This video originally appeared for the Ministry of Justice (Moj) employment and support allowance appeals video, back in March, then this video was pulled after less than a week, on the orders of senior officials. When you click on the original video link it has dissapeared http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L8EPHDjequ , not sure why it was pulled because the video is actually reasonably informative and reassuring for people who have no experience of appeal tribunals.
Normally MoJ videos get very little attention, but because of Mr Graylings intervention, this video became very popular indeed.
He apparently e.mailed the ministry complaining about, amongst other things, the fact that it told claimants:
. that they are twice as likey to win their appeal if they appear in person rather than having a paper hearing;
. that the DWP doesn't normally send a representative to the hearing;
. to send additional evidence to the tribunal, when Grayling wants it sent to the DWP.
Now the video is back, and to their credit, after their initial panic MoJ officials seem to have left it unaltered.
Perhaps the Torys don't want to be seen as being helpful, after all they are the rabid nasty party, deeply lacking in compassion or empathy, and have an image to maintain dont they?
Today in Labour history June 27th, 1905, The Industrial Workers of the World , also known as the wobblies was founded at a 12 day Convention in Chicago. The wobbly motto is ' An injury to all is an injury to all.'
They were noted for their use of poetry and song to promote their radical ideas, publicise strikes and other protests and generally present the case for what was, for a time at least, a dynamic and imaginative orgainisation. Their work was designed to provoke thought, and was deliberately immediate in its message, in order to get it across to as many people as possible. A potent symbol to them was the death on 19th November 1915 of Joe Hill. His defiant songs were sung on picket lines across America, they saw him as an innocent man, framed and murdered by a corrupt judiciary who feared the power of his words, he became their martyr.
The Wobblies struck at the core of America's dark soul, attacking capitalism, demanding an end to wage slavery, equality, promoting workers solidarity based on revolutionary principles, with a combination of anarchist, socialist and anti-war beliefs. Their tactics was not only the spreading of infomation, but was also combined with direct action, general strikes, sit ins and acts of sabotage.
At their peak the organisation claimed over 100,000 members with as many as 300,000 workers who rallied in their support. The IWW became for its members to be, not only their union and party, but their social centre, their home, their school, and in a manner of speaking their religion, a faith in which they lived by. Singing and reciting their poetry and songs.
' We meet today in freedom's cause
And raise our voices high
We'll join our hands in union strong
To battle or to die.'
' If the workers took a notion
They could stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean
They can tie with mighty chains
Every wheel in the creation
Every mine and every mill
Fleets and armies of the nation
Will at their command stand still.'
They were founded and led ( though they did not really have leaders) by miner and socialist William 'Big Bill' Haywood (1869 -1928)
and mine workers agitator Mary ' Mother' Jones (1837 -1930)
A famous Wobbly slogan whenever aked who their leader was ;
' We are All Leaders!'
At a time when other trade unions refused to accept immigrants, minorities and women, and unskilled workers, their only restriction was that you had to be a member of the working class. Together they energised people, sparks were lift, and in every strikes and protest across America their presence would be felt. They began to become known as revolutionaries with a singing voice.
Solidarity Forever- Pete Seeger
Their power and subsequently their weapon was their utter refusal to compromise in a single-minded march towards a utopia that pitted them against the combined forces of the state and business. It was this and their refusal to support U.S entry into World War 1 and their refusal to abandon strikes and other revolutionary tactics during the war which was used as an excuse, for thei membership to be increasingly attacked, beaten, their organisers thrown in jail. Non violent IWW strikers were attacked by police and troops, and vigilantism and lynchings were encouraged against them. They were labelled as 'enemy aliens' and traitors and hundreds were arrested. Combined with splits within their organisation , their influence faded, but never died. Membership unfortunately began to decline, but as individuals and in small branches across the world their legacy lives on, not forgotten still promoting its original aims organising workers by industry rather than trade, still thirsting for solidarity, still organising, still resisting.
