Top Ten Tory Lies of 2013

There are lies, damn lies and then tory lies, the above list just the of the iceberg really,all their actions have done is fuel division, swelling social anger. The Tory's main purpose seems to be moving public  money into private pockets, shattering any remnants of hope and carving up the country, as people drift into poverty and our living standards plummet.Nobody voted for their austerity package,this  party that seems to toss accountability or transparancey, aside, that have been caught out trying to delete old speeches and promises from the internet.
Also 350,000 people are now regularly forced to access food banks, their is increased hospitalization  because malnutrition rates have nearly doubled under the tory's. Doctors have written to the BMJ (British Medical Journal) calling food poverty a national emergency. Causing harm is their devotion, causing pain is their game of sport, still lining the pockets of their rich friends, while attacking the marginalised and the poor. And next year the Conservative Party will daft proposed new laws to curb the impact of European human rights legislation in Britain. I can only imagine what other nastiness they have in store for us.
Still in it all together, I don't bloody think so, just another tory lie.....Happy new fear

History in Song: 2010-2012 - David Roviks

David Roviks is a singer/songwriter  and author who I greatly admire, who spends much of his life on tour. Spreading his messages and songs of social significance. Roviks  has made all of his recorded music freely available and endorses the free distribution of  his work by all non-profit means to promote his work and spread his political messages. A social activist who speaks out against websites or programmes like i tunes that charge money for downloading his songs. A supporter of the occupy movements, and many other causes clamouring for a better world. Enjoy.

1957 A Kid Explaining To An Old Man What An Anarchist Is And Why Government Equals Violence..

This clip is from the 1957 British comedy film A King in New York, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin in his last leading role, presents a satirical view of certain aspects if United States politics and society. The film was produced in Europe after Chaplin's exile from the US in 1952, It did not open in the United States until 1967,
The young boys name is Michael Chaplin, son of Charlie Chaplin.

Earlier post on Chaplin here,

Charlie Chaplin - Citizen of the World

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/charlie-chaplin-b1641889-251277-citizen.html

Happy Season of Compulsory Joy

It's that time of year again, when we sing about peace and good will,when our impulse is to give, share and support others, feelings of solidarity and mutual aid, find their form in the midwinter festival that in this part of the world, is now known as Christmas.
Today, as the tentacles of the capitalist market reach into every part of our lives, those feelings are commodified, we are encouraged to pay for the convenience of expressing our feelings for our fellow beings through gift giving. We fret about our purchases, are they good enough? Will the person like them?
But, as well as this, people across the world think of those who have less and donate food, clothes, toys and money.
It is worth remembering that these acts of solidarity are part of our nature, that the impulse towards mutual aid is not just a once in a year anomoly, that it was a deciding factor in our evolution and is something we need to nurture if the human race is to survive the coming centuries.
As Kropotkin wrote in Mutual Aid, a factor of evolution.
I will be quiet for next few days, as library closing until the new year, a  little post, on boxing day, perhaps, and then quite probably not  until the new year, so in the meantime...thanks to all who've supported the blog....
Best wishes.
solidarity
Another world is not impossible, it is inevitable,
heddwch/peace.

Oh and Father Christmas says Free Palestine

Metamorphosis ( a poem for the Winter Solstice)

                                 Christian Schole

' Throw your dreams,
into space like a kite,
and you do not know ,
what it will bring back,
a new life,
a new friend,
a new love,
a new country'
- Anais Nin

Sunrise at Newgrange

Sunset at Stonehenge,
and  the veil is drawn 
gliding under  shifting skies,

following  earths trembling hum

the thunder of life's mutation
imagination awakens,, loses wings

impatient and a little crazy
lets words escape, beyond control,
into spaces unafraid of weight.

The dance of transformation
hooks and catches, follows whirling path,
flowing in winds sowing filter
navigates uncharted space,
without borders restrictive figuration
turns nothing into edges everlasting pulse,

remember loved ones, those gone far to soon.

do not forget to engage, deeply with your own soul

And in the blessed  morning

as time comes round again,

opens up its brilliant rays
reconstructs our roots,
supplements our need
releases again the delicate
                  seeds of dream,
slipping chrysalis's of survival
deep into futures hungry realm,

on the shortest day of the year

 toast the sun king's return.

Happy Winter Solstice
heddwch/peace

Gaza in Crisis: Please Help

 

As I type, over 5,000 people have been evacuated from flood-damagesd homes in northen Gaza, in what today the United Nations is calling a 'disaster area.'
Large swathes of Gaza are now delugeed under water, as far as the eyes can see, Under occupation, the severe weather conditions have left its Palestinian citizens almost paralyzed. Their will is strong, but the people still need  our support  Because of the illegal occupaton by Israel, their basic infrastructure, has been seriously effected for years,  that have curbed it's citizens  to basic goods, fuel and building supplies.
After one of the longest blockades in human history, the people of Gaza, desperately need our help. Take a moment and reflect, following floods and freezing temperatures, the situation in Gaza is now catasthropic.
Please join me in calling for David Cameron to end this unsupportable and immoral blockade of 
Gaza. Israels's blockade on Gaza must be ended permanently, thus ending the uneecessary  of it's people.
As UNWRA state:-

" Any normal community would struggle to recover from this disaster. But a community that has been subjected to one of the longest  blockades in human history, whose public health system has been destroyed and where the risk of disease was already rife, must be freed from these man made constraints to deal with the impact of a natural calamity such as this. And of course it the most vulnerable, the women and children, the elderly who will
pay the highest   price  of failure to end the blockade."

http://act.palestinecampaign.org/petition/17

 

Happy Birthday Chelsea Manning- Free her Now!

