In this video, Patti Smith reads from Woolgathering and shares memories of growing up in Jersey and New York. The Los Angeles Times described this book as a " mix of the practical and the mythic, like the marriage of rock n' roll and poetry". A wonderful 80 minutes worth of her genius. So happy birthday to this warrior poet, 66 today, still fighting for beauty truth and and justice. Long may she continue to inspire.
Patti Smith: Poem about Arthur Rimbaud
clip from Stephen Sebring's 2008 film documentary
"Patti Smith- Dream of Life.
Patti Smith - Howl, Florence 10/9/09
Wilderness - Patti Smith
Do animals make a human cry
when their loved one staggers
fowled dragged down
the blue veined river
Does the female wail
miming the wolf of sufering
do lilies trumpet the pup
plucked for skin and skein
Do animals cry like humans
as I having lost you
yowled flagged
curled in a ball
This is how
we beat the icy field
shoeless and empty handed
hardly human at all
Negotiating a wilderness
we have yet to know
this is where time stops
and we have none
' It is not given to everyone to take a bath in the multitude;to enjoy the crowd is an art; and only that many can gorge himself with vitality, at the expense of the human race,whom, in his cradle, a fairy has inspired with love of disguise and of the mask, with hatred of the home and a passion for voyaging. Multitude, solitude: terms that, to the active and fruitful poet, are synonomous and interchangeable. A man who cannot people his solitude is no less incapable of being alone in a busy crowd. The poet enjoys the incomparable privilege that he can, at will, be either himself or another. Like those wandering spirits that seek a body, he enters, when he likes, into the person of any man. For him alone all is vacant, to his eyes, they are not worth the trouble of being visited. The solitary and pensive pedestrian derives a singular exhiliration from this universal communion. That man who can easily wed the crowd knows a feverish enjoyment which will be eternally denied to the egoist, shut up like a trunk, and to the lazy man, imprisoned like a mollusk. The poet adopts as his own all the professions, all the joys and all the miseries with which circumstance confronts him. What men call love is very meager, very restricted and very feeble, compared to this ineffable orgy, to this holy prostitution of the soul that abandons itself entirely, poetry and charity included, to the unexpectant arrival, to the passing stranger. It is good occasionally to bring home to the happy people of the world, were it only in order to humiliate for a moment their inane pride, that there is a happiness superior to theirs, vaster and more refined. The founder of colonies, the pastors of peoples, missionary priests exiled to the ends of the earth, doubtless know something of this mysterious drunkeness; and in the heart of the vast family which their genius has created for itself, they must laugh sometimes at those who pity them for their destiny that is so unquiet and for their life that is so chaste.'
Reprinted from Petits Poemes en Prose
Translated as Twenty Prose Poems by Michael Hamburger (22/3/24-6/07)
The above 'There is No Authority But Yourself' is a Dutch film directed by Alexander Oey documenting the history of anarchist punk band Crass. The film features archive footage of the band and interviews with former members Steve Ignorant, Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher. As well as reflecting on the band's past the film focusses on their current activities, and includes footage of Rimbaud performing with Last Amendment at the Vortex jazz club in Hackney, a compost toilet building workshop and a permaculture course held at Dial House in the spring of 2006.
The tile of the film is derived from the final lines of the Crass album Yes Sir, I Will; "You must learn to live with your own conscience, your own morality, your own decision, your own self. You alone can do it. There is no authority but yourself."
There is No Authority But yourself premiered at the Raindance Film Festival at the Picadilly Circus, London Trocadero in October 2006 and was part of the Official Selection film programme at the Flipside film festival in May 2008.
I remember when I first heard Crass many moons ago, their lyrics taught me to question and took me on a journey of discovery.Led by radical free thinkers Penny Rimbaud, a ex-art teaching, middle class situationist and Steve Ignorant who was a working class street punk.Their songs offerered meaningful angry thoughts on societies many ills, and led many people to question injustice. Their angry defiant polemics and messages at the time chiming with the underclass that was emerging from the wreckage of Thatcher's Britain. They based themselves at their Essex communal house called Dial House, and from 1977 until their demise in 1984 released a succession of powerful provocative albums and singles. With words they articulately explained the ideas by which they were living, and with deeds , promoted a fierce critical viewpoint, financially supporting the peace movement and a whole myriad of radical causes.Many people taking their ideas further in a series of anti-capitalist Stop the City demonstations, held in the financial centre of London, between 1883-84, and the emerging New Age Traveller movement. They came to be seen as central to the opposition of the cruel redundant social and economic policies that were being pushed at the time, which have direct parallels to what is being pushed by our current incumbents..
Their refusal to compromise was inspiring then, and continues to be today, to all who dream of peace, freedom, love and justice. Cental to their core was a a D.I.Y Punk ethic which they used to preach subversion,whilst living by their ideals and words, advocating a form of individualism, hence the title 'there is no authority but yourself.'
