Corporatism.

         Some people foolishly refer to our society as a democracy, when in fact we live under a system of corporatism. A society where the corporate world dictates the shape of the economic distribution of wealth and our political Ballerinas always dance to their tune. The Tories, the ballerinas on stage at the moment, spout that they are the party of tax cuts, and this is supposed to make you and I feel good, when in fact it just makes less tax revenue available for the social fabric of our society and the poorest will carry that burden. The latest in tax cuts is inheritance tax, so how much do you think you will save by this "generous" Tory action? Well here is a sample of how those savings work out. 

Rishi Sunak £282m
Jacob Rees-Mogg £60m
David Cameron £16m
Jeremy Hunt £6m
James Cleverly £3.5m
96% of people £0
 

            While the system protects the wealth of the very rich and turns a blind eye to tax avoidance, it has decided that it will now snoop on the bank details of the poorest and most vulnerable. Data Protection and Digital Information Bill gives government unhindered access to bank accounts of 22.4m people. No court order is needed, government does not have to notify anyone. Be afraid, very afraid. Our liberties are vanishing like an early morning mist.
           Our political ballerinas have now dictated that our energy bills will rise by 5% this coming term. Can this be justified when we consider that one energy company, Scottish Power, managed £487 million in profit for year 2022, a considerable jump compared to the previous year. Just another step in the plundering of the poor for corporate profit. The system continues to push more and more people into poverty and the resultant misery and deaths that these actions bring with them.       

          When society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live – forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence – knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder. (Engels)

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info      

Blood Money.

 

      

                                                   Image courtesy of UN News

          Ukraine, its been a good war, champagne corks are popping as rapidly as the artillery fire in that blood bath that is Ukraine. Western weapons manufacturers have been reeling in the big bucks since the start of this human catastrophe. Apparently these pimps of war, the Western weapons manufacturers, have seen their total revenues for the previous year, reach a staggering $400 billion, lots of shareholders bonuses and lots of new exploitation investments. What's more, they expect that figure to rise in the coming year by approximately a further $50 billion. So you see for capitalists, war is good for business, so why try and stop the slaughter. That $400 billion is paid for in the deaths of of thousands, the maiming and injuring of thousands more ordinary innocent people.

image courtesy of Reddit.

        Why in the name of the wee man in the sky would Western capitalists do anything that might bring about peace? The big banks and construction companies are also calculating how much they will earn in the rebuilding of the torn battered piece of land know as Ukraine. The insanity, make billions destroying a country, then make billions in its rebuilding.
       This is the economic system that shackles us to insanity and endless wars, a system that spawns poverty and destitution for the many, while the few live in opulence and obscene excesses, all at our expense.

Image courtesy of twitter.

       To harbour any illusion that we live in a democracy is political blindness. Governments are all now in the thrall of the world's financial Moguls and follow the dictate of the world's big corporations, we live in what Mussolini called corporatism. Until we recognise this fact and bring this insanity to an end by overthrowing and destroying forever, this insane man made economic disaster,  we will continue with endless wars, poverty, inequality and injustice, and sadly hand this legacy to our children and grandchildren. 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Our Quiet March To Fascism Continues.

         The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative.   Benito Mussolini

         About six years ago I wrote a wee piece, "Inch By Inch We Lose Control", about how I believed we were taking a quiet march to fascism, the following is just a rehash of that article, as I believe we are still taking that quiet march in the same direction, though we are now much closer to that destination.

      Like a tape-loop message, I keep repeating, that we are marching quietly towards full blown fascism. It won't be recognised by the jackboots on the streets, nor by people being locked up for not living to the laid down norms. No, the state has moved on from from those days, though that method will still be held in reserve to be used if needed. It will be much more subtle than that, just slowly bit by bit, the state introducing ever stronger legislation to control every aspect of your life. The establishment making more and more arbitrary decision over our heads. They have already neutered the spontaneity of the trade unions by legislation, and tied protesters in legal loops. There other things that pass almost unnoticed, but show state power acting out what can only be called dictatorial acts, unchallenged. The ever creeping CCTV surveillance, advanced facial recognition, trolling through your phone and internet activity. The interweaving of state and corporate bodies in the interest of “growth” and to the detriment of the people. The introduction of the “minimum wage” gave the employers a low legal standard to adhere to and moved the struggle for improvement away from the employer to the state. Wars are and will continue to be waged, despite the will of the people saying otherwise, remember Iraq, millions on the streets in protest, but the war went ahead. Hardly the hallmark of democracy.
      Surreptitiously and brutally, the all knowing, all powerful, all for your own good, state, reaches in and controls every aspect of your life, for no other purpose than to safeguard its own power and privileges, and it can do it at will, through its various agents, backed up by its own biased judiciary. Who do you believe has the right, the benevolent character, and the humanity to take control of your life? No doubt your answer will be nobody, then why do we tolerate the faceless ones, behind closed doors in their marble corridors of power, to control all avenues of our life?

