Rebellion

             We are in the midst of a corporate greed crisis where live becomes increasingly difficult for most of us, having to make choices of what meals to cut and what bills to pay, this adds to daily stress and causes increase in health problems. Meanwhile, the state's response is to increase the powers of its minders, the police, and push through ever more draconian legislation restricting our rights. As life becomes more difficult the right to protest is becoming a criminal offence, a deliberate policy from the state to openly say, submit or face punishment. Under such burdening conditions the only road that seems open to us is to rebel, as the state has shut down all other means of meaningful objection to this nightmare of poverty and repression.
            The recent events in Cardiff should not come as a surprise to those living under these state imposed draconian conditions. The anger that has been simmering under the surface for years is about to explode, as the people stand up and say, enough is enough. It is time to stand up and state, the streets are ours and we will not surrender them without a bloody fight. 

The following from Act For Freedom Now.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritifrevolt.info 

Workers' City.

 

              This video is from From https://spiritofrevolt.info/audio-video/ Collection. An event put on by Spirit of Revolt to remember and learn from Glasgow's Workers City group (1988 - 1993). It was a Spirit of Revolt Show And Tell event, well attended and enjoyed. Hope you enjoy and perhaps learn something from this.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info 

Pollok Free State.

           Pollok Free State was a long bitter struggle to save part of Pollok Estate being carved into a motorway to suit the corporate bodies that transport goods for profit, destroying ancient trees & habitat of hundreds of species in the process. Of course the cry from the powers that be was, "it will be good for the economy" and screw the planet. we are fortunate that Spirit of Revolt Archive, has a large collection of photos and documents of the struggle at https://spiritofrevolt.info/simon-yuill-collection/ SoR-25-2-1. All free to view.

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info

Inflation.

 

 

                                                 Image courtesy of MR Online.

              It always amazes me how those privileged parasites' minds work, those wrapped up in their bubble of opulence, the pundits of the capitalist system. Our own Chancellor of the Exchequer, one Hunt, states that the Bank of England has no alternative but to raise the bank rate yet again. The theory behind this is that this will make thing more expensive and so discourage people from spending then inflation should start to fall. This plan, when people are struggling to pay for the necessities of life, is to discourage them from spending. What is it that we have to stop spending on? Is basic food items, kids breakfasts, washing powder, toilet rolls, heating. Their thinking shows a complete disregard for the life and well-being of the public at large, a total misunderstanding of how we are struggling for a decent life as things are at the moment. The point they ignore or sweep under the carpet is that inflation is not driven by wage increases but is driven by corporate greed. Rather than making their corporate buddies pay for the inflation they place the burden on you and I. Capitalism is insane economics that favours the few at the expense of the many and the few will do their damnedest to make sure it stays that way, no matter the pain, poverty and anxiety that this places on the many.
        We know there is a fairer way of organising society, we have imagination, the ability and the power to create that better fairer society. All we need is the will to come together in solidarity and dismantle this crushing burden of privileged parasites grasping all the wealth we create, and start organising our communities in co-operation, to see to the needs of all our people, freed from the greed driven profit motive. Let's place capitalism in the dustbin of history under the label of humanity's darkest hour.

 Image courtesy of Robert Reich.

 

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Election.

Does this look like a day in your working life?

Image courtesy of UK Parliament.

          With three bye-elections and a general election on the not too distant horizon, our political ballerinas are in a flutter. Will they still be on the gravy train after the election, will they be knocked off their luxury perch? These are the problems that fill the minds of our privileged political class. However, you and I should know, if we have ever looked at the history of elections over more than a couple of centuries, that our freedoms have never come from the ballot box. The suffragettes didn't get the vote by voting, our trade unions weren't born from the ballot box. Everything we have ever gained as a class, has been through determined struggle, direct action and solidarity of the people. So get used to the fact, the next election will be a close relation to what we are already experiencing, no matter what colour of tie wins a majority.
         The usual mantras will be chanted, "difficult choices have to be made", "we must grow the economy to improve our living standards". Meanwhile you and I will suffer austerity in a variety of names and guises, struggle to try to have a decent life for our kids, waiting for that pie in the sky when the economy will give us the promised land. However, our political ballerinas and their corporate buddies will be living the life of luxury. When will be get wise and decide that we will no longer be shafted by a bunch of wealthy privileged parasites. When do we say, enough is enough, we will govern ourselves, we don't need you, you are dependent on us.

         Our government functions with more that 755 peers which includes 25 bishops in the House of Lords and more than 650 MPs in the House of Commons, all paid handsomely plus expenses from our tax money. Do you think we get value for our money? 

 

Image courtesy of the Daily Mail.

 

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Nazi.

 

Image courtesy of Radio Free Europe.