 

Supporters of international whistleblower Chelsea (formerly) Bradley Manning, have been gathering in London to celebrate her 26th birthday and to demand her immediate release. The U.S soldier  was sentenced to 35 years for leaking thousands of documents to Wikileaks exposing US and other governments' war crimes and corruption.International protests are also being held to demand her release.
Thank's to Chelsea's whistleblowing the public now know  about the collateral murder of a U.S helicopter killing innocent Iraqi civilians, the covers up of rape in Iraq and Afghanistan, the extent of drone strikes, U.S dirty tricks across the globe, the thousand of civilian casualties that were not acknowledged publicly, the fact that most Guatanamo detainees were innocent, their spying on us all, etc etc..
People are invited to support a petiton by Amnesty International demanding her immediate release https://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/chelseamanning  and another petition by the Private Manning Support Network demanding President Obama's pardon http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition Her sentence  is harsher than that of convicted murderers, and rapists, because she wanted to speak some truth, and now  the U.S want to make a scapegoat of her, to discourage other whistleblowers, of taking the brave descion yo expose crimes, and surveillance of us all. It is urgent  that we increase the pressure in our calls for her immediate release. Sharing the truth should not be a crime.
On her fourth birthday behind bars, I do hope the world remembers her, because her brave actions have set an example to us all.

' There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.' 

-Howard Zinn

Happy Birthday Chelsea Manning

Free  Her now



Meanwhile.a date for the diary, an event of solidarity, in the place where Chelsea was raised, who also has Irish roots as well, where these two communities will not forget Chelsea Mannings's courage and integrity.

 

 

Emma Goldman (27/6/1869 -14/5/40) - If I can't dance, it's not my revolution! (the real quote)

'Emma Goldman  was deemed controversial in her own lifetime, with Teddy Rossevelt calling her a "madwoman.. mental.... as well as a moral pervert." In her life she was certainly not one who bowed down to convention or compromise. Her ideas were all about the right to stay alive in ones senses, to live in a world that celebrated this. She certainly lived her life with a fierce intensity, with her unthwarted desire for freedom and all it's possibilities. Her creed was one of individualism and essentially libertarianism and spent her life consumed by its spirit of revolt. A Russian Jewish immigrant at the age of 17, she moved by her own efforts from seamstress in a clothing factory to become an internationally known radical lecturer, writer and friend of the oppressed. She was many things I guess, a feminist, a writer of vision, incredible public speaker but was first and foremost an anarchist. Her writing and ideas covered a variety of issues, including athiesm, freedom of speech, capitalism, free love and women's suffrage. From the 1890s and for years thereafter, America reverberated with the sound of her name.

 She was jailed for inciting riots, advocating birth control, and is their at nearly every turn point in America's 20th Century history.Some have argued that it was her passion that was her undoin, her unwavering commitment to her ideals..... but it was because she loved the world and had so much thirst for it that she gave back 100 percent. Oh there a Welsh connection too, because in June 1925 she married a coal miner from Carmarthenshire named James Cotton in order to obtain British citizenship, In Wales too, she found people who shared her vision and her calls for social justice. Many years after her death she remains an iconic figure to many. Her most fundamental message was the paradoxical command to be yourself and be your own commander-in-chief. The possibilities and expectations of her words still commanding hope.

If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution'.

The above quote was widely attributed to Emma Goldman, but was the invention of anarchist printer Jack Frager for a small batch of Goldman T.shirts he printed in 1973. However in her memoirs,from the early 1950;s. 'Living My Life Goldman remembers being censured for dancing and states:-

"At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha, a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he was about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the cause.
I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business. I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant, that I did not want it.
'I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things.' Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world - prisons, persecutions, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own closest comrades I would live my beautiful ideal."

Emma Goldman 1911, from p56 of her autobiography,
Living My life

 The story has since been passed around and condensed in the folk process as simply the slogan 'If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution'. And although, one the one hand, a fake quote, it''s since had  a lot of positive results–it’s been a rallying cry for feminists, a rallying cry for anarchists, an inspiration to many. me included, and I don't feel undermines Emma Goldman's rich legacy or her charisma, and actually makes more people aware of  her actions and deeds.

Remembered as a  passionate political activist.writer and thinker during the beginning of the 20th century and  known for her free-thinking and rebellious anarchist and communist beliefs. Her writings include discussions on free love, marriage, free speech, atheism, prisons, homosexuality, and capitalism, among other topics.

Goldman continues to command respect for her outstanding contribution to the history of radical working class struggle. As she once declared, “Everyone is an anarchist who loves liberty and hates oppression;” amen to that.

