As the world suffers more from natural disasters and the devastating results of wars, along with the ravages of poverty created by corporate capitalist greed, we need to allow people freedom of movement as they try to survive these horrors. No one can be illegal, borders can’t be a death sentence, we are one.
Isn’t about time we woke up to the fact that national governments are no more than the corporate world’s minders. They certainly don’t function for the benefit of all in society, they do the bidding of their corporate bosses. We now live in a corporate society where the corporations control everything and nothing will be done that might in any way hinder their progress to amass ever greater profits. We should always remember that a pool of unemployed helps to keep wages down, it is a bonus to the corporate world. You can lobby the millionaire cabal in the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption all you want about more jobs and all that crap but basically they don’t need you. The corporate world is not in the least patriotic, the Asian manufacturing is booming and the companies that are falling over themselves to join that bandwagon over there are all familiar names to the Western workers. In the past the booming West sent its affluent workers as tourists to the East, now it is in reverse, the affluent Asians are visiting the poorer West. The corporate world doesn’t much care which way it goes, as I said before, they are not in the least patriotic.
It is strange that the corporate world and anarchists should have one thing in common, we both want the end to national borders. We anarchist want to see the end of the state and its borders so that we as people can co-operate, function freely in federation with all other people to our mutual benefit. The corporate world wants an end to national borders but only for capital to move freely around the globe exploiting any pool of cheap labour it can find and all for the benefit of that little band of parasites, the shareholders.
The reality is, we don’t need them, we make and distribute everything in this world, we can do so in a much more efficient, equitable, just and sustainable manner if we eliminated the parasites and and got rid of their mantra, profit above all else. They on the other hand do need us to continue to be exploited, so as they can maintain their pampered parasitical existence.
Roma family in Italy.
Read Amnesty International’s page on the plight of the Roma in Europe and help to see that they are given, at least, the same human rights as the rest of us.
The Roma are one of Europe’s oldest and largest ethnic minorities, with an estimated 10 to 12 million Romani people living within the countries of the Council of Europe.
Existing predominantly on the margins of society, Roma are among the most deprived communities in Europe. They suffer massive discrimination and are denied their rights to housing, employment, health care and education. Roma communities are often subject to forced evictions, racist attacks and police ill-treatment.
Amnesty’s work on the rights of Roma forms part of our global Demand Dignity campaign, focussing on the human rights abuses that are a cause and a consequence of poverty.
Recently there has been rumblings coming from the various political pundits that today’s situation means that it is no longer a matter of the right-left struggle, it is now a struggle of the people aginst the corporate world. It may come as a surprise to these people, but since the late 1880′s anarchists have been saying that it is not a matter of left and right between the people but a matter of the people against the state. The state has always been there for the protection of the wealthy. After all it was them that set the whole thing up in the first place, and it took generations of struggle for the ordinary people to get even a token element of participation. Remember the struggle for all to get the vote, then for women to get the vote.? Americans can surely remember the civil rights struggles. The only thing that has changed is that in the past the wealthy of a nation owned that nation, now the corporate world own the planet. It is the corporate world that dictates fiscal policies to the various nations. Look around the world and you see governments of left, right, and middle all pursuing the same fiscal policies, the only variation is in degree and speed.
As long as we accept a system that sets the creation of wealth for the corporate institutions as the goal rather than the well being of the people, we will continually see the gap between rich and poor ever escalating. Poverty will run rampant and the elite pampered parasites will own and control every aspect of our lives.
Anarchist have been proclaiming this since the word “anarchist” first came in to the language. The difference now is that is is becoming more and more glaringly obvious that they have been right all along. So all those “political pundits” have to do is take the obvious step and through their weight behind the cause for anarchism.
The European Trade Union Confederation is staging a European Day of Action on 29 September next. It will be made up of a Euro-demonstration in Brussels and trade union actions in the various European countries. The European trade unions will be demonstrating against the austerity measures adopted recently by many European countries, and to demand recovery plans in favour of quality jobs and growth.
This is not enough, little pockets of demonstrators dotted around Europe will not have any effect on the powers that be. What is needed is an indefinite pan-European general strike. To call on the workers to politely form marches here and there asking the financial world not to hurt them too much is a retrograde step. We want to change the system, we don’t want more of the same. If we want that better world for all, we can’t simply ask for more of what we have just had. All the workers of this world have to do to change it for ever is just simply fold their arms. Stay at home, read a book, take the kids for a walk, go for a cycle, then organise your community and work place the way you want it to be, but don’t turn up to be employed by the parasites, occupy your work place.
