Sunday, 29 June 2014
Be Careful of drunken words
(Thanks Kim)
Be careful of drunken words that are let loose
in particular after drinking large quantities of wine
they will create and reel in havoc
as they tear themselves into pieces
leave a trial of distraction
coming and going in haze of hesitation.
Be careful of drunken words
that cannot walk in straight lines
words that break through taboos
words if breathalysed could be charged
and then imprisoned
words that may never be found again
because they have been put in solitary confinement.
Be careful of drunken words
let loose with abandonment
wide eyed and legless
sprawled on the pavement outside
staggering without pause
staining the paths of conformity
refusing to be silent.
Be careful of drunken words
in the streets hawking messages of sorrow,
weeping, keeping faith with blurred sensitivity
rippling with defiance, straining to be heard
spitting against the gates, frightening the sober
voices away.
be careful of drunken words.
Saturday, 28 June 2014
Armed Forces Day 2014
Today 28 June 2014, marks Armed Forces Day, staged annually for the past 5 years to pay tribute to UK Armed Forces personnel, past and present. Today 100 years after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the start of the Great war, and 70 years from the D-Day Landings, this years event comes with an even bigger shadow.
In this age is there really cause in celebrating conflict, in an event of militaristic might, should we not be raising awareness of the destructiveness of war, and spend more time promoting peace .Why not call the day reconciliation day.
Recently the event has been criticised by Wrexham Peace and Justice Group, who were 'horrified' to find a picture of a toddler dressed in military uniform, being used to advertise the event. They said ' We strongly object to the targeting of children by the military' also saying ' we contend that it is irresponsible and unacceptable for Wrexham Council to be presenting the militarised warfare in the content of family entertainment.'
War is not family entertainment, but the first casualty of war is truth. Today we should remember too people like Chelsea Manning who had the courage to tell us the truth about war, and its collateral damage.
We should remember the Great War, remember it not as a 'war to end all war' or a 'victory for democractic', but as a military disaster and a human catastrophe. We should use this day to remember that war is driven by big powers and their vested interests around the globe, and remember the billions killed in war, the innocents across the globe, left maimed and wounded, mark the courage of those involved, but acknowledge the absolute devastation and misery caused,and the harsh realities of actual life in the military, far from the rosy pictures painted. The brutal reality, is that for many, having been used by the military are left with mental health issues, and simply abandoned
To move forward we should support all those traumatised and displaced by war, and seek ways to avoid conflict, and ways to promote international cooperation instead,focus on some positive steps to promote harmony in a badly trouble world, say no to the military complex that profits out of misery, pointing out the horrible consequences of war.
Friday, 27 June 2014
Happy Birthday Emma Goldman (27/6/1869 - 14/5/40)
'IF I CAN'T DANCE, I DON'T WANT TO BE PART OF THE REVOLUTION.'
Happy Birthday Emma Goldman, tireless agitator and speaker. In 1910 alone, she gave 120 talks in 27 cities in 25 states in the United States to 25,000 people Jailed in 1917, and described by authorities as 'one of the most dangerous women in America,' she was deported to Russia in 1919, campaigned against the Bolsheviks in the 1920's, subsequently joined the Spanish Revolution 1936 -39, backing the Spanish anarchists, as they tried to restructure society with one hand, while battling fascist, Stalinist threats lined up against them on the other.
Today Emma Goldman is warmly remembered for the anarcho-feminist, anti-militarist, and internationalist contributions she made to the social revolutionary struggles in life.
Incidentally the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies, was founded on this day June 27th 1905. So cheers and solidarity to them too.
Two earlier posts about Emma Goldman
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/emma-goldman-2761869-14540-anarchism.html
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/emma-goldman-2761869-14540-if-i-cant.html
Rebekhah Brooks - I am Innocent
Of course you are dear. You who sniggered all the way through the trial, knowing to bloody full well that you would get away with it! Typical British Justice,... Money buys your freedom.
As for the government, who trust them anymore, have they themselves not been involved in shady dealings, including phone hacking. I kid you not.
All of the above tainted, it all reeks of the establishment protecting one of their own. Brooks will continue to pop round to Daves, share some lunch, he cannot distance from her at the end of the day, because she knows where the other bodies are buried.