 

Earlier post here

ANARCHISM: WHAT IT REALLY STANDS FOR:-

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/emma-goldman-2761869-14540-anarchism.html

Lucia Sanchez Saornil (13/12/1895 - 2/6/70) - The Song of Mujeres Libres

Lucia Sanchez Saornil  was a Spanish poet, painter, anarchist and feminist icon. Her early highly erotic paens to female beauty, were written under the male pseudonym of Luciano de San-Saor, at a time when  homosexuality was criminalised . She fought against the fascists  in  the Spanish Civil War. She is know best remembered  for being one of the founders of Mujeres Libres, a group of working class politically active women who struggled against patriarchy. They tried to create an autonomous female community to empower women to realize their individual potential within the larger anarcho-syndicalist movement.
She was also a leading light   in the avant garde literary movent of this era.
She was also active in the CNT in Madrid ( The National Confederation of Labour).
Though openly lesbian,  after the failure of the Spanish Revolution, she spent her later life in a rather clandenstine existence, exiling herself to France,but would return secretly to Spain on occasions, to Madrid and to Valencia.
She died of cancer in Valencia in 1970.

The Song of Mujeres Libres

Fists upraised. women of Iberia
towards horizons filled with light
paths afire
feet on the ground
face to the blue sky.
Affirming the promises of life
we defy tradition
Let us mold the warm clay
pf a new world born of suffering.
Let the past crumble into oblivion!
What is yesterday worth to us!
We want to write anew
the word WOMAN
Fists upraised, women of the world
towards horizons filled with light
on paths afire
onward, onward
toward the light.

Ambrosio Vilhalva ( 1960 - 2013) Lies, Theft and Murder, the sickness of civilization

'While I'm still alive, I'm not going to to shy away from anyone, I'm going to demand action.'

' This is what I most hope for: land and justice... we will live  on our ancestral land, we will not give up.'

- Ambrosio Vilhalva

Guarani leader and film star Ambrosio Vilhalva was found dead  in his hut on December the first, at the entrance to his community, known as Guyra Roka, in Brazils Gross o Do Sul State,he was reportedly stabbed multiple times. For years he campaigned for his tribes right to live on their ancestral land, travelling  extensively internationally to speak about his tribe's plight, and to the Brazilian government to live up to its legal obligations and protecting Guarani land.He fought hard afainst the suger growers in the region, and consequently had had a number of death threats, because he was seen as one of the main leaders of the Guarani peoples  campaigns. According to the Brazil-based indigeneous rights group CIMI, 319 Guarani-Kaiowa Indians were slain from 2003 -2012. More than half of all 558 Indians killed in the entire country during the same period, mostly killed in disputes over land with farmers and ranchers encroaching on their land . Lies, theft and murder,continue sadly to be  part of  the sickness of civilisation that the world's  media ignores. Another senseless death, please help carry forward Ambrosio's struggle and message.

http://www.survivalinternational.org/emails/guarani-stopmurders

Ambrosio Vilhalva  1960 -2013

(following clip includes scenes from the film 'Birdwatchers' by Marco Bachis)

Taking 'Selfies' at Mandela's memorial service simply beyond contempt.

South African President  Jacob Zuma had called  on people to celebrate the life of Mr Mandela, who died last week aged 95, but I am sure a selfie with beaming smiles was not appropriate  behaviour for world leaders on such an occasion.
Their supposed to be acting  in accordance with their status, but here we get their true, worth, much worse than a bunch of giggling teenagers, because in youth one does not always understand the rules of engagement.
Snapping selfies at such a solemn occasion is the ultimate sign of disrespect, it more than sums  up what kind of people they really are. Behaviour that is simply beyond contempt. It is now official they have no class or shame.
A Pictures speaks louder than a thousand words.

Steve Bell Cartoon in yesterday's Guardian 

65 years after Universal Declaration of Human Rights, why so many still not free.

Whilst President Obama and our world leaders, attend Nelson Mandela's memorial service, speaking  and praising Mandela as one of the last great liberators of the 20th Century, urging the world to carry on  his legacy in fighting inequality, poverty and discrimination. Let us today remember that today the world observes the 65th International Human Rights Day, commemorating the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly.

" All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards another in a spirit of brotherhoood."


I concur  , but today also marks the 12th  year British national Shaker Aamer will have spent in a prison cell without being told why. He is still  not free, and he is far from alone. From Aamer's fellow detainess at Guantanamo,  free expression activists across the globe , in Russian , the U.S.A, China, Iran, Israel, etc etc,  all arbitrally detained prisoners need the advocacy of global citizens  dedicated to impartial justice and universal rights.
The history of injustice  has many parallels in  the United States,  take a look at the case of Leonard Peltier, an American Indian activist who has been in prison for 36 years, wrongfully convicted say many. His case full of holes and irregularities, part of Americas enduring  history  of colonialism of the Native communities in the United States. Evidence of his innocence  has continued to mount, leading organisations such as Amnesty International, as well as notable individuals such as Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu, continue to declare him a political prisoner and call for his release.http://www.leonardpeltier.net/