I have never personally been a purist, but there are some people around today that say that Crass sold out. Crass were accused of lifestylism, back in the day, not engaging with wider struggles.Currently there are arguments raging about copyright law, with Crass apparently not allowing people to share their music on file sharing sites, like Media Fire, but their original message for me still worth savouring, still worth sharing, which will hopefully continue to inspire, and perhaps tomorrow there will emerge people with even deeper truths. Perhaps the higher we set our ideals the deeper we fall, but the overall result is the fact that none of us are perfect. Crass only offered us suggestions, they served as a pulse, absorbing and spreading ideas, and it was directly because of Crass's ideas that many people engaged in the battlefield of radical ideas, some taking up the ideology of anarchism, some taking their own path, but inspiring many to start creating another world, and challenging the system, and all its failures, it is I guess, up to us, in which direction we take it.
At a time of socio-economic decline, we should not get sidetracked, distracted. Division does not make the world a better place, Crass promoted solidarity,by action as well as words. That for me is something we should be grateful for. Am also eternally grateful to them, because they inspired the artist and musician Jeffrey Lewis, who released one of my favourite albums in recent years, with his own homage to Crass.
The message still rings out, another world is not only possible, it is inevitable. We must not give up on our dreams. Become your own spark.
Almost 30 years later Crass's legacy still ripples with much symbolic potency.
Not sure when I'll be back, probably when the libraries reopen.
Next year sometime...... in the meantime Happy Crassmess.
All the best.....heddwch/peace
'A human being is a part of the whole called by us 'the Universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something seperated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricts us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely for such achievement is itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.'
At the moment almost seven million working age adults are living in extreme financial stress. 3.6 million households have little or no savings, nor equity in their homes, and struggle at the end of each month to feed themselves and their children adequately. People are increasingly unable to cope on their current incomes and have no assets to fall back on, many people across Britain are now using food banks to get their daily sustenance.In 2008/9, 26,000 people in the U.K relied on emergency food aid, now as 2015 draws to a close this figure is set to reach the truly shocking level of a million people and counting. The sad fact is in 21st century Britain a significant number of people are going hungry.Welfare cuts are a significant cause. I know of many people who at the moment are probably skipping a meal or two in order to ensure their food supplies stretch out a bit.
This is a savage indicment of Tory Party policies which are increasingly taken us back to the dark old days of Thatchers Britain, a direct result of their savage economic/political austerity programme.. Food prices are rocketing, bills are getting higher. It's going to get even worse.
This scandal of British food poverty should shame us all.
It was with great sadness, that this morning I heard of the death of the legendary Indian Sitar maestro, who collaberated with such greats as the Beatles and John Coltrane, taking the instrument to the world, inspiring the 60s psychedelic sound.
It was uncanny because only last night I had been listening to a work of his Chants of India which was produced by George Harrison, a wonderful soothing collection, like balms for the soul, in these tepid times that we are living in.
He had been ill for several years but still his passing came as unexpected, he seemed timeless like his beautiful music.
He was still performing up to November of this year, playing with his daughter Anoushka. He was I guess one of my first introductions to what is now known as World Music, introducing me to a melting pot of sounds, his mastery of his chosen instrument long inspiring me, eventually getting drawn to music that was even more out their, but that is another story.
He was born Robindra Shankar in 1930, in the city of Varanas, spending his earlier days in poverty. Initially he was a dancer performing with his brothers Indian and classical folk dance troup, but by the 1930s he had become a master of the Sitar, along with other classical indian instruments. I first became aware of him through watching old performances of him plaing at the Woodstock and Monterey Pop Festivals and later at the 1972 Concert for Bangladesh. Every time I heard his complicated music, it was like their was some kind of magic in the air.
Over the years I was still drawn to his playing, and I regarded him as an almost visionary figure, who became a legend as his life traversed nearly a century, his music transcending trends and cultural barriers becomming one of Indias most effective ambassadors.
His influence soon spread, maintaining a purity of vision, but was not afraid to collaberate.His the work with Phillip Glass and with Yeudi Menuhin, in the 1960s and 1970s are now regarded classics, where east truly did meet west.
And now he has gone, aged 92, but his sounds still rythmically breathing so to speak, beyond the melancholy of this world, still stirring hearts, lingering in moments of peace, and satori's twinkling stars.
R.I.P Ravi Shankar.
Dub Syndicate - Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar at Monterey 1967
Ravi Shankar & Phillip Glass - Ragas in a Minor Scale
' I became a fabulous opera. I saw that all beings have a fatality of happiness. Action is not life, but a way of dissi- pating some force - an enervation. Morality is the weak- ness of the brain. Each being seemed to me to have severalotherlives due to him. This gentleman does not know what he is doing he is an angel. This family is a pack of dogs. In the presence of several men I have conversed aloud with a moment of one of their other lives. Thus, I have loved a pig. Not one of the sophistries of madness - the kind of madness that is locked up - have I omitted. I could recite them all, I have the system. My health was threatened. Terror would come upon me. I would fall into sleeps lasting several days, and on rising would continue the saddest dreams. I was ripe for death, and by a road of dangers my weakness led me to the confines of the world and of Cimmeria, country of darkness and whirlwinds. To divert the enchantment assemmbled in my brain, I had to travel. On the sea, which I loved as though it would cleanse me of a defilement, I saw the comforting Cross erect itself. I had been damned by the rainbow. Happiness was my fatality, my remorse, my worm. My life would always be too huge to be devoted to strength and beauty. Happiness! Its deathly-sweet tooth warned me at cock-crow - ad matutinum, at the Christus venit - in the darkest cities.
