Friday 2 October 2015

Happy Birthday Human Rights Act


Today marks exactly 15 years  since our Human Rights Act came into force - and  it has been protected the rights of ordinary people across the UK ever since.The Act allows British citizens to raise human rights concerns in British courts rather  than have to go the European Court of Human Rights. The Tory Government has promised to repeal the act as stated in their general election manifesto. Human rights  put in place to stop corrupt Governments and to hold them to account.
Here are 15 ways the Human Rights Act has made all our lives better and 15 reasons why the Government must not be allowed to make this anniversary its last.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mairi-claire-rodgers/human-rights-act_b_8227590.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Thursday 1 October 2015

Join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement



Free Palestine - Support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions ( BDS) movement. BDS is a strategy that allows people around the world to contribute to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid and for freedom, justice and equality. It is used as a key tactic of solidarity with the Palestinian people,  creating a pressure that cannot simply be ignored. I remember how the South African apartheid system was itself bought to an end by an effective boycott campaign. That only needs to last until Israel ends its illegal  occupation and complies with international law.

http://www.bdsmovement.net/




Wednesday 30 September 2015

Goodbye Liz Whittaker ; storyteller ( 1944 -2015) R.I. P



( a post prompted by my partner Jane, this is effectively her post.)

Sad to say goodbye to Liz Whittaker, friend, author, playwright, creative advocate of the arts scene here in Wales. A magical weaver of words, who touched many peoples lifes. A dear friend to my partner, who were able to bring great comfort and joy to one another. I personally grew to respect her immensely, this  passionate individual, who touched the lives of many, with her supportive manner, passion and kindness. Whose appreciative comments and thoughts  will be missed by all who encountered her. My community has lost a creative spark.
My heart goes out to her family and her many friends.

For Palestine with Love



(today the Palestinian flag will be raised at the the United Nations for the first time, a proud and emotional day.)

I have never been to Palestine
But it is a country I have grown to love 
The scent of its soil so close
Even though as I write  it is in chains 
And its cities daily bleed, voices weeping
I cannot afford to grief, because its future cry's out
Where faces shine with hope and trust
The land from the rivers to the sea, free again 
With one soul, hand in hand, the end of occupation 
The lands fragrance, penetrates awareness
A homeland restored, to how  it used to be 
Thousands return from exile 
With kindness, humbleness and respect
Refusing to surrender ever again 
Allowed to snatch a few moments of joy 
Watch olive trees blossom, vineyards flourish
No longer uprooted or denied 
From,the desert earth, insistence grows 
Oppression banished, the people awake again to laughter
No more babies maimed, no more crying 
Air around discharge vapours of peace 
Iinfectious smiles again released 
As  suffocating walls of apartheid are destroyed
Until this freedom is returned,
I will continue to speak out 
With my pen, try to transform  darkness into light 
Keep delivering messages, for Palestine with love.
but it is a country I have grown to love
the scent of its soil so close
even though as I write  it is in chains
and its cities daily bleed, voices weeping.
I cannot afford to grief, because its future cry's out
where faces shine with hope and trust
the land from the rivers to the sea, free again 
with one soul, hand in hand, the end of occupation
the lands fragrance, penetrates awareness,
a homeland restored, to how  it used to be. 
Thousands return from exile
with kindness, humbleness and respect
refusing to surrender ever again
allowed to snatch a few moments of joy
watch olive trees blossom, vineyards flourish
no longer uprooted, or  denied 
from the desert earth, insistence grows
oppression banished, the people awake again to laughter.
No more babies maimed, no more crying
air around , breathes in peace, infectious smiles again released
as the suffocating walls of apartheid destroyed
until this freedom is returned, I will continue to speak out
with my pen, try to transform  darkness into light,
keep delivering messages, for Palestine with love.



Monday 28 September 2015

Under the influence of a blood red moon.



Last night I witnessed a  phenomenom, 
as the moon passed through earth's shadow, 
turning a deep bright, red, 
shining crimson, dancing over tears,
under the spell of autumn's return.

It kept me captured, intoxicated ,
like the color of the wine I sipped,
in the blossom of the afternoon,
flowers for thought, as autumn returned,
under the  influence I swayed and danced.

Shadows, turned to eclipse the mind,
visions lulled the darkness away,
as the the hazy day continued to play,
floating hypnotised, as evening called, 
silhouettes of truth revived,
in time's reflection,
to catch dreams again,
from the underground.

