occupy london squat – ‘school of ideas’

Tagged as: free_spaces occupylondon school_of_ideas squatting
Neighbourhoods: city old_street

this week, ‘occupy london’ activists opened up a new community squatted building in the city, near old street. it is a deserted primary school with loads of beautiful airy classrooms, a small gym, and some pleasant outdoor space. it has lain unused for three years and the owners are awaiting planning permission before demolishing. in the meantime, the hope is to put it to good use for the community. see photos and report and watch video of the new ‘school of ideas’.

Estado español de la ESCLAVITUD / Welcome to the Spanish Slave State

Welcome to the Spanish Slave State

Slavery now BACK in Britain

Slave Britain

Arbeit Mach Frei, the Nazis proclaimed above their concentration camps. Well, in 21st century Britain we now have a government offering cheap or even completely free labour to employers using the most vulnerable people imagineable – prisoners, the unemployed, the physically disabled and the mentally ill. And the dying.

No, it is not a sick joke. Cameron and Clegg’s Britain has today seen three blows to what little civilised restraint remained among Coalition policymakers.

1. The “Justice” Secretary hosted a seminar for employers on his plans to create 10,000 new jobs in British prisons where employers of all shapes and sizes can boost companies’ profitability by in-sourcing their work to jails. Prisoners are exempted from the national minimum wage and have no employment rights. So, anything from call centres to finishing kitchen units will be carried out by prisoners earning less than £1 per hour.

2. Tescos in East Anglia had the audacity to advertise PERMANENT “jobs” paying out of work people – nothing! The jobs were advertised in partnership with the appropriately named “Monster” website. As part of a government workfare scheme, they will continue to get their unemployment benefit – Jobseekers’ Allowance – plus unquantified “expenses” in return for working all night. If they turn down the work, their benefits will be cut. Tescos made profits of £1,900,000,000 in the six months to October 2011.

3. And now, sneaking in behind the controversial Welfare Bill, the Government has briefed a range of charities that disabled people will be forced to work for free for charities, public bodies and high street retailers on open-ended work experience placements or face losing their disability benefits. This will include people who are terminally ill with cancer, but assessed as having more than six months left.

Greek solidarity World Demos Sat 18th

From Void Network

Saturday 18 February 2012 WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR FUTURE! + article/global invitation:”Greece shows us how to protest against a failed system” by John Holloway

More than 300.000 people participated at the social revolt that took place in 12 February 2012 in Athens. Many thousands took the streets all over Greece… Thousands of students demonstrated all over Greece in 17 Feb. 2012. The social struggle against misery, inequality and exploitation continues, expands and becomes stronger and stronger. People from all cultural backgrounds come together in the neighbourhood assemblies, in the grass-roots unions, the social centers, the big demonstrations and the riots. People from all ages help each other in the streets to attack against police, against the parliament, against the economy and the inhuman austerity measures that the global and local economic elites imposes to the people of this world

We invite all our friends to participate all over the world in the demonstrations at Saturday 18 February 2012 for Greece, for ourselves, for all the possible reasons, for all the life of this planet! WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR FUTURE!

a Spring diary..agenda de primavera

Global mobilization for May 2012
May 1: strike (in Latin America and the U.S.)
May 12: day global rally
May 15: Global Strike / day Transition
info: Minutes of the meeting of the International via Mumble 28/01/2012

http://titanpad.com/MaydayPlanningGlobalMeeting28enero2012

Blog d’internacional: http://acampadabcninternacional.wordpress.com/

Asko hipokresía, asko de de tí.. asko de mí.

Asko hipokresía, asko kapitalismo, asko konsumismo, asko de de tí, asko de mí..

