Anarchoblogs in English

Posts tagged anarchy

A BLOOD STAINED BOOK. 4:17 am / 30 August 2010 by annarky1, at Annarky1's Blog

He was another Christian fundamentalist war mongering nutter mouthpiece of the state so why allow him to bask in the illusion of popularity. He became a millionaire on the blood of others.

Protest Blair’s Book signing – Wed 8 September
Message from Edinburgh Stop the War Coalition

We’ve had a huge response from our members, supporters and the press to the protest we are organising outside Waterstone’s, Piccadilly on Wednesday 8 September, 12:30pm, when war criminal Tony Blair will be at a book-signing event to launch his memoirs.

A measure of how outraged people are by a bookshop hosting an event as if Blair is like any other author publicising a book, rather than indictable for war crimes. Within days, our e-lobby has seen 1000 users ask Waterstone’s to cancel the book-signing. You can find the e-lobby at http://bit.ly/93tbfF .

Please publicise this link as widely as you can, post it to your Facebook, website, Twitter, etc.

A letter asking Waterstone’s to reconsider giving Blair a platform was recently published in the Guardian signed by, among others, novelists Iain Banks and AL Kennedy, journalist John Pilger, composer Michael Nyman, former Guantanamo detainee Moazzem Begg, ex-soldier Ben Griffin and artist Tanya Tier.

We’ve turned this into a petition for use by local groups, which can be downloaded here: http://tinyurl.com/386xtzm

ann arky’s home.

Tagged with: Anarchism, anarchy, anti-state, anti-war, blood stained book, bloody Blair, demonstration, peace, protest

DEVELOPING WORLD FIRST,OUR TURN NOW!!! 2:33 am / 30 August 2010 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.

This was posted some time ago but I think it is worth repeating as it is more relevant now than ever before. As I keep spouting, the cuts are nothing to do with the "deficit" that is just the excuse. It is all to do with transferring public assets to the private corporate world. A look at history can often show you trends and directions and this trend of hiving off all public assets into the private sector has been going on for some time. It has created devastation in the Third World and now it is set to do likewise in the developed world. The so called "financial crisis" has allowed the big financial vultures to accelerate the process in the developed world. Be warned, it was the Third World first, now it is our turn!!

Extract from: anarkismo

Throughout the world, public services have been under attack for the past twenty years. Forming a central plank of the capitalist globalisation agenda, ‘privatisation’ and ‘competition’ are the seemingly unchallenged dogma of modern capitalism. The levels of privatisation which have taken place worldwide are absolutely mind-blowing. During the 1990s alone over $900 billion worth of public assets were transferred into private hands. Globally this agenda is pushed by the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The basic theory by which these bodies operate is that all decisions should be made on the basis of profitability alone. Economies in the so-called ‘developing’ world have been carved up under re-structuring deals called Structural Adjustment Programmes which have been like manna from heaven for international business. The World Bank website(1) , for example, “provides information on more than 9,000 privatisation transactions in developing countries from 1988 to 2003”. This information is presented as ‘revenue generating opportunities’ for international capital. The current phase of the WTO’s strategy for the imposition of its privatisation agenda is the General Agreement on Trade in Services – which looks to sell off such basic services as healthcare, education, housing, water supply, waste management etc. This strategy is driven not in the interest of the ordinary people of these countries but by the needs of international capital. As David Hartridge, Director, WTO Services Division put it quite succinctly: “Without the enormous pressure generated by the American financial services sector, particularly companies like American Express and Citicorp, there would have been no services agreement and therefore perhaps no Uruguay Round and no WTO.” (2)

This privatisation agenda has had disastrous consequences for many peoples and communities in the developing world. According to journalist John Pilger (3)

“The introduction of school fees where there was previously free education has driven many poor families to withdraw their children from school, while hospital fees have put basic health care beyond the reach of millions. Although they acknowledge the harm which privatisation has brought to poor communities in the Third World, the World Bank and IMF still insist on prescribing it as an economic model. Water privatisation is just one example. The World Bank notes that water in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince costs up to 10 times as much from the private sector as it does from the public supply, and that poor families in Mauritania now have to spend a fifth of their household income on water. Yet both the World Bank and the IMF continue to force water privatisation on developing countries. During 2000 alone, the IMF made water privatisation or full cost recovery a condition of loan agreements to 12 African countries. The World Bank has promised Ghana an extra $100 million in loans if it privatises its water supply.”

ann arky's home.