Leonard Peltier

Poverty, exclusion, and deprivation still spread in equal measures across the globe, the dream of human rights for all unfortunately still more of a dream than an actual reality. The press is still not free in many countries, and dissenters are silenced, too often permanently. People face  unfair trials in at least 54 countries, and freedom of restriction is still restricted  in at least 77 , as well as the use of torture and abuse in at least 81. There are still millions of people in slavery, more than 1 billion without access to clean water.
Then we have Israel, whose persistent human rights violations would not be possible without the complicity  or support of the international community. Because of Israel's systematic discrimination, occupation and colonization, the Palestinian people have faced increased  violations to their right of life, their right to housing and property, their right not to be subjected to torture  to torture, their right to return.
It seems we still have a long long way to go in terms of global human rights, but we should not give up, we should keep on pushing our own individual governments, if we are strong enough to achieve this, encouraging others to do the same. We should not give up, all  our history  is based on change, as a result of people  having pushed hard enough for it.
Without human rights  for all, there can be no justice, without justice there can be no peace. The assertion that "another world is possible," is now an absolute necessity.

Denis Goldberg on Israeli Apartheid

Denis Goldberg is a South African social campaigner. Golberg was a technical officer in the armed wing of the African National Congress, Umkhonto we Sizwe and was sentenced in 1964 at the end of the famous Rivonia Trial to four tems of imprisonment.
Goldberg draws parallels between apartheid South Africa and Israel and highlights the importance of Boycott, Divestment and Sanction.
The struggle continues.
Free Palestine.

' The histories of our two peoples, Palestinian and South Africa correspond in such a painful and poignant ways, that I intensley feel myself being at home among compatriots.'

- Nelson Mandela (October 1996)

Snarling Kids with Video Games

Short film by an advertising company about how they snare kids  with their Army recruitment video games. Targeting children for war service is a relic of the past that should go away. We should not allow the military to target minors with recruitment, they should not be allowed to market to children, but it does. It is simply wrong.
Those recruited at 16 have faced double the risk of fatality of adult recruits throughout the conflict in Afghanistan.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18/7/18 -5/12/13) Freedom fighter and man of the People R.I.P

It is with great sadness that I have heard the news that South Africa's first black President and anti-apartheid revolutionary icon has died at the age of 95. A freedom fighter of long inspiration, who stood for justice, freedom and solidarity, with his selfless struggle for human dignity, equality and freedom. A true man of the people, his life of courage and fighting back is a testement to us all.
Today we grieve but we should all, also  continue his struggle for a better world.We must carry on the fire of resistance, this should be the  everlasting legacy to this great man.
The fight continues.

' I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.'

'Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.'

'I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.'

'Where globalization means, as it often does that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poor and weaker, we have a resposibility to protest in the name of universal freedom.'

'We know to well our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.'

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

R.I.P

Flotillas from Gaza break Naval Blockade

On Saturday, November 30, some 250 Palestinian children launched minitature  boats along the Gaza coast  to raise awareness about the ongoing Israeli maritime seige of the 25-mile long coastal territory. The naval blockade has destroyed Gaza's fishing industry and fishing has become physically dangerous. Fishermen have reportedly been shot and arrested within the six mile nautical miles limit, where they are officially permitted to take their boats.
Also a Palestine Flotilla named 'Steadfastness and Justice' lauunched on Monday morning and managed to break the naval blockade imposed on the Gaza strip, reaching a distance of 6  nautical miles of Gaza's coast in an act of symbolic defiance. Israel forces threatened to prevent the flotilla from crossing the 6 nautical mile barrier.
The flotilla was composed of 20 boats carrying Palestinians and international activists from Sweden, the United States and Japan.
Before returning  back to the shores, the activists threw bottles containing  messages into the sea, which included calls for the international community to put more pressure on Israel to lift its strict seige on Gaza. The messages also included calls for the Israeli naval forces to stop their daily violations against the fishermen in Gaza.
Meanwhile the main pumping station in Gaza  is still not working, due to lack of fuel, so the people of Gaza  are currently without fuel and electricity. Also  lacking access to clean-drinking water and medicines,.
The siege of Gaza continues,  but it's people still search for means of getting a vestige of justice, equality, freedom of movement, and despite  their daily suffering their will is not yet broken.
I try to pass on the news, that unforunately  in my country the B.B.C deems not important enough to report.

Tennessee Williams (26/3/11 - 25/2/83) - Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos.

' Nobody sees anybody truly but all through  the flaws of their own  egos.That is the way we all see each other in life. Vaity, fear, desire, competition.... all such distortions within our own egos, condition  our vision of those in relation to us. Add to those distortions to our own egos the corresponding distortions in the egos of others and you see how cloudy the glass must become through which we look at each other. That's  how it is in all living relationships except when there is that rare ease  of two people who love intensely enough to burn through all the layers of opacity and see each other's naked hearts.' 

Stop the Prawer Plan: Day of Rage

On  the 24th of June, the Israeli Knesset approved the so-called Prawer Palan, which if implemented will  result in the destruction of more  than 35 unrecognised villages in  Al-Nagab  in the south of the Israeli state,   and the forced expulsion and confinement of more than 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins from their ancestral homelands in the desert.
The majority of these vilages pre-date the establishment of the Israeli state, yet Israel refuses to recognise them. As the inhabitants  are non-Jewish citizens, the state has chosen to treat them as 'illegal communities', denying them essential rights and services such as connection to the electric, water and transport networks, and refusing to provide medical, postal and educational services. Israel treats construction within these villages as illegal and regularly demolishes the homes of the residents. The Israelis have demolished the village of Al-Arakib more than fifty times.