 

An interesting article by author and journalist Patrick Lawrence

 

           "I tell you, serving as a New York Times correspondent these days cannot be

easy. You have to convey utter nonsense to your readers while maintaining a straight face and a serious demeanor. You have to suggest the Russians may have exploded a drone over the Kremlin, that they may have blown up their own gas pipeline, that their president is an out-of-touch psychotic, that their soldiers in Ukraine are drunkards using faulty equipment, that they attack with “human hordes” (Orientalism, anyone?) and on and on—all the while affecting the gravitas once associated with the traditional “Timesman.” You try it sometime.
        I am reminded of that pithy passage in Daniel Boorstin’s regrettably overlooked book, The Image. “The reporter’s task,” Boorstin wrote in 1962, “is to find a way of weaving these threads of unreality into a fabric that the reader will not recognize as entirely unreal.”
           Boorstin reflected on America’s resort to imagery, illusion, and distortion as Washington geared up its gruesome follies in Vietnam. The reporter’s task is a whole lot harder now, given how much farther we have wandered into illusion and distortion since Boorstin’s day.
          And now we have the case of Thomas Gibbons–Neff, a square-jawed former Marine covering the Ukraine war for The Times—strictly to the extent the Kyiv regime permits him to do so, as he explains with admirable honesty. This guy is serious times 10, he and his newspaper want us to know.
         Tom’s job this week is to persuade us that all those Ukrainian soldiers wearing Nazi insignia, idolizing Jew-murdering, Russophobic collaborators with the Third Reich, gathering ritually in Nazi-inspired cabals, marching through Kyiv in Klan-like torch parades are not what you think. Nah, our Tom tells us. They look like neo–Nazis, they act like neo–Nazis, they dress like neo–Nazis, they profess Fascist and neo–Nazi ideologies, they wage this war with the Wehrmacht’s visceral hatred of Russians—O.K., but why ever would you think they are neo–Nazis?
            They are just regular guys. They wear the Wolfsangel, the Schwarze sonne, the black sun, the Totenkopf, or Death’s Head—all Nazi symbols—because they are proud of themselves, and these are the kinds of things proud people wear. I was just wearing mine the other day.

            Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Radical Glasgow Blog.

 

           I post this article to draw attention to who and what our government could be supporting with your tax money.

 

Image courtesy of Forward.
 

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BoJo.

                                               Image courtesy of Umbrella online.

           The mainstream media has made a big splash about Boris the Buffoon resigning from Parliament, let the speculation begin. Boris has jumped before he was pushed, Boris will do anything  to save his earning capacity. This liar, charlatan, narcissistic, bumbling, incoherent product of the Oxbridge sausage factory came to gain power because of his wealth and background, not because of his intelligence. He is typical of what the mass producers at the Oxbridge sausage factory turnout, power because of the wealth and privileges, yet these are the people we constantly hand over our power to, for them to "take care of our affairs". By now we should have learned that all they do is look after their corporate conies and their own off-shore accounts. Time and time again they are found to be dodging taxes, claiming expenses to which they are not entitled. They take petty jobs with large companies and receive fabulous fees, not for their knowledge of the business, but for the strings they can pull in parliament. So while they continually stuff their off shore accounts, they give us austerity, underfunded NHS, closed libraries, swimming pools, community centres a crumbling education system and a collapsed social care service. While they allow the corporate world to rip us off with hyper-inflation, so that the financial Mafia can recapitalise their rotten corrupt system. So rejoicing at the departure of one of these political ballerinas is an empty celebration, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, is still stuffed full of narcissistic greed driven charlatans, still riding the gravy train, which we, in our blind folly, fund and allow them to do without hindrance. Bring the whole rotten system down, it's the only answer to our problems.

                                              Image courtesy of Wealden District.

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Guards.

 

           More poetry from His Majesty's Prisons. Taken from the book Chains of Hate, The Prison Poetry of Sammy Ralston, published by Random Factor, Edinburgh and distributed by Edinburgh Black Cross, 

 

 Who Guards The Guards.

Enquiries were held, everyone agreed
The prisoner was murdered - a terrible deed.
Three prison guards charged into his cell
A vicious onslaught, a defenceless man fell,
Kicked him and punched him, broke flesh and bone,
Left him there to die all alone.

Who Guards the guards? The question was cried.
Who guards the guards? But no-one replied.
Who guards the guards? His last dying breath.
Who guards the guards that beat him to death?

Court was assembled, culprits brought to book
Statements were given, the oath it was took -
But killers went free - no retribution,
'Not Guilty' verdicts - a legal execution.
They say justices is blind, that much is plain,
She would have wept to see what was done in her name.

Who guards the guards? the question was cried.
Who guards the guards? But no-one replied
Who guards the guards? His last dying breath.
Who guards the guards that beat him to death?