This action by the European TUC should be expanded, it should be seen as the opportunity to grasp the moment and take control of our lives and free ourselves from the yoke of exploitation by the parasitical financial greed merchants and their state mouthpieces the politicians. We could take that step to start the creation of that better world based on mutual aid that sees to the needs of all our people and consign this system of greed and profit to the dustbin of history. We don’t want to beg for work, we don’t want to to say “Please don’t cut my social services, my health service or my kids education but do keep exploiting me.” We want to change the world and only we the workers will do that for the benefit of the workers.
It is odd that people should accept the state even although history tells us that, despite its vociferous and strenuous propaganda to the contrary, the state is the longest running, most experienced, most skilled, most copious purveyors in that ancient and intricate art of terror, in the long and tortured history of man.
Ever since the first government was formed, terror has been an accepted weapon for keeping the people in line. Never for the benefit of the people in the line, but for those who wish to keep them there. The few rule the many and since it is against the interests of the many, the few need the weapon of terror to protect their little profitable cabal. It would therefore seem obvious that if we wish to free ourselves from the the ever present anticipation and results of terror, we have to first and foremost get rid of the greatest source of terror, the state, and its mouthpiece, government.
THE WAY OF SLAVES.
Politicians living a life of opulence
paid for by other men’s dreams,
add to the lexicon of humanity’s suffering
weaving their selfish grandiose schemes.
Abusing privileges, grasping at wealth
egos blown like a hot air balloon,
preaching our poverty will bring
prosperity for all———-soon.
We tighten our belt another notch
accepting a beggarly slice of the cake,
while they bask in a cherry orchard
surrounded by a fine wine lake.
Pouring words, grand posturing,
as they unveil their latest plan,
assuring they live in luxury
while we struggle as best we can.
Poverty’s the price for allowing
others to plan our days,
when will we finally grasp
this is the way of slaves.
WHAT THE EU. BOSSES WANT
Europe-wide privatisation, cutbacks and layoffs.
A Europe that exploits Africa and Asia for profit.
“Fortress Europe” with racist immigration controls.
Patents and profits from medical drugs.
Ever more cops, jails and surveillance to protect their wealth.
A Rapid Reaction Force to enforce corporate rule on the globe.
European nationalism V. The globe.
WHAT ANARCHISTS WANT.
Workers self management, expansion of public services.
Solidarity with the peoples of Africa and Asia as part of an international revolution.
The free movement of all people without border controls.
Free medical drugs for all who need them.
An end to inequality and the system that protects it.
An end to their militarisation, war and armies.
Global workers solidarity.
THE CHOICE IS OURS???
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Jack Kerouac.
THE REBEL
Rebel rebel break the rule,
What does it matter that a “wise” man sees a fool.
Not for you the herd’s dull beat
Making tomorrow, yesterday’s repeat,
Living out the life of a clone
Marching with the crowd but always alone.
Shaping your life from some dusty tome
Playing it safe, staying at home.
Rebel rebel break the rule
Swim in the sea, never the pool.
Live your emotions, feel the surge
Follow your dreams, chase the urge.
Make life though short, an exciting game
Not a mad march for fortune or fame.
Capture the moment, live it now
Being alive your only vow.
Rebel rebel break the rule
In the end, you’re humanity’s jewel.
ann arky.
Today we are witnessing a corporate pan-European attack on the living conditions of the working class. Governments across Europe, at the behest of the corporate/financial institutions are cutting back on the welfare state. Social services, education, health, pensions, libraries, museums, swimming pools, etc. are all being ripped apart to make it easier for the private sector to move in and provide these services, in part or in whole. In the eyes of the corporate world if you need it or want it then the private sector should be the provider, at a profit of course, and if you can’t afford it, then you do without or rely on charity. This policy helps to cut taxes for big business and at the same time creates a large pool of cheap labour as people become desperate for a job, any job, at any wage. At least, that’s the theory, how it work out depends on you and I.