Bedouin Village of Al-Arakib being razed to the ground

This plan is the largest Israeli land-grab since 1948. It epitomises  the true nature of Israels policy of expansion and containment. Despite opposition from Bedouin leaders,  and the International communitty's repeated calls to halt  the implementation of the Prawer Plan, Israel still seems intent on pushing it through.  The UN committe  on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also condemned  the plan saying it will 'legalise the ongoing policy off home demolitions and forced displacement of the indigenous Bedouin communities.' Also, in 2012, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Israel to stop the Prawer plan and its policies of forced displacement and dispossesion.
We must all as human beings, say no to the Prawer Plan, we should also note that International corporations such as Caterpillar, Hyundai, Volvo and JCB are providing the equipment that Israel uses to carry out its demolitions in the Nageb area. I would urge people to join campaigns to boycott these companies and encourage investment bodies to remove their money from them.
On 30th November their will be major mobilizations across all of Palestine as part of the Day of Rage.
During the last 2 big mobilzations against the Prawer plan on the 15th of July and August the 1st, thousands of Palestinians went to the streets in opposition to the plan.
On Saturday the International community will also be keeping up the pressure, in acts of solidarity against this draconian piece of legislation, in protests across the globe , and in individual efforts of pushing our own governments into condemning Israels actions.
The Prawer plan should not be allowed to pass, otherwise it will become yet another chapter in Palestines long and tragic history. Opposing the Prawer Plan is to say no to etnic cleansing, displacement, and confinement in the 21st Century.

No to Prawer Plan

Stop Prawer Plan Protest in the Negev - Protest and chanting

 

 

 

 

Some useful Links:-

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prawershallnotpass

+972: http://972mag.com/tag/prawer-plan/

From the Independent: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/06/28/a-snapshot-of-the-lives-of-the-bedouin-tribe-of%E2%80%9Cal-araqib%E2%80%9D/

Harvey Milk (22/5/22/30 -27/11/78) - Give them hope.

' I know you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living ' - Harvey Milk

Former San Francisco  city supervisor and gay political icon Harvey Milk was assasinated 35 years ago today. Milk was the first openly gay man to hold political office in California. A popular mayor from 1977, until  he was shot dead by a former policeman and city supervisor Dan White.
After White was convicted of a much lesser  charge than murder, an enraged populace erupted in what is known as the 'White Night Riot'.
In his short time in office , Milk was able to erase some of the invisible boundaries of who could serve in office. Today I remember  him, and all others , who opened doors, that hopefully will never be closed again.
The following speech still resonates today, his dreams of a better tomorrow, with the hope for equality and a world without hate still resonates today. These were to be among  his final words, shortly after delivering it, Milk was assasinated.

Harvey Milk - Give them hope

Harvey Milk had feared  assasination, and these were the words that he released posthumously in anticipation of his tragic death.

 

 

 

 

 

SCRAP THE WCA

Another issue close to my heart.
7,000 more signatures are needed to make 100,000,
please sign and share

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

Jehan Mayoux (25/11/04 - 14/7/75) - Question & Answer / Question reponse

 

Jehan Mayoux was a French Surrealist poet, teacher, pacifist, ant-militarist and libertarian. The son of anarchists, he joined theSurrealists at the end of the 1920's, and first came in contact  with Andre Breton and Paul Eluard in 1933, after sending them a surrealist game, which was published  in  Le Surrealisme au Service de la Revolution  ( Surrealism in the service of the revolution). He became a teacher and inspector of primary education. A Trade Unionist, he  engaged with the activities of the Popular Front, and was  the secretary of the Committe of the Popular Front in 1935. Called up at the start of the Second World War, he went AWOL,  refusing to heed the call of the mobilisation order, but was caught and imprisoned. He somehow managed to escape, but was recaptured again by the Germans and sent to  concentration campo in the Ukraine for 5 years. After his liberation in 1945, he returned to teaching, whilst continuing to engage in libertarian activity, and to be politically engaged, becoming involved with  the magazine  le Libertaire. After signing the Manifeste des 121 (The Manifesto of the 121) on September 21st 1921, which called on the French Government to recognise the Algerian War as a legitimate struggle for Independence, denouncing the use of torture by the French army, and for conscientious objectors to the conflict to be respected by the authorities, he was suspended from  being an Education Inspector from 1960 until 1965. He eventually retired in 1967, after which he participated in the May 1968 movement, but became dissapointed and dissillusioned  by the attitude of the unions. He was to become a friend of the Surrealist poet Benjamin Peret.
He died in 1975, leaving behind many beautiful poetical works.

Question & Answer:

When I am prison door
I offend with dynamite

When I am rabbit
I write with squid ink
When I am anvil
I will wash my clothes in the river

Or this series of images depicting the beloved:
more spiritual than the tide
wiser than hastily suicide
more naked than the foam
more discreet than the bark of thunder
quieter than Paris
gayer than a grain of salt
lighter than a knife.

