This is a collage of various pictures i made. the images are porbably copyright to someone. By the way the man lying on the floor is Carlo Giuliani. He is dead. Read the short peice entitled "Why they killed Carlo " In one of my previous posts.

Incidentaly this image should be large enough for most desktops. Feel free to use to that purpouse. Or any other for that matter.

This is another comic, on war this time. Same author as the previous one.

To enlarge any of these pictures just click on them.

This is a comic about religion. If i have offended any one: tough poo. this is is hitherto unpublished so once again make the most of it.

Rebel dignity

There are those who will never be crushed. There are those who even dead continue fighting. There are those who cease to be human and become an idea, a concept, a revolution. There are those whose names are forgotten but whose actions linger on.

In southern Mexico over fifteen years ago there was a group of men and women that congregated. They remembered. They remembered that they had not always been oppressed; they remembered when there had been a time when their people had lived in dignity. It was this memory that animated them, that directed their movement at the beginnings. They were indigenous man and women who had remembered this. Then they remembered that once they had fought. They had fought oppression like the one they were living now. They remembered that they had fought the Spanish conquerors. They remembered that their forefathers had stood up and fought. They also remembered that again they had fought the continuers of the conquistador tradition in Mexico, many years after. They remembered that man that had stood out amongst so many heroes: Emiliano Zapata, who had shouted out: “Land and Liberty!” He was long dead, but his memory remained and it was these memories that united these shadows that collected in the dusty and disused corners of the Mexican South. It was these memories that, like a magnet brought these people together in the darkness. The anger had been breeding for a long a time. Now it crystallized into a thought, an organisation an aim.

For a time they stayed in the dark of the forest, forgotten, pushed aside by the government. But in cool darkness of the undergrowth they planned, they plotted. Silently they moved from township to Run-down Township. They spoke to the men and women there. They organised. They thought. They formulated plans. And they came to the conclusion that they would need to fight. The anger was too great. The unhearing ears of the government too deaf. And so they gathered support. Hundreds, and soon thousands drifted towards this group that now had a plan, an aim and a name. The Zapatista Army for National Liberation. Thousands of Zapatistas infiltrated the corrupt police in Chiapas. On New Years Eve they volunteered to take a shift no one else wanted. On January the First 1994 the insurrection occurred. Almost as if in dream the police stations were seized and the army gained control of large swathes of the state.

BY now the anger of the indigenous Mexicans had a face and a name. The army marched on the capital, Mexico. At first it seemed like a conventional army, invading a land it had no right to hold. But the Zapatistas had a weapon the conquering armies of Spain, France and corrupt capitalist imperialism had never had. They had the weight of memory. They used as a great club, smashing the threatening vision of hundreds of masked men marching across the country. For as they took town after village after town they allowed the people there to refuse and fight their rule. They allowed the towns to rule themselves. They did not conquer. The liberated in a way no army has ever done. As the fire spread across Mexico sparks flew off in the winds of change and settled around the globe starting fires, small or large, in the USA, Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. These fires were never to go out, even as the Zapatistas were crushed by the armies of corruption, by the American backed Mexican troops. As entire villages were destroyed by the advancing tanks, around the world the flames of dissent were already burning. The flames have never gone out. They have grown stronger even as the Zapatistas were pushed back into the Jungles of Chiapas, Mexico. The fires blazed in Genoa. The fires blazed in Nairobi. The fires blazed in Paris. The fires Blazed in Washington. The fires Blazed in Seattle. And the fires blaze on, constantly stoked by change, and fuelled by revolt, anger and discontent. The sparks were not lost. They found try tinder around the globe that was ready to go up. The Zapatistas started a fire that now reaches across the globe. A fire of red flames. A fire who sounds like hope. A fire that creates even as it destroys.

A fire that will not be put out now it has started.

By RzBz

Exclusive to Ritoer's Blog so make the most of it!!