Sunday 27 September 2015

Hands of our NHS


Our NHS is currently under attack, facing a massive threat from the Tories and is in grave danger. Ihave seen the impact daily as I've been visiting my partner in Glangwili, West Wales General Hospital. Dedicated, compassionate staff under increased pressure, leading to low moral. Recent figures have emerged that 2/4s of hospitals have been warned about dangerous staff shortages.
This combined with creeping privatisation, major budget cuts and attacks on staff pay and pensions, and the ominous threat from the Health and Social Care Act and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) among other things.
Have recently  discovered that an £80 million contract to run cancer scans  for the NHS has been given to  a private health care firm with a Tory M.P  on board, despite a rival NHS consortium offering to carry out the work for £7 million less. Specialists of 11 Royal colleges have also witten to the health secretary warning that proposed  contracts for junior doctors represented  too, a real and immediate threat the current stated priorities of the NHS.
We should however be proud, that since 1948 that we actually have one of the best health systems in the world, regardless of age, social status, ethnic background or belief. It is ours, and belongs to us,  from the cradle to the grave. We own it and pay for it,providing local medical cover, available free to all, but slowly the Tory's are ripping it from our grasp. In the long term those that need it most, the chronically ill, people with mental health problems,the vulnerable and those from lower socio economic groups and older people losing out.
We must defend  and protect it with all our might, so that it can  continue to care for us,that puts people first not profit.
I would urge people to support or join the  protest "NHS NOT FOR SALE"" part of a National Week of action taking place 3-7 October, Manchester at the time of the Tory Conference.
Details here :-
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/demonstrate_at_tory_party_conference

Remember it our NHS the Tory's must be told to keep their bloody hands of it and give David Cameron all the contempt that he deserves. We must stop this valuable resource from being plundered in front of our eyes.
In the words of Nye Bevan " It will last as long as there are folk left with faith to fight for it."






Saturday 26 September 2015

James Kier Hardie (15/8/1856 -26/9/15) - Man of the people.


I remember today James Kier Hardie, on the 100th anniversary of his death. This giant of the socialist movement, who rose from coalminer to become the first Labour Party leader, and one of the greatest evangelists for the ideas of socialism.
His life was deep-rooted in the hard lot of the poor, for whom he fought so sturdily  and from whom he never turned away. He was born Agust 15, 1856, in a single room cottage near Newarthill, in the heart of the Lanarkshire coalfield, and was the eldest of a family of seven sons and two daughters.
He would derive from his mum, many  of his good qualities. She was a woman of marked individuality and strength of character, nothing could daunt her, or dampen her convictions.
At the age of ten, he went to work in a local mine, where through self-education he would learn the lessons of solidarity and comradeship. This would help him as he used his voice to speak of a world where woman and man were born equal. Denouncing the rich, the politicians and the establishment, all exploiters, and would see him calling for the destruction of the capitalist system. He was one of the greatest agitators of his day. ( who reminds me of another bearded teetotaller, another frugal person with their diet and advocate of passion currently spreading his message, Mr Jeremy Corbyn)
He was to help found the Independent Labour Party in 1893, and was one of the first 2 Labour M.Ps elected to the UK Parliament. He was to mark himself out as  a radical both by his dress - he wore a tweed suit and a cloth cap, whilst  most other members of Parliament wore more formal dress - and the subjects that he advocated - the nationalisation of the coalmines, for the unemployed, womens rights, republicanism and free education. Stuff that still echoes strongly today . 
For over twenty years he tirelessly addressed meeting after meeting, nearly every day and night, travelling long distances, ,to be known for his powerful oratory negating meals, and continuing to carry on  spreading ideas with comrades long into the night. Never to forget his working class roots,  these people he completely understood,  he realised their plight, never deserting them, with his untarnished devotion and faith in their cause.
his first constituency was in West Ham (London, 1892 ) and then Merthyr Tydfil, here in Wales. He would spend  the rest of his life devoted to the causes he believed in, publicy defending general strikes, syndicalism and militancy. He was one of the first  people also to call for equality between the races of South Africa, and because he was a lifelong pacifist and humanist, this led him to believe that the interests of the working classes were inseperable from peace,and when the First World War  broke out in 1914, he was to oppose it, and was to go on to address countless anti-war demonstrations up and down the country and to support conscientious objectors.
Sadly his dreams of peace were not realised , and after a series of strokes he died in Glasgow on 21 September 1915, a true man of the people, no richer when he died than when he began his political career having never surrendered his primary beliefs. Long may his deeds and words be respected.