Workers, Know Your History, Miners Strike 1984/85. 11:55 am / 02 March 2014 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
Categories: Anarchism
Posts tagged spirit of revolt
Free Film Show Glasgow CCA. 9:10 am / 28 November 2013 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
Films and discussion
Part of the Electron Open Day - Centre for Contemporary Art Cinema:
350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
Sunday December 1st. 2pm. FREE.
Spirit of Revolt
Watch a short film about one of the most important developments around working class history in the city for a long time. The Spirit of Revolt, a new archive of the struggles and achievements of ordinary people, at the Mitchell library. Watch a wee film of an SOR exhibition and how the project is developing. And after chat to SOR volunteers about the future hopes for the project.
Glasgow to Detroit
Glasgow to Detroit is a shorter version of a longer film shot in Detroit, talking to activists involved in growing and food security. The purpose of this screening is to look at the organisational structures particularly around the city farms of Detroit, and what we can learn from our sister city, around solidarity and protecting the longevity of our exciting and expanding growing community.
We are so perverted by an education which from infancy seeks to kill in us the SPIRIT OF REVOLT, and to develop that of submission to authority; we are so perverted by this existence under the ferrule of a law, which regulates every event in life — our birth, our education, our development, our love, our friendship —that, if this state of things continues, we shall lose all initiative, all habit of thinking for ourselves.
Peter Alexeievich Kropotkin
Spirit of Revolt
Watch a short film about one of the most important developments around working class history in the city for a long time. The Spirit of Revolt, a new archive of the struggles and achievements of ordinary people, at the Mitchell library. Watch a wee film of an SOR exhibition and how the project is developing. And after chat to SOR volunteers about the future hopes for the project.
Glasgow to Detroit
Glasgow to Detroit is a shorter version of a longer film shot in Detroit, talking to activists involved in growing and food security. The purpose of this screening is to look at the organisational structures particularly around the city farms of Detroit, and what we can learn from our sister city, around solidarity and protecting the longevity of our exciting and expanding growing community.
We are so perverted by an education which from infancy seeks to kill in us the SPIRIT OF REVOLT, and to develop that of submission to authority; we are so perverted by this existence under the ferrule of a law, which regulates every event in life — our birth, our education, our development, our love, our friendship —that, if this state of things continues, we shall lose all initiative, all habit of thinking for ourselves.
Peter Alexeievich Kropotkin
Categories: Anarchism
Electron Club Open Day, Glasgow. 2:16 am / 20 November 2013 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
Open day as in open
December 1st., 12 noon to 4pm.
CCA is at 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
The Electron club is a space at the CCA that is home to a whole variety of people and ideas. Started as a computer/electronics/artist Open Source software lab it soon expanded into many areas of cultural diversity and many have little to do with computers. You are just as likely to bump into a Wobblie as you are a computer hacker. If you are an artist, techie, nerd, or your bag is community activism or you are just interested in life, come and take a look. We are open to the public. Anyone can join. Its free.
Who will be there:
OPEN STREET MAP DEMO
There numerous mappers in and around Glasgow with a wealth of knowledge and from a variety backgrounds and ages. Come and ind out what mapping is about and start mapping the world.
GLASGOW SCIENCE FAIR
Is about getting folk young and old interested in science. Come and play with their robot, Knex, Arduino and other science tech stuff. “Lego Mindstorms Challenge – Help explore how to programme Mindstorms robots to follow commands and navigate its way around our obstacle course. Bring Lego to life in this fun introduction to programming and robotics.”
SPIRIT OF REVOLT
The Spirit of Revolt is a group based in Glasgow who are attempting to collect as much material as possible from grass-roots campaigns in working class struggle, in and around the Glasgow/Clydeside area. An archival collection of working class history. Find out about this very important project for the city. We will be screening a film made at the SOR exhibition at the Mitchell library
COMMON GOOD AWARENESS PROJECT
CGAP was set up to create awareness of Scotland’s Common Good Fund, a whole bunch of assets, art galleries, schools, town halls, parks, that are publicly owned. Many of these assets have disappeared, have been lost or stolen over the years due to a lack of awareness that they even exist and maladministration by those whose duty is to protect the fund for the benefit of the public. Find out more and about the common good and the Farmhouse Trust, a Common Good project in Govan to create a independent resource centre whilst experiment with off grid technology eco building and gardening along the way.
