Resisting Regenicide : Struggles in the City

GLASGOW event – Saturday 1st November 1-5pm.  CCA, 350 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow, G2
3JD

EDINBURGH event – Sunday 2 November 7.00–9.30pm. ACE, 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh, EH7 5HA

Free films and discussions bringing together representatives of community & activist groups – including local groups from Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Manchester – to share their experience of community-based engagement in the planning processes of urban regeneration and the built environment.

Indymedia Scotland meeting on Tuesday

Indymedia Scotland is holding its monthly meeting in Glasgow tomorrow. Come along and find out how to get involved, use the site and improve coverage of important events. It’s at the Electron Club in the CCA (on Sauchiehall Street) at 7.30pm on Tuesday.

At a time when financial institutions are crumbling, yet we still rely on the newspapers they own to inform us, Independent and democratic grassroots media is more important than ever.

Indymedia Scotland exists to promote stories written by people here about the things that affect them. From housing to your workplace and the environment around them, the website is there to help you get your message out without bias, hidden agendas or advertising. The site is there to attract attention to your campaign, announce your events, and more.

This meeting is your chance to shape the decisions made about the running of the website. If you have ideas on how to improve coverage, questions to ask, or are simply curious, then come to the meeting to see how you can participate in building democratic news reporting.

Manchester No Borders bringing the joy

Clue: if MigrationWatch, the Optimum Population Trust and the BNP praise your work as Immigration Minister: UR doin it rong.

Fuckwitted racist-or-cowardly Immigration minister Phil Woolas got pied when speaking at Manchester University yesterday. First in the queue, Manchester No Borders, who called him out on his economic and ecological nationalism.

“You can’t do that, he’s a Government minister”

Manchester video

Manchester No Borders have produced this video of the Freedom of Movement bloc some of us participated in in Manchester last month.

Classy piece of work, especially the way they speed up and slow down the marching.

More on the banks

Collecting some more resources to try and understand the banking crisis. The previously mentioned audio talk has been turned into this video:

This new website, Bail us out, has been set up to argue that the billions used to bail out the banks would be better used paying off consumer debt. They’re looking for people to submit stories about why they should have their debt dropped first.

For anarchist views on economics generally, there’s the Anarchist FAQ. Section C, “What are the myths of capitalist economics?” would be a good place to start.

If you have links to any more useful resources / analyses, please let us know through the comments.

Capitalism fail.

Placard from anti-Wall Street Bailout demo last week

It’s becoming more clear that the current financial (banking) crisis is being taken advantage of in the same way that Naomi Klein skewers in The Shock Doctrine.

The US “bailout” package that we are constantly told is essential for our survival? It’s a fraud, moving the banks’ bad debt to our backs, via the state. And, as ever, where the US goes, the UK follows:

There’ll be an auction of £40bn of three-month loans next Tuesday, and further weekly auctions – whose size is yet to be determined – till at least 18 November.

This represents a massive increase in the help provided to banks by the Bank of England – and, of course, it means in effect that we as taxpayers are replacing all those funds that banks can’t raise from wholesale markets.

There’s a dearth of anarchist analysis of this whole mess: basically because we haven’t been paying attention to it. It’s ruling class bullshit and mystification aimed at making the rich richer. To know what they’re planning and think about how we should respond, though, we need to know what’s going on. Which makes this audio recording of an educational (from the WSM) absolutely essential (though I admit I haven’t listened to the whole 80 minutes yet). There’s also an article, Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction, on Anarkismo.net.

I get an uncomfortable feeling that we would have been better off working in the City to bring down capitalism, but this seems like a great opportunity to make the anarchist / anti-capitalist message heard by receptive ears. So, what do we do? Start a run on HBOS?

Class And Climate Change

The Climate Campers and The Unions