Let's End The Bullshit, Now.

          I’m 82 years old, and I wonder how many of you can tell me how often I’ve heard our political ballerinas spout, “ We are going to end child poverty”, “We are going to solve the housing crisis”, “We are going to tackle inequality”? Every election, every new leadership battle, this kind of bullshit gets spread over our heads, and sadly on the basis of who says it with the best acting performance, usually gets onto the gravy train.
       Here we are in the 21st. Century, so with all those reassurances from the political careerists, where are we on those three points, child poverty, house shortage and inequality?
       Child poverty, 2014-15 there were approximately 4 million children living in poverty in the UK. That is equivalent to more than 25% of all our kids, in some areas it is much higher, where I live, in Springburn for example, it is 52%. While this is a crime, what is worse is that we have 1.7 million kids living in severe poverty. Of course we will hear the mantra get a job and lift yourself out of poverty, well, 63% of those children living in poverty are in a home where someone is working.
       Housing crisis, not enough homes being built keeps the price of houses high, and rising. More and more people can’t afford a mortgage and with the slashing of social housing, they are forced into expensive private rentals or crap private rented accommodation. The number of homeless households has risen to more than 50,000 a year. Many of these people will wait years for decent accommodation, and many will have dependent children, they will spend years shuffling around temporary accommodation. Approximately 2,000 will have no roof over their heads and will end up sleeping rough. (figures for England)
     Inequality, over the last decade the poorest tenth of our population have seen a fall in their real incomes, while the richest tenth has seen their incomes take a much larger proportional rise than any other group. The vast majority of extra income money has gone to those with above average earnings, with approximately half of this extra money going to the richest tenth of earners.

  The overall message from these various analyses is simple: income inequalities have been increasing, both recently and over longer time periods.  These inequalities have been increasing at both ends of the spectrum.  In other words, the poorest have fallen further behind the average, and the richest have moved further ahead.

       So I have lived for 82 years of being fed pure unadulterated bullshit, though I don't remember the fist five or so, but I imagine they were filled with just the same crap.

        One encouraging feature of today is that the vast majority of the public have absolutely no belief in, or respect for, our established system. They see the political parasites for what they are, a bunch of self-centred, greedy careerists, and the establishment is worried. The growing discontent, and anger is a threat to their control over our lives, and they will go to any lengths to try to reassert that control. One feature of this fear is the latest onslaught against the Corbyn wave of popularity, they can't tolerate anyone with even a faint hint of socialism any where near the levers of control. Their hysteria has gone from reds under the beds, to Trots in the toilets.

       So now would seem the right time to really get aggressive with our anger, with our disgust, now would seem the right moment to take our anger to the streets, to the work places, to the communities. The hysterical parasites are on  the back foot, they are losing control. Perhaps that one large push of organised anger, of well supported direct action, can bring this whole stinking cancerous system tumbling down. 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Back From Art And All That.

          Well we are back from Pittenweem Arts Festival, it was non-stop and very cold, but for my partner, Stasia, it was well worth doing. Pittenweem is a small fishing village on the east coast of Scotland, the East Neuk of Fife, (neuk, Scots word for corner) and for the last 34 years has run what is the largest arts festival in Scotland. A beautiful little place and one of the few Scottish fishing villages that still has fishing boats coming and going, and their catch going into trucks for the towns and cities.

 

 Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Man Lives Not By Bread Alone.

       My partner will be exhibiting at the Pittenweem Arts Festival, both of us will be up there for about the next ten days. So the blog will fall silent AGAIN, See you all soon.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Break The Silence.

        In this world there is no peace, there never has been. The violence of empires have ravaged millions of people, as power mongers savaged neighbours and far flung countries. In the modern world it continues, we either have “big” wars, that kill millions, or what I call “pygmy” wars, that kill hundreds of thousands. Bombs, drones and missiles rain down on Africa and the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, are peppered with drone kills. While in Europe and America the talk is of having peace since 1945. In the usual sabre rattling and tough talking about the threat from Russia and China, the West parades its military might along the borders of Russia and surrounds the coasts of China with America’s naval arsenal. It would appear that our lords and masters, armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons of mass destruction, are spoiling for a fight. 