Disgusting consumers Disgusting capitalism Disgusting hypocrisy

Disgusting you….Disgusting ME

A todas esas mentes borregas que son carne fácil del fascismo, que se han creído el cuento de que somos occidentales de una raza superior, apoyado en el falso Darwinismo económico y social más absurdo y se les llena la boca diciendo que los inmigrantes vienen a robarnos trabajos de mierda que cuando nos iba falsamente bien nadie quería, cuando estos vienen aquí huyendo de situaciones como la de la foto, que creamos nosotros como “occidentales”, con nuestros negocios neoliberales, con el mercado libre que ahoga el mercado interior en estos países, con nuestras guerras interesadas, nuestros golpes de estado encubiertos, por el petróleo, el gas, el coltan, los diamantes, el oro… que fomentamos el movimiento indiscriminado de millones de personas buscando refugio en otros países para acabar en campos de concentración…
Yo os digo ¡¡¡que os follen bien, borregos hijos de la gran puta!!!
Victor Cerdá
TODOS SOMOS KULPABLES!

Publicado por TINTA NEGRA, anARTchist blog

Why I’m anarcha-feminist

From The F Word– by Natalie DzerinsDisclaimer: This article will discuss my personal feelings about anti-capitalism, anarcho-communism and their relationships with feminism (and other systems of oppression). Because of this, I will not be discussing the histories of the movements. If you wish to learn about these, the origins section on the wiki-page for anarcha-feminism will point you in the right direction.

When I was about seven years old, I asked my mother why everyone couldn’t just do what they were good at and share everything equally. This was my first foray into anti-capitalism, and my opinions haven’t changed much in the past fifteen years.It has always been very important to me to strive for social equality, and capitalism simply does not provide that. I could wax lyrical all day about the oppressive and unjust nature of the capitalist society, in which we are told that the only value of a human being lies in their ability to make profits for a CEO, but this is a feminist website, and I have a 700-word limit. So I will merely outline why I believe that capitalism is inherently anti-feminist and that the solution to smashing patriarchy will necessarily involve smashing capitalism.

It is in capitalism’s best interests to oppress women. The main reason for this is that by devaluing and denigrating 51% of the population as useless and inferior, it seems legitimate to pay them less, or to not pay them at all, for their work – no matter how good it may be for society. Childcare and housework are two prime examples of this. They are services essential to humankind, yet we expect women to a) be the sole or primary providers of these services and b) perform them for free as well as generating capital by holding down other jobs.

This is what is known as the “double burden” on women. In a truly equal society, not only would these roles be seen as suitable for everyone, they would be seen as equally important to other work. As it stands, “Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, produce half of the world’s food, but earn only 10% of the world’s income and own less than one percent of the world’s property” (Global Poverty Project).

Another way in which capitalism exploits women is by creating problems for them to worry about, then offering to sell them a solution. This usually takes the form of making women feel disgusted about their own natural bodies, and convincing them they must change – see pantyliners, douches and pretty much the entire make-up industry. If we smashed capitalism, we’d smash the need for people to sell us things by making us ashamed of who we are.

There are many more examples of this, but once again, I am writing a blog post, not a doctorate. So – why do I believe that once we have smashed capitalism, anarchism is the solution?

Honestly, it’s mainly because I don’t believe in anything else. Any hierarchical system of government or community, be it feudalism, the current parliamentary system or party-led communism will necessarily contain inequality. The needs of the few who make the decisions will outweigh the needs of the many who have decisions made for them. We can see this with the current coalition, whose members have both simultaneously claimed £35,000 on a “second home” when their first home is literally down the street and demonised people with severe disabilities wanting to live normal lives as “scroungers”. Four legs good, two legs better indeed.

However, people in the anarchist movement have been brought up in the same prejudiced, patriarchal societies as the most rabid capitalist, and that has to be overcome. Whether it’s women’s needs not being taken care of in an anarchist environment, or silencing women in group discussions, manarchism seems to constantly rear its ugly head, and we need a feminist movement-within-the-movement to counter it, and that movement-within-the-movement is anarcha-feminism.

So, that’s a very short version of why I am an anarcha-feminist. I’m not claiming to be 100% right, or to speak for all anarcha-feminists(!), but this is what I believe we need to do to create a fair, just and equal society for all.

For more on anti-capitalist feminism in the current UK climate, this article is a very worthwhile read.

Comments From You

Saranga // Posted 24 January 2012 at 13:04

hear hear!

k gallagher // Posted 24 January 2012 at 13:43

Brava! It’s so good to see anarcha-feminism getting a voice in the “Big Feminist Blogosphere!”
http://anarcha.org/ is another great resource for information 🙂