As well as these two involvement in this scandal, we are left with the legacy of the police's own implication. Bribes taken, a web of corruption, at the end of the day , the people are not satisfied. Public anger will increase for a long time to come.
Rebekah Brooks admits to paying Police.
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Cameron Defending Coulson,
The above is a link to Dave praising Andy Coulson The only reason that Cameron wants to distance himself now is that Coulson has got caught. Cameron is nothing but an unelected toffy nosed hypocrite.
We should not forget how Dave has deliberately himself mislead the people, not just a few times, but it seems like ad infinitum. Time and again he is caught out but we don't hear any apologies from his lips for his actions. How the hell is he our Prime minister anyway, no one voted for him. He sure has a lot to apologise for, he will be known like Blair before him as an exceedingly dishonest politician. Constantly lying and using disinformation on the N.H.S, his list of broken policies longer than his arm, going back on dozens of pledges, but then, this is what one comes to expect from a Tory.
His art of scheming manipulation he really has got down to a fine art. As for Rebecca Brooks being found not guilty, oh it's such a farce, who was her barrister, yes Cameron's brother, seems she still has so many friends in high places.
At the end of the day, it's all still rotten at the top, the tory's will carry on hating the poor, as the media tries to distract us with some trivia, their lies will continue.
Something surely has to change!
Monday, 23 June 2014
The Collective Punishment of the Palestinian People must end.
Since this incident Israels' response has been disproportionate, to say the least, with over 370 Palestinians having been arrested since last Thursday. All over the West Bank, in villages, towns and cities, Palestinian homes and offices have been raided, people being held under siege, with many being injured, with subsequently being left for dead.
The Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 33, states that : "No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or terrorism are prohibited.Pillage is prohibited.Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited."
At the time of this posting, six Palestinians have been killed in the massive military operations that have been launched, and attempts to cast the rising number of unarmed Palestinian casualties as 'self defence' starts to ring hollow. As former Israeli soldiers have testified as recently as 2014, that their units used tactics known as 'Provocation and Reaction,' which has been described as "the act of entering a village, making a lot of noise, waiting for their stones to be thrown at you, and then you arrest them saying : There, they're throwing stones!!!"
At the moment the Israelis are using three missing boys as pawns in their political game, using them, as they continue to oppress and to avoid avenues of peace. it is not that we have not witnessed previously, time after time, that Israels' leaders need no excuse to find reasons to continue their collective campaign of terror against the Palestinians. Their road to peace, seems to be displacing people, 750,000 of them, and continuing to violate UN resolutions and human rights, to try to disrupt the recently formed unity government. Yet in the world Israel is feeling the heat too, as people see it as an apartheid state, and join the many successful boycotts and campaign for disinvestment on Israeli products. In the last week we have seen Presbyterians voting to divest holdings in 3 companies supplying Israel with equipment being used in the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
At the end of the day, this collective Punishment of the Palestinian people must stop. Israel I am sure is obligated to carry out its serach for the missing boys, but it should also be constantly be reminded of obligations to International humanitarian law and International Human law and the respect to life of the Palestinians, that minimises damage and injury and protects and preserves human rights.
Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Lesley Boulton Orgreave
(See Saturday's post for piece about 30th Anniversary of Battle Of Orgreave).
Lesley Boulton talks about the iconic photo taken by John Harris at Orgreave during the miners strike of 1984
Monday, 16 June 2014
Syrian Refugees - An Insiders View from the Camp
Syrian refugees - An insiders view from the camp, come and Skype with a Worker from one of camps in Lebanon.
This event is being put on by my local Amnesty International Group, Cardigan Amnesty Group here in West Wales. We are raising awareness about how Syrian Refugees are coping in Lebanon for Refugee week.
Wednesday 18th June 700pm.
Everyone welcome, Admission free,
Refreshments.
Come and join us.
Saturday, 14 June 2014
30th Anniversary of the Battle for Orgreave
Today I remember the 30th anniversary of one of the 20th Century's most brutal attacks by the state on its own citizens.The Battle of Orgreave, during the1984 Miners strike,which resulted in an all out military operation by Margeret Thatcher's Conservative cabinet.
