UK- Military State.

         The creeping militarisation of our society keeps slithering forward, sometimes they find an excuse, some “terrorist “ event, sometimes it just happens out of the blue. This is the case at the Rosneath peninsular near Glasgow. The area is home to that abomination at Faslane, the Trident nuclear submarine base, and the nuclear weapons store at Coulport. These two weapons of mass destruction sites are policed by the MOD armed military police, who are not under the jurisdiction of the Scottish government, but the MOD in London. They have just announced that they will be widening their sphere of influence, and notifying the local population to expect to see them in a wider role in and around their area. There seems to have been no consultation with Police Scotland, but it has simple been announced as a fête-accompli, a like it or lump it, you’re getting it, attitude. They have announced that they will be doing spot checks, and stopping, at random, cars in certain areas.
         The area is one of beauty, visited by thousands from around the central belt of Scotland and further afield, it is an area visited by thousands of tourists, but the MOD armed military police have asked locals to report anybody they see taking photos anywhere near these two, danger to humanity sites. So if you are sitting with your family at the edge of the Gare Loch, on a fine sunny day, and you decide to take a photo, beware, you could receive a visit from your friendly armed MOD military police. Should we be worried? Well as our lords and masters spout venom at certain states claiming they are not democracies, but despot regimes controlled by the military, yet sit silent when we see the expansion of military control over ever more of our civil society, I think the time for worry is over, and it is time to display your righteous anger. 

       We here in the UK are a country that has been involved in overseas military adventures more or less continuously since the end of the second world war, and we are allowing our society to become more and more, a military controlled entity. When MOD armed military police patrol our streets and do spot checks, the façade has fallen, the gloves are off, the state is sowing its true colours. Gone are the pretences that the civilian police are there to protect us from the bad locals, and the military to protect as from those nasty foreigners overseas. It is simply all about control of the civilian population, to repress dissent, to intimidate those who object to injustices perpetrated by the state. Do you really want armed to the teeth, armed MOD military police swaggering through our streets, when out for a drive with your kids, do you really want to be pulled over by armed MOD military police? The decision is yours, if this is a democracy!!

Read The Herald article HERE: 

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

God's Failures Means That He Should Be Sacked.

        Christians are strange animals, they talk to an invisible man in the sky, and claim he is all seeing, all powerful, and a loving god, yet they accept that he didn't intervene to prevent the slaughter of the first world war, but will somehow intervene when they ask him to heal their aching back. He didn't prevent the genocide of the native Americans, but will respond to their call for him to help them through their daily problems. Though he sat idly through the holocaust, they will claim that with god's help they will solve their daily problems. Considering his track record on these major events, and other natural tragedies, I think he is sleeping at his post. If he did exist, I would see him as a very selfish, and extremely stupid god. To get through this life, I would rather rely on my fellow humans, with all their failings, than trust a so called, all powerful, loving invisible man, that has so miserable failed to show his love fairly across the globe. 

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

State Kidnapping Of A Child.

       A further statement from Pola Roupa, on the despicable act of the Greek state kidnapping of her child.

From Act For Freedom Now:

       I Panagiota (Pola) Roupa declare that I was and will be until I die an unrepentant enemy of the system. They have now put the child in the middle of this war and they punish him in order to get revenge against me. They have kidnapped my child and i don t know where he is since our arrest in the early morning.
        We are at war, it is true. But them fighting against my child, by not allowing me or other close relatives to see him and by threatening to send him to an institution, is the most despicable act in this war. Those who are in the state apparatus are worms because they are fighting against a 6 year old child.
       And I want to state that I have now begun a hunger and thirst strike to demand that the child is given to my mother and my sister. As for me I will remain the enemy until I die. And I will never yield. Long live the revolution!

Pola Roupa

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

The Paranoid State And A Child.