Question-reponse:

Quand je serais porte de prison
je pecherai a la dynamite

Quand je serai lapin de garenne
j'ecrival avec de f'encre de seiche

Quand je senai enclume
je laveral mon linge a la riviere

ou cette suite d'images decrivant la femme aimee:
plus spirituelle que la maree
plus sage que la hate des sicides
plus  nue que le mousse
plus discrete que l'ecorce du tonnerre
plus silencieuse que Paris
plus gaie qu'un grain de sel
plus legere qu'un couteau.

Further Reading :-

Morning Star -Surrealism, Marxism, Anarchism, Situationism, Utopia;
-Michael Lowe , 2010

Nigel Kennedy and Mostafa Saad - Melody in the Wind

Proms in the Park 2013.....
absolutely beautiful, like an act of Love.

 

But Gaza still without Electricity, but have an abundance of hope, no fuel, gas, clean drinking water, medicines or exit to the outside world. We need to shout louder, we need to m big noise, the people of Gaza need us to tell yhe world.

Happy 60th Alan Moore (18/11/13) : Don't Let Me Die In Black and White

Today  Alan Moore, Magician and great British comic writing genius turns 60  a man who I find fascinatingly brilliant, who  gets my mind reeling every time I come across him. Because  the stuff that he untaps is really powrful stuff. Often he takes me to places and ideas that need further exploration. I also admire him because he is an intelligent propobent of radical alternative views, that help erode the staleness of false certainties and prevailing consensus.
Filmed in 1993, shortly before Alan's 40th birthday, the above film was made during the period in which Alan was conducting research into the history of Northampton for the book 'Voice of the Fire. Nothing was scripted, and there were no second takes. This edit of the film was made in 2000, and was shown to Sara Woodford at Id World, who commisioned the film 'Comic Tales with Alan Moore' for Channel 4. The title of the film comes from a line in Alan's song. 'Old Gangsters Never Die' (the Bside of 'Sinister Ducks') -If I die and god knows I might, don't let me die in black and white.'
At moment I'm sitting in my local library really wish I could pay a visit to Mr Moore's personal one, think I'd feel rather at home, with a nice cup of tea, and a spliff perhaps.. The following film 'The mindscape Of Alan Moore' I would strongly recommend to anyone who cares about Mr Moore's thoughts and ideas.
Happy 60th Mr Moore, thanks.

Will leave you today with some words from Mr Moore himself.

'I don't think people realise how vital libraries are or what a colossal danger it would be if we were to lose anymore. Having had a trunctuated school life myself, all of my education from the age of 17 has been self-taught. I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for the opportunity the library gave me - Alan Moore

'The central question is is this guy right? Or is he real? What do you the reader think about this? Which struck me as a properly anarchist solution. I didn't want to tell people what to think, I just wanted to tell people to think and consider some of these admittedly extreme little elements, which nevertheless do recurr, fairly regularly throughout human history.' -Alan Moore

'Everybody is special, everybody. Everybody is a hero, a lover, a fool, a villain. Everybody has their story to tell' - Alan Moore

There you are, if you find you've lost your own truth, go out, take a look and rediscover, remember too the tides of history forever turning.

Joe Hill ( 7/19/1879 -19/11/15) Joe Hill's Last Will

Joe  Hill the workers martyr was executed by firing squad, today on November 19th , 1915, framed for a murder that many believe he did not commit.An innocent man condemned to death for his passion. Many historians have come to recognise it as one of the worst travesties of Justice in American history. After a trial that was riddled with biased rulings and suppression of important defence evidence and other violations of judicial procedure, which was characteristic of many cases involving labour radicals. A guard reported that at about 10.pm, Joe Hill handed him a poem, through the bars of his cell. It was his last will, which has since become a prized piece of poetry in the heritage of the American Labour Movement.
Born Joel  Emmanuel Hagglund in  Sweden, he emigrated to the United States in 1902, where he changed his name to Joseph Hillstrom. After several years as an itinerant worker - a 'hobo' he joined the IWW (The International Workers of the World) .  A wobbly organiser, balladeer, he was also a man of pride, the flag that he proudly followed was was one of international solidarity.
On the same day that he was executed he sent a telegram to fellow International Worker of the World (IWW), Bill Hayword, telling him "Don't waste time mourning , Organise!" An estimated 30,000 people attended his funeral in an impressive 'singing demonstration' under the banner ' In Memorium - Joe Hill - Murdered by the Capitalist Class.  A rebel to the core, his voice still rings out loud and clear, venerated and celebrated.

Joe Hill's Last Will

My will is easy to decide
For there is nothing to divide
My kin don't need to fuss and moan
Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.

My body - Oh - If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow

Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again
This is my last and Final Will
Good luck to all of you,

- Joe Hill

Joe Hill's Last Will - Utah Phillips

Paul Robeson - Joe Hill

( one of the most stirring, emotional versions of this song I know.)