Reprinted from: Norman Cameron's translation of 'Ravings II' from Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell ( Anvil Press, London,1994)
Sixty four years ago today, humanity took an inspirational step forward when the United Nations General Assembly, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml.
Article 1 of which states:
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
Photo credit: United Nations
To mark this occasion, we celebrate today International Human Rights Day, but with a heavy heart because Palestinians are systematically denied their human rights by Israel's apartheid policies, which are funded and protected by our government.
Former anti-apartheid icon and South African President Nelson Mandela said it best: "Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."
In the spirit of the beautiful clarity of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I ask you to take one simple action today: declare your support for Palestinian human rights.
Well the silly season is well and truly upon us, as those in power are determined to make or lives a little more hard, thought it time for a joke, the original one I had of Patrick Moore's demise, felt a little to sour, even though he was a great astronomer, I knew him primarily as a racist, homophobic, sexist so and so, who despite playing the xylophone credibly, I will remember mainly for his ultra right wing views, he liked animals too, but so did Hitler, anyway back to the joke.
Gwyn and Betty lived in a little cottage in the village of St Dogmaels, down the road from me here in Cardigan. Their cottage was immaculate, for Betty was a fierce and tidy woman who liked to see everything in its place. She worked to a strict daily schedule, and was considerably inconvenienced when her husband fell ill and looked as if he might die.
One day, after a visit from thedoctor confirmed that he had not long to live, Betty had to go shopping. "Gwyn," she said. "I won't be gone long. I has to get some flour and raisins. But if you feels like dying afore I comes back, mind to blow out the candle first."
Gwyn was still alive when his wife came back, and indeed it appeared that he might recover, for there was a bit of colour in his cheeks. Betty tucked him up nice and cosy in his bed, wiped his nose, staightened his night-cap, and then went into the back kitchen to get on with her daily tasks. Soon the unmistakable smell of Welsh cakes on the griddle wafted into the bedroom, and Gwyn was greatly moved. "Betty bach," he cried "I smell fresh Welsh cakes on the stove! I think I could manage one or two!"
"Hush now husband," came the reply. "You'll manage nothing of the kind, for those are for the funeral!"
Impotent in the face of death, impotent, perhaps, in the face of life We substitute one for another, money can buy power, but not human rights, Medicine but not health, decorations but no happiness Impossible to love, is the root of all evil, A paradox then, something that we greed for Has become an idol of the rich, destroys the joys of the poor, iI it lasts, it lasts because of us, shines in dour emanation
Suffocating souls, creating wars, oozing with supperation, Paper burns, gold melts at 1063 celsius, copper melts at 1583 Zinc at 419, silver at 961, you see it's all a matter of degree, In our pockets slides like a dark turning point of no return Buys us illusion, figments of crazy diamond imagination, Turns us into machines, with its numbness and sham Instead of God, idolators praise Gold instead,
Finding value at her needy dizzying alters
Polticians shamelessly stuff their pockets full,
We need leaders not in love with money. but in love with justice
Not in love with publicity, but in love with humanity,
Impotent in the face of death, impotent in the face of life Money can't buy our love, leaves us with nothitng at all.
Song for our times
Bugger the Bankers, performed by the Austerity Allstars
and as for this tawdry lot
they can rot in bloody, bloody hell. hell, utter contemptuous bastards. They simply don't care, never have , never will, and if they think we're going to sit back for the next 3 years, they really must be taking the piss.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year old African American woman who worked as a seamstress, boarded a Montgomery City Bus year old to go home from work. On that bus on that day, Herbrave, spontaneous act of defiance sparked a flame of rebellion.that initiated a new era in the American quest for freedom, equality and justice.
Rosa Parks
She was arrested and convicted of violating the laws of segregation, known as 'Jim Crow Laws' Mrs Parks appealed her conviction and thus formally challenged the legality of segregation. In cities across the South, segregated bus companies were daily reminders of the inequalities of American society.
The next day Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., proposed a city wide boycott of public transportation at a church meeting. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, and its president, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader as international attention focused on Montgomery. The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed.
The roots of the bus boycott began years before the arrest of Rosa Parks. The Women’s Political Council (WPC), a group of black professionals founded in 1946, had already turned their attention to Jim Crow practices on the Montgomery city buses. In a meeting with Mayor W. A. Gayle in March 1954, the council's members outlined the changes they sought for Montgomery’s bus system: no one standing over empty seats; a decree that black individuals not be made to pay at the front of the bus and enter from the rear; and a policy that would require buses to stop at every corner in black residential areas, as they did in white communities. When the meeting failed to produce any meaningful change, WPC president Jo Ann Robinson reiterated the council’s requests in a 21 May letter to Mayor Gayle, telling him, “There has been talk from twenty-five or more local organizations of planning a city-wide boycott of buses” (“A Letter from the Women’s Political Council”).
A year after the WPC’s meeting with Mayor Gayle, a 15-year-old named Claudette Colvin was arrested for challenging segregation on a Montgomery bus. Seven months later, 18-year-old Mary Louise Smith was arrested for refusing to yield her seat to a white passenger. Neither arrest, however, mobilized Montgomery’s black community like that of Rosa Parks later that year.