      How depraved and paranoid is a state that locks up a six year child of an anarchist couple, then denies that child any legal representation or visits from friends and family, while keeping the child under constant police guard? Do they see the six year old child as a threat to their power, or are they useing the child to put pressure on the arrested anarchists parents? Either way in its indicative of the foul sadistic thinking of those twisted stinking henchmen who serve the state. In the eyes of the state, even an innocent child can be used as a tool, and to hell with the child's wishes and desires to be with its family. No innocent child should be used as a bargaining chip in the state's fight for total control and the monopoly of power. This is happening in the so called civilised EU, no matter how much illusion creating propaganda they spew out, they can never make the EU look like a democracy, nor can their talking shop parliaments give it the appearance of a civilised entity. It is a collection of despot state regimes, where freedoms are slowly strangled day by day.

This from Contra Info: 

       In the early morning hours of January 5th 2017, two Revolutionary Struggle members, fugitive comrade Pola Roupa and anarchist Konstantina Athanasopoulou were captured at a southern suburb of Athens. Anti-terror cops raided a hideout with Pola and her six-year-old son inside, while Konstantina was arrested in another house nearby. After being forcibly removed from his mother, Lambros-Viktoras Maziotis Roupas—the small son of Revolutionary Struggle members Nikos Maziotis and Pola Roupa—is being held captive inside a children’s hospital guarded by cops(!), without any access to visitations by his close relatives or even the legal representative of his parents.
            The Greek authorities, and in particular the public prosecutor for minors Mrs. Nikolou, still refuse to entrust the child to first-degree relatives of Pola Roupa.
            In response to this, three Revolutionary Struggle members—the anarchist prisoner Nikos Maziotis, the recaptured comrade Pola Roupa and the newly arrested Konstantina Athanasopoulou—have undergone hunger and thirst strike since January 5th, demanding that the six-year-old be immediately placed with his aunt and grandmother (relatives on his mother’s side).
In an open letter Nikos Maziotis stated, among others, that: “Our son is the child of two revolutionaries, and he’s proud of his parents. We will not succumb to any blackmail. We defend our choices with our very life”.
         On January 6th, during the women’s transfer to Evelpidon courts, Pola shouted: “The worms are holding my kid captive at Paidon (children’s hospital in Athens), guarded by armed cops; at the age of six, he is a prisoner of war” and: “Long live the Revolution!”. Furthermore, Pola stated: “I am a revolutionary, and I have nothing to apologize for.”

Below is Konstantina’s statement:

        “I am an anarchist, member of the armed revolutionary organization Revolutionary Struggle (Epanastatikos Agonas). The only terrorists are the State and the Capital. I refuse to eat and drink anything until the child of my comrades Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis is delivered to relatives of theirs.
Konstantina Athanasopoulou”
           On the inside, anarchist prisoners and other inmates at different wings of Koridallos male and female prisons have mounted a joint protest by refusing lock-up, to claim an end to the captivity of Lambros-Viktoras in solidarity with the Revolutionary Struggle prisoners currently on hunger and thirst strike.
On the outside, comrades in various cities throughout Greece have carried out diverse actions in immediate support of the anarchist revolutionaries, demanding that the first-degree relatives of Pola Roupa be granted immediate visitation and custody of the underage child.
        Strength to Konstantina Athanasopoulou, Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis, proud members of Revolutionary Struggle.
        Revolutionary Struggle will neither lay down arms nor surrender to the enemies of freedom.

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

The System---It's Falling Down.

       It is obvious, even to those politically blind and politically apathetic, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a psychopathic power hungry, vicious dictator. Journals are closed down, staff are jailed, protests are savagely broken up, any form of dissenting voice is brutally attacked, thousands are dismissed from their employment because of their political view, thousands are imprisoned on any state whim. Turkey is a despotic entity that relies on extreme heavy handed police repression to exist. The harder the state attempts to crush the will of the people, the stronger the resistance will grow. The explosion will come, but it will require all our support and solidarity, plus the oxygen of publicity, the eyes of the people who desire freedom must focus on any resistance against the state that arises in any state.