Why they killed Carlo Giuliani

In July 2001 the rich and powerful of the world collected like vermin in Genoa. The eight most corrupt, power hungry, powerful men in the world congregated in this small costal Italian town in the intention of dividing up the world like one big pie. This yearly event had always brought controversy, protest and often violence. However Genoa was going to be a turning point for anti-G8 protests. Because in Genoa we were explicitly shown exactly what these men were prepared to do. Because in Genoa, on that hot summer day Carlo Giuliani died. HE was shot in the face by the neo-fascist Italian police when they opened fire on the crowed attempting to disrupt the conference of the Few, the conference of the Powerful. As if to make sure that the sprit of the movement was dead, the Carbineri drove over his body in their Land Rover.

Who exactly Carlo Giuliani was is not relevant. The governments tried to add insult to injury by calling him a vagrant. But the fact is that Carlo Giuliani died fighting against a system that he believed was unjust. This was the first time this kind of event happened in Europe. It is almost certainly not the last time. Five years on very little has changed. Europe has continued its great rightwards drift, while in the USA the Christian right, in all its fascistic glory is sliming its way into every nook and cranny of society. Skinheads walk the streets of the West, while black men and women, Asian, African and Latin American migrants are shot in cold blood and impunity. In Brazil revolutionaries are tracked down and shot, accused of being part of a problem the system created. In Korea the expansion of US military base threatens the livelihoods of hundreds. In Western Africa ant-IMF protesters are shot and killed by the police. The Oppression will not stop until the criminals and the societies they seek to protect are destroyed, taken down brick by brick. Justice for all the Carlos who has died over the years will only be brought once those corrupt men in their seats of power are brought to popular justice for mass homicide. Only once these men and the system which allows them to continue to rule us all is destroyed, only then will the people know, peace, only then will they know rest from the relentless pace of profits, productivity and money imposed by these people. Only then will we know equality and freedom from want. Only then will misery and starvation disappear. Only then will men women and children finally know something else but the crushing jaws of capitalism…

So we must fight back, with our words, with our music, with our drawings with our actions. Unless we do this many more of us will be crushed under the steel boot of the Market and Imperialism…

- RzBz

Trust, Power and War

Society is built on trust. Everyday, we trust other people to be honest and do their work truthfully so that everybody else has a certain level of security. On the plane, you trust that the pilot will get you safely to the desired destination. At home, you trust that electricity will be provided faithfully. And yet, when these trusts are broken, there emerges from the depths of society the unruly tension and chaos that underlies all human existence. What happens when the plane is hijacked? And when the lights go out for good? What happens when a miscalculation causes a building to collapse on top of hordes of innocent and unsuspecting people? Therefore, if trust is so fundamentally important, why is it that the people who rule nations, who make the important decisions, who pick and chose in an almost totalitarian manner the lives of their citizens, are the ones who are the most untrustworthy?

Honest politicians? That's an oxymoron. And yet, we must admit that it is in human nature to make mistakes. You and I make them everyday and are always anxious to be forgiven and allowed another chance to prove ourselves. But the mistakes made by politicians have macabre and extensive consequences. War, terrorism, totalitarianism, massacres - these have all been attributes of government policies (not neccessarily mistakes) in the past. So what exactlly is the problem here? It is not the fact that politicians make mistakes, they are human, they are naturally prone to do so. The problem lies in their power. If their power was not so great, their mistakes would not have such grave and large-scale impacts. While George Bush and his cabinet may have made a mistake (or so they claim now that it is strategically useful to do so) in invading Iraq and forcing modern imperialism on the basis of non-existant weapons of mass destruction, this mistake would not have been possible had the president of the United States been attributed a lesser lever of power.

We must question then, why there are a few, elite individuals making the choices and decisions for a society? Why can the society not do so itself? America is just one extreme example of this hidden dictatorship, and it is one that we should hope we shall not see emerge in our own respective countries.

What is the solution? The solution is a society where everyone works for the better good of everyone else. Where everyone has a voice and that voice is loud and clear, not feeble and ignored as it tends to be in the nations of today. And the demoliton of singular power would aid this cause greatly. We cannot trust individuals to make the decisions for us - we must make them ourselves, collectively. And though this may seem a herculean feat, it can be achieved, through the highest form of democracy - but only once absolute equality is an established and consistent feature of society.

