of is to ship it to some other part of the planet and bury it, leaving it to leak into the water table to be dealt with by future generations.
Burying it is what is being planned in France, transporting it across country to an area where the people have no desire what so ever, to have this radio active dump on the doorstep.
In Bure (France), the State wants to build a center for burrying nuclear waste. In September 2021, the public hearing to determine the public utility (DUP) of the CIGÉO project will begin. A pseudo-participatory show that will open the way for the next works and expropriations. Our “public participation” means resistance and sabotage – exiting nuclear power requires manual work.
How can it be legal to train hard so as to be able to hit your opponent as hard as possible as often as you can in the hope of making them unconscious? How can this be called a “sport”, when the aim is to incapacitate your opponent as fast as you possible can? Invariably it is kids from poor backgrounds that see it as one way to get rich. It would be impossible to ban this barbaric activity, the only way to see it die would be to starve it of money, tax it out of existence, so that it is not worth all the hard training. If you indulged in this activity without putting the words amateur or professional in front of it, and without turning into a money making enterprise, you would be charged with assault or murder.
This capitalist system where money is your key to quality of life, desperate people will do desperate things. The opportunity to get rich quick can lure people into very dangerous situations and boxing is one very dangerous activity, but it is the promoters and the sports media that make all the really big bucks, but they don’t get punched to death.
For many years now ACE in Edinburgh has been a hub of struggle against this repressive exploitative system, it has been the centre of support for all those at the receiving end of the state's vindictiveness from the marginalised to immigrants, a centre of friendship, learning and support. Sadly like all these hubs they are subject to the vagaries of the capitalist system, so after years there paying their rent the owner has decided to sell the property to a developer. So now they have to move and find a new home, in Edinburgh that's not easy, nor is it cheap so there is an appeal to help save this vital centre and continue their great work in support and activism.
NEWS FROM THE AUTONOMOUS CENTRE OF EDINBURGH
ACE FUND-RAISING APPEAL
Thanks very much to all who have contributed so far, we have received a good number of donations. However ACE still needs more financial support to be able to move to new premises as our enquiries have shown that the going rate for rent for similar premises is at least double our current rent. We need to find a new building soon as the owners are moving forward with steps to sell our premises at 17 West Montgomery Place. Help save ACE!
Please go to the fund-raising appeal page at https://autonomous.org.uk/2021/05/31/urgent-appeal/
I remember when CCTV cameras were first introduced to our streets. There was quite an outcry about privacy etc.. Of course the state being what it is, ignored all that concern of the public, and now we have an unbelievable array of cameras, they are everywhere. They are in pubs, shops, cash machines, stations, clubs, schools, on all our transport, etc.. They have developed immensely since there introduction from number plate recognition to face recognition, and the data collected can be used to build a picture of your habits, it can all be logged and kept for future reference. All this takes place in our so called "democracy", no matter where you go, you are being tracked, and of course your mobile phone will plot your movements and store that information. The state has plans to create a society where there is no place to hid. It is important to the state and its attendant apparatus to know where your are, should you be there, where are you going, have you permission to go there, and for what purpose. All possible with the ever present, always watching eye of the camera and your phone.
The following from Act For Freedom Now:
While power continues to ravage and plunder territories, bodies and souls, we can still count on individuals who do not resign themselves and who, in spite of everything, continue on the tortuous path of freedom.
The capitalist system, now well established, always ready to hide behind the mask of democracy and security, unveils its tentacles a little more each day, which are insinuating themselves into the life of each individual, as well as into the exploitation of the earth, water and air. Those who (finally) realize this and those who are aware of it and have been opposing it for a long time, are immediately beaten and repressed, so that the dirty integrity of the authority that watches over the order and the instituted system is not damaged. Because of this, companions who have always thrown themselves with their tension against the power, see their affinities described as “terrorist associations”, their lives monitored and their freedom limited.
Faced with the current intensification of the exploitation of the weakest and the exploited, the new shaping of the repressive strategies (from the violent repression of the revolts in the prisons to the repression by force of the struggles in the logistic sector, to the permanent persecution of the immigrants, up to the more and more common application of the preventive measures of surveillance) carries its effects, always more incisive and widespread, with the purpose of putting in a corner those who struggle.
From Bologna to Cagliari, Genoa, Turin, Florence and Rovereto, the requests for the application of the Special Surveillance fall as if it were raining. It is a dirty and detestable fascist measure, which aims to strike in a discretionary way behaviors considered “dangerous” for the maintenance of the system.
On September 15, the Genoa court will give its decision on the request of the Prosecutor Stalker Manotti to apply this measure of preventive surveillance to a fellow anarchist, after the same measure has already been applied to two Genoese companions during the last year.
Since always, Anarchists and all the courageous bearers of rebellious ideas see the power experimenting on their lives, on their struggles, repressive strategies that will be later used against all those who refuse to bow their heads in front of an ever more oppressive system, which follows the merciless dictates of the mechanisms of prevarication and marginalization of the weak, the exploited, the “different” people, with the aim of isolating and sidelining the “enemies” of this order, now more than ever.
It is now even more necessary to respond with determination and rage to these continuous attacks. We are aware that our enemy will continue to attack us, trying to limit our freedoms even more, but we have long since chosen our side.
Wednesday, September 15th,
9:30 am: gathering in front of the court of Genoa
5:00 pm: demonstration from Piazza Banchi
In solidarity with Carlo, hit by the request of Special Surveillance, and with all the companions affected by this preventive measure.
Against the special surveillance of our thoughts, our behaviors, our relationships, against the power and the system that supports it.
Source: Attaque