Doris Lessing (22/10/19 - 17/11/13) - Uncompromising Spirit R.I.P

Nobel Prize winning novelist, short-story writer,poet, playwright, biographer has sadly passed away at the grand old age of 94. She was the author of over 55 published works of fiction, and non-fiction, a figure as iconic and inspiring as she was polarising in some quarters.
Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War , was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia, her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promiose of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like many other women from southern Africa she did not graduate from high school, but she was to make herself into a self-educated intellectual.
After moving to Britain in the 1930's, she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, and she joined the Communist Party. However, during the postwar years, she became increasingly diillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, she had moved and settled in London with her young son. Her first published novel, The Grass is Singing was published in the same year, the start of a a very prolific output.
Many of her brilliant literary works take in themes in defence of freedom, third world causes and the developing world, and  often from a biographical slant, her prose  marked by its vividness and effectiveness. Her range was vast, not afraid to experiment with form, even turning her hand at science fiction,  engaging between idealism and reality. Alternative ways of seeing and living were also  themes that ran through her work, (she herlself explore sufi mysticism in the 1960's), and the exploration of human nature  being central to her words, investigating its curses in an attempt to find cures..
Her life was marked with a reputation for being a maverik and outspoken, with a refusal to compromise. Her subversive spirit meant that she pusued truth whilst maintaining her individual tongue.
In recognition of her achievement she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007, at the age of 88, becomming the oldest woman to do so, and only the 11th woman ever to recieve the prize.
This great writer was also a reluctant feminist, who was first and foremost a storyteller, loyal to the power of the written word, and her belief in it never wavered.
She "saw the Soviet Empire, Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, the British Empire, the White Supremacy of South Afica and the Southern Rhodesia." her words capturing the spirit of her time, and now as they shimmer, the spirit of ours.
Doris Lessing R.I.P

' But for a while the dance went on-
That is how it seems to me now
Slow forms moving calm through
Pools of light like  gold net on the floor.
It might have gone on, dream-like, forever.

Doris Lessing
- from Fable, 1959

' Very  few people care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few.
Very few people have guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies, or cannot be born'
-Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook


' Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.'

Doris Lessing - The reluctant heroine

 

Gaza without Electricity.

Gaza's main power plant  stopped working  on November 1st due to severe fuel shortages. Power cuts effect Gaza for 12-18 hours a day. The power cuts are having a serious impact on the abilities of hospitals to cope and primary healthcare clinics to provide essential services, plus sewage treatment and water filitration. This is effecting about 5,000 people. Immediate action is necessary, but this is something happens quite frequently in Gaza. it's people daily under siege.
This is the eighth day that the people of Gaza have had no street lights, sewage pumps, no hospital operating theatres, no fridges, incubators, no heaters, no lights, no power, no fuel for the power station,sanitation, health all disrupted.Their lives one of miserable toil, simply because Israel won't allow any diesel in, and the fact of life when under occupation. These people are trapped, powerless in everysense of the word. Suffering unimaginably as the leaders of our so called civilised world do nothing to help them. Why is Israel  allowed to get away with this. This siege must end.  Free Gaza, Free Palestine.Lots more information from  here:-

http://www.map-uk.org/

Sleepwalking into Police State Britain as Tories apparently dislike opposition

Police State Britan seems possible as UK Government is about to pass legislation which will make behaviour percieved  to 'cause nuisance or annoyance' a criminal offence. Thus anyone being 'anti-tory' could be arrested.
Personally who is causing the most nuisance or annoyance in Great Britain at this moment in time. That's right the bloody Tory's.

http://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/sleepwalking-further-into-police-state-britain-as-law-offers-new-powers-of-repression/

David Cameron calls for permanent Austerity whilst attending banquet of richness

Last night, David Cameron gave a speech at a banquet calling for permanent austerity, we should all simply get used to it, this bungling hypocrite declared, whilst dressed up in all his finery, eating and quaffing the finest food and drink imaginable. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/11/david-cameron-policy-shift-leaner-efficient-state
Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in the City of London, he said the best way to keep the cost of living down was to take " difficult decisions on public spending" to leave a " state we can afford".
He said all this while his life of comfort doe not change one  a bit, while the rest of us are forced between heating our homes and eating. There he stood standing behind a gold speech stand,  surrounded by all the vestiges of wealth and  the disproportion that  it brings.
I can almost hear him sniggering 'yay to austerity,' but I also believe  he is simply beyond the pale, completely out of touch,  and after stuffing his face, his shirt it seems could no longer take the pressure and his shirt buttons popped open.

 His words are hollow and empty,  we have to kick him and  his consorts out as soon as possible bfore he creates even more damage. We have to shout NO to austerity, kick out the Tories Now. Enough is enough.