      This from:

     A World War has begun. Break the silence, by John Pilger:

       How many people are aware that a world war has begun? At present, it is a war of propaganda, of lies and distraction, but this can change instantaneously with the first mistaken order, the first missile.
       In 2009, President Obama stood before an adoring crowd in the centre of Prague, in the heart of Europe. He pledged himself to make "the world free from nuclear weapons". People cheered and some cried. A torrent of platitudes flowed from the media. Obama was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
       It was all fake. He was lying.
      The Obama administration has built more nuclear weapons, more nuclear warheads, more nuclear delivery systems, more nuclear factories. Nuclear warhead spending alone rose higher under Obama than under any American president. The cost over thirty years is more than $1 trillion.
        A mini nuclear bomb is planned. It is known as the B61 Model 12. There has never been anything like it. General James Cartwright, a former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said, "Going smaller [makes using this nuclear] weapon more thinkable." 

        The perception that somehow the Democrats in America are more liberal than the Republicans doesn't seem to stand up to scrutiny. 

          This is the country where toddlers shoot their mothers and the police wage a murderous war against black Americans. This is the country that has attacked and sought to overthrow more than 50 governments, many of them democracies, and bombed from Asia to the Middle East, causing the deaths and dispossession of millions of people.
        No country can equal this systemic record of violence. Most of America's wars (almost all of them against defenceless countries) have been launched not by Republican presidents but by liberal Democrats: Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama.

        When will we ever learn, when will we finally rid ourselves of this army of power hungry, greed drive parasites, that control all aspects of our lives. When will we bury in the dustbin of history, this group that sees all humanity as expendable in their pursuit for power, control and wealth.

         Today, the long sleep may be over. The young are stirring again. Gradually. The thousands in Britain who supported Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader are part of this awakening - as are those who rallied to support Senator Bernie Sanders.
        In Britain last week, Jeremy Corbyn's closest ally, his shadow treasurer John McDonnell, committed a Labour government to pay off the debts of piratical banks and, in effect, to continue so-called austerity.
          In the US, Bernie Sanders has promised to support Clinton if or when she's nominated. He, too, has voted for America's use of violence against countries when he thinks it's "right". He says Obama has done "a great job".
          In Australia, there is a kind of mortuary politics, in which tedious parliamentary games are played out in the media while refugees and Indigenous people are persecuted and inequality grows, along with the danger of war. The government of Malcolm Turnbull has just announced a so-called defence budget of $195 billion that is a drive to war. There was no debate. Silence.
          What has happened to the great tradition of popular direct action, unfettered to parties? Where is the courage, imagination and commitment required to begin the long journey to a better, just and peaceful world? Where are the dissidents in art, film, the theatre, literature?
           Where are those who will shatter the silence? Or do we wait until the first nuclear missile is fired?

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

That Babbling Brook Of Bullshit.

         By now you will all know, our should know, my opinion of the “mainstream Media, or that babbling brook of bullshit as I usually address it. A variety of outlets, all spouting a monologue, all propagating the same illusion, false information, manufactured reality. A monochrome world of false and useless information. Well useless to us, but very important to the powers that be. It helps keep us reading from the same song sheet seeing the world as they would have us see it, and all to their advantage. I believe it is very important that we realise that the babbling brook of bullshit, is there deliberately, and for a very important purpose, and it is not to  inform. The development of this monochrome song sheet, is not an accident, and its formation is illuminating to our understanding of the type of society we live under.

 

This from Tarcorteca counterinfo:

         Still, in spite of all that, it proved impossible to control the narrative, and the public support for the various US and NATO wars collapsed under the pressure of inconvenient news coming even from mainstream media which clearly maintained a degree of independence. But if you fast-forward a decade, to the current wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Ukraine, and others, it is clear that something has changed. There is one dominant narrative that is being pushed by literally every mainstream media source, irrespective of their ostensible ideological bent. No matter where you turn, you read or hear about Assad’s “barrel bombs”, Gaddafi’s “massacres”, or “Russian aggression.”
       These reports invariably represent a point of view that is not only completely one-sided, but also factually wrong, even on the most basic of issues. How did US and NATO manage to achieve such an amazing discipline within the supposedly free and independent Western media?

       There are essentially three parts to the answer:
state oversight of the media;
co-opting individual reporters;
disseminating propaganda through covert means.