On June 18th 1984, 6 to 7,000 miners and supporters gathered to picket Orgreave cokeworks near Rotheram in South Yorkshire.
Police directed pickets to an area of land which left them hemmed in on three sides.Before this event the miners had been stoically out on strike for about 12 weeks, during which they had been assaulted on picket lines, with individuals being handcuffed and beaten without any cause or provocation.
At Orgreave the miners after being herded together. were savagely attacked by Police cavalry in full riot gear under the jurisdiction of Thatcher's Government attacking fleeing miners with long swaying batons as Miners ran for safety. It saw the police going berserk under state orders, repeatedly attacking individuals wherever they sought refuge, as they fled into a nearby Wheatfield and into the community of Orgreave, where the police carried on their pursuit through the streets. A scene of ugliness, fear and menace, as all concepts of Law and order that the constabulary were supposed to withhold abandoned all its basic principles.
At the end the day over 100 people were arrested, for no crime whatever, with many more being injured along with the Miners leader Arthur Scargill. Following Orgreave, the police conducted a deliberate and co-ordinated attempt to frame arrested miners for one of the most serious events on the statute book - the offence of Riot. No police officer has ever been prosecuted or even disciplined for their role in the terrible events that occurred.
Today all the victims of this bloody confrontation,are simply asking for an apology for the actions taken out against them. We should never forget, today people will be honouring them at the Orgreave Mass Picnic & Festival taking place at Catcliffe Recreation Ground.
The miners 1984 was one of the longest and most brutal in British labour history. A community fighting for jobs and survival was wholly denigrated and depicted as violent by the majority of the media. The above film THE BATTLE FOR ORGREAVE puts the record straight, as miners recount their own history, their economic and political struggle over decades and the trial they endured for 48 days in Sheffield when charged with riot at Orgreave - facing life imprisonment.
Containing compelling testimonies, emotive cinematography, in depth analysis coupled with meticulous detail of the mass picket and the ensuing events of June 18 1984 at the Orgreave coking plant, the documentary also has unique footage of police violence - all these make this an historic and important document of our time.
See the film at the British Film Institute.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/
or purchase from journeyman Pictures at
http://www.journeyman.tv/
30 years later many still seek some form of justice.
For further details of the Orgreave Peace and Justice Campaign
I refer you to this excellent site
http://otjc.org.uk/
An earlier post on the 30th anniversary of the Miners Strike can be found here
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/30th-anniversary-of-miners-strike-their.html
Thursday, 12 June 2014
Enjoy the World Cup but consider the injustice of it all.
First things first, I confess I am not a fan of the so called beautiful game, but with massive protests breaking out daily against the World Cup in Brazil because of mass unemployment and severe poverty I can also understand why many indigenous youth do not support the World Cup currently being held in Brazil and realise why the large scale opposition that is taking place has so much validity.
Many Brazilians see their government having wasted billions of their money on this event, while their futures offer little hope, as billions of pounds of money, seems to have been wasted, instead of being directed elsewhere on essential things like healthcare and education.
A country rich in this games history, afterall having won 5 World Cup titles, more than any other country, anticipating a win against their first game against Chile later, one would have thought this event would have garnered some kind of favour, but at the end of the day the poorest people of Brazil will not not benefit, from this most expensive World Cup to date .
People of the World should consider the many people evicted, from their once proud homes and neighbourhoods to make way for this global corporate event, with street vendors removed from their daily sufficiency.
If this occasion, draws attention to the underprivileged Brazilians,it will possibly be of some worth.
Daily protests are rising in numbers, and hopefully the World's stage will be able to witness the people of Brazil speaking out against injustice with their increased public displays of anger.
The world will hear Jennifer Lopez sing 'We are One' but might also understand the the clear voices of opposition standing below, risking arrest for simply displaying their outrage.
Any further disruption to this event I will completely understand, from the favelas and the streets that link, I will support their hungry resistance, with solidarity's breath.
Anyway message spread, enjoy the World Cup, if you can.