Tagged with: Anarchism, anarchy, developed world, plundering public assets, private plunder, privatisation, public assets, Third World

Alabama Philosophical Events, Past and Future 11:18 pm / 28 August 2010 by Roderick, at Austro-Athenian Empire

Pensacola Gulf Front Hotel

The schedule for next month’s Alabama Philosophical Society in Pensacola (which looks to be our biggest yet) is now online. Abstracts will be added later.

Auburn University

(I had planned to present a paper on the extent to which the Problem of Good, i.e. of reconciling the existence of goodness with the universe’s having been created by an all-powerful malevolent being, is symmetrical with the traditional Problem of Evil, but then I discovered that more work had been done in this area than I’d realised, and that what I had to add wasn’t sufficiently original, so at the last minute I recycled my piece on Godwin instead.)

Also online is a pair of talks that Kelly Jolley and I gave back in 2002 at an Auburn Philosophical Society roundtable on the subject of The Idea of the University.

Tagged with: anarchy, Ethics, Jove's Witnesses, Left-Libertarian, Online Texts, personal, Unethical Philosophy

AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY via. THE CIA. 12:31 pm / 28 August 2010 by annarky1, at Annarky1's Blog

If anybody out there thinks that it is Clinton/Bush/Obama that is the problem, then perhaps this little list, which is in no way complete, might help to make the point that it is the system of state/corporate capitalism/imperialism, and not the figurehead at the top that is the real problem.

Excerpts courtesy of CIA timeline. by Steve Kangas

1953: Iran; CIA overthrows the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh in a military coup, after he threatened to nationalize British oil.

1954: Guatemala; CIA overthrows the democratically elected Jacob Arbenz in a military coup.

1957-1973: Laos; The CIA carries out approximately one coup per year trying to nullify Laos’ democratic elections.

1959: Haiti; The U.S. military helps “Papa Doc” Duvalier become dictator of Haiti. He creates his own private police force, the “Tonton Macoutes,” who terrorize the population with machetes.

Ecuador; The CIA-backed military forces the democratically elected President Jose Velasco to resign

Congo (Zaire); The CIA assassinates the democratically elected Patrice Lumumba

1963: Dominican Republic; The CIA overthrows the democratically elected Juan Bosch in a military coup

1964: Brazil; A CIA-backed military coup overthrows the democratically elected government of Joao Goulart. The junta that replaces it will, in the next two decades, become one of the most bloodthirsty in history.

1965: Indonesia; The CIA overthrows the democratically elected Sukarno with a military coup.

Congo (Zaire); A CIA-backed military coup installs Mobutu Sese Seko as dictator.

1967: Greece; A CIA-backed military coup overthrows the government two days before the elections.

Bolivia; A CIA-organized military operation captures legendary guerilla Che Guevara.

1969: Uruguay; The notorious CIA torturer Dan Mitrione arrives in Uruguay, a country torn with political strife. Whereas right-wing forces previously used torture only as a last resort, Mitrione convinces them to use it as a routine, widespread practice.

1973: Chile; The CIA overthrows and assassinates Salvador Allende. The CIA replaces Allende with General Augusto Pinochet, who will torture and murder thousands of his own countrymen in a crackdown on labor leaders and the political left.

1981: Iran/Contra Begins; The CIA begins selling arms to Iran at high prices, using the profits to arm the Contras fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua

1983: Honduras; The CIA gives Honduran military officers the Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual, which teaches how to torture people.

1989: Panama; The U.S. invades Panama to overthrow a dictator of its own making, General Manuel Noriega.

Like I said, this list is in no way complete, but there is enough there to surely convince you that changing the smiling face that sits on the throne of corporate capitalism isn’t going to make one bleeding bit of difference to the endless slaughter that goes on to protect the bank balances of the rich parasites that own the corporate world. It will require the destruction of corporate capitalism and the creating a system based on mutual aid and sustainability that will see to the needs of all our people, before we see an end to the slaughter for profits.

ann arky’s home.