This is a co-ordinated attack on our living standards, a well organised class war battle by a grouping that knows it is a class war and will work in unison with each other to attempt total victory. To respond with piece-meal individual union action will be futile, your not dealing with a boss-man that lives down the road, it is faceless corporate institutions of international capital. If we hope to have any chance of claiming our right to a decent standard of living and controlling our own lives we have to think as they do. We have to be united across unions and across borders, our actions have to be co-ordinated. One day general strikes happening here and there will be snuffed out, it has to be pan-European action. There has been several one day general strikes across Europe, Greece has had at least 5 since this recent attack on our conditions, Spain has had several, Italy and the Basque Country have had well supported one day general strikes. Let’s make that a rehearsal for the real battle, Spain has called for another one day general strike on the 29th September. That leaves plenty of time for the workers in all the other European countries to co-ordinate and organise for that pan-European general strike. It should however not be a one day affair as this can be endured and overcome by the corporate world. It has to be a sustained general strike across Europe with the workers of Europe realising that this is a class war and we have to win or take our conditions back to the Victorian era of poverty.
Of course we don’t just want to get things back to the greedfest of the consumer society where the corporate world rips us off as we pile up the debt and the planet gets plundered and raped. This so called crisis is our opportunity to unite in one massive class war battle that will change the shape of society forever. Our chance to create a society based on mutual aid, free from the greedy profit motive, a society of federated communities that sees to the needs of all our people, a society that sees sustainability as the natural and most beneficial road to build a world for future generations one that we would be proud to hand over to our children and grandchildren.
This could be our last chance, think of all the bitter struggles that it took to lift some of us above that Victorian poverty of the past, think how difficult it will be to do it all over again, how many generations will be destroyed in the process. Let’s think of this as the corporate world’s last stand.
As Ossie the toff prattled on about his necessary and very fair cuts you probably noticed that there were no cuts announced for the Ministry of War’s budget. I call it by it proper name since all it ever seems to do is send our troops to kill and maim people in other countries. Countries I might add that have never attacked us. He could have saved us £45 billion by scrapping trident and not replacing the beast, but some how he feels the need for our country to have these illegal weapons of mass destruction skulking about deep in the Atlantic pointing at our enemies. Who are our enemies? We don’t know and if we did we couldn’t fire these weapons of mass destruction, for though we bought and paid for them, we can’t use them without America’s permission, and they are unlikely to grant that permission unless it is somebody they don’t like, so we would be doing them a favour and taking the blame. At a running cost of £5 billion a year, these weapons of mass destruction do however allow our ministers to prance about on the international stage with the label “Super Power” pinned to their chest. That must make them feel good!! Let’s try to imagine how that £5 billion a year works out in schools, hospitals, cheap homes and/or an excellent public transport system.
Though Ossie the toff didn’t cut our Ministry of War budget you would imagine that there was a wee bit wiggle room there, as, for the year 2009, the financial crash year, we managed to spend more on warfare than Russia. As a matter of fact we were the third largest spender on warfare on the planet, We were only beaten into third place by the mighty war machines of the USA and China.
Our democratic welfare state managed to spend for the year 2009 approximately £45.8 billion on war. How would that translate into health, education and pensions? Of course we have to think what would the state be without its war machine? How could it make those land grabs for the corporate world, how could it seize other people’s oil for the oil giants? Yes, we need that mighty war machine to protect and increase the assets of the corporate world, so you and I will just have to pay up, grin and bear it.
We could of course organise to change society so that it sees to the needs of all its people and works in peace and co-operation with all other ordinary people across the planet. A society where the need to protect the greedy profit seeking parasites is a distant memory from the dustbin of history.
I’M PROUD.
I’m proud of my people, proud to be one of them,
that great mass on society’s bottom rung.
Those who, with coaldust under their nails
in their eyes, in their lungs
claw at the earth’s entrails.
Their brothers,
cement in their hair
in their mouth, in their ears,
oil ingrained in their fingers,
on their face.
Sisters, glistening with sweat
midst the ceaseless noise of machines
that throw out shirts, shoes, toys, carpets
for other people.
Those with soil and sweat stuck to their skin
smelling of the earth, feeding the multitude,
grinding out their lives in a harsh pitiless system
weighted down
with a sack load of half-dead dreams,
sometimes brought to their knees
by a tidal wave of despair,
never defeated,
groping in the dark to find tomorrow,
keeping hope alive;
they amaze me.