         The first two are obvious enough and have long been practiced. Media corporations are just that–corporations, subject to variety of laws and regulations whose enforcement can be used to steer individual outlets toward adopting a desired point of view. Individual reporter’s coin of the realm is “access” to privileged information, which may be granted or withheld depending on their effectiveness as government propagandist. The third, the covert dissemination of propaganda, is new, and that factor likely explains the lack of variation from one media outlet to the next. The media are no longer merely encouraged to toe the official line–they have the stories planted for them to pick up through social media and other unofficial channels.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

Migrants Are People.

        Migrants may be reported in our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, but never as people. They are this band of figures that cross borders “illegally”, but behind every mention of a migrant, there is a person and in most cases a person suffering. They are individuals and families, in search of a better life, or worse fleeing death and destruction. Despite their plight, they are herded like cattle, shunted into detention centres, intimidated, humiliated and often abused. Million of pounds are spent on immigration officials, transport and detention centres, but little in trying to alleviate the individual’s problems. The normal procedure is, gather them up, lock them up, and ship them back to what ever horror they came from. We are one people, we live in one world, would should treat each other as such, migrants are people, just like you and I.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 Let’s break isolation
       CIEs are prisons for immigrants destined to be deported from Italy. They are part of the system of control, selection and ruling of migration flows throughout Europe. A system that by either giving or denying a document decides who can stay on the European soil in order to thicken the ranks of the exploited, and who must be taken away because they are not needed. In other words, those destined to stay as clandestine, subjected to even more blackmail and exploitation.
There have been struggles both inside and outside the CIEs in the course of the years, the struggles of those who are locked up and of people in solidarity who have decided that a stance must be taken against all this: the CIEs are to be razed to the ground for the sake of everybody’s freedom.
      One of the CIES currently operating can be found in Brindisi, hidden in the countryside of Restinco.
       Many testimonies of violence and abuse have been coming from inside the centre, directly from the prisoners, in the last month. It seems that whoever protests against the humiliating conditions of detention – if the threating wasn’t enough to dissuade him/her – will be taken by force to a little yard by the guards, away from his/her companions, and beaten up by scores of them.
     Against isolation, against all prisons, in solidarity with the imprisoned immigrants:
Demo outside the CIE in
Brindisi-Restinco
Monday 8th August 6pm
(4pm meeting point at Villa Matta squat, Lecce, via San Nicola 1)

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Support Prisoners Strike, September 9th.

        What are prisons for? Well in the developed world they are for profit for tycoons at the expense of the tax payer. Prisoners are put to work on products for large corporations, at a beggarly rate, with no protection from exploitation, no union, no holidays, no sick pay, never late, can’t slack-off or they are punished in one way or another. However in the land of the free, the good ol’ US of A, they have taken the slave labour tactics in prisons to a new level. The prison system in America is so profitable to the corporate world that they invest billions of dollars in building ever more and larger caged hell-holes.

 When did slavery end?

       Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

           Some facts about the American prison system and the extent of the racial exploitation that is rife across America.

The U.S. imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.

1. The United States has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's prisoners.

2. The total incarcerated population in the U.S. is a staggering 2.4 million — a 500% increase over the past 30 years. 

3. One in every 108 adults was in prison or jail in 2012.

4. One in 28 American children has a parent behind bars.  

5. At the end of 2007, 1 in 31 adults was behind bars, on probation or on parole.

6. Currently, 65 million Americans have a criminal record.

7. There are more people behind bars today for a drug offense than there were in 1980 for all offenses combined.

8. The U.S. spent $80 billion on incarceration in 2010 alone. 

9. About as many people were returned to prison just for parole violations in 2000 as were admitted in 1980 for all reasons combined.

10. Parole violators accounted for more than 35% of all prison admissions in 2000. Of those, only one-third were returned for a new conviction; the rest were returned for a technical violation, such as missing a meeting with the parole officer.

11. A first-time drug offense carries a sentence of 5-10 years. In other developed countries, that sentence would be six months of jail time, if any at all. 

12. The vast majority of those arrested with a drug offense are not charged with serious offenses. For example, in 2005, 4 out of 5 drug arrests were for possession, not sales.  

13. In the 1990s, marijuana possession accounted for nearly 80% of the spike in arrests.

14. Three out of four young black men in Washington, D.C., can expect to serve time behind bars. This is despite the fact that people of all races use and sell drugs at the same rate.