GLASGOW TO DETROIT
A second chance to see a shorter version of Glasgow to Detroit if you missed the Kinningpark screening. Here we will be discussing specific ideas from Detroit activists mentioned in the film to examine the situation in Glasgow/Scotland around growing.
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
Founded in 1905, the IWW is open to all workers. Don’t let the “industrial” part fool you. Our members include teachers, cleaners, social workers, retail workers, construction workers, bartenders, and computer programmers. Only bosses are not allowed to join.
SPIRIT OF REVOLT film shot at exhibition Q&A after 2:00
GLASGOW TO DETROIT Screening and discussion on organising around growing 3:00More info from: bob@citystrolls.comVisit ann arky’s home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
Categories: Anarchism
We Are Alive, From The Rent strikes To Bloody Friday. 3:11 am / 17 November 2013 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
No matter how the establishment historians and their sidekicks in the media, try to portray the Red Clyde as a wishy-washy very pale pink, the real history defies them. The people of the Clydeside have a proud history, they have a heritage, and it is one of continuous struggle for justice and a better world. There were more industrial strikes on Clydeside during the first world war than before or after, Hundreds of thousands organised rent strikes from Clydebank to Glasgow, and successfully forced the UK government to bring in the 1915 rent restriction act. The Clydeside history is littered with hard and sometimes brutal struggles, struggles of people who demanded more, who demanded change, and in many case got it.
However the struggle is not over, we are now in the midst of the most brutal attack on the living conditions of the ordinary people for many a decade. Despite the struggles and victories of the past, we are once again heading back to the poverty of the thirties. It is once again time to reignite that fighting spirit of the Red Clyde, time to call on that solidarity, that unity of purpose. We don't have the shipyards, we don't have the engineering factories, but we do have the people of Clydeside and their history of struggle, and their desire for justice.
A poster from the 80's. calling on that Red Clydeside spirit. We are alive, from the rent strikes, to bloody Friday, to the poll-tax and beyond.
Categories: Anarchism
Turkey, The Angry Face Of Revulsion. 7:58 am / 13 June 2013 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
Where protest movements grow and people take to the streets, it is difficult to get the truth of what is happening. What should be a conduit for information, the mainstream media, becomes a babbling brook of bullshit and state propaganda. What is going on in Turkey is an event that must worry all the other states in Europe, it is an open revulsion at the direction of Western society, it is a disgust for those elected politicians who assist the plundering of the public purse by the corporate greed machine. It is a realisation by the people that this system can't work in their interest. We are the chips at the financial Mafia's casino.
This is an extract from an excellent article from Contra Info, of what is going on in Turkey at present:
Then Gezi Park, then Gümüşsuyu, then Beşiktaş… And beyond İstanbul came riots in Sakarya, Kocaeli, Ankara, Adana, İzmir… In this revolt, which is still going on, the most important motivation that kept spontaneity alive was sharing and solidarity. Voluntary health workers formed civic medical centres for activists that were affected by police violence. Organizations like law associations, lawyers’ bars, and human rights associations supported protesters in custody or in similar conditions. Trade unions like the Turkish Mechanical Engineers Chambers Association turned their buildings into infirmaries. People opened their homes, workplaces, gave support with food and drinks. People gave information to each other over social networks, and created their own means in face of the silenced media.Read the full article HERE:
Everywhere and everyone became the revolt against state terrorism, police violence and all forms of exploitation. Social solidarity has worked, and is continuing to work, wherever the State was dismissed from the lives of people.
Categories: Anarchism
May Day, Our Day. 10:08 am / 30 April 2013 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
Wednesday May 1st. MayDay, Labour Day, Workers Day, call it what you will, but it is all about the ordinary people coming together to celebrate their struggles and their victories. A day to remember all those working class heroes, who struggled and fought for the betterment of all, fought for a society that sees to the needs of all our people. Organise your own celebration, make for the streets, make new friends, meet up with old friends. Make it an opportunity to re-new that vision of a fair and just society that is buried in all out hearts, show the strength of solidarity that will get us there. May Day, a time to re-new that Spirit of Revolt.