King recalled in his memoir that “Mrs. Parks was ideal for the role assigned to her by history,” and because “her character was impeccable and her dedication deep-rooted” she was “one of the most respected people in the Negro community”
Robinson and the WPC responded to Parks’ arrest by calling for a one-day protest of the city’s buses on 5 December 1955. Robinson prepared a series of leaflets at Alabama State College and organized groups to distribute them throughout the black community. Meanwhile, after securing bail for Parks with Clifford and Virginia Durr, E. D. Nixon, past leader of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), began to call local black leaders, including Ralph Abernathy and King, to organize a planning meeting. On 2 December, black ministers and leaders met at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and agreed to publicize the 5 December boycott. The planned protest received unexpected publicity in the weekend newspapers and in radio and television reports.
On December 5th, 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. organized by the local chapter of the NAACP led by Pullman porter E. D. Edgar Nixon. “We’re going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. And we are not wrong,” new minister Martin Luther King Jr. declared. “If we are wrong, the Supreme Court is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong.”
Since African Americans made up about 75 percent of the riders in Montgomery, the boycott posed a serious economic threat to the company and a social threat to white rule in the city. Out of Montgomery's 50,000 African American residents, 30,000 to 40,000 participated. They walked or bicycled or car pooled, depriving the bus company of a substantial portion of its revenue.
The boycott lasted 381 days, and proved to be effective, causing the transit system to run a huge deficit.After all Montgomery's black residents were not only the principal boycotters, but also the bulk of the transit system's paying customers. The situation became very tense, with members of the White Citizens Council, a group that opposed racial integration firebombed the homes of King and Nixon were bombed, and when that didn’t stop the boycott, authorities arrested King and ordered him to pay $500 and serve more than a year in jail. Despite this, the boycott continued.
In June 1956, a federal court found that the laws in Alabama and Montgomery requiring segregated buses were unconstitutional. However an appeal kept segregation intact until Dec 20, 1956 when the US Supreme Court upheld the district court's rulings.ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional..
“We came to see that, in the long run, it is more honorable to walk in dignity than ride in humiliation,” King said. “We decided to substitute tired feet for tired souls and walk the streets of Montgomery.’’The boycott's official end signalled one of the civil rights movements first victories and made King one of its central figures.
Marin Luther King after Montgomery Bus Boycott Time life/Getty images
With new self respect and a new sense of dignity , it was part of the beginning of a call for revolutionary change, the oppressed were determined to stand up and struggle until the walls of injustice had crumbled. It would be a long and hard journey, which would see them take on and triumph against the dominant repressive forces of evil.
The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed. In Stride Toward Freedom, King’s 1958 memoir of the boycott, he declared the real meaning of the Montgomery bus boycott to be the power of a growing self-respect to animate the struggle for civil rights.
This movement has echoes with the divestment movement and the campaign of boycott against apartheid South Africa, and currently again against the policies of apartheid Israel.
Past midnight, I went for a walk
down to the estuary to roam alone,
under the moonglow, where thoughts alighted
anquished anger welcomed strangers kindness.
It was cold but clear, and a freezing hum spoke to me
I have long believed in prophecy,
remembered beginnings, passing its time
between the gnarled roots and the shadows,
brooding upon heavy lidded eyes
shoots shouting, yes you can,
breath congealed, confused murmours
returned to me , again and again,
like a shaman, that had hit me full force,
then tumbled away. moved downstream
as the burnt clearing of memory
penetrated into the bowels of the earth.
Headed home, to plant seeds
chant some passionate verse,
to stubbornly repeat, the science of practice
pray to an unfathomable god
that has vanished from this world.
This heart gulped a glass full of wine, left out
concealed myself in another constellation
slowly dissapeared, underneath, unseen.
Silouettes
the afternoon rolls on, we follow the testimony of brothers and sisters, tonight, we will bask in defiant
thoughts, step by step, the same night fall, we speak to all or nothing at all, at first we tried to be
different, some of us boiling were left unattended, but hopefully now we share, hearts content with
nothing short of justice, joining hands, outside the world is ours.
Today marks the anniversary of the death of Mary Harris Jones. Dressmaker and militant activist. In her autobiography she claimed she was born on May 1 1830, though others have put her actual birth as August 1 1837. What is undisputed is that she was born in North Cork, Southern Ireland, her grandfather having been of Welsh stock, who had been hung for fighting for the cause of Irish freedom. Her own father was a Richard Harris, a Roman Catholic tenant farmer, who was forced to flee with his family to Toronto in Canada because of getting into trouble for political activities at the height of the Great Hunger. .
After leaving school at 17, Mary taught for a while before leaving Canada and moving to Chicago and becoming a dress maker. Going back to teaching, she moved to Memphis where she met and married the Welsh American George E Jones in 1861. He was an iron moulder who was an active member and organiser of it's union.