 From Freedom: Anarchist Media, Publishing and Bookshop (UK)

         Late last month the editor of Meydan anarchist newspaper in Istanbul was sentenced to a year and three months in prison for “supporting terror,” the latest in a string of attempts by the Turkish State to shut down dissenting voices against Erdogan’s government. Today we are proud to publish a translation of Meydan’s uncompromising response, from their latest edition.
We are being cornered
        With the fear and shock that constantly oppresses our lives, with the agendas that change by the day, by the hour, with the constant repetition we see in news articles, debates, newspapers and radios, with the shares and retweets, the media that takes us for idiots and is fed by manipulation, with the gentrification and demolition policies that erase our past, our identity and our memory, with the “illusion of democracy” that weakens and imprisons our freedom, and with the reality that becomes more and more incomprehensible everyday, we are being cornered.
We are being cornered because the rulers require it in order to declare their authority and assert their dominance over our stolen willpower. We are being cornered because the rulers require it to keep their power and to create new objects to use in their own wars. We are being cornered because this is the only way the government is able to create space for itself and exist.
We are being cornered by misery
        The days that have to keep going through the exhaustion, the bodies that fall powerless, the minds that become unhappy as they weaken…
The rulers submerge the streets that we use to walk to school in the mornings, to go to work and to catch a bus in darkness. They comer us with unhappiness by squeezing us into minibuses and metrobuses that are full to the brim and sending us to work at the crack of dawn. As the government comers us with unhappiness, they drag us towards hopelessness and despair.
        We must resist the government that decides when we may sleep and when we must wake, that snatches our morning sun and pushes us towards darkness and despair in order to win back our bodies and minds. We must find the courage to defy those who would turn us into blind and deaf, unknowing and unfeeling individuals and break out of this complacency and cornered-ness.

We are being cornered by panic
       The broadcasting prohibitions that follow exploding bombs, the unfounded accusations after suspicious packages are found and bomb threats are made, the people who choose or are forced to choose to stay away from crowded places, the dollars that are exchanged in order to “prevent a crisis,” the people who dream of running away from the land that is oppressed by war, death and economic crises… 
        In the land we live in, the government dominates the individual with fear and panic, it incapacitates, comers and in time, annihilates. As the government enforces this state of fear and panic in all public areas, the individual loses control, becomes vulnerable and is cornered into the annihilation imposed by the rulers.
       Our lives are cornered into the grip of crises or death, and our days are spent looking for a way out of fear and panic, out of this cornered-ness.

Continue reading HERE:

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

Capitalism=Hypocrisy.

        In this insane system of capitalism it is not difficult to find monumental hypocrisy, in this web of illusions, businesses are supposed to develop and make goods and then sell them and keep the profit. However, that rule is not always followed. Take the arms industry that multi-billion pound corporate creator of death and destruction, they like other corporate greed merchants receive public money, yours and mine, make the weapons of destruction, or whatever, then sell them back to us direct or via the government’s military spending. A nice little earner if you can get it.
       It has just been announced that the UK government is giving a European arms consortium £30 million to develop a laser weapon, no doubt once they have perfected it, they will sell it back to us and pocket the profit. £30 million to develop a new weapon at the same time as telling us, the ordinary people, we can’t afford welfare and social services. 

 

       Hypocrisy is part and parcel of this insane system, austerity for you and me, but our lords and masters are quite prepared to pay almost £2 million a day to bomb Syria into “freedom” with all the resultant death, misery and destruction that has ensued.
        It is estimated that our attempt at bombing Libya into freedom cost you and I, £1.4 billion, just part of the estimated £33 billion the UK has spent in overseas military adventures the last couple of decades in bolstering its corporate interests.
       All this under a campaign of austerity, where you and see, wage freezes/cuts, slashing of welfare and social services, the corporate world sees subsidies and increasing profits, while those at the receiving end of our “spreading democracy” see death, destruction, and mayhem. That is the capitalist system at work, doing what it was meant to do, make lots of wealth and power for that small cabal with their hands on the levers of power. 