Hey mister screw! Help us understand
How your conscience justifies blood on your hands.
Do you still sleep at night, do your kids fear your touch?
Can you look into your wife's eyes, does it bother you much
That a prisoner's been murdered and no-one's to blame......?
Just clean up his blood......and score out his name.

Who guards the guards? his last dying breath.
 Who guards the guards the beat him to death? 

 

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Fail 22.

  

      System Fail 22 just released and as usual packed with information that the mainstream media turn a blind eye to, to bring you bubble gum, popcorn and celebrity frivolity, with an overdose of Western propaganda.
       This episode of System Fail has a wide coverage, highlighting the tensions between Indigenous communities and the settler colonial state in Brazil. The lower house of Brazil's congress passed a bill, PL 490, which aims to open up Indigenous territories for mining and capitalist development, subjecting established Indigenous land claims to legal challenges. The Indigenous communities have resisted the bill through blockades and protests.
       Next it cover the Bwa Kale movement in Haiti, where residents take up arms against gangs terrorizing their communities, liberating their neighbourhoods and building up organization of community self-defence.
       Lastly, riots erupted in Cardiff, Wales, following the deaths of two teenage boys who crashed their e-bike while being chased by police.

For more on the Bwa Kale movement in Haiti:

https://twitter.com/arismateno
https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/
https://archive.org/details/dekan_05.06.23/dekan_05.06.23_A.mp3

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

HMP.

            I reproduce this poem here as I think it is important to remind the general public that His Majesty's Prisons house human beings with talent and creative and independent minds and a desire for love and peace.
            It is taken from the book Independent Minds, New Poetry from HMP Kilmarnock, edited by Kevin Williamson and published by Luath Press, Edinburgh, ISBN 978-1-910021-00-2

Forgive and Forget,

Can we now forgive humanity
For all its abuse and brutality?
Wars in the east; wars in the west
For politicians, 'cause they know best.

It's in our interest or so they say
Those power games they make us play.
Fight and kill in the Lord God's name
So who is guilty and who's to blame?

Be it opium, gold, diamonds or oil
There's been so much blood soaked into the soil
And brain washed minds now rotten to the core,
So how can mankind take much more?

It's time to forgive, but do we forget
Or forever live in the shadow of threat?
So Mother, Father, Sister and Brother
Live now in peace and love one another.

David. 

 

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McLibel.

 

         Spirit of Revolt, for June Read of the Month, brings you a battle of the ordinary against the corporate juggernaut, This is when a brave young couple took on the might of MacDonalds and cost the company a fortune in cash and gave them a mountain of bad publicity. It became famous as the McLibel case. Delve in and enjoy more of the material held in Spirit of Revolt’s extensive array of history of our common struggles against this oppressive capitalist system of insane economics, injustice and inequality. Spirit of Revolt is probably the largest collection in Scotland  of anarchist, libertarian socialist and struggles of the ordinary people, your history of struggle for that better world for all.

                                                READ ON LINE

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

Caged.

 

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

Maya Angelou

                                            Image courtesy of Brtiannica.

             Do you "stand on the grave of dreams" long for "Things unknown but longed for still" Do you sing of freedom and a desire to break free from your cage of conventions?
            We all have that burning desire to be free, yet most accept to be caged in the strict confines and dictates of a human devised system of greed and selfishness, shackled to the confines of the financial markets and the parasite class that owns it and controls it to their own advantage. Why?
          That cage can be broken, its bars torn asunder, and that better world for all created. It is up to us, our solidarity and determination to be free to come together in communities and workplaces and take control of our lives and the society in which we live. We are the creators of all the riches of this world, we can and should take control of all those riches to see to the needs of all our people. Let's break that cage of conventions, grasp our freedom and create that better world for all. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren. 

 

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

NHS.

 

Image courtesy of Keep Our NHS Public

         The NHS is our service, it is there to see to our health needs, our accidents and our elderly. It is obvious that the political ballerinas that shape our lives are hell-bent on driving us to private health care, where they and their rich financial cronies can make lots of money from our misfortunes. It is our service and it should not be up to the staff to fight for its survival. We all must join the fight to save our NHS, to rely on staff strikes and pickets to do our job for us isn't good enough. We have to take to the streets in vast numbers demanding fair and decent conditions for all NHS staff and sufficient funding to put it back on its feet, and stop the rot that is a deliberate policy and not an accident of fate. There is not an man, woman, our child in this country, that will not rely on the NHS at some point in their lives, as it is being managed by the government to fail, all our lives are being impoverished. It is our duty to our sick, injured and elderly, as well as future generations that we stand together and stop this destruction of a vital part of any civilised society. It is our service, let's fight tooth and nail and do all that is necessary for its survival as a free excellent resource for us all. Don't allow the political ballerinas, the financial Mafia and their private health care to demolish our NHS, solidarity wins the day.

                                                     Image courtesy of inews.

 

                                                       Image courtesy of WION

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