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Rick Mayall ( 7/3/58 -9/6/14) - Don't Fear Death R.I.P
Real crap news and sad to hear that comic genius Rik Mayall had died suddenly yesterday, I fondly remember his celebrated characters in sitcoms like the Young Ones, Blackadder , the New Statesman, the Comic strips on Channel 4 , lest forget his alter ego Kevin Turvey, and off course the inevitable Bottom. An early inspirations to my own anarchic impulses, even though his portrayal in the Young Ones was off a pompous, cowardice, halfwit... I still remember fondly it's sheer brilliance.
His eyes bulging, silly and chaotic, and always a little rude, stupid with outbreaks of sheer violence, guess that's why we loved him, his command of physical comedy was simply amazing, a true shining light.
He along with his comic writing partner, Adrian Edmondson, along with others like Alexai Sayle, Dawn French and Jenniffer Saunders, amongst others injected an energy into the British comedy scene of 1980's, which was to be known as 'alternative comedy'.
He seemed to have disappeared for awhile after a vehicle accident left him in a coma back in 1998, but he survived, however he was left with in epilepsy.
However he returned to the stage, and starred in a few films..... but the peoples poet Rik of the Young Ones is now dead and I will miss his work, I will still hate fascists and will still snort on about the evil of Thatcher and her cohorts.
He has left us far to early, but left us with this contribution to a black comedy aired last August on Channel 4, called 'don't fear death' screened as part of Channel 4's Random Acts series... it adds that 'death is your passport to complete and utter freedom. No pulse, no responsibility. Carpe mortem - seize death'.
I end with some personal favourites from Rick's career. R.I.P
Don't Fear Death
Rick Mayall as Kevin Turvey
Rick Mayall - Poetry
Alan Bastard on Healthcare
Alan Bastard Conference Speech
15 Top Moments of Rick Mayall as Rik in the Young Ones
The Young Ones - The Peoples poet
Who the **** is Katie Hopkins
Who the **** is Katie Hopkins.
In reality a person of increased insensitivity, a caustic piece of venom, the only job she does is the theatre of cruelty that she has embraced. A husband stealing, failed Apprentice Contestant turned media rent-a- mouth, spewing forth all sorts of bigoted nonsense as she tries to drown out common sense with her coarsing voice releasing her demented breath as her swivel eyes turn.
I too can use my voice, to attack, but what difference does she make either, this acid tongued bore, who on all accounts does not seem to have a bit of decency or dignity in her soul that continues to release rather fascist tendencies .
Unlike her I genuinely feel sorry for her victims, who are all are open to her radar, sick children, immigrants the unemployed, the late Trade Union leader Bob Crow who she insulted only minutes after his passing, the poor and the vulnerable, societies marginalised, yesterday coming out in favour of spikes embedded in spikes to deter rough sleepers. She uses her voice and her cloak of privilege, to be employed by the lowest of all our rapid tabloid journals the Sun. There never seems to be an ounce of remorse, as she carries on blaming her victims.
In the news again recently as she speaks out against people in long term unemployment, suggesting that they are issued with special unemployed persons uniforms, writing on Twitter " Time we issued an unemployed person uniform. She is a real nasty piece of work, whose only gainful employment is to sprout her controversial views. Guess I'm a direct opposite to all she stands for, but unlike her I will admit when I'm wrong, she however will never offer an apology and carry on regardless.
We live supposedly in a free and tolerant country I guess, so we are entitled to our differing views, but surely in this melting pot of a world, the world is emptier, when especially we still have room for the likes of Katie Hopkins, I wish her no real harm, but the world would surely be a happier place, if she disappeared from our earshot and our T.V screens.
Rant over..... I will carry on dreaming of a fairer, equal world, that really cares about people, a future full of bright possibility, where our diversity's is celebrated, the voiceless too are aloud to speak and bacterial division and scorn is not spread.
Monday, 9 June 2014
Anti-Homeless spikes in Central London
Rolls of steel studs have recently been placed at the Picadilly Circus Branch in Central London of Tesco and outside a block of luxury flats in to try to prevent homeless people sleeping out.What kind of country are we living in.
Let us remember that until a couple of hundred years ago four fifths of this country ( and even a larger proportion elsewhere) was common land to be used by everyone as they saw fit. Now there's hardly a square inch of horizontal surface that doesn't seem to have been taken by some greedy so and so's. When some people say property is theft, this is literally what they mean.