 

Our Political System.

Wanker bankers, with their bundles of booty,
Sleazy solicitors, spewing slimy words for pieces of silver,
Lying lawyers, licking posteriors in the corridors of power,
Pompous politicians, products of posh fee paying schools,
Fraudulent financiers, fiddling the fruits of our labour,
Movers and shakers, false dream makers,
Weavers of illusions, creators of charades,
Perfidious pedlars of devious deals,
Nauseating narcissistic brainless mouths,
Candidates offered up to lead us to the promised land??? 

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

 

Deep In Our Hearts.

        I have always maintained that we are all born anarchists, but the society we grow up in bids us bury those feelings and desires somewhere deep in our hearts. However we do carry them with us through out our lives, they are there ready to sprout and grow if we can create the right circumstances. These occasions rise in all parts of the world, sometimes in small groups that grow and then some fade under pressure from without. Other times it is a mass movement that can only be crushed by the military might of an authoritarian regime. No matter what, we should always remember deep in all our hearts there is a desire to live, with each other, in peace, in caring, sharing communities.

I Want to Believe!

I want to believe

All that is good is out there

Sleeping in hearts that live in dark valleys,

About to blossom like some magic woodland,

In spite of war, in spite of greed

The essence that is humanity struggling to be free.

All around death arrives in many guises,

Silent as the frost poverty kills,

The ruthless march of war

With every drum beat seeks God’s blessing,

While the God fearing kill the God fearing,

Slaughter in the name of the greater good.

I want to believe

All that is good is out there

Sleeping in the hearts that live in dark valleys

About to blossom like some magic woodland,

Not just as the dream of poets.

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

Magic Moments.

        Life can be quite a struggle in this unequal, unfair, unjust society, so much so, that sometimes we lose sight of those precious gems close at hand. However, we can still have those magic moments. On the 2nd January, we had some of the family round, so it was an opportunity for another of those magic moments, another excuse for a fire in the back garden, another chance at chatting, drinking fruit juice, and toasting marshmallows on the fire. Despite the bitter cold it was a great night, for a short period, we created a simple world, planted a friendly memory, captured the delight of laughter, pleasant chat and strengthened the bonds within a group. A nice way to start the year.

My grand-daughter, Stefania, toasting a marshmallow on the fire.

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

 

A New Year's Thought.

IT'S TIME TO STORM HEAVEN.

Under the yoke of servitude we dragged our existence forward

For generations have fertilised the earth with our blood

Oiled the machinery of wealth with our sweat

We have produce bountiful harvests

A mountain of luxury

Yet

All we know is

persecution pain and poverty

Struggle laced with bitter anguish

Our hands have fashioned a pleasure palace

Feasts abundance frivolity and a sea of fetishes

For a merciless army that feeds on selfishness and greed

And although we dwell under the shadow of hell

We shall never relinquish our precious dreams

In our hearts we nurture a better future

A softer world for all our children

Where poverty's claws

And war's ire

die

One day

Our righteous anger

Will smoulder and rumble

And cause the old world to tremble

Before exploding in a blast of social justice

We the people will storm the gates of an earthly heaven,

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

Something Rotten And Malignant At The Heart Of Our Society.

 

       A happy new year to all my family, friends and comrades, so forward into 2017, filled with hope and determination, that we can change the world. This time of year all across the world people gather, filled with goodwill towards each other, a feeling of camaraderie sweeps across the globe, and then it dissipates and fragments. This year let's hold on to that feeling and join hands in the realisation that we are one people, and we can shape this world to our liking and our needs.

       Of course we should not forget that there are those who can't join in any gathering of their choice, for a multitude of reasons, among them, abject poverty, illness, and living in a war decimated area and then those who find themselves locked in the penal cages of the state. Prisons are symbols telling us that freedom has not yet been born, they are living monuments to power, authority and repression. Prisons are edifices reminding those lovers of freedom that their work is far from over. 