In these divided times,of economic despair, perhaps what we need now is a strong international radical voice that stands defiantly, on behalf of the people, following an old tradition of solidarity that does not seperate along lines of nationality, race or gender, speaking too to the unemployed, the sick, and the marginalised spreading messages of hope among the carnage that is being unveiled by bankrupt economic policies.Today we do not have to ride freight trains to spread our messages, today it's just a click away and infomation can be spread in an instant. Following the combined flags of red, black and green. An organisation is urgently needed that does not condemn the actions of its membership, that listens and understands.
Preamble to current IWW Constitution
'The working class and the emplying class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the god things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth. We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer hands make the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organisation formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thusmaking an injury to all. Instead of the conservative motto, ' A fair day's wage for a fair day's work.' we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system.' It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.'
It is not a dream, when we think of another world, it is is achievable and clearly signposts and the paths are already marked.Struggle can be hard, but with solidarity, I guess it can be beautiful too. Paul Robeson - Joe Hill
Utah Phillips & Ani Di Franco - Unless you are free.
Continuing the Olympic theme, a song remembering the victims of Bhopal.
The groundswell is growing in London agaist the elitism and commercialisation of the London 2012 Olympics, dubbed in some quarters ' The rip off Olympics.' One commentator has captured the mood:
In Bhopal nearly 200 survivors of the word's biggest industrial disaster have burned effigies of Lord Coe and an Indian official in protest against Dow chemicals sponsorship of the games.
A FACE IN THE SAND - Manoj Jacob
A face in the sand
A quivering hand.
Does anybody know
Or understand?
What blew through the air,
A bloody nightmare
it twisted Bhopal
Beyond repair.
A spine inclined
A jaw you can't find,
Eyes that can't see
That death has been kind.
Legs that can't walk,
Tongues that can't breathe,
Lives frozen in rock.
Chorus:
Hey long arm of the law, slip out of pockets of gold;
Filled by the promises of riches untold.
Those pockets have loopholes, those pockets of gold;
It's time you found out our lives can't be sold.
Is justice no more?
Can money buy all,
Make the righteous fall
And look the other way?
Can the guilty walk free,
Screw the judiciary,
kill ourright to be
And call it democracy?
(Repeat chorus)
They say justice delayed
Is justice denied?
Been 25 years
But the tears haven't dried.
The fight will go on
Till justice is won,
And the face in the sand
Won't fade till we're done.
(Repeat chorus)
A face in the sand
A quivering hand.
Does anybody know
Or understand?
A spine inclined,
A jaw you can't find,
Eyes that can't see
That death has been kind
DROP DOW CHEMICALS AS PARTNERS FOR LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES
Organisers of the London Olympics 2012, boast it will be the most environmentally friendly ever. But with all the medals coming from one huge polluting hole in the ground in Utah, it could be more greenwash than green. An investigation by People & Power into alleged violation of environmental standards by a key sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics. With a little over one month to go untill the games, criticisms of the games sponsors are reaching crescendo. The concept of 'sustainability' will need to stand up to scrutiny if London is to truly achieve its vision of 'the greenest games ever.' How can this happen before any contrarian voices are drowned out by the cheers of Olympic crowds, hovever, is up to us.
The Great Olympic Greenwash (an investigation).
Related:-
Vote Rio Tinto for Greenwash Gold
Rio Tinto is the only Olympic supplier that was able to start production without having an audit in place, according to the watchdog Committe for a Sustainable London 2012. War on Want executive director John Hilary has added ' Rio Tinto's record should disqualify it from being the Olympics medals supplier. No companies should be allowed to wrap themselves in the Olympic flag if they duck their responsibilities over human rights or environmental abuse.
Some words that arrived in the library 10 minutes ago.
A feather lands softly
upon a wave caught by a fierce wind,
turns into many trees with flowing branches
beyond the warm breeze of terror..
Offers no explanation
follow's earth's ripple,
delivers hope, beyond anger
caused by dark murderous intent..
