In a video meant to draw attention to innocents killed in Gaza violence.Two Canadian schoolgirls, described as Palestinian Syrians are warmly embraced by Toronto strangers, when they hold up a sign saying ' HUG A TERRORIST'.
As Gaza and Palestinians resist the continual terrorist attack and brutal emotional and physical abuse, that has resulted in a toll of 1000 plus deaths, thousands injured, nearly all of them civilians, and mostly women and children, the full destruction of the City, the world is finally experiencing a rude awakening.
This war on Gaza has been justified under the pretext of fighting terror, yet children are the main victims.
Only yesterday Israel shelled a U.N school in Gaza, killing 16. Where Palestinians had been sheltering after being told to evacuate their homes. Women and children, killed while sleeping.
Clearly a crime against humanity.
Let me ask you,WHO ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS?
Born of East European Jewish parents. Spending two years in Israel in the late 1950's, before returning to the UK. Artist, poet, performer, visionary. Lyric writer, singer and front person for seminal band the Poison Girls, the first anarchist feminist rock band, which between 1977 and 1989 was a potent force in the international peace movement playing hundreds of gigs in the UK, Europe, Scandivania and the USA. A truly amazing, inspiring individual. Here's to all the persons unknown.
This is a message to persons unknown
persons in hiding / persons unknown
survival in silence isn't good enough no more
keeping your mouth shut / head in the sand
terrorists and saboteurs / each and every one of us
hiding in shadows / persons unknown
hey there mr average/ you don't exist/ you never did
hiding in shadows / persons unknown
habits of hiding soon will be the death of us
dying in secret from poisons unknown
this is a message to persons unknown
strangers and passers-by / persons unknown
turning a blind eye / hope to go unrecognised
keeping your secrets / persons unknown
housewifes and prostitutes / plumbers in boiler suits
truents in coffee bars / you think you're alone
big men on building sites/ sick men in dressing gowns
agents in motor cars who never go home
women in factories / one parent families
women in purdah / persons unknown
wild girls and criminals / rotting in prison cells
patients in corridors / persons unknown
statistics on balance sheets / numbered and rubber-stamped
blind and invisible / you're lost in your homes
liggers and layabouts / lovers on roundabouts
wake up in the morning with persons unknown
accountants in nylon shirts / feminists in floral skirts
nurses for when it hurts / persons unknown
astronauts and celibates / deejays and hypocrites
Liars and lunatics / persons unknown
hopefully on football pools / teachers in empty schools
kids into heroin / not yet fully grown
typists and usherettes / black men who can't forget
the lonely who long for persons unknown
closet idealists / bald-headed realists
rastas and bikers / the voice on the phone
pimps and economists / royalty and communists
rioters and pacifists /persons unknown
visionaries with coloured hair / leather boys who just don't care
garter girls with time to spare / persons unknown
judges with prejudice / dissidents and anarchists
policemen deal dirty tricks to persons unknown
strikers and pickets / collectors of tickets
radical architects / the queen on her throne
soldiers in uniform / sailors and stevedores
beggars and bankers / perjurors and men of law
football crowd hooligans / bunkin' of scool again
workers down tools again / united's at home'!
smokers with heart disease / cleaners of lavatories
the old with their memories /persons unknown
flesh and blood are who we are / flesh and blood are what we are
flesh and blood are who we are / our cover is blown
flesh and blood are who we are / our cover is blown
flesh and blood are who we are / flesh and blood are who we are
flesh and blood are who we are / our cover is blown
On 4-5th September NATO meets at the Celtic Manor in Newport South Wales. Supposedly meeting to strengthen partnerships and forge alliances around issues of national security and protection of vital resources, this video reveals for the first time the Real NATO Agenda.
Wales could see its biggest protests in a generation as world leaders meet planning their war on the world.
War is the enemy of the poor. At this years summit the US will be pressuring Western Powers to increase their already huge military budgets at a time when poverty and inequality are soaring. The worlds 85 richest people have as much as poorest 3.5 billion.