       No matter the nation state, it will have its prisons, a tool in its defence of its monopoly on power. Here in the UK that so called "bastion of freedom", the powers that be, boast of crime figures falling, but fail to see the contradiction in the rising numbers of its citizens it locks up in its cages of repression. In that other "land of the free" the good ol' US of A, they lock up more of their own citizens than any other despot, dictator or monarchy on the planet.

      No matter the "prison reforms", prisons are an intolerable abomination of human dignity, they are factories for the destruction of the individual, the state's tool for control. In present day capitalism, prisons are more and more becoming production units for making money for large corporations. In other words prisons are large factories housing slaves. There are no workers rights, no minimum wage, no paid holidays, no days off, no sickness benefits and no health and safety cover, but there are punishments for not working hard enough.

      Naturally, human beings, being what they are, lovers of freedom and dignity,  if you treat them in this manner you build up pressure, and sooner or later the pressure blows. In America on the 29th of September, the largest strike in American prison history began, and ran for months. Some of the individuals involved in that stand for dignity are still being brutally punished by the state's henchmen, know as screws.

     Here in the UK over the last few months, we have seen a series of prison riots,  all brutally suppressed by the heavy hand of the state. Recently in Brussels, in civilised Europe prison riots broke out at several prisons, Tournai, Arlon, Huy, Landtin, and Andenne.  the prisoners burned their cells, flooded the units, trashed the hallways, etc. Saturday May 7, a devastating mutiny rocked the Merkplas prison in Anvers. Whole wings were destroyed and burnt by the insurgent prisoners. Walls were levelled, fences torn down, whole units ransacked.

        Prisoners strikes, and prison riots are symptoms of something rotten and malignant at the heart of our society. People will make a stand about animals being held in cages, but seem to tolerate human beings being held in cages, Why? Of course our babbling brook of bullshit, the main stream media, pedals the lie that our prison are full of nasty, evil, brutal psychopaths. When the truth is far removed from that pungent vomit that the media spews out. Facts show that a very high proportion of those in prison are suffering from some form of substance addiction, a high proportion suffer from mental health problems, a high proportion are illiterate, all of these problems make it difficult to integrate into society. These are people that need our help and support, not to be locked up in cages at the whim of a biased judicial system, that is there to protect the rich and wealthy.

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

Who Writes The Future?

       Well it is almost time, The curtain is about to go up on the greatest horror show on earth, Trump is about to crowned King and be lead by the hand to take his place on the throne of the largest military empire on the planet. All the loyal courtiers are sitting in-waiting, ready to play out his every command. We the passive audience are sitting expecting our emotions to be pummelled by the most frightening horror show on earth. Sadly this is not a theatre show, this nightmare is for real, but thankfully, we don't have to be that passive audience. We don't have to follow their script, we the people can write our own script, we don't have to play their vile game to their rules, we can create our own game and write our own rules. The future has not yet been written, we the people should its authors, not a megalomaniac, sabre rattling, warmongering, xenophobic, power hungry, cabal of billionaires. Trump is not an anomaly, he is the natural progression in the march of corporate power, the wealth that shapes the state, and the state is their vehicle to exercise that power. The future is open, how will we shape it? By passive acceptance, or pro-active determination to walk our own road, and forge that better world for all our people. Now, decisions must be made.  

This from Anarchist News:

Our work has begun: the future is coming.