Sweet invocations
of mystery and mischief
flowing with the scent of memory,
a distant hum, a consistent drum.
Catching breath, unravelling thought
treading softly among inner sanctuary
hiding from danger, finding portions of calm
some kind of nourishment, before tomorrows storm.
The times are hard, and the land lies dark
but a hungry sap will always rise
there are old traditions that carry the truth of seasons
in tandem with the longing of present reason.
Paradise does not need to be lost
each day we make is tailor made,
Albion, Gwalia it's fragrance sweet,
calling, calling, calling.
The abhorrent noise of the Watchkeeper 'drones' or 'umnanned aerial vehicles' being flown round above Aberprt and other parts of Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Powys and North Pembrokeshire continues. While this constant buzzing - often for hours on end, may no be as piercing and sudden as that of low military jets in mid Wales, the purpose is just as sinister and a constant reminder of how Wales is being abused to further the cause of government sponsored 'remote killing.'
The hateful noise of these cruel machines makes anyone on the ground below wonder:
Do the parents of children playing in their gardens, on the beach or walking on the coast path know that above them, the weapons company Qinetiq is developing a machine to spy on and target victioms in Afghanistan - or wherever else our Government decides to use them?
Is the spying equipment being tried out on the people and properties in Wales?
Why were we told at the Airspace Use ' Public Consultation' that the drones would make no noise? That was patently untrue.
Over £26 million of our money has been spent on developing Parc Aberporth. Fewer than 39 people are employed there to test these offensive killing and spying machines. What a waste of money - we could invest public money in much better jobs for local people, energy efficiency measures for homes and public services.
Is this what we want for Ceredigion and Wales?
We are also told that in future these Watchkeeper drones may be armed. We are constantly reminded of how precise are drones. This means is that there is a high probability that a drone hits the target that it was aiming at. It says nothing about whether the target was the right one to begin with, even if one concedes that a government has the right to target and kill anyone it pleases - as judges jury and executioner.
Let our elected representatives in Wales think again - and think hard. There really are better, more environmentally and morally sustainable ways of investing the fruits of or precious labours on behalf of our children and grandchildren
Thanks to CND Cymru from where above article was borrowed.
Amnesty International and my local group have been campaigning for the last few years, with others, concerning the use of Parc Aberporth near Cardian as a devlopment and testing site for inmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) commonly referred to as Drones. Drones are used by Israel against innocent civilians in Gaza and their use constitutes human rights abuse. This coming Saturday 23 June Cymdeihas y Cymod, Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales, will hold a service of repentance by the drones testing site in the farm yard of Hendre farm, Blaenannerch, SA43 2AN, at 3 0'clock. I will be there under our group banner, join us if you want.
For further details and directions please see
Furthermore Drones are immoral and intolerable and are vehicles for spying. As remote killing machines they represent a further and cruel devolution in human behaviour, escalating conflicts causing fear and resentment and contribute nothing towards any long term solution.
They kill innocent civilians indiscriminately and are dehumanising for the operator as well as target victims and those under surveillance. Operated by satellite, they escalate the use of space as a theatre of and platform for killing and war. They are big business across the world and are certain to herald the development (marketing & sale) of 'anti-UAV weapons'.
Military drone attacks are calculated by some to kill 50 civilians for every combatant killed. However, a senior administration official has said that the number of civilians killed in drone strikes in Pakistan under Mr Obama was in 'single digits'.. This is because the US military counts all military age males in a strike zone as combatants ... men, women and children can all be considered 'terrorists'unless 'there is explicit intelligence postumously proving them innocent'.
50,000 people live uner the new 500 sq mile UAV fly zone. Two drones crshed in the first months of flying out of Parc Aberporth so there are serious local concerns about safety. The Welsh Assembly has not carried out any public assessments drone flying over Wales. No infomation was made available about crashes or known accidental fatalities.