However tragedy struck because her husband and their four children, all under the age of five died in an outbreak of Yellow Fever. Mary tried to recuperate by moving back to Chicago, to become a dressmaker once again, but yet again another misfortune occurred. In the great Chicago Fire of 1871, she lost everything she ever owned. On her own in the world, she decided to dedicate herself to the labour struggle for human working conditions, and so began a life of relentless campaigning against suffering and exploitation.
She said "I would look out of the plate glass windows and see the poor, shivering wretches, jobless and hungry, walking alongside the frozen lake front. The contrast of their condition with that of the tropical comfort of the people for whom I sewed was painful to me. My employers seemed neither to notice or care.'From then on Mary became a voice for social justice, quitting her job and travelling the country assisting and organising labor strikes and unions.
She joined the Knights of Labour Movement and was to become involved in just about every major industrial dispute in the next half century. From the 1870' to the early 1920's she travelled to many strikes up and down the country, earning respect and admiration wherever she went, she became known for her passionate eloquent speeches, that she delivered to encourage the strikers, taking part in many militant actions, running educational meetings for the workers and their families. She lived amongst the workers, treating them all as equals, inspiring them. Coal miners and their families called her " the miners angel" and such was her empathy for the workers she began referring to the miners as "her boys" and then they started referring to her affectionately as Mother Jones.
She developed a confrontational style, refusing to compromise on behalf of all that she considered suffering from oppression. In 1877, she was involved in the Pittsburgh Railway Strike, when twenty strikers were killed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877. She showed no fear to the intimidation and violence that was being perpetrated by the authorities, at a time when many radical leaders in the Labour Movement were being harassed, detained and silenced. Despite all this Mary Harris Jones carried on defending.and became involved in the strikes that led to the Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886.
In 1898 she helped found the Social Democratic Party, which 3 years later became part of the Socialist Party of America. In 1905 she helped start the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). She was the only woman among 25 delegates, who called for a convention to organise all Industrial Workers. Known as the Wobblies, their famous motto was ' an injury to one, is an injury to all' https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2012/06/wobblies-happy-birthday-their-legacy.html
Famously she organised the childrens crusade of striking children from the textile mills of Kensington, Pennsylvania, across New Jersey to President Theodore Roosevelt's own front door in Long Island , New York in 1903. Though the President refused to meet the protestors, this crusade bought the issue of child labour to the national attention.She made frequent stops to give speeches and tell the public about the effects of this exploitation, and her actions paved the way for the eradication of child Labour in the Unite States. Here she was at 73, still fighting for better conditions, you did not mess with Mother Jones.In 1903 the West Virginian District Attorney, Reese Blizzard dubbed her ' the grandmother of all agitators, and the most dangerous woman in America.'
Typically clad in a black dress, her face framed by a lace collar and black hat, the barely five-foot tall Mother Jones was a fearless fighter for workers’ rights. She rose to prominence as a fearless organizer for the Mine Workers during the first two decades of the 20th century.Her size and grandmotherly appearance belied her fiery nature. A charismatic speaker, she was adept at staging public events to get publicity for striking workers and her physical courage was legendary. When she stepped on a stage, she became dynamic. She projected wide variations in emotion, sometimes striding about the stag in a towering rage. She could bring her audience to the verge of tears or have them clapping or bursting with laughter. She was a good story teller and she excelled in invective, pathos and humor ranging from irony to ridicule.
Mother Jones's low pleasant voice had great carrying power. It was unusual because it did not become shrill when sh became excited, but rather dropped in pitch so that the intensity of it became something you could almost feel physically. When she rose to speak, Mother Jones seemed to explode in all directions and suddenly everyone sat up alert and listened. No matter what impossible ideas she bought up, her energy and passion inspired men half her age into action and think she and they together could do anything and also compelled their wives and daughters to join the struggle. If that didn’t work, she would embarrass men to action. "I have been in jail more than once and I expect to go again. If you are too cowardly to fight, I will fight," she told them.
Mother Jones' organizing methods were unique for her time. She welcomed African American workers and involved women and children in strikes. She organized miners’ wives into teams armed with mops and brooms to guard the mines against scabs. She staged parades with children carrying signs that read, "We Want to Go to School and Not to the Mines."
She was like an anchor to the workers, such was her dedication to their cause, arrested many times, using fearless tactics, with words and deeds, using revolutionary ideas, driven by her underlying passion. She got increasingly involved in the plight of the miners, becoming an organiser for the United Mine Workers Association, the miners themselves started to refer to her as their angel, such was their love for her. In 1911 she was involved in the Paint Creek Cabin Strike in West Virginia. In 1912 she was leading a march of miners children in Charleston, West Virginia. She was back again the next year, this time leading to her arrest. She had become a militant matriarch, uniting the family of labour through her words and her courage.
September 23, 1913 marked the beginning of a massive coal strike in Colorado, she brought news of the strike to the nation, and after the infamous Ludlow Massacre,when twenty people were machine gunned down by guards after a walkout by about ninety percent of the workers she made sure that the truth of this got out and that the news was not suppressed.
Woody Guthrie - Ludlow Massacre
When in January 1914 she tried to return she was arrested again. She was convicted by a military court of Conspiracy to murder and the 83 year old was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Thousands gathered to protest which led to the commute of her sentence. Above all she had once again drawn the press into the plight of the miners and by her actions the Senate ordered an investigation into the conditions in the coalfields.