R.A.P

Wheatpasting

Wheatpaste, otherwise known as Marxist glue, due to its affinity to being used by leftwing organizations, can be used to stick paper onto a wall, and with luck, it’ll stay there for a long time, especially if cooked and applied right. Wheatpaste is made extremely easily with common household items, and can be made in ten minutes flat. The basic principle behind it is the mixture of flour and water to make a thick sticky paste, that when dry acts as; you guessed it, glue. The actual process comprises of the following:

1. measure out 1 cup of water and 3 tablespoons of flour
2. set the water on the stove, but don’t let it boil
3. mix the 3 tablespoons of flour with a bit of water, to make a creamy consistency, make sure there are no lumps, because those are a hassle
4. once the water is almost boiling, add the flour/water mixture to the almost boiling water and mix thoroughly
5. bring the water/flour mixture to a gentle boil, letting it bubble for a minute or two

Now its done. Pour it off into something and clean the pan and you are set. There are various other things you can do to the wheatpaste, such as add sugar for strength, or add some wood glue, but that’s just some people. I keep it simple.

As for application, I find the easiest method is to pour it into one of those squeezy ketchup bottles so you can squirt it on a wall, then using a brush to smooth it out. Otherwise a jam jar full of it and a paintbrush will do just fine. For proper application, apply a layer of wheatpaste behind the paper, place the paper down, and then apply another layer of wheatpaste to make sure it sticks well. Make sure to cover all the edges so no one can rip down the wheatpaste. It should dry in a couple of hours, and hopefully be permanent.

You can paste up pretty much any kind of paper, but the best kind is thin newsprint paper, or anything thin pretty much. Even thicker paper works, but its hard to keep all the edges down. There you have it, how to make and use wheatpaste. Now go color up our cities please.

from Rioter's Block # 7

The USA, the distribution of power and Lies

The Very first Lie: The USA is democracy

The USA is not a democracy. In a democracy, the people are ruled by men and women who were voted in by their people. In the USA this cannot be considered the case. In the USA and indeed much, if not all, of the Western World, the people are directly influenced to take decisions concerning who they elect by the media. The media hold the main source of power in that depending on what the Media say the people will take decision. Seeing as the media in general are the only source of information concerning these matters the people of any media-centric country will ultimately hold the power. For example if the main television network decides to support a given candidate, then people who watch that television network will also begin to support him. However a more balanced view could come from the other networks that could support another candidate or give more objective news. However due to basic law of supply and demand these ‘independent’ networks will have to align them with what their consumers want. And if a large section of the potential audience is conditioned to believe one thing the networks will have to cater for this belief and support it to be able to feed their families. Far from is it to make some ranting raving anti-American comment. It is not the United States which is the problem, nor even is it the people who govern it. These are just symptoms, the visible gangrene of a problem much deeper and much more powerful than one imagines. The real issue is system-wide.

The Second Lie, as told by the Revolutionaries

Many liberals, socialists, angst-ridden teens and “alternative types” can sustain quite a long rant about how evil and wrong the United States and its leader, President George Walker Bush, are. However this is a lie or a mistake. The United States are just the apparent tip of an iceberg that stems worldwide and permeates the very fabric of “civilized” society. As given by the example of the Media ima Western-style, media-centric democracies, and the entire system is ruled by the laws of the market. This is one of the hallmarks of neo-liberalism as denounced by the Zapatistas. The Market is allowed to influence the way people make decisions. The Media is just one of the most prominent examples but there are many more. Thus attacking the USA and demonizing its leaders is more or less an act of ignorance. The world is not controlled by the USA but the Market. And the Market is controlled by the large turns-national companies that know no borders to their expansion. They are the ones that are real in charge and it is to them and their, bloated, cruel ambitious Coos that people will turn to when push comes to shove. It is all the Mc Donald’s, Coca Colas, Shells and Altheas that must be destroyed or at least limited before change can occur.

-RzBz

From Rioters Block #6 published may 3