Tagged with: Anarchism, anarchy, Anti-Capitalism, anti-state, anti-war, CIA, coup, democracy, junta, military dictatorship, torture

C4SS Appeal 9:16 am / 28 August 2010 by Roderick, at Austro-Athenian Empire

Guest Blogs by Brad Spangler and Kevin Carson PLAN B: Okay, It’s Time to Panic by Brad Spangler Dear Supporters of the Center for a Stateless Society, I blame myself. When we launched the month-plus long fundraising drive for combined July and August expenses two weeks ago, I tried to convey that because it was [...]

Continue reading at Austro-Athenian Empire …

Tagged with: anarchy, Guest Blogs, Left-Libertarian, Molinari/C4SS

THE CORPORATE SOCIETY. 2:37 am / 28 August 2010 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.

As I keep saying, the millionaire Osborne's planned cuts are all about transferring public assets to private hands, the deficit is just the excuse they needed. Let's look at one department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This department looks after a considerable amount of public assets and has a budget of £2.9 billion. It has to find savings of 25%, this of course will come with the usual lay-offs and pay freezes. It has also been mentioned that they will be selling off some of Britain's nature reserves, privatising parts of the Forestry Commission and stopping grants to British Waterways which looks after miles of canals and rivers. Think of all that wealth of rich land being sold to the friends of the millionaire trio, Cameron, Osborne and Clegg. No doubt, after the grants stop, the British Waterways will find it rather difficult to continue looking after all those acres of land that line those canals and rivers and will have to hold a wee fire sale to let the millionaire's club get their sweaty hands on that public asset of prime real estate.

While we sit and listen to their phony ceremonies about all having to tighten our belts, they are busy stuffing their coffers with everything in sight. Every public asset will be transferred to private hands, the millionaires are having a field day at our expense, they have never had it so good. A team of their millionaire friends are in the driving seat and they know where they are going, straight to the bank with all our belongings.

Unless there is an organised and forceful defence launched soon we will have nothing left to defend. You are looking at a corporate society where the public own nothing, no public libraries, no public parks, no public walkways along the canals and rivers, no public baths, no public parks and sports facilities. Everything will be corporate owned and you will have to pay through the nose for the simplest of activities, after all, profit is the name of the game they play. This is happening now, it is happening under our noses and will continue until it is all gone. It is easier to fight to hold what you have rather than fight to try to get it back.

As long as we tolerate this millionaire run system of winner takes all and to hell with the hindmost we will have to continually fight to try to have a decent standard of living. We don't need them, they do need us to maintain their pampered parasitical lifestyle.

ann arky's home.

Tagged with: Anarchism, anarchy, Anti-Capitalism, corporate society, cuts, millionaire rip-off, Mutual Aid, organised resistance, people power, public assets

THE “BIG LIE”!!! 2:23 am / 27 August 2010 by annarky1, at Annarky1's Blog

Millionaire Cameron is always mouthing off about the “Big Society” it is his buzz word, but we all know that it is just a load of vacuous crap in an attempt to fool everybody into thinking that cuts to social spending will make everything just lovely for everybody. His deluded vision is one of everybody working as an entrepreneur, making lots of money and having lots of time to devote to charity work in the community, helping the poor. Of course in his illusionary society there will be no poor as we will all be working away furiously making pots of money.

In his imaginary world of the “Big Society” we are all supposed to come together and do more voluntary work in the community, at the same time as his millionaire buddy, Osborne, has set in motion at least a 6% cut in funding for voluntary projects, The funding for voluntary projects is set to loose £734 million. So there you have the millionaire twins plan for the “Big Society”, cut the funds for voluntary projects by 6% and encourage more people to set up lots more voluntary organisations.

Lies and lies and more lies followed by damn lies, as they decimate our living standards to feed the bond markets and their millionaire chums. I’m no lover of the right wing labour bunch but a quote from Tessa Jowell, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, points in the direction of anarchist principles, “What people want is not the vacuous promise of a big society but a good society where everybody does their bit and is helped to do so to improve their community and create benefits for everyone. But a big society that cuts people loose, leaving them to stand on their own, will never work.” Come on Tessa, take the next step, a society based on mutual aid, not profit. People can run their own communities without having to carry a bunch of over privileged pampered parasites on our back. We can organise our communities to see to the needs of all our people without paying for the corporate world to pollute and plunder our planet. We don’t need you baby, you and your type and the problem, not the answer.

ann arky’s home.