15. African-Americans comprised 12% of regular drug users, but almost 40% of those arrested for drug offenses.

16. More than 96% of convictions in the federal system result from guilty pleas rather than decisions by juries.

17. Conservative estimates put innocent people who plead guilty between 2% and 5%, which translates to tens of thousands of innocent people behind bars today.

18. Eighty percent of defendants cannot afford a lawyer. Tens of thousands of people go to jail every year without ever talking to a lawyer or going to trial. 

19. A public defender will routinely have a caseload of more than 100 clients at a time.

        Marking the prison occupation of Attica Prison in New York, on September 9th. 1971, September 9th. this year is the date marked out for a nation wide prison strike across America, prison populations in other countries are also supporting this brave move by those in cages. They are asking for support from the general public, in the form of protests outside prisons and posters.

       Here is a poster (11×17) for the upcoming nationwide prisoner strike on September 9th. Download, print and put it up around your city if you feel it. There is a grayscale version here too.
For more information about the strike and the ongoing wave of prison rebellions across the country, check out these articles: Strike Against White Supremacy | Incarcerated Workers Take the Lead | Call To End Prison Slavery

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Persistent Vermin.

           Sometimes it can take a considerable time to eradicate vermin, it can be very persistent, and requires constant monitoring, and at times harsh treatment.

      Fifty odd years ago there was a mass attempt in the UK to rid our streets of this menace.

Fast forward to New York today, and the stench of vermin remains, and is still getting harsh treatment. It is the only way to keep the vermin off our street. You have to keep o0n top of it, or it will spread.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Profits From Killing.

        I saw a recent headline in the Guardian which read," Revealed: the £1 billion of weapons flowing from Europe to the Middle east.” I suppose this was meant as an exposé, to shock us, perhaps make us throw our arms in the air in horror, and shout “Surely not”. However common sense would tell you that there is a lot of fighting going on in the Middle East and most of it is done with very powerful and sophisticate weaponry. Where do they think all that comes from, did they believe that it was all made in Syria, Iraq and Libya? Of course most of the weaponry used in that region will come from the worlds biggest arms dealers, who happen to be American and European. They are not made in some cave in the mountains of the Middle East. When ever there is brutal violence with powerful weaponry you can rest assured that the big arms dealers will be supplying both sides, business is business. So yes, £1 billion worth of weaponry, and more, will be flowing to the Middle East from all the big manufacturers, and they will be praying on their bended knees that the brutality and the killing continues. What a wonderful boost for the Western economy, just think how much they have made from the Middle East. From 2001 in Afghanistan to 2016, in Syria, think of all those whirring machines churning out replacements for all that destructive material. Massive profit margins, what a wonderful investment, the policy of permanent war, is a government gift to the arms industry. The arms industry, like states, has no morality, they are in the business of supplying weapons to those who wish to use them, and states love the arms industry. It gives them the means to defend their power base and expand their influence. If we want to get rid of war, then we have to tackle the arms industry and the state. In today’s world, they are two sides of the same coin. 

Figures for arms expenditure 2015:

USA; $597.5 billion, percentage of GDP, 3.9%

UK:   $56.2 billion, percentage of GDP, 2%

       That's a lot of your tax money flowing into the pockets of the shareholders in the arms industry. Think of the death and destruction caused by that expenditure, and what else it could have been spent on, if we lived in a sane world. The UK is the worlds 5th. biggest arms budget, the USA is the world's biggest spender on arms, by a long way. 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Struggle And Progress, Two Sides Of The Same Coin.

 

       If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favour freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
-- Frederick Douglass 

          Simple words that say so much, if you want progress in social conditions, then you must be prepared to struggle. If you are not prepared to struggle, then it is safe to say, you are naive or you don’t want progress enough. Progress and struggle in social conditions are interminably entwined, history with its centuries of struggle verify that statement. Progress in the field of social conditions, always has a price, if you want it, then you have to pay that price, you can’t sit back and demand progress without paying, in this world it doesn’t work that way. If you are not prepared to pay the price, then walk away from progress, accept what you have. There is no bargain basement in the department of social conditions in this world. Agitation is the ploughing of the field, struggle is driving that plough, your crop will be the desired progress.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

 

Delight In The Drizzle.

