Anarchoblogs

      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 just by people being locked up for not doing as they are bid. No, it will be much more subtle than that. Just slowly bit by bit, the state introducing ever stronger legislating to control every bit of your life. The establishment making more and more arbitrary decision over our heads. They have already neutered the spontaneity 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. For example, the case of the young man how decided to show his disgust at the elitism in the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, by swimming across the Thames as the race was in progress. What it boils down to is that he disrupted a sporting event. It now turns out that he is to be deported, having lived here for 12 years and has a wife and child here, he is to be torn apart from his family, and the child will lose its father. Ask yourself, if he had disrupted a darts match, or a snooker match, would he have suffered the same brutal punishment? I think not, this was Oxford and Cambridge having their annual rowing get together, and these bloody commoners must be taught a lesson. In another case the powers that be, forced a woman by court order to have a caesarian operation and her child immediately taken into care. What makes this even more bizarre is the fact that the woman was an Italian, visiting this country. Her lawyer described the case as unprecedented, and John Hemmimg, Liberal Democrat MP, went further and stated “This has a fair chance of being the worst case of human rights abuse I've ever seen.

    Surreptitiously, the all knowing, all powerful, all for your own good, state, reaches in and controls every aspect of your life, and it can do it at will, through its various agents. 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 in nice suits, to control all avenues of our life? 

      We in the UK are heading for some real battles and should be preparing now. Come April there will be the implementation of the "bedroom tax"  on top of increasing food poverty and fuel poverty. This "bedroom tax" will put three options before all those in social housing, if they are deemed to have an extra bedroom. As an "under-occupier" you can pay extra, take in a lodger or get out, non-compliance will trigger eviction notices. This is probably the most vicious attack in decades on the ordinary people of this country. The legislation comes into force and they are well aware that there isn't enough right sized accommodation to fulfil that legislation, but that won't stop them going for evictions. Even if there were enough right-sized apartments for everybody, but there isn't, the monumental upheaval to people's lives, sick, disabled, elderly, young families, as they are shunted around to the satisfaction of some millionaire cabal's bullshit economics, is inhumane, unjust and downright vindictive. This is "poll-tax model two.
       While our millionaire parasites that lord it in those Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are spewing out crap about it all being necessary and "for our own good" a UN official, Mr De Schutter, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has stated that the explosion of people in the UK, depending on food handouts could represent a human rights abuse. He points to the dramatic rise in the number of food banks as evidence that governments had "failed in their responsibility not to leave the poorest behind". Here in the UK the number of food banks as exploded tenfold  since the start of the recession.
       This is the UK today, massive fuel poverty with energy prices still rising. Food poverty with food banks the only growth industry in town. A third of children living in poverty. Unacceptable unemployment among our young people. Being forced through "workfare", to work for free in some tax dodging corporate greed machine. Now the threat of evictions being heaped on the shoulders of the already struggling public.
        These are drastic times and drastic action by the organised public is the only answer. We may not yet be where the people of Greece are as far as deprivation is concerned, but we are moving inexorably in that direction, it is only a matter of time. It is inevitable, unless we the public, by mass organised resistance, come together and drive our society in a different direction. Another world is possible. 

        Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France are in the news with unrest, people taking to the streets, mass protests, but  one country that doesn't get much coverage by that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, is Belarus. In that country the president, Lukashenko, has been in power since 1994 and at recent elections, of the 109 winning candidates all were from pro Lukashenk parties, it is not unusual for ballot papers to have just one name. His human rights record is so atrocious that he was banned from appearing at the London 2012 Olympics. Every action has to be sanctioned by the state, even distributing leaflets can have you in prison as it can be deemed "illegal mass media production". A simple act like attending a punk concert can see you arrested. Repression is brutal but still the people take to the streets in their fight for a better life.

       Is there a country on the planet where the people are happy with the state? People across the world are fighting for change, a better life, a better way of organising their lives, an end to the state and capitalism. It is a global struggle and we are winning.

See original post on Las Vegas May Day Coalition Blog

Primero de Mayo

http://maydaylasvegas.blogspot.com/2012/03/primero-de-mayo-flyer-anuncio-oficial.html

Primero de Mayo

La mayoría de las personas que viven en los Estados Unidos saben muy poco sobre el Día Internacional de los Trabajadores del Primero de Mayo. Para muchos otros existe la suposición de que es un día de fiesta celebrado en países comunistas como Cuba o la antigua Unión Soviética. La mayoría de los estadounidenses no se dan cuenta de que el Primero de Mayo tiene sus orígenes en este país y es tan "americano" como el béisbol y el apple pie. El Primero de Mayo se originó en la fiesta pre-cristiana de Beltane, una celebración del renacimiento y la fertilidad.

En el siglo XIX, la clase obrera estaba en constante lucha para ganar la jornada laboral de 8 horas. Las condiciones de trabajo eran graves y era bastante común trabajar de 10 a 16 horas diarias en condiciones peligrosas. Muertes y lesiones eran comunes en muchos lugares de trabajo e inspiraron libros, tales como Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle y Jack London’s The Iron Heel. Tan temprano como en los años 1860’s, la clase obrera organizo acortar la jornada laboral sin reducción de salario, pero no fue hasta finales de la década de 1880 que lograron reunir la fuerza suficiente para declarar la jornada de 8 horas. Esta proclamación fue sin el consentimiento de los empleadores, sin embargo, exigido por muchos de la clase obrera.
En ese tiempo, el socialismo era una idea nueva y atrayente para las personas que trabajan, muchos de los cuales se sintieron atraídos por la ideología de la clase obrera, del control sobre la producción y distribución de todos los bienes y servicios. Los trabajadores habían visto de primera mano que el capitalismo solamente beneficiaba a los jefes, intercambiando las vidas de los obreros por ganancias. Miles de hombres, mujeres y niños estaban muriendo innecesariamente cada año en el lugar de trabajo, con expectativa de vida de veinte años en algunas industrias, y la poca esperanza de salir adelante. El socialismo ofrecía otra opción.

Una variedad de organizaciones socialistas surgieron a lo largo de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, desde los partidos políticos a los grupos de coro. De hecho, muchos socialistas fueron elegidos a la oficina gubernamental por su distrito. Pero, de nuevo, muchos de ellos eran socialistas abandonados por el proceso político que era tan evidentemente controlado por las grandes empresas y la maquinaria política bipartidista. Decenas de miles de socialistas rompieron filas de sus partidos, rechazaron todo el proceso político, que fue visto como nada más que la protección para los ricos, y ha creado grupos anarquistas en todo el país. Literalmente miles de personas de la clase obrera adoptaron los ideales del anarquismo, que buscaban poner fin a todas las estructuras jerárquicas (incluyendo el gobierno), enfatizaron industrias contraladas por los trabajadores y valoraban la acción directa sobre el proceso político burocrático. Es incorrecto decir que los sindicatos fueron despojados por los anarquistas y los socialistas, sino más bien anarquistas y socialistas formaron los sindicatos...http://maydaylasvegas.blogspot.com/2012/03/por-que-celebramos-primero-de-mayo.html