Because of the Tory Governments policies rough sleepers have risen sharply across the country with a massive 75% rise in London. People are daily struggling due to a lack of housing, cuts to benefits and cuts to homeless services, that are supposed to be their to help people rebuild their lives, and the government continues to spend billions of pounds on war and spying, while the vulnerable are hidden out of sight. People at the end of the day being treated less than vermin.
We are daily systematically being robbed blind by ...and the worst is yet to come. It should be enough to shame us all.
Saturday, 7 June 2014
Denise Levertov (24/10/23 -20/12/97) - Writing in the Dark
Anway it's necessary.
Wait till morning, and you'll forget.
And who knows if morning will come.
Fumble for the light, and you'll be
stark awake, but the vision
will be fading, slipping
out of reach.
You must have paper at hand,
a felt-tip pen - ballpoints don't always flow,
pencil points tend to break. There's nothing
shameful in that much prudence: those are your tools.
Never mind about crossing your t's, dotting your i's -
but take care not to cover
one word with the next. Practice will reveal
how one hand instinctively comes to the aid of the other
to keep each line
clear of the next.
Keep writing in the dark:
a record of the night, or
words that pulled you from depths of unknowing,
worrds that flew through your mind, strange birds
crying their urgency with human voices.
or opened
as flowers of a tree that blooms
only once in a lifetime:
words that may have the power
to make the sun rise again.
Denise Levertov was born in Illford, Essex, England. Her father, raised a Hassidic Jew, had converted to Christianity while attending University in Germany. Her mother was Welsh, and read aloud such authors as Charles Dickens, Joseph Corad and Leo Tolstoy. Denise Levertov was educated completely at home and she claimed to have decided write at the age of five.She was to become a committed protestor too, an anti-war activist, feminist and anarchist fellow travellor, following her own passionate impulses. After settling in America in 1948, she was also to become known as one of America's foremost contemporary poets.
Friday, 6 June 2014
Protest G4S AGM London 5 Jun 2014
Protests to shareholders at the G4S AGM held yesterday at the Excel Centre in London aganst this companies complicity in Israel's war crimes and against the British Governments continued use of G4S domestically in Britain in spite of its corrupt and incompetent record here at home and in addition notwithstanding its illegal collaboration in war crimes. Protesters were violently removed as they defended human rights against this immoral company..
Wednesday, 4 June 2014
25th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre
And today many activists are still being ruthlessly persecuted by the Chinese Authorities, and the climate of free expression remains stifling, with scores of writers still being silenced, also many social media sites are still banned.
We must continue to support all those that fight against state oppression and censorship and never forget the tragic legacy of Tinanamen Square that continues to haunt us.
Sunday, 1 June 2014
David R Edwards Desert Island Discs
Seminal Welsh Band Datblygu (regulars to this blog will know that I regard them as the greatest band to have emerged from my country) have a new mini album Erbyn Hyn coming out on June 7th, it will be launched at Tangled Parrot Records in Carmarthen next Saturday.
In anticipation of this, here is David Rupert Edwards Desert Island Discs, that me old mucker lovingly compiled for me recently. I need to give him a call, hopefully he will pick up my telepathic communication, and realise that my bloody mobile phone has broken.
The following worked its magic for me, hope it does the same for anyone passing through.
1 Associates - kitchen Person
2 Bob Dylan - Simple Twist of Fate
3 Happy Mondays - Stinkin' Thinkin'
4 Frank Sinatra - I Get a kick Out Of You
5 Scott Walker - Amsterdam
6 The Fall - Blindness
7Leonard Cohen - The Partisan
8 Tom Waits- Nirvana
Luxury item:- Unlimited Tobacco
Book:- 'Factotum' - Charles Bukowski
Song that Dave would save if a wave came:-
#8 (written by Bukowki)
Dave will be in conversation with the DJ Huw Stephens at Dinefwr Literature Festival
in Llandeilo June 20 -June 22
http://www.dinefwrliteraturefestival.co.uk/
Nice interview here:-
http://louderthanwar.com/louder-than-war-interview-datblygu/
Datblygu's website is here
http://ankst.co.uk/