And another quote from one of the masters of fascism:

       It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity.

Benito Mussolini

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Let's Cut The Bloody Claws Of Militarism.

        With the UK among the Western imperialists, who are eagerly involved in sticking their blooded hands in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, by means of aerial bombings and “special forces” and “training personnel” on the ground, it is now more important than ever that we keep up a continuous anti-war presence. Our lords and masters would love to keep their brutal involvement in these imperialist resource grabs, out of public scrutiny. With the establishments mouth-piece, that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, ever pushing in our faces, the splits in the Labour party, and the horrors/benefits of Brexit, it is up to us to stand up and point the finger at the savagery being heap on the lives of the civilian population in these countries, all in the defence of corporatism. 

       There will be the usual monthly vigil for peace and against militarism, on Thursday evening 28th. July. It will be held at the top of Buchanan Street at the Donald Dewar statue, 5pm.

Thursday 28th. July
From 5pm.
Donald Dewar statue
Top of Buchanan Street Glasgow.
         Please come along and support the drive for peace and an end to militarism. There will be placards, but bring what you would expect to find at a rally for world peace. 

Let’s Make That Stand

Come rise with me

here, take my hand

it’s time my brothers

to make that stand,/p>

we’ve bought this world/p>

with blood and tears

shed by our kin

through countless years.

Put an end to war

it’s time for peace

man killing man

has to cease.

No more poverty

in a sea of wealth

all men equal

in a new commonwealth.

Let’s never again kneel

let’s stand up tall

claim what’s ours

justice for all.

 

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

 

 

 

We Are Drowning In Hyperbole And Hypocrisy.

 

        Most people accept that we are now controlled by billionaires, sitting behind closed doors, making decisions that we play no part in, or even hear the discussions, yet they shape our lives. A handful of, usually men, sit and follow ideology and dogma that is designed to increase the power and wealth of their institutions. What we do hear from the mouths of this financial Mafia is hyperbole and hypocrisy, we are supposed to accept, without question, their dictates, though we know that doing so will continually tighten their grip over our lives, and lower or living standards. We are drowning in a sea of hypoerbole and hypocrisy. Since this unaccountable cabal, (EC, Excessively Corrupt, ECB, European Conning Banksters, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) never allow their deliberations to be made public, it is good to hear quotes of their statements, their arguments, and their ideas, from one who was there. One who for a short while sat among them, discussed and listened to their hypocritical vomiting, and is prepare to repeat in public, some of those statements.

      This film might be a bit on the long side for some, but it is well worth listening to the full discussion and the questions and answers that follow.

A chat between Yanis Varoufakis and Noam Chomsky, May, 26th. 2016.

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

Capitalism = Crisis.

         Capitalism in crisis, capitalism is crisis, to get rid of the crisis in capitalism, we have to get rid of capitalism. Any attempt to tinker with, modify, transform capitalism, will still leave you with capitalism, which is an exploitative system, based on profit for the few and struggle for the many. Dress it up in tinsel, paint it pink, spray it with deodorant, it is still a stinking system whereby the many work for the enrichment of the few. We can never be free if we, the many, depend on working all our lives for the enrichment of the few. Why do we continually struggle through life creating unimaginable wealth for the few? Why do we perpetuate a system of exploitation for the next generation, our children and grandchildren, to inherit? 

           There is a world beyond "market forces", by no stretch of the imagination can the present system be called democracy. It is plutocracy, corporatism, mass exploitation, plundering of public assets, raping of the world's resources, take your pick, but it is not democracy, nor can capitalism ever by democracy.

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

Smell The Stench Of Raw Capitalism.

      The Bullingdon Club, now in control of the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, has stated that it will introduce more legislation to restrict the use of strikes. No doubt it was a directive from their millionaire buddies in the corporate world. So it would seem that when you sign on as an employee of a firm, and that firm treats you like shit, refusing to negotiate your grievance, you are supposed to just put up with it. You will not have the right to say, this has gone too far, we are refusing to work under these conditions, and call a strike until the matter is resolved. No doubt the corporate greed  machine will call this democracy. As Howard Zin and Noam Chomsky have said, big business loves fascism. We are almost there, give the Bullingdon Boys an few more months and see what they unleash on the ordinary people of this country.

      You will be expected to work submissively, or stay at home and watch TV. The streets will only be for consumers. As far as the Bullingdon Club advocates of raw capitalism are concerned, the gloves are off, they are drunk on their new unfettered power. Be prepared for a ferocious fight back, or be shown no mercy, as they capitalise on that power.

The era is different, but the lie is the same.

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

Banana Repubilc With A Queen.

      A short response to the new bare knuckle capitalists taking full control of the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. No more watered down austerity, from now on, it is full throttle brutal exploitation, now it will be corporatism in all its savage reality. Do you expect any real opposition to come from those comfy well paid seats, with all their perks? You may get plenty of noise, lots of hee-haw and braying, with some prick shouting "order order", but the outcome will be what the banksters mates, the Cameron clan, want. If you are looking for opposition to this cabal of millionaires, then it will have to come from you and I. All those well minded people who have been elected with the intentions of locking the Tories out of Downing Street, have entered the game and they will have to play by those rules. Real meaningful change will only come when enough of us don't play the game, and break the rules. The rules were put in place to make sure they don't work in our favour, the dice is loaded in favour of wealth and power. We have to create the change we want, and for the sake of future generations, we have to start now.

      As the man said, "We are a banana republic with a queen, and no bananas".

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

TTIP Must Be Stopped.

       The corporate/financial Mafia hope to have TTIP all wrapped up and functioning by October. That's not a lot of time, we can't wait until then, and then start to complain when TTIP moves in and kicks us in the teeth. We have to continually keep pushing to get this take over by corporatism flushed down the tubes.  Sign the petition HERE:

This appeal from 38 Degrees:

       Big corporations are staging their biggest power grab yet - with TTIP, the dodgy EU-US trade deal. But this week, we have a chance to deal a blow to those trying to get the deal passed without a fuss.
      On Wednesday, MSPs will vote on whether to reject the worst parts of TTIP. They’ll be voting on the part of the deal that lets private companies like McDonald’s sue our government if they raise the minimum wage. [1] The vote won’t stop TTIP. But it’ll send a very clear message - that together we’ll stand against corporate power.
      We need our MSPs to be there, and to vote the right way. The vote’s on Wednesday so we don’t have much time. Can you email your MSP today? Click here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/msps-stop-TTIP
       It would be a nightmare scenario for corporations is every MSP turned up on Wednesday. They don’t want to have to defend their flagship trade deal. So together, let’s make sure every MSP is there. And let’s get as many as possible to listen to their constituents and vote the right way.
      It’s no surprise that public pressure against TTIP is growing across Scotland. This dodgy deal could make more NHS privatisation inevitable. And it could hand American corporations the power to sue our Scottish government if Holyrood passed laws they didn’t like. Plans to de-privatise our services would be scuppered. [2]
        The vote this Wednesday is a huge opportunity for us to raise the political stakes on this dodgy trade deal before next year's Holyrood election. The more of us who email our MSPs, the clearer the message: we won’t sit back while our democracy disappears into corporate hands.
      Please click here to tell your MSP to turn up on Wednesday and vote to on principle against TTIP:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/msps-stop-TTIP

Thanks for being involved,
Jen, Nat, David and the 38 Degrees team
NOTES
[1] The report being discussed on Wednesday is the result of months of work by the parliament to find out whether TTIP really threatens our democracy - and the conclusions are stark.
     The report recommends that ISDS, the part of the deal that lets companies sue our government for ‘lost profits’, should be scrapped. It says that TTIP could harm our environment and food safety, and could allow runaway privatisation of our services. MSPs will be voting on whether they agree with this report.
You can read the full report here:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_EuropeanandExternalRelationsCommittee/Reports/eur-15-02w.pdf
Or find a handy summary by Global Justice Now here:
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2015/mar/17/our-response-holyroods-ttip-report
[2] Liz Murray: It’s more than just the NHS that’s at risk in Scotland from TTIP:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/liz-murray/it%E2%80%99s-more-than-just-nhs-that%E2%80%99s-at-risk-in-scotland-from-ttip

 

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

The Undesirables.

        As technology increases the efficiency of capitalist production, more and more of us are becoming surplus to requirements. We are actually a drain on the profits of the corporations, as taxes have to be raised to maintain control of us. We are moving from "surplus to requirements" to "undesirables". It is an indication of how corrupt and unjust a system is when it produces more "undesirables" than "desirables". 

This from Act For Freedom Now:

TO THE UNDESIRABLES

Undesirables in this world of cash and power

      There are more and more undesirables in this world. Whether it’s the millions of refugees who roam the planet, or the millions herded into slums and poor neighbourhoods around the world. Whether it’s those sacrificed by wars and industrial devastation or the poor in European countries thrown overboard in the name of the economy. Whether it is the brave insurgents who have risen up with cries of freedom and dignity in many countries in recent years or those daring to fight here in the heart of the metropoli, against a world that suffocates them. More and more of us are considered superfluous, unnecessary, dangerous, unproductive and harmful by the masters of this world, who will stop at nothing to protect their system and save their power. They have turned the Mediterranean into a huge mass grave. They have set up hundreds of concentration camps for undocumented migrants. They have developed advanced technologies to better identify, monitor and control us. They brandish the threat of expulsion, imprisonment or the most abject poverty to make us accept the role of slaves that they have reserved for us. They stir up racial hatred and sectarian strife to divide us. In short, they are making war on the undesirables here and elsewhere.

Nowhere to run except …

Read the full article HERE: 

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

We Can Surely Fix This!!!

It is just around 3 weeks to the Great Big Crooks and Liars competition, the “general election” and the crazed competitors are running around the country kissing dogs' arses and shaking the back legs of frogs, all in an attempt to impress the general public. No deed is too bizarre, lofty millionaires will even touch the bairns of ordinary folk, and smile. I always feel that it is aptly named, “general election” , after all we are really electing generals to lead the slaves. What is it all about, what really happens after the “big event”? We should know, we have had lots of them in the past which we can examine. In each Crooks and Liars competition in the past we have had the various groupings, called parties, as they have lots of fun, produce their magic formula, called “a manifesto”. As you read each magic formula you come across lots of words all arranged differently from the other's magic formula, but all basically saying the same thing. For example, each one will say that they will end poverty, give everybody a decent home, create a good standard of living for everybody, and see that the population is taken care of, from the cradle to the grave. They will dress it up in various recognisable sound-bites, but it is still the same old crap.        In my 80+ years I have experienced a lot of these Crooks and Liars competitions, I have read lots of these magic formulae, and to this day I have not seen one fulfilled. I was born in poverty, son of a miner and a waitress/cleaner/shop-assistant/factory-worker, in one of Glasgow's many slums, Garngad. So the single-ends have gone, but the poverty remains, homelessness is on the increase, and the health service is deteriorating, and people are having to rely on food-banks to survive. So why do we keep repeating the same old failed process? We know what happens when the winners of the Crooks and Liars competition, don the robes of power, and take up residence in that edifice to imperialism and privilege, the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. They sit down and do the bidding of the financial Mafia, they work out the best way to implement the financial Mafia's grand plan of total privatisation. All public assets are to be sold off to the corporate world. Everything that can assist the corporate world will be done, depressing wages, restricting trade union activity, end social spending, reduce corporate taxation. The winners of the Crooks and Liars competition are the puppets of the financial/corporate Mafia.      If we the general public are hoping to create a better world for all our people, our children and grandchildren, Then we have to stop expecting a bunch of pampered privileged careerist to do it for us, they are part of the problem, in no way are they the answer. We have to take control of our lives, that means control of our communities, our work places, the means of production and distribution. We can run all these affairs without the aid of an overpaid fat-cat CEO, and a bunch of doing-nothing, greedy shareholders. We have toiled long and hard, we built every house, factory, ship, and lorry, we delivered every product, we grow every morsel of food. However, sadly we do it to the dictate of a bunch of greedy self interested pampered parasites, whose interest are contrary to ours. We can surely fix that.   Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

TTIP Is Still There.

      TTIP still growls away in the dark corridors of power, its proponents wheeling and dealing, slicing and dicing, between themselves and the corrupt politicians. We can only expect them to come up with a plan that will allow the corporate juggernaut roll mercilessly over any illusion of democracy that still remains. 

     There will be an international campaign of action on April 25th. Across Europe people will be coming together to voice their opposition to this attempt to cement corporatism on to our backs, giving the corporate bosses full control over any legislation that they may consider to be harmful to their profits. 

This from Global Justice Now:  

      On Saturday 18 April people across the world will be protesting against “free trade” deals that are undermining our democracy. In Europe people will be taking part in 100s of actions to stop TTIP, the “trade” deal between the EU and the US.

     With the election coming up in May it is important that we make sure TTIP is on the agenda. People are organising exciting actions across the UK to raise awareness about TTIP and stop this corporate grab of our democracy.

You can find out about existing actions or organise your own on our website.

     People are standing up to “free trade” deals globally. If we stand together, we can defeat these assaults on our democracy. Please join us to protest on 18 April.

Best wishes,
Guy Taylor
Trade campaigner at Global Justice Now

     Already the tobacco giant Philip Morris is suing Uruguay for having some of the best anti-smoking laws in the world, and there’s a good chance it could win, unless we strengthen the fight in court.

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

Tomorrow's World, fashioned By TTIP.

       Are we taking TTIP serious enough? Where is the noise? This is no ordinary piece of crap legislation, this is cementing the foundations of corporatism, this trashes completely any illusion of democracy that any naive individual my have been clinging to, this gives corporations power over elected governments. It will mean that those sitting in boardrooms of powerful profit driven corporations will determine the shape our society will take. Anything that stands in the way of their ability to rape and plunder the planet to maximise their profits and power, will be swept away. Anything in the public sector that could be turned to a profit, will be privatised. The full spectrum, from health, education, to public spaces and what we eat, all will be decided on the basis of profit. It paints a picture of a "Tomorrow's World" that will be unbearable and unsustainable.

 Tomorrow’s World!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile

as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,

Chasing profit as it goes

firing millions of ordinary folk.

Raping and polluting land after land,

starting bloody wars.

Toxic waste, sweat shop wages

and oil covered sea shores.

Where have all the flowers gone

beneath this ozone free sky?

To join the birds, to join the fox

on yonder plutonium field to die.

Mercury fish, strontium lamb

trees that never show a leaf,

radio active beaches, toxic streams

good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.

In a world of epidemic, plague and famine

it’s bottled water and chemical food.

Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice

so you know its got to be good.

Beneath a sky that’s always black,

hurricane winds and endless drought,

its oxygen masks for the toxic air,

corporate profit’s what its all about.

This is an appeal from 38 Degrees:

Thanks for signing the petition to your local MP candidates.

      The more of us who sign, the more likely we can push all these candidates to realise that they must stand up to TTIP. Can you share the petition with your friends and family too? Just click the links below to share:
Facebook: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-ttip-scotland-facebook
Twitter: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-ttip-scotland-twitter
Or you can forward using the email text below.
      38 Degrees members are coming together in town centres across Scotland on Saturday the 28th March to collect signatures on big local petitions, calling on our MP candidates to stop TTIP. Will you join in and set up an street event in your local area? Just click the link below to get started:
http://election.38degrees.org.uk/?tinfo_id=4

Thanks for being involved,
Jen, Bex, Maddy & the 38 Degrees team

Hi,
Have a look at this:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/ttip-scotland-petition

    The text of the TTIP trade deal has been leaked, and it’s confirmed one of our biggest fears: our NHS in Scotland is at risk.
     And it’s not just the NHS. All our public services could be in the firing line from this dodgy trade deal - as well as food safety and environmental protections. We can stop TTIP, but we need to persuade our politicians to defend public services against big business.
    It’s now less than 60 days to the election. Hopeful new candidates are desperate to win votes - the perfect opportunity to push TTIP to the top of their agenda. To make that happen, every candidate from every party needs to know:  TTIP is a huge threat, and they must oppose it.
    With huge public petitions in every constituency, they won’t be able to ignore the issue. It just takes a couple of minutes. Will you sign the petition for your local area?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/ttip-scotland-petition

Thanks,

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

Glasgow TTIP Meeting.

     TTIP still rumbles on, wheeling and dealing behind closed doors. The corporate world's attempt at a final thrust to take control of the world, and bring an end to any shape, form or illusion of democracy. What is more our elected politicians are in there stitching us up, all in secret.

Global Justice Now is holding a meeting regarding TTIP in Glasgow this Friday, 27th. February.    

       On Friday 27 February, Global Justice Now campaigner Ed Lewis will be in Glasgow speaking at a public meeting about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty (TTIP), the EU-US mega-trade deal that could hand unprecedented power to multinational businesses. You are very warmly invited.

      Come along and find out more about how TTIP threatens hard-won regulations to protect the environment, food, workers' rights and our public services. Hear the latest on where the negotiations are up to, how the opposition is growing and what action we can take to stop TTIP.

The meeting is on at 7pm at Govanhill Baths Community Trust, 99 Calder Street, Glasgow G42 7RA.

     TTIP will affect people in Scotland: from the NHS and other public services, to laws on fracking, local procurement, and the food we eat.  Make your voice heard with others across Europe to stop this free trade deal. Please come along on Friday to find out more.

Best wishes

Liz
Global Justice Now (Scotland)

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