         Another dull overcast day, but the wind had all but disappeared. So it was a magical run around my most familiar cycling pad, the Campsie area. Cool but pleasant, it would have been nice to see the sun. Though there was a very light drizzle just as I churned the last few miles home, it didn't in any way detract from the pleasure.

Cast your eyes down from the overcast skies
and what will you see?
Why, priceless jewels and colourful gems
all absolutely free.

Remove All Traces Of Racist Scum From Our Streets.

 

         Since the "Brexit" vote we have seen an increase in racist posters and stickers appear in our towns and cities. It's good to see that the good people of Edinburgh and Leith are organising to do something about this. We should never allow the racist scum the publicity they crave, their stickers and posters should be removed as quickly as they appear. Perhaps other towns, cities, villages  and communities will follow the example of Edinburgh and Leith. More steam to their elbow.

UNITED COLOURS OF LEITH – MARCH – SAT 30 JULY

Meeting 2pm Pilrig Park and marching to Leith Links, ”We love Leith. But we hate any kind of discrimination. It's diversity that makes Leith so colourful and special. We have to make sure it stays that way. This time we need to clean the streets of hate-filled messages, not litter. Just a few days after the #Brexit vote, some neo-nazi stickers have appeared around Leith. We need to nip this in the bud now. Our idea is to have a United Colours Of Leith demonstration to show the people who put up those stickers that we won't put up with them. We'd like you to join us and invite all your friends and family too.”

https://www.facebook.com/events/1081308481936706/

      ACE and its associated groups totally support this march and we hope to see you there!

AUTONOMOUS CENTRE OF EDINBURGH MONTHLY MEETING

7.30pm Thursday 4 August at ACE, 17 W Montgomery Place EH7 5HA

All welcome

       More volunteers needed to support ACE, please come along if you can (meetings are the first thursday of each month)

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The State Is The Problem.

       A crisis arises, usually the result of state or states actions, the people respond to sort it out, and the state moves in to destroy that effort. The state can never stand by and let the people sort things out, we must always be made to believe that only the state can sort things. When we all know that in fact the state is the problem. Social centres, squats, autonomous centres, usually arise when people attempt to alleviate some problem or other. Even if they do sort the problem, they will not be allowed to survive as they are not making a profit for some organisation, or they are not state controlled. 

       This recent press release from Beyond Europe on the evictions of self-organised projects in Thessaloniki (27th July 2016) is typical of the way the state works, whether it by a right-wing government or a so called socialist government, they must be seen as the answer to our problems, even as their actions create more problems.

 

 - Violent police evictions of social centers and refugee shelters in Thessaloniki shortly after the No Border Camp.
- Greece's left government executes brutal anti-refugee policies of Europe.
- Self-organized spaces are the only secure shelters for refugees.

       Early this morning, 27 July 2016, Greek police simultaneously evicted three self-organised Social Centers and Refugee Shelters:
        1) For many years, Nikis was a well known Social Center directly at the inner-city promenade of Thessaloniki. For us and many of our friends, it has been a place of vivid solidarity in times of a general social crisis. Over the last months, the organizers there were hosting refugees.
       2) Orfanotrofeio was a squat for and with refugees, occupied since December 2015. The activists have always emphasized that such projects are not set up as idealistic symbols, but out of a pressing daily necessity, responding to the catastrophic consequences of Europe's anti-refugee policies.
        3) Hurriya was the new squat for and with refugees that was occupied during this year's No Border Camp at Thessaloniki. For the activists, this occupation was an important response to the humanitarian and political crisis created by European Governments. It showed that refugees and antiracists are able to deliver much needed relief. Hurriya was the place - it was accessible, it was set up well, and the first of twelve refugee families already was starting its new life there. The authorities just destroyed those achievements for the sage of maintaining [a hostile public] order.
        As a response to that destructive eviction, 30 activists have occupied the central offices of Syriza in downtown Thessaloniki and stay there until at least tomorrow noon, when a part of the detained people are being led to the judge. 

Read the full article HERE:

Patriotism

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Pleasure In The wind.

         I reckon that I read the forecast wrong today. I thought it was sunny intervals and light winds, but out on the bike it was dull, overcast and a strengthening WNW wind, I put the wind at approaching 20mph. on stretches. Not my favourite cycling conditions, but, still a wonderful pleasure to be out on the road.

Rather menacing clouds over the Campsie Hills.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk