Image courtesy of The National.
The launch of Glasgow's Enough is Enough campaign on Wednesday 7th September saw the Old Fruit Market Hall jammed packed with people demanding action on the cost of living crisis, (exploitation crisis) There was anger and passion from the audience and the speakers. Let's hope that this will spill over onto our streets and generate a mass movement to bring justice and fairness to our society.
An Extract from Spunk Library:
Throughout the 'hippy era we had championed the cause of peace, some of us had been on the first CND marches and, with sadness, had watched the movement being eroded by political greed. Throughout the 'drop out and cop out' period we hung on to the belief that 'real' change can only come about through personal example, because of this we rejected much of hippy culture, notably the emphasis on drugs, as being nothing but escapism.
It is sad that many punks appear to be resorting to the same means of escape while in their blind hypocrisy they accuse hippies of never having 'got it together' - neither will these new prophets of the pipe dream.
We had hoped that through a practical demonstration of peace and love, we would be able to paint the grey world in new colours; it is strange that it took a man called Hope the only 'real' hippy with whom we ever directly became creatively involved, to show us that that particular form of hope was a dream. The experiences to which our short friendship led made us realise that it was time to have a rethink about the way in which we should pursue our vision of peace. Wally's death showed us that we could not afford to 'sit by and let it happen again'. In part, his death was our responsibility and although we did everything that we could. it was not enough.
Desire for change had to be coupled with the desire to work for it, if it was worth opposing the system, it was worth opposing it totally. It was no longer good enough to take what we wanted and to reject the rest, it was time to get back into the streets and attack, to got back and share our experiences and learn from the experiences of others. A year after Wally's death, the Pistols released 'Anarchy in the UK', maybe they didn't really mean it ma'am, but to us it was a battle cry. When Rotten proclaimed that there was 'no future', we saw it as a challenge to our creativity - we knew that there was a future if we were prepared to work for it. It is our world, it is ours and it has been stolen from us We set out to demand it back, only this time round they didn't call us 'hippies', they called us 'punks'.
Penny Rimbaud, London, jan/Mar., '82.
The Glasgow Keelie No.34 is out today, as usual it packs a punch. From the con of the smart meter to the energy crisis, (exploitation crisis) where are the strikes, how to support them, how to get involved in this struggle for justice. We have had bubbling Boris and now limp Liz, and it is that same old waffle of pie in the sky. Now is the time to let that anger burst out, take to the streets and take control of our lives. The Glasgow Keelie will be at The Old Fruit Market at the launch of the "Enough is Enough" campaign, tonight Wednesday 7pm. 7th September 2022. Get down there, grab your copy of the Glasgow Keelie and support the campaign.
Researcher Stephen Semler documented the 21 distinct military aid packages that the Joe Biden administration approved for Ukraine in the year between August 2021 and August 2022, at a total of $40.13 billion.
Two of those 21 pledges were approved before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Excluding these two presidential drawdowns from August and December 2021, which are worth $260 million combined, the Biden administration passed $39.87 billion for military aid in Ukraine between February 25, 2022 (the day after the Russian invasion) and August 19, 2022.
This $39.87 billion in pledged military aid divided by the 175 days between February 25, 2022 and August 19, 2022 comes out to an average of approximately $228 million per day.
This spending does not include the billions more that the US government has pledged in economic aid to Ukraine. It likewise excludes the tens of billions of dollars of military aid that European countries have approved for Ukraine.
For September Read of the Month, we at Spirit of Revolt bring you a fascinating booklet of the occupation of Mainshill Woods in Lanarkshire to prevent opencast coal mining destroying the woods. It is from The Hetherigton Collection, T SOR-2. It details tactics, strategies and survival techniques. Excellent drawings and descriptions. A wealth of useful information. A must read.
What sort of world do we tolerate, a world that throws billions at the fanciful and war, but struggles to find the money to alleviate the suffering of millions. Pakistan is almost one third wiped out, millions are homeless and facing starvation, and the UN appeals for $160 million in emergency aid for that country. However, the EU and 27 countries committed more than $1 billion of military aid to Ukraine in the first week of the war in Ukraine, that figure has ballooned since then. Then there is the latest American prestige plan, the giant moon rocket. This gigantic toy of the rich and powerful was budgeted at $10 billion, with a launch date that looked like a calendar. First 2017 then 2018-19-20-21 and then 2022. The total spend comes in somewhere around $93 billion with each subsequent launch coming in at around $4 billion a pop. These sort of priorities tell us a lot about the values of this capitalism and imperialist system that taints the human race. How much longer will we tolerate this vicious, cruel insane system of greed and wealth to have power over our lives?
A thought for the day;
I wrote this little piece in October 2003, I think it is more relevant today than when I penned back then.
A Wider View.
If we care to look beyond the shopping malls and the mainstream media we can see that capitalism is responsible for countless thousands of deaths from poverty, not because there isn’t enough to go round, it is simply that there is no profit in it. In the world today, twenty two children die from starvation every minute of every day, while excess food in the West is stockpiled. Have you ever asked yourself “WHY”? What kind of system would tolerate such blatant cruelty, what kind of people would tolerate such a system? The answer is of course, capitalism is the system, we are that people. How much longer can we allow this to continue? How much longer can we allow the greed of corporate capitalism to rape and plunder this world in its quest for profit? There is an alternative, this so called Western “Democracy” must be stood on it head. An end to the privileged few of the corporate world working hand in hand with State power to use our lives for ever greater profit. This world and its resources belong to the people, to be shared according to our needs. The only way to reclaim our world is to take control of our own lives and organise outside the party political system, at local and community level. We must be the decision makes in the interest of our children, to enrich our own lives, and the preservation of the planet. We don’t need Kings, Presidents or leaders to tell us how to live our lives, their track record is one of wars, greed and exploitation. Let’s sweep them away into the dustbin of history and organise for an era of mutual aid across all cultures, organise at community level in federation with other communities. Let’s see an end to the Nation State and with it, national wars, patriotism and boundaries, a free and colourful world that belongs to free and colourful people.
Most of us go to the grave with our music still inside us!!
The message is getting louder, "We refuse to be poor anymore", again Glasgow showed support for the RMT picket at Glasgow Central Station, today August 20th. Colourful banners and vociferous street support, is now the common sight in our cities around the country. Let's join them up and bring this stinking system of greed and privileged wealth to a grinding halt to which it will never recover. Poverty is not our lot as a given, we create that wealth, we are the owners of that wealth, we should decide how that wealth will be divided.
Some photos from Saturday's picket.
Spirit of Revolt Archive is a treasure trove of anarchist and libertarian socialist history from Glasgow and Clydeside area and some from further afield. It is 11 years old and is run by a small dedicate band of unpaid volunteers. We receive no funding from unions, companies or political parties, but sadly we still live in a capitalist world and there are costs involved. We rely solely on the financial support from friends supporters and comrades. We work hard at getting as much material up on line and free to access. If you think we are doing a worthwhile job and would like to see the archive grow and carry on collecting, storing and digitising our history, then perhaps you could think of donating the price of a couple of coffees a month, any donation no matter how little is most appreciated, direct debits gives us a guarantee to plan and develop into the future. Solidarity.
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For August Read of the Month, Spirit of Revolt gives you two issues of the Magazine Anarchy, No.15 and 16. We can always learn from the past, and Spirit of Revolt is a treasure chest of anarchist and libertarian socialist history. Feel free to delve in, we have digitised thousands of documents, photos, magazines, pamphlets and much more. All this is free for you to prowl through and learn from the actions and theory of those who, in the past, have fought the battle for that better life for all.