She went to Pittsburgh in 1919 to support the steelworkers,throughout the 1920s, her fight did not cease, still embracing the movement to her heart,supporting dressmakers in Chicago in 1934, supporting the Revolutionary cause in Mexico. In 1925 she published her autobiography. In it she defiantly wrote 'In spite of oppressors, in spite of false leaders the cause of the workers continues onward. Slowly his hours are shortened, slowly his standards of living rise to include some of the good and beautiful things in life. Slowly, those who create the wealth of the world are permitted to share it. The future is in labour's strong rough hands.' She remarkably continued making public appearances and fighting for the causes she believed in right into her 90's. Determined and strong to the last, when once introduced as a "humanitarian, " Jones argued, "I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser"
She died on November 30th 1930. She is buried in the Union Miners' Cemetery at Mount Olive, Illinois, alongside the 4 victims of the 1889 Virden, Illinois, mine riot. Mother Jones , the Miners angel had been asked to be buried here. Her 80-ton granite monument was erected there in 1936, dedicated before a crowd of 50,000 people, 32,000 of whom had marched to the cemetery.
After her death the American authorities tried to erase her imprint from the history books, they still found her dangerous. But her memory and spirit was impossible to erase, she had overcome personal tragedy to raise peoples hopes , a spark in the name of solidarity and resistance. She had become the mother of the downtrodden,and the voiceless, who had fought against suffering and exploitation. Across America, today, people still fighting for decent lives, fighting for social justice, raising their voices in defiance. This is Mother Jones's legacy, long may it be honoured. She is now memoralized through the non-profit publication " Mother Jones"
Mother Jones Speaks filmed on the occasion of her 100th
birthday 1930
The Most Dangerous Woman
- Ani di Franco & Utah Phillips
Further Reading:-
Autobiography - Mary Harris Jones
Mother Jones: The Most Dangeerous Woman in America - Elliot J Gorn.
Mother Jones speaks: Speeches & Writings of a working Class Fighter -Mary Harris Jones/ Philip S Glover (1995)
'Pray for the dead & fight like hell for the living'. - Mother Jones
Hey we all kind of do funny things from time to time, seriously, we can get confused, we get invited to things, and the offer seems irresistable to refuse. You have just been invited to play for an upcoming Gala, in support of the Friends of the Israel Defence forces (FIDF) organisation. An annual event. It is held this year on December 6th at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Guaranteed to be a glitzy affair, their will be lots of other guests and will probably raise millions of dollors not for charity but to support the Israeli army.
You probably did not want to turn down the invitation, because this gig is a must attend event for the Los Angeles community, and you would not want to be accused of being anti-semitic. It is not being anti-semitic to not want to support the activities of the IDF however, or the policies of the state of Israel. You might , after standing up against racism and injustice, and against apartheid South Africa, be accused of a little hypocricy , since lets face it the IDF are mainly known as the force that maintains Israels occupation of the West Bank, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the area, whilst propping up apartheid policies, taking part in land grabs and other war crimes. The IDF are terrorists, who have been responsible for the demolishment of 200 houses in Gaza and seriously damaged 8,000 more. Coming a week after Operation Pillar of cloud, your timing is impecabble.
Will you be playing 'I just called to say I love you', if so I am definitely feeling a little ' uptight'.
Did you not used to talk about Martin Luther King and did you not used to share his ideas, walk along the same paths, with a man who lived and died trying to break the chains of oppression and injustice.
Stevie the parallels between apartheid south africa and Israel are clear to understand. An apartheid society is much more than just a 'settler colony'. It involves specific forms of oppression that actively strip the original inhabitants of any rights at all, wheras civilian members of the invader caste are given all kinds of sumptuous privileges.
The apartheid wall which the I.D.F prop up is designed to crush the human spirit as much as to enclose the Palestinians in ghettos. Its route cuts huge swathes into the West Bank to incorporate into Israels illegal settler colonies.
The New Black by the Mavrix ( a collaboration between South Africa and Palestine)
South African band, the Mavrix and Palestinian Oud Player
Mohammed Omar
It's never to late to reconsider, and I'm talking as a fan, I remember how you supported the international call to boycott south africa and your refusal to perform in their at the time of apartheid, so why would you support an apartheid state now, which side are you on , how come you now seem to be supporting the oppressors? Their is always time to wrestle with your conscience, identify with the struggle, ,not to get carried away, time to admit, perhaps, that if you did this one gig, that you might have something to regret. I really hope so , because their is no one blinder than those who REFUSE to see between right and wrong.
Thought I'd end with a video of an old song you used to sing, that has much resonance with what you might be about to do, and a link to two petitions that perhaps someone could have a look at for you, a lot of fans are signing, they've respected you for a long time, I do hope for a long time to come, so please I am urging you to cancel this performance and stand with the values of justice. You have used your wonderful singing voice to spread messages of hope and love, so please Stevie, don't sing for Apartheid.
a "colonization of the mind" whereby the oppressed subject comes to believe that the oppressor's reality is the only "normal" reality... and that the oppression is a fact of life that must be coped with.
Those who engage in normalization either ignore this oppression, or accept it as the status quo that can be lived with.