Somehow, from somewhere
in this cold, cruel
unforgiving scheme of things
they find love for their children.
Not a teaspoonful, not a cupful,
but buckets full, to bathe them in,
to pour over them.
They seem to know
that one day this world will be ours
and to take care of it
we will need those who have been loved
The Edinburgh June 5 demo against the Israeli massacre had a remarkable turnout. It was good to see such a large crowd at such short notice. There were groups from all parts of Scotland proudly displaying their banners. Despite the problems that the ordinary people of this country face because of the governments economic policies, it is obvious that the people of Scotland have not lost their compassion when others are in need.
This brutal Israeli state activity even brought out the local canine activists who marched with the other protesters in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
It is obvious that the pressure must be kept up to bring the Israeli zionist policies to a halt. Of course that is only one step in the right direction, we must struggle to end the state system. This brutal massacre is only one display of state savagery, we could fill a library with the list of brutal events visited on the ordinary people of this world by state oppression. By far the greatest killers in this world are states, their brutality outstrips any other organisation. In our focus on this massacre let’s not forget it is the state system that is at the root of this violence.
Already Israel is pumping out the propaganda about the violence of those on board the aid convoy. How they attacked with iron bars and other implements those poor commandos who come under the cover of darkness to take control of the ship. This in the eyes of the Israeli state is provocation and needed to be put down with automatic machine guns and other peaceful implements. What would any civilian ship do when boarded by armed invaders on international waters, Does Somalia spring to mind? Of course the Israeli state conveniently forgets the case of the Exodus, a ship carrying Jewish refugees that was commandeer by the British in 1947. Here is a short extract from The Times of he event;
“— Several hours of fighting followed, with the ship’s passengers spraying fuel oil and throwing smoke bombs, life rafts and whatever else came to hand, down on the British sailors trying to board, soon the British opened fire. Two immigrants and a crewman on the Exodus were killed; scores more were wounded, many seriously.—-.”
It seems very natural to defend yourself against armed invaders on the open sea, those on board had every right to defend themselves, the Israeli state had no right what so ever to board a civilian ship on the open seas without the permission of the captain.
However we all know that states make up the rules as they go along, the more powerful the state, more it changes any rules to suit its own purpose, and to hell with the consequences on civilians. The state system is at the root of most of the problems on this planet today. We could of course add religion and corporate capitalism.
The death toll after the Israeli assault on the Gaz aid flotilla is now
reported to be over 20. The attack took place in international waters, making it a major violation of international law. Imagine the response if such an attack had been carried out by Iran. We would now be at war.
Below is athe press release issued by Stop the War earlier, calling for the
British government to condemn the attack and to break links with Israel.
See the Stop the War website for links to videos of the Israeli attack:
http://bit.ly/aEMHws
Please use all means you can — by email, text, Facebook, Twitter, phone — to publicise today’s emergency demonstration.
EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION TODAY
MONDAY 31 MAY 2.00PM DOWNING STREET LONDON
ISRAELIS KILL TEN STORMING GAZA FLOTILLA
EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION TODAY
MONDAY 31 MAY 2.00PM DOWNING STREET LONDON
SPREAD THE WORD
Yet another act of Israeli barbarism as its forces storm one of the seven ships on the international flotilla taking aid to Gaza, where Israel’s illegal siege is starving Palestinians of essential resources. At least ten activists on board have been killed by Israeli forces.
Please join the emergency demonstration today if you can. Publicise it as widely as possible.
See video of Israeli assault from Turkish television: http://bit.ly/aKExFf
For updates see: http://http://bit.ly/bg5gIu
CONTACT FOREIGN SECRETARY WILLIAM HAGUE & YOUR MP
PROTEST TO FOREIGN SECRETARY WILLIAM HAGUE:
EMAIL:http:// msu.correspondence@fco.gov.uk
AND/OR http://private.office@fco.gov.uk
AND MSU.PublicIn@fco.gov.uk
LETTER TO:
William Hague MP,
Foreign Secretary,
King Charles Street,
London, SW1A 2AH
CONTACT YOUR MP:
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/ Ask him/her to contact Hague on your behalf
CONTACT DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER NICK CLEGG
EMAIL: cleggn@parliament.uk
LETTER TO: Nick Clegg MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Annarky1's Blog 