Now more than ever we have to show solidarity, we have to come together to defend our standard of living. May Day this year is an ideal opportunity to show that solidarity with all the ordinary people of this country and across the world, to lay down a marker, as the pampered parasite political class make a ruthless and savage grasp to capitalise everything in sight to save their gambling spiv bankster friends and bond merchants, from carrying their own gambling debts. We are expected to quietly pay off the gamblers losses and stand by while they privatise everything they can lay their sweaty palms on, that can make them money. It is their world -- or it is our world, you can decide.
May Day is a day to realise our strength and see that road to the better world we all desire.
Categories: Anarchism
Shot At Dawn. 8:07 am / 23 April 2013 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
I work with a group who are archiving as much non-party political, material on grassroots struggle, associated with Glasgow/Clydeside area, the group is called Spirit of Revolt. Have a look, I’m sure you will find something of …
Categories: Anarchism
Direct Action Gets The Goods. 1:26 pm / 27 March 2013 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
As it becomes more obvious by the day that we, the ordinary people, are going to have to fight if we want to even hold on to what standard of living we have, let alone try to improve it, the use of solidarity and direct action will be the most potent tool we have. In this we can learn from the past, it has all been done before, we have been in this struggle for centuries. Sometimes it might look like it is a done deal and we have lost, but as this short piece from the recent past shows, we can always win, if the determination, solidarity and the will to take direct action is carried through. We must learn the lessons of the past, this is going to be a long and bitter struggle.
From Castlemilk, a housing scheme in Glasgow, from the past, a show of determined direct action wins the day, as told by one who was involved:
I tell it all as if it was a day but it was actually maybe 6 months or a year of struggle.
Campaign in Castlemilk, A group of tenants had been told that the Council are going to build a car park in their back greens. The back greens being the area in which they hung out their washing and where the kids played in safety. The people in the area were all against it and they had actually got a petition together, taken it up to the Labour club, and handed it into the Labour Club and low and behold the Labour Club lost the petition they said later, or they claimed they lost it. And therefore the peoples’ thing could not be taken any further. So by luck one of the tenants bumped into one of us and he told us about the situation.The work was about to begin in the back greens. They had knocked down a couple of the gable ends to allow bull dozers to get through into the backs. And they were going to start digging up the drying greens and the kids play areas to build this car park.
And basically the people says to us ‘do you think there’s anything we can do about this. Nobody in the area wants this. Everybody is absolutely against the idea. We have petitioned the Labour Party through the Labour Club – they lost the petition that we handed in – and can it be stopped? ’.
The list of materials described above, along with many others, can be found in the John Cooper Collection listed in the Spirit of Revolt site. We hope in the near future, to have them displayed in the collection as images, along with many others.I gave the answer that I always give people that ask me that question and I answered ‘How determined are you?’ And they said they were absolutely determined about it so I asked them to get a couple of the families together, we went up and saw them, and we talked to them. We being a group of local community activists in Castlemilk, myself and a couple of the others were anarchists, some of the others had no political affiliation, there might have been one or two people in the Labour party, or some kinda left wing groups or whatever but generally I would describe the whole feeling of the thing as kinda anarchistic.We went up and seen the people. We suggested to them that they get another petition together – no because there any value in getting a petition - but jist to give us an opportunity to go back round everybody again , talk to them on their doorstep, and ask them if they were still prepared to do something about it. We did that the next day , it was only a quad , a really small area, everybody agreed that they were against it. So we went up to the Labour Club, we said that we had another petition, but we weren’t giving it them in or whatever, and we wanted something done about it. We asked to see somebody – they refused to let us see anybody, so we went back down the road and we made our plans for the next day.The next day the bulldozers came and we decided just to block the whole entrance to the back greens, refused to allow the bulldozers through. And I went up and I spoke to the guy that was driving the bulldozer and explained the situation to him and as usual when you speak to other working class people they generally see the point, I will have to phone my gaffer, well that’s exactly what we want you to do, and he phoned his gaffer and he phoned his gaffer and he phoned his gaffer and before too long we had all the relevant people down at the site and that ultimately they sent for the council. When the councillors arrived ( I don’t know if it was that day) but some point in the thing, the councillors arrived in a limo, and so it went from a situation where the councillors refused to see the people but because of the direct action that we took they had to eventually