In an attempt to whitewash its violations of international law and human rights, Israel attempts to re-brand itself or present itself as "normal" - even "enlightened" through an intricate array of relations and activities encompassing hi-tech, cultural, legal, LGBT and other realms.
Normalization applies to relationships that convey a misleading or deceptive image of normalcy, symmetry, or parity despite a patently abnormal and asymmetric relationship of colonial oppression and apartheid.
For more infomation on cultural and academic boycott in the US please visit http://www.usacbi.org/
Remi Kanazi - Coexistence (taking to the stage Nablus 2010 )
His only Welsh date on his upcoming UK tour is at the Ebbw Vale Institute, Church Street, Ebbw Vale NP23
Saturday December1st 2012.
Supported by the award winning poet Patrick Jones.
Tickets cost £5 Advance £6 OTD
Box Office- 01459 708022
or online at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/192455
Doors open 7.00 p.m, start 7.30 p.m
Will be off to see new film by director Owain Lyr tonight about my old friends band Datblygu.One of the main reasons I started learning the Welsh language. The premier is in Theatre Mwldan's new digital cinema, in Cardigan/Aberteifi . 23 Nov, 24 Nov, 25 Nov, 26 Nov at Mwldan 3
You can book your tickets herehttps://mwldan.ticketsolve.com/shows/873486242/events?locacle=en-GB
Born in a bedroom in Cardigan thirty years ago, the band Datblygu were hailed as the first truly modern Welsh-language group, their uncompromising, immense music has been described as genius, and their influence on Welsh music as immeasurable. Fronted by the charismatic and anarchic rebel poet David R. Edwards, the group came to define what T Gwydwr's Gareth Potter calls 'the soul of the Welsh underground scene in the 1980s. Datblygu's acidic take on modern Wales - the artistic bourgeoisie and politicians were typical targets - liberated a whole generation of bands and artists. Five Peel sessions with legendary Radio 1 DJ John Peel is some measure of the effect they had on the converted. Championed by Peel but ironically ignored by mainstream Welsh media, the band was part of an energetic underground scene which also included Y Cyrff, Yr Anhrefn, Ffa Coffi Pawb and Llwybr Llaethog, in a random alliance which re-defined Welsh language popular music. This new independent film from Director Owain Llyr celebrates 30 years of Datblygu, and features extensive interviews with David R.Edwars and Patricia Morgan from the group, as well as notable others who remember this anarchic ensemble in its prime. Prosiect Datblygu premieres at Theatr Mwldan. SUBTITLES
Spoke to Dave the other night , both he and Pat are hoping to make an appearance. It coincicides too with the release of a new four track E.P, which on all accounts ( haven't heard it yet) recalls the classic Datblygu sound and line up of Pat and David. Looking forward to getting hold of it.
This limited edition release will be on sale tonight and through the ankst websitehttp://www.ankst.net/.
They're being called 'killer robots' - machines that decided independently on targets to strike without being told to any human.
Alhtough they do not exist, the world's most powerful armies are taking steps in that direction - and are believed to be available in the next few decades or sooner.
A report this week by Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic titled " Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots" outlines the danger of these fully autonomous weapons
Once upon a time this was a thing I would read about in Science Fiction novels. Asimov comes to mind who wrote a story back in 1950 called I robot. In his story he chronicles the development of the robot, from its primitive origins to its ultimate perfection in the not so distant future, a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.
I find it strange that we never take note of warnings from the past even if it is a work of science fiction.
In an earlier short story from 1942 ,called "Runaround" he introduced 3 principles of the robot. They were:-
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The prospect of developing autonomous wearpons with the capacity to evaluate targeting options themselves is now a distinct possibility. On a personal note , humanitarian considerations should be put before any military ones, we have so much to lose and much to fear. The technology is already out their, we have drones used to kill, unmanned aerial vehicles, remotely operated killing machines, raining hellfire missiles on inncocents in Pakistan and the Middle East. Since 2008 remotely piloted U.S drones have killed up to 3,000 people in Pakistan alone. I guess all wars lead to the erosion of ethics, and humanity seems to have developed an inate ability to keep killing one another. Perhaps it would be a better idea, that humanity seeks ways to control their own actions and feelings without developing robots that can carry out our destructive needs without feeling. After all, certain military strategists aided by politicians have probably worked out that they can create machines that make less mistakes, but can carry out nevertheless, more deadly precision killing. I strongly feel that the devlopment of and use of autonomous weapons or killer robots should be explicitly prohibited, because I feel they are an abuse of humanity's real needs. Otherwise I fear, it really will be too late. Humanity should be seeking ways to find peace, and getting rid of existing injustices, instead of marching onwards to a dystopian world, that would mean that we all cease to exist.
There's something in the air, as sirens sing The pavements twisted with broken embers of peace, A prism of shimmering emptiness as promises lays cursed
Shoes speckled with ichor, abandoned and bereft, The sad drumbeat of humanity's curse
Tiny hands, rigid fossil like, as fire breaths from a blood
red sky,
The taste of despair drips on tonques
While the dead lie in waves of decaying flesh and bone,
Prayers on all sides, succumb to deep shadows As sunset descends, into deep labyrinths of hell, The velocity of winds gather up storms
We maintain vigil, take sides, proliferate opinions,
As the reverberations of suffering and sorrow grow
This experience of darkness,impossible to erase
like black mountains, glimmering across the night sky,
Dreams sealed in chasms of gloom
Ensnared among webs of hopelessness.