The type of drone flown at Parc Aberporth (Hermes?Watchkeeper) has been used by the Israeli military to target civiliands during its attacks on Gaza.
The European Convention on Human Rights makes public organisations responsible for not invading our privacy. Watckeeper drones carry powerful cameras and other tracking equipment for surveillance, monitoring and reconnaissence exercises. Welsh Assembly Government (Wag) has not given assurances that they will act within the law on this issue.
LIVING IN THE NO FLY ZONE - Harry Rogers
LIVING IN THE NO FLY ZONE HEAR THE SOUND OF A DRONE NEIGHBOURS MAKE A GROAN BEEN LEFT ON HIS OWN
HAPPENING MORE AND MORE LIVING ON THE FLOOR UNDERNEATH A DOOR THIS IS MODERN WAR
DON'T WANT NO UCAV BOMBING YOU AND ME DON'T WANT NO RFID TRACKING YOU AND ME DON'T WANT NO CTTV WATCHING YOU AND ME ALL WE WANT YOU SEE IS A COUNTRY THAT IS FREE
SOLDIERS HAVE ALL GONE BUT THIS WAR CARRIES ON THE CEASEFIRE IS A CON IT'S OUR ARMEGEDDON
DON'T WANT NO UCAV BOMBING YOU AND ME DON'T WANT NO RFID TRACKING YOU AND ME ALL WE WANT YOU SEE IS A COUNTRY THAT IS FREE
At this moment in time many people in the UK are enjoying the UEFA Euro 2012. But also happening is the fate of a young Palestinian fotballer named Mahmoud Sarsak, he is currently in a critical condition after 89 consecutive days of hunger strike. This follows his detention under 'administrative detebtion' procedures, where he is being held by Israel without charge and without trial. He has been detained since July 2009, when he was detained at a checkpoint as he travelled from his home in Gaza to join the national Palestinian squad for a match at Balata in the Northern West Bank. In their first home international last year, an Olympic qualifying match against Thailand, the Palestinian team was without eight key players, all of whom had been refused permission to travel from Gaza to Ramallah.
The 25 year old had once hoped to push the ranking of his national team back to a reasonable standing. If Palestinians ever deserve to be called fanatics, it is in relation to their love of soccer.Their struggle to play it, is linked with their struggle for freedom. Palestines ranking at 164th in the world is testament not to any lack of passion for the game, but to Israel's constant attempts at destroying even this pastime, and passion.
Growing up in refugee camps it is through sports like football that many Palestinian youth are enpowered.
Earlier this year, the UN determined that Israel's policies in the occupied territories amounted to a violation of the UN's convention prohibiting apartheid.
Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director, Philip Luther on Mahmoud said
' After almost three years in detention, the Israeli authorities have had ample opportunity to charge al-Sarsak with a recognisable criminal offence and bring him to trial. They have failed to do so, and instead repeatedly affirmed his detention order on the basis of secret infomation withheld from him and his Lawyer.'
He has also been denied proper access to medical treatment repeatedly during his hunger strike. For someone on the verge of death, this amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of Israel's international obligation.
Time is not on his side and the matter gets urgent by each day, the international community has daily been speaking out, with Eric Cantona, Red Card against Racism and the FIFA President all speaking out against his continual detention.
You can support Mahmoud today by following this link, and try and help release him so that he can return to his family and friends. Asking your MP to make urgent representations to the Foreign office now.
"This new type of man. . . turns his interest away from life, persons, nature , ideas- in short from everything that is alive; he transforms all life into things, including himself and the manifestations of human faculties of reasoning, seeing, hearing, tasting, loving. Sexuality becomes a technical skill . . . feelings are flattened and sometimes substituted for by sentimentality; joy, the expression of intense aliveness, is replaced by 'fun' or excitement; and whatever love and tenderness man has directed towards machines and gadgets. The world becomes a sum of lifeless artefacts; from synthetic food to synthetic organs, the whole man becomes part of the total machinery that he controls and is simultaneously controlled by. He has no plan, no goal for life , except doing what the logic of technique determines him to do. He aspires to make robots as one of the greatest acievements of his technical mind, and some specialists assure us that the robot will hardly be distinguished from living men. This achievement will not seem so astonishing when man himself is hardly distinguishable from a robot. The world of life has become a world of 'no-life'; persons have become 'nonpersons', a world of death."