come to us to see us in person. And within a very short space of time they saw that we weren’t going to allow them to build a car park in the back green and they had to cancel the whole thing.So it was an outright victory for the people.S. R.; and these are publicity photos?This is a wee exhibition that the tenants done at the time. After the victory we done these sheets and people put in their comments and pictures, newspaper cuttings, explaining how we halted the car park and we actually used these in other struggles by putting these up and we explained to people that this is how you can take things on and win the situation.List of the materialSheets that you can put up on walls hand made posters.A wee folder of all the newspaper coverage at the timePeople writing poems about itPictures taken at the time by Charlie Fisher non resident photographer (who helped with the community newspaper Castlemilk Today)Dept of housing official papersMinutes of the council meetingsMP letters from Westminster Teddy TaylorAnd letters from Glasgow District councilCopy of petition 2 not handed in because previous one lost.Initially the people went to the Labour Councillors which is the obvious way to deal with the situation. They went to them, handed in a petition to the Labour Club who basically ignored them and said they lost the petition so the Labour Councillors basically refused to take up their issue for them and they were quite happy to allow it to go ahead. And because they were able to come to us the people that lived there, we advised them on how to deal with the situation and we were there with them and we managed to stop it completely and the backs were all reinstated.ImpactSome of the people in the campaign for the most were delighted at the victory, it was something that they thought they could not achieve in view of the fact that they had already started the work so not only did they stop the thing but they actually retrieved the thing from the ashes so to speak. I think a lot of people felt a great sense of empowerment, and certainly some were involved in other campaigns after that.
Categories: Anarchism
Spirit of Revolt. 2:21 am / 14 February 2013 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
Spirit of Revolt is a group of enthusiasts who are passionate about collecting, saving and cataloguing material from grass-roots campaigns and struggles, in the belief that it is an essential part of the history of the ordinary people, and is free of party political politics. It is the part of our history that seldom finds a home and is lost to future generations. Each generation can learn from the actions of the past, but only if that past is available. That is why the group is intent on making all this material easily accessible through the medium of their website and the catalogue system of the Mitchell Library. We are also keen to put on exhibitions in various locations similar to our recent successful exhibition on Radical Presses Clydeside, held in the Mitchell Library foyer.
This is the history of the ordinary people of the Clydeside area, part of our culture, and if we let it disappear, we become a people without a history, a people without a culture. There is also the point that without this section of history, recorded history becomes a distorted image.
The cataloguing is well under way, images are being scanned on a regular basis and will eventually find their way onto our website. The website is slowly taking shape but still has a long way to go, images being the next big part of the project.
Why not visit our website, have a look, make a comment,
Though all those involved are unpaid volunteers, sadly all this work can't survive on passion alone and funding is always a problem. So we welcome any donation no matter how small, it will always be gratefully received.
Categories: Anarchism
WORKERS PLEDGE. 4:02 pm / 15 January 2013 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.
The Spirit of Revolt group are in the midst of their first exhibition, which is being held in the foyer of the Mitchell Library Glasgow and runs until Saturday 19th. January. The exhibition is called Radical Presses Clydeside, and tries to show the extent of anarchist/libertarian socialist literature that has been and is still being produce from independent radical presses across the area. The selection of literature on display covers the full spectrum from industrial struggle to feminism, from anti-war to syndicalist theory and more. There are pamphlets, books, leaflets and newspapers, going back more than 100 years. The aim of the group is to make this material more readily available to the general public in the hope that they can identify this past with the struggles we face today and hopefully learn from that past. The feedback so far has been nothing but positive. One of the books on display is Guy Aldred's "At Grips With War" and below is a quote from the book that one visitor asked if we could print out a copy for him. Which we willingly did.
Workers Pledge in Time of War.
I refuse to kill any child's father.
I refuse to slay any mother's son.
I refuse to plunge the bayonet into the breast of any
woman's brother, lover, or mate.
I refuse to murder and deem the slaughter glory.
I refuse to butcher with the hands that were intended to
serve and to caress.
I refuse to soak the earth with blood and blind my reason
with obedience.
I refuse to assassinate another man and then hide my
stained fists in the folds of a bloodstained flag.
I refuse to be flattered, cajoled, or driven into hell's
nightmare by a class of well-fed snobs, crooks
and cowards who despise my class socially, rob
my class economically, and betray and oppress it
politically. Let militarism do its worst, I refuse
to serve, I decline to kill.
Categories: Anarchism