In the morning, the chants still ring out
Inshallah, Inshallah, as the weeping mother buries her dead.
As the military bombardment of Gaza increases. Medical Aid for Palestinians are redponding by helping the victims of tose attacks. As the death and casualty toll increases, including children, we are working with the main hospital in Gaza to ensure that they have the medicines and medical equipment needed to respond urgently and effectively to this emergency situation. But we can't continue in this emergency aid without your help now. We need your help to raise £100,000 immediately. Your support will enable MAP to buy life saving drugs and medical equipment to save lives in Gaza. In addition to buying medicines and medical supplies we are also preparing Disaster Survival and Hygiene kits throughout Gaza to protect children and vulnerable civilians displaced by the bombardment. With your help we will be able to help Palestinian children, women and men who need emergency help now. Please Donate now. Medical Aid for Palestinians - Donate - Emergency Gaza Disaster Appeal
Sitting in the library, thoughts as yesterday, with the beleagured citizens of Gaza. A place that I have never been to, whose language I cannot speak, whose heartbreak I have not even come near too, whose oranges I have never picked, whose sky I have never touched, whose air I've never inhaled. But long has their story touched me, their struggle held much resonance. In their history of hardship and struggle, these people have never given up hope, even when they are daily besieged, imprisoned. And now Israeli are launching a series of deadly attacks against this giant open air prison camp, resulting in the deaths of many innocents with many more left injured. The BBC and the mainstream media does not seem to highlight the grief that Israel is bringing to the innocent, we must be made to comprehend and speak out. Anyway some time for some reflection, so here are the words of one of Palestinians greatest poets Mahmoud Darwish.
Think of Others
As you fix your breakfast, think of others. Don't forget to feed the pigeons.
As you fight in your wars, think of others. Don't forget those who desperately demand peace.
As you pay your water bill, think of others who drink the cloud's rain.
As you return home, your home think of others. Don't forget those who live in tents.
As you sleep and count planets, think of others. There are people without any shelter to sleep.
As you express yourself using all metaphorical expressions, think of others who lost their rights to speak.
As you think of others who are distant, think of yourself and say "I wish I was a candle to fade away the darkness.
Yes Israel has been attacked by rockets, not after Palestinians had fired rockets into civilian areas, but after Palestine resistance fighters targetted Israeli forces enforcing the siege and occupation of Gaza. So Israels response has been totally disproportionate. Remember Gaza is an occupied area, daily under siege, would you not retaliate in some way.
Lets put it in context.
On November 9, 2012 Israel's army killed a teenage child playing soccer, then launched an unprovoked bombardment of the Gaza strip which killed 7 Palestinians and injured more than 40, and to which the resistance responded. Subsequent Israeli attacks led to more deaths and injuries, and culminated yesterday with the assasination of Ahmed Jabri, second in command of the military wing of Hamas, and many others , many of whom were civilians throughout Gaza. Further, Israel formally launched a ground invasion of the Gaza strip, saying they would be in Tal Alhawa within 24 hours. This is an area in the middle of densely populated Gaza City.
I think anyone with conscience should be oppossed to Israels actions and would urge them to urge the foreign office, to call Israel to account, and if possible to attend any emergency demonstations in support of the besieged.Israel must end their siege of the Gaza strip and grant immediate access to all food, humanitarian and medical relief supplies without restiction, or their could be a humanitarian disaster. The strip is home to 1.5 million Palestinians, 80% of whom are refugees, denied by Israel the right to return to their homes and lands of origin from where they were expelled by occupation in 1948. Nearly half of the Gazan population are children who along with the elderly and ill remain completely deprived of food water, fuel, elecricity, humanitarian relief and medical supplies or facilities.
The Palestinians are in constant daily fear of bombardment.They are a largely civilian population trapped in the largest outdoor prison in the world, daily they face the risk of indiscriminate killing.They cannot run or hide or escape. They have no army, airforce or navy to speak of.Sitting targets for Israels War crimes. Since yesterday the death toll has risen to 15,and what should also be remembered is that the mainstream media never report the whole picture. It is important that we remember, it is the Palestinians that are under siege and not the other way round. All the Palestines want is to be free .
Gaza after attack yesterday.
Here is a list of protests and demos I am aware of
London: Thursday 15 November: Opposite Israeli embassy 5.30-7pm ( nearest tube High St Kensington
Edinburgh: Saturday 17 November: Assemble at Charlotte Square 122 pm for march to the Scottish Parliament
Manchester: Thursday 15 and Friday 16 November: Picadilly Gardens 5pm
Aberystwyth: Friday 16 November Vigil 6pm Clock Tower, Great Darkgate Street.
Cardiff: Sat 17th November Queen Street 2pm
Swansea: Sat 17th November Castle Square 2pm
Aberystwyth: Friday
And in all corners of the globe.
Le Trio Joubran - Safar ( with the voice of Mahmoud Darwish) live