Tagged with: Anarchism, anarchy, big lie, Big Society, delusion, lies, millionaire parasites, Mutual Aid, pampered parasites, people power

TOMORROW’S WORLD!!! 2:30 am / 26 August 2010 by annarky1, at Annarky1's Blog

Destroy this system that has become the destroyer of the planet. and create a society based on mutual aid and sustainablility freed from the greed driven profit motive.

Continue reading at Annarky1's Blog …

Tagged with: Anarchism, anarchy, destroy capitalism, Mutual Aid, people power, Poetry, Sustainability, workers' control

EXPECTING FAVOURS FROM MILLIONAIRES!!! 1:55 am / 26 August 2010 by ann arky, at annarky's blog.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has stated that the coalition government's first Budget has hit the poorest families hardest. It also stated that the measures announced in the Budget were regressive. According to their analysis this Budget will see the low income families with children lose most as a percentage of net income. Their report also suggests that cuts to housing benefit and disability allowance would see the poorest families lose approximately £422 between the Budget and April 2014. Two other statements are “Low-income households of working age lose most as a percentage of income from tax and benefit reforms announced in the Budget.” and “Those who lose least are households of working age without children in the upper half of income distribution.” The report went on to conclude, “once all of the benefit cuts are considered, the tax and benefit changes announced in the the emergency Budget are clearly regressive as, on average, they hit the poorest households more than those in the upper middle of income distribution in cash, let alone percentage terms.” This from an institution that can hardly be called left wing.

Now is there anybody out there who believed this bunch of over privileged parasite millionaires would do it different? The Chancellor is a millionaire from a privileged background, 23 of his colleagues in the cabinet are also millionaires. They have no idea of what it is like to be poor, the don't even accept the idea that this system creates poverty. With their value structure, if your poor it is because you are not trying enough, it's your fault. So why spend money on those who just won't get up and get rich. They are under the illusion that they are rich because the worked very hard. So, if you work very hard, you could be a millionaire. From their privileged pampered background social services and benefits just make you lazy. They have no idea of the reality of the working class in this system of exploitation.

We can never expect them to create a system to benefit all the working class, everything they do will be to the benefit of the corporate world, their world. If we want a better world for all the people in society we will have to do it ourselves. Only the working class can create a society that is fair and just to all and we can only do that if we take control of our lives and control of society and all that it entails. We must organise to take control of our communities and our work places, shaping them to see to the needs of all our people. Who needs a bunch of useless, pampered, privileged parasites to organise our world?

ann arky's home.

Tagged with: a just society, Anarchism, anarchy, IFS, increasing poverty, occupy, Organise, people power, privileged parasites, take control

Can Insurance Companies Function as Sources of Defense and Justice? 2:36 am / 25 August 2010 by George Donnelly, at Arm your Mind for Liberty

Over at C4SS’ Stateless U in ATP 101 we’re reading The Market for Liberty. Here are my comments on one of the discussion questions.

“In what way or ways would it be most difficult for insurance companies to function successfully as sources of justice and defense against aggression?”

I don’t think insurance companies can function as sources of justice and defense. At most they can offer people pooled risk services. They can insure contracts, pay out instant restitution and collect damage payments from the insurance companies of losers in arbitration.

The source of justice in a stateless market anarchist society might be arbitration agencies, and I expect these would be independent entities separate from the insurance companies and defense agencies. In order for the arbitration agencies to retain credibility, they would need to maintain distance from the insurance companies, lest people think they were biased in favor of one or another.

The source of defense in a stateless society might be police, or defense, agencies. These would also need to observe a careful distance from the insurance and arbitration companies for the same reason.

Thus, perhaps the answer is that insurance companies would need to studiously avoid proximity to defense agencies and arbitration services in order to maintain maximum credibility and avoid the appearance of favoritism or conflict of interest. Integrity and impartiality are the most critical elements of free market justice and defense, since first force can not be used to compel submission. Only voluntary relations will stand.

Photo credit: xurble. Photo license.