Haymarket Martyr's Anniversary

Today November 11 1887,  the Haymarket martyrs were hanged, wrongfully convicted  for the deaths of  eight police during a Chicago labor rally.
The Haymarket affair refers to the aftermath of a bombing that took at a labor demonstration on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking  for an eight hour day, but the police  then attempted to break up the public gathering. An unknown person threw a bomb at police as they acted to disperse the meeting. The bomb blast and ensuring gunfire resulted in the death of seven police officers and at least four civilians.
This was a time of mass strikes and demonstrations and violent repression by the police. The demonstrators were calling for greater power and economic security and the overthrow of capitalism, and were gaining much popular support, a reason why their were some who wanted to destroy the movement.
 Four unarmed strikers had been shot and killed the day previously, and there were believed to be many spies and infiltrators among the strikers, and to this day many believe the Haymarket martyrs were used as scapegoats to stoke up division and resentment.
The next day martial law was declared, not just in Chicago but throughout the nation. Anti labor governments across the world used the Chicago incident to crush local union movements. Labor leaders were rounded up, houses were entered without search warrants and union newspapers were closed down
Inevitably anarchists were rounded up, and treated to what today would be termed rough justice, with August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel being executed. A fifth, 23 year old Louis Lingg killed himself in his cell the night before.
Engel, Fischer, Parsons and Spies were taken to the gallows in white robes and hoods. They sang the Marsellaise, then the anthem of the international revolutionary movement. According to witnesses , in the moments before the men were hanged .Spies shouted, " The time will come when our silence, will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!" Witnesses reported that the condemned men did not die immediately when they dropped, but strangled to death slowly, a sight which left the speakers visibly shaken.
250,000 people lined Chicago's streets during Parsons funeral procession, with the executions eliciting an international outcry. The Haymarket affair is now generally considered significant as the origin of the International May Day observances for workers,  when in July 1889, a delegate from the American Federation of Labor recommended at a Labor conference in Paris that May 1  be set aside as International Labour Day n memory of the Haymarket martyrs and the injustice metered out to them, and has become a powerful reminder of the international struggle for workers rights, that I for one try not to forget.

Remembering the Haymarket Affair

Remember Me -Curtis D Bennett

Curtis D Bennet of Lawrence, Kansas was a military pilot and served in the marines during the vietnam war in 1968. He is also an outsstanding modern war poet. His poems are powerful , incisive, sometimes shocking, deeply thoughtful and deeply felt. Here I reprint this poem to reflect a different mode, on today Rememberance Sunday.
Today I remember the hundreds of million slaughtered by swords, bombs and guns, vaporised into shadows on broken walls, the innocent lost, the propoganda, that dishonours peoples lives, the plunder and the carnage,  histories full of lies and deceit.
Heddwch/peace,

Remember Me

I was once the pride of this country,
The healthy, the young, the strong and brave,
Then I quickly became the acceptable casualty
In my country's undeclared war
In the name of national interest,
A country where I was too young to vote!

I went because I was still too young
to know any better, though others
Cleverly refused or ran away to hide.
I never once dreamed my own government
Would ever lie to its own people,
But I was mistaken and they did for years.

I fought their war in a hell for one year
Then came home and found another hell
Awaiting from thevery people and country
who determined I go in the first place
Then their war, suddenly became mine,
And I was the converted scapegoat!

Today, I am the broken bodies and minds
Shunted off out of sight, behind heavy doors
Of VA hospitals and mental wards to die
I am in wheel chairs and braces, in hospital beds;
I walk the streets, I wander the railroad tracks,
I sleep beneath the stars.

Albert Camus (7/11/13 - 4/1/60) - His Enduring Appeal

A 100 years  after his birth, and more than half  a century after his untimely death, Albert Camus still resonates with the modern world. On 4 January, 1960, this writer, intellectiual, and absurdist philosopher skidded of the road  whilst a passenger in a car, and was killed instantly.
On all accounts  he was of  a sensitive nature, a seeker of maximum unity. An admirer of revolutionary syndicalism, anarchists, conscientious objectors, and all manner of rebels. Standing against totalitarianism in the form of Stalinism and fascism, and was never afraid to speak his truth.
Born in extreme poverty, in French ruled Algeria, to an illiterate mother who was partially deaf, who lost his father in the horror that was  World War 1, despite tremendous disadvantages by the age of 44 he was collecting the Nobel Prize for literature.
At the time his philosophical writings, which  continued the themes explored in his novels - the absurdity of the human condition and the necessity of rebelling against it, were not popular with critics, but his words and their power live on. Does the realization of the absurd reguire suicide? " No" Camus answered it requires revolt. " The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart."
Long have I been an admirer of this man who was not afraid to preach justice, to reconsider his stance, to take candour and reflect, to be as honest as he thought best .After all there is no authority but yourself.
With this year being  his centenary year, I am sure  there will be a renaissance of interest in this great man, this visionary of the absurdity of life,  who expressed so articulately  that human life  is rendered ultimately meaningless by the fact of death, his themes of the alienated stranger, or outsider, the rebel in revolt,  tempered by his own experience,  showing us the readers, the individuals paths where  we can truly be free.
He has undoubtedly become one of the most profoundly original thinkers of the modern age. For him the urge to revolt was one of the ' essential dimensions' of the human race, seen in man's continuous struggle against the conditions of his existence, through solidarity and our shared humanity.
It was his persistent efforts 'to illuminate the problem of the human conscience in our time' that were one of the main reasons he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, and I for one am very grateful to have discovered his enduring words, that  continue to flow with inspiration.

" Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion" -  from, Albert Camus's famous celebrated essay The Myth of Sisyphus.

An earlier post with more biographical detail can be read here :-

Albert Camus - The Smoking Philosopher

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/albert-camus-71113-4160-smoking.html


Pictures and Quotes from Albert Camus

 

Albert Camus - The Man who made thinking cool;
music by the Velvet Underground

Camus and the Stranger ( Rare BBC documentary)