        We’ve had almost two months for it to sink in: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the most powerful military power on Earth. As anarchists, we know the cliche that whomever we vote for, the government always wins. But still, for most of us, this election has felt different. Wren Awry has collected this short anthology of anarchist responses to the election that we hope will help us consider what to do in the near future. Some of it is strategic musing, some of it is emotional. Some of it has been published by us or elsewhere already, some of it appears herein for the first time. Feel free to print out a copy of the included PDF.
Zine includes:

“the good comrade check-in call, 11.11.16” by odessa aït jerrar
“They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds” by Wren Awry
“Actions Speak Louder Than Votes” by Margaret Killjoy
“Only a Bold and Popular Left Radicalism Can Stop Trumpism and the Rise of Fascism” by Laurence Davis
“Trump’s First Hundred Days and the Fascist Agenda” by Alexander Reid Ross
“The Days After the Election and the Days Before the Revolution” by Anarchist Resistance NYC
“Everything I Need to Know About Trump I Learned From Playing Skyrim” by Gutter Punk Josh

and art by Someone Else and Theo Thirdaye

http://www.tangledwilderness.org

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

Solidarity With The Exploited, Not The Exploiters

      An interesting article from "Bordered by Silence", raising the question, is there a strike you wouldn't support? In my opinion, it is a matter of solidarity with the exploited, not the exploiters. so it is a definite yes.

  -------In April, some workers were quite reasonably sick of the management’s bullshit and decided to turn their anger into action. Some members of management found themselves forced to work a bit of overtime, and one of them got a serious talking to. The police intervened to save the poor suits. A few hours later, a night team, though quickly assembled, decided to take action. Not to produce merchandise and further enrich the boss, but rather by finally doing a something useful in the factory: a large part of the work space (notably the offices) were ably destroyed using a forklift, which also caught fire shortly after. As well, several cars belonging to the bosses suffered broken headlights. Destroy what destroy us, that’s what it’s about; and that’s precisely our point.

      The next day, a union rep appeared on scene to show off his nervous face for the cameras and to condemn these joyful acts of human dignity. Well of course, a union rep is, in a way, there to protect the factory: even when he seems nice, he’s still a cop. When the decisive moment arrives, it’s clear to see which side he’s on. The unions were much more excited about the prison guards strike in Brussels and Wallonia that lasted several weeks [2]. Unlike the prisoners-----

And:

   ------Imagine for a moment… Locked up inside the bare walls of a prison, deprived of freedom and at the mercy of fickle and unscrupulous people who make their living locking others in concrete cages. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, they go on strike as well. Not because they’re sick of slamming the cell doors day after day, but because they want a better salary and more colleagues to help them in their grim task.
       The unions and leftists supported the strike, but there is a fundamental difference between these two methods of putting pressure on the boss: there are the strikers who block or destroy the machines, and thus the production of merchandise, and those who put the lives of prisoners at risk. Because when the screws go on strike, the prisoners don’t get showers, visits, or yard time [3]. Everyone spends the whole day locked in their cell, with the intolerable consequences that follow. In many places, the prisoners didn’t just suffer through the strike without doing anything and some unrest broke out. In the Tournai, Arlon, Huy, Landtin, and Andenne prisons, the prisoners responded by burning their cells, flooding the units, trashing the hallways, etc. Saturday May 7, a devastating mutiny rocked the Merkplas prison in Anvers. Whole wings were destroyed and burnt by the insurgent prisoners. Walls were leveled, fences torn down, whole units ransacked. Between striking guards and prisoners in revolt, it’s clear which side we’re on.-------

Read the full article HERE:

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

   

The Malignant Power Of Invisible Holy Men.

        Too often religion in Western society gets an easy ride, well at least the Christian variety. In mainstream politics religion is almost taboo territory, a place you don’t go. So many of the mainstream politicians hold deeply religious views, and this is passed over as if it had no bearing on their decisions. However, a devout Catholic will have very strong views on things like abortion, family planning, education etc. but this will not be taken as a conflict of interests when they find themselves sitting on committees shaping legislation on these matters for others of no religion. Apart from this, the institution of religion is dressed in a gown of peace, love and charity, when in fact it is a very rich and powerful authoritarian pillar of the capitalist society. The church has blessed wars, spread the snake oil of submissiveness on poverty, and supported inequality, as it holds the hands of monarchs, prime ministers and presidents, suffers amnesia regarding is centuries old litany of physical and sexual abuse, maintains that lying position of not getting involved in politics, but manoeuvres its devout followers into positions of power. Our present Prime minister is a devout Christian and seeks the advice of her invisible friend in the sky. Religion is at the heart of the repressive system under which we live. There can be no freedom as long as religion and state are intertwined with their cheating hands on the levers off power. Religion must be seen for what it is, a power hungry, homophobic repressive authoritarian regime, the enemy of free choice, with a history of savage brutality, a control system that seeks world wide domination, based on the fairy tales and myths of some long gone ancient tribes.