Reprinted from
' The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness'
Jonathan Cape , 1974.
Incidentally this blog is 3 years old today, so thanks to all who have dropped by, left a comment, shown encouragement and to all the other blogers who have given me inspiration, you know who you are.
Am beginning to run out of steam, but will plough on for a bit. Time to lose control.
On Friday 1 June 2012, Cymdeithias y Cymod ( the Fellowship of Reconciliation) launched a petition against army recruitment in schools at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff. The UK is currently the only country in the European union and in NATO to recruit 16 year olds to the armed forces. The petition on the National Assembly's website declares:
" We call on the National Assembly of Wales to urge the Welsh Government to legislate to stop the armed forces from going into schools in Wales to recruit children to join."
Arfon Rhys, Secretary of Cymdeithas y Cymod, said : " The UN Committe on the Rights of the Child has aked the UK to consider stopping the recruitment of children aged 16 to the armed forces and not to target children from ethnic and deprived backgrounds. This is why we will submit the petition to the Assembly on United Nations Day on 24 October. Cymdeitas y Cymod is an organisation that on the basis of our faith believes in the power of love and non-violent ways of resolving conflict in our world."
The petition is also supported by CND Cymru, the youth branch of Plaid Cymru, and a whole host of social organisations.
This morally indefensible practice should not be allowed to continue. Education is one of the Welsh Assembly's, key areas of responsibility, so here is a good reason to raise the matter of MOD recruitment programmes aimed at minors. Children should never be used and manipulated in this manner. Schools should be a place of learning and education. There is absolutely no place for militarisation in schools or in association with schools. It is immoral and unjust. In a world of conflict and exploitation, I feel children could do with more engagement with the issues of peace and social justice.
If you would like to sign the petition you can go here
A few days ago I was down in Hay-On -Wye for its annual literary festival, listening to the writer Terry Pratchett, when he was asked about the news of Ray Bradbury's death. Oh no I sighed, another one gone, a writer whose many works I knew were waiting reappraisal back home.
His most famous novel written in 1953 was Farenheit 451 which painted apicture of a dystopian future America, where books were outlawed and burned. The books title gives the temperature in which paper will burst into flame.
Ray Douglas Badbury was an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, poet and mystery writer who with the afformentioned book plus the Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951),Something Wicked this way Comes, Ris for Rocket, The Golden Apples of the Sun ..... and many many others altered the landscape of fantasy forever.He has become known and celebrated as one of the greatest 20th Century writers of speculative fiction. Dark and chilling full of atmoshpere, once read his words will stay imprinted on your mind, his imagination, transformative and inspirational. He once said ' I'm not a science fiction writer, I've written only one book of science fiction ( farenheit 451). All the others are fantasy. Fantasies are things that can't happen, and science fiction is about things that can happen.' Well if you read his books well a lot of what he wrote about has actually happened, so who knows.
Famously distrustful of the internet, I think he would have been amused by the many tributes to him appearing across this forboding planet of ours. He was also an unrestrained idealist, who disliked totalitarianism, did not bow down to political correctness or political ideologies, but did believe in hope and unfettered imagination.
So thanks Ray,may you rest in peace .
And this is where we went, I though,
Now here, now there, upon the grass
Some forty years ago.
I had returned and walked along the streets
And saw the house where I was born
And grown and had myendless days.
The days being short now, simply I had come
To gaze and look and stare upon
The thoughts of that once endless maze of afternoons.
But most ofall I wished to find the places where I ran
As dogs do run before or after boys,
The paths put down by Indians or brothers wiseand shift
Pretending at a tribe.