         Of course there are those who don't see religion as an innocent bystander to the repression of the individuals freedom.

This from Contra Info:

Thessaloniki, Greece:
Church attacked in solidarity with Mónica and Francisco.

    In the early hours of December 8th 2016, we decided to attack the Church of Prophet Elijah at Olympiados Street in Thessaloniki, setting fire to its entrance and interiors. This act was in solidarity with anarchist prisoners Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar, accused of an explosive attack at El Pilar cathedral in Zaragoza on October 2nd 2013. In fact, during that period the Catholic Church in Spain had been struck by a series of attacks because of its willingness to limit access to abortions.
         Every religion is our enemy. It sustains the status quo, pacifying the society with norms that later become laws. It bases its power on believers’ hopes of a future afterlife, stifling any desire for insurgency today, in the here and now. It justifies war based on cultural differences that religion itself has created.
        This is also the role of the church in Greece’s contemporary reality, and beyond. Its all-powerful political role is exercised by its fascist, patriotic, xenophobic rhetoric, always in tandem and direct relation with politicians, cops, judges and journalists.
         At the same time it is well-known that the church is constantly trying to expand its economic hegemony and immeasurable wealth, which rests on the possession of huge tracts of land, buildings, etc. With a view to obtaining profits by means of speculation, it sets up a charitable façade which has nothing to do with reality.
         Finally, it has a huge social and cultural influence, being a pillar of the patriarchal system. It promotes (both externally and internally) heteronormativity, homophobia, and rape culture in its entirety. Its position on the place of women, sexuality or abortion is indicative of its stance on many such issues.

Solidarity with anarchists held captive in prisons.

 

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

 

A Big Thank You.

 

       Just a wee announcement, Spirit of Revolt, organised a raffle among its friends and comrades, to assist in funding running costs, the draw was on Wednesday 28th of December. The results are as follows:

        The Spirit of Revolt 2016 Hogmanay raffle was drawn on 28th. December as arranged. There were 6 members of the Spirit of Revolt group present at the draw. The numbers of the winning tickets are as follows:

1st. prize, Hamper,
winning ticket 0240

2nd. prize, Smoothie maker,
winning ticket 0636

3rd. prize, 2 signed James Kelman books,
winning ticket 0625

4th. prize, Ann Vance painting, 
winning ticket oo64

5th. prize, £25 AK Press voucher,
winning ticket 0118

6th. prize, £20 Mono/Stereo/Flying Duck voucher,
winning ticket 0303

7th. prize, Bottle of whisky,
winning ticket 0351

8th. prize, £10 Tam Shepard voucher,
winning ticket 0093

      All the prizes have been, or are in the process of being, delivered to the appropriate ticket holders. Spirit of Revolt would like to thank all those who donated prizes, and all those volunteers who worked hard at selling the tickets, but even more, we thank all those who purchased tickets. A big thank-you to you all. All the proceeds of the raffle will go to help Spirit of Revolt go from strength to strength in doing what it is doing, collecting your history and making it easily and freely available to all.

     We at Spirit of Revolt, are all volunteers, however we do need funding for day to day running costs, website hosting, archivist, archiving materials, equipment, etc., and a multitude of day to day bits and pieces that crop up on a regular basis in this capitalist society. Have a look at what we do, and see if you think we do a worthwhile job. If you think we do, then perhaps you could take a moment to click onto our donate button and help us continue. any donation no matter how small, a one of, or a small regular standing order, from a couple of pounds to what ever you feel you would like to give. It will be well appreciated. Thank you. 