I came to the ravine,
I half slid down the path
A man with greying hai but seeming supple thoughts
And saw the place was empty.
Fools: I thought. O; boys of this new year,
Why don't you know the Abyss waits you here?
Ravines are special fine and lovely green
And secretive and wandering with apes and thugs
And bandit bees that steal from flowers to give to trees
Caves echoe here and creeks for wading after loot:
A water-strider, crayfish, precious stone
Or long-lost rubber boot-
It is a natural treasure house, so why the silent place?
What's happened to our boys that they no longerrace
And stand then still to contemplate Christ's handiwork:
His clear blood bled in syrups from the lovely wounded trees?
Why only bees and blackbird winds and bending grass?
No matter. Walk. Walk, look, and sweet recall.
I came upon an oak where once when I was twelve
I had climbed up and screamed for Skip to get me down
It was a thousand miles to earth. I shut my eyes and yelled.
My brother, richly compelled to mirth, gave shouts of laughter
And scaled up to rescue me.
"What were you doing there?" he said.
I did not tell. Ratherb drip me dead,
But I was there to place a note within a squirrel nest
On which I'd written some old secret thing now long forgot.
Now in the green ravine of middle years I stood
Beneath that tree. Why, why, I thought my God,
It's not so high. Why did I shriek?
It can't be more than fifteen feet above. I'll climb it handily.
And did.
And squatted like an aging ape alone and thanking God
That no one saw this ancient man at antics.
Clutched grotesquely to the bole.
But then, ah God, what awe.
The squirrel's hole and long-lost nest were there.
I lay upon the limb a long while, thinking.
I drank in all the leaves and clouds and weathers
Going by as mindless
As the days.
What, what, what if? I thought. But no. Some forty years beyond:
The note I'd put: It's surely stolen off by now.
A boy or screech-owl's pilfered, read and tattered it.
It's scattered to the lake like pollen, chestnut leaf
Of smoke of dandelion that breaks along the wind of time...
No. No.
Discussion with Ray Bradbury concerning Farenheit 451
The anger that breaks a man into boys,
that breaks the boys down into equal birds,
and the bird, then into tiny eggs;
the anger of the poor
owns one smooth oil against two vinegars.
The anger that breaks the tree down into leaves,
and the leaf down into different-sized buds,
and the buds into infinitely fine grooves;
the anger of the poor
owns two rivers against a number of seas.
The anger that breaks the good down into doubts,
and doubt down into three matching arcs,
and the are, then, into unimaginable tombs;
the anger of the poor
owns one piece of steel against two daggers.
The anger that breaks the soul down into bodies'
the body down into different organs,
and the organ into reverberating octaves of thought;
the anger of the poor
owns one deep fire against two craters.
On Saturday June 1st 1985. The combined forces of the state gathered to attack several hundred members of a peace convoy heading to the 14th Stonehenge festival in Wiltshire. Their was carnage and mayhem as the marginalised and dispossessed were brutally targeted and beaten by a police force taking orders from the Thatcher Government the most repressive and right wing Government of the 20th Century. A horrible time, a bit like today, where people who lived on societies edges were attacked for being different. In what has become known as the Battle of the Beanfield, people were beaten and bloodied because they refused to conform or bow down to a rotten system, and had decided to try and live by their own set of alternative values. Who simply wanted to gather under the stones to celebrate their lives, sing and dance. The intensity of the violence was shocking. with women and children being forced out of their homes, and in some cases whilst still inside their homes, they were savagely ripped apart. The overall cost of this operation was a staggering £5 miillion. The media of the time played their part too, with footage of the most extreme police violence being subsequently lost, and the subsequent demonising of the traveller lifestyle. We should never forget, this bitter bit of our social history. It marked a turning point after wapping, and the miners strike in the supression of our civil liberties. A dark day for justice and freedom.Echoes can be seen in recent history, the eviction of the residents of Dale Farm.