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

Avalanche.

 

    Issue 9 of the anarchist magazine Avalanche is now available to download as a free PDF.

        Anarchists always appropriated means to spread anti-authoritarian ideas and struggles to feed the dialogue and subversive action. It is in this sense that this publication is also intended as a tool, more precisely that of providing a space to nourish the international debate between anarchists. That is why these particular pages create space for struggles that spring from anarchist activities; autonomous, direct and self-organized struggles; struggles that go towards the destruction of power in all its forms; struggles happening today, yesterday or that are announcing itself.

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

When Criticism Is A Crime.

       The state’s survival is dependent on submissiveness and control, hence it will always try to find ways and means of stifling any form of dissent. Anarchist philosophy is based on the creating a state free society, so naturally it goes without saying, anarchist will always be at the sharp end of that state repression. In countries across the globe, anarchist autonomous centres are evicted and trashed, their papers closed down, and in many cases, the supporters imprisoned on trumped up charges. I have always seen Turkey as an extremely repressive state, more so than some of the others in the West. Many years ago I was involved in a campaign in support of a Kurdish lawyer in Turkey, who had been imprisoned for ten years, his crime, editing a Kurdish language magazine in Turkey, the Kurdish language, at that time, being banned in Turkey. Today in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey things have deteriorated much further down the repression route. Journalists are detained at the slightest hint of criticism of the Turkish state, radio stations are closed if they don’t shower the state and its psychopathic leader with praise. Now they have gone one step further, you don’t have to criticise the Turkish state, you can find yourself in prison if you dare to write an article in support of people in another country struggling to build democracy. This is the nature of the beast, “the state”, they are all dependent on your acceptance of their monopoly on power. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will point to regimes in other lands and label them “repressive”, despotic” and “undemocratic” but they are all just different flavours of the same poison. The state is an authoritarian edifice that will die if the people grasp their freedom, and freedom will die of we allow the state to flourish.
This from Freedom Press:

Meydan issue 30.

       The editor of Meydan Gazette in Istanbul was jailed for a year and three months on December 22nd for “propagandising the methods of a terror organisation” in a free-speech case which dragged on for nearly a year.

        Hüseyin Civan and the Gazette were taken to court after an investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor over a December 2015 issue of the paper, which has supported Kurdish revolutionaries fighting in Rojava. The three offending articles were titled “Both Arrival and Departure of State is From Fear” “Banned Until Further Notice” and “Recreating Life.”

       Representing the Gazette and Civan, lawyer Davut Erkan stated that the decision was illegal and would be appealed, if necessary, all the way to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
      In a statement Meydan, which is based just a few streets away from Gezi Park, said:

Our managing editor was charged with “propagandising for the methods of a terrorist organisation employing coercion, violence or threats, through legitimising, praising or encouraging the use of these methods.”
As we emphasised in articles leading up to the investigation, the “State will never be able to lock away the passion and conviction for freedom of the peoples.”
As an anarchist newspaper we know that the free life we believe in can only be created through struggle. We will never give up writing about what we stand for and distributing what we write. We will continue to resist, act and write against oppression, and against these investigations, custodies and arrests.

Journalists have been heavily targeted in the Erdogan government’s post-coup crackdown, which has been heavily skewed against pro-Kurdish media. In October the left-wing Hayatin Sesi TV station was closed along with 24 other TV and radio stations, and hundreds of reporters have been detained, inspiring even some MPs to attempt civil disobedience in protest.
       The draconian measures have even stretched beyond Turkey’s borders, with the issuing of a red alert to Interpol for well-known Turkish-French journalist Maxime Azadi, who was picked up by Belgian authorities for alleged “co-operation” with terrorists on a year-old warrant on December 23rd.

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