Money into war is money out of our communities. In the UK, 500,000 people had to resort to food banks last year.
None of the cuts would be necessary if the sums Britain spends on its military and armanents were invested in social need instead of the war machine.
This autumn the powerful will make their voices heard at the NATO summit. We must make sure that the voice of the millions around the world who need peace and justice is also heard.
The protests have already started. Yesterday there was a successful event in Cardiff, where protestors managed to disrupt army recruiters, managing to close down the "Career Centre" for 2 hours. Onwards to NATO.
The message on the banner translates as :-
' WHEN THE WEALTHY WAGE WAR, IT'S THE POOR WHO DIE.'
' Colourful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe."
Reprinted from :- Public Power in the Age of Consent.
Yes they definitely can...first we have the news that the Tories pocketed £160,000 from a mate of Putins - and that over 400 Russian oligarchs have been given visas for a million squid a go. This after Camerons sanctimonious rant about sanctions over the Malaysian airline atrocity. It turns out that amongst the hundreds of fat defence contracts signed with Russia, was one for anti-aircraft components. We sold Putin anti-aircraft componements! ( Remember it was the tories who also flogged some camouflage gear to A CERTAIN S. Hussein just in time for the first Gulf War, which left our own soldiers short, forced to buy their own gear. But then I would expect nothing less than the Tories. To see the full extent of Cameron's hypocricy, as he mumbles and makes calls for sanctions, see how he still receives backhanders and his governments continuing complicity in Israels brutal assult on Gaza.
Click on Pic to enlarge. here are the 132 Children killed in Gaza by Israel's Operation Protective Edge. More details here.:- http://bit.ly/1yYwLy9
Finding it increasingly hard to quell my rage. It is not healthy. Who will bury the children when their parents are already dead and there is nobody to bury them. Who will kill the sniper that kills those children of the parents that are already dead? Who is goin to mourn them? I will. Who will forgive? Not me. I have so much to say, but nobody seem to be listening. It is beginning to really is anybody listening. This pain is really starting to hurt.
I guess I need to take a deep, deep breath and then continue to keep pushing.
As the Royal family- and its cheerleaders at the BBC celebrate Prince George's First Birthday... the above is just a reminder about what has already been said. As people celebrate, remember too the children dying across the world because of hunger and starvation, the children currently being killed by genocidal repression. The BBC continues its fawning, bring out their sycophantic royal slime Mr Nicholas Witchell, not a pretty picture, why are not the people revolting. laters..off in search of a sick bag.
" Every walk to the woods is a religious right, every bath in the stream is a saving ordinance. Communion service is at all hours, and the bread and the wine are from the heart and marrow of Mother Earth. There are no heretics in Natures church, all are communicants. The beauty of natural religion is that you have it all the time; you do not have to seek it afar off in myths and legends; in catacombs, in garbled texts; in miracles of dead saints or wine-bibbing friars. It is of today; it is now and here; it is everywhere." - John Burroughs :- American naturalist, reprinted from essays in Naturalism 1920
A weeklong bombing campaign by Israel has pushed Gaza's biggest hospital to the brink - beds filled with the critically injured, the wails of relatives filling the air and supplies running short. Because of Israels military campaign the civilian death toll is rising. In many cases no warning, as peoples homes destroyed, innocents killed. A sea of bodies children killed whilst sleeping in their beds. If this happened to you, would you not resist, defend yourself?
In Israels case in open violation of international law, carry on their mission to destroy, business as usual as they blame victims.
Last night, Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza. At the time of writing 250 Palestinians have been killed, many of them women and children.
We need to tell our government to stop this atrocity now, join the demo tomorrow, and spread the word to anyone you know that enough is enough. Thousands will be marching from Downing Street to the Israeli Embassy, in a demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Asqa, CND, The British Muslim initiative, Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Forum in Britan and the Muslim Association of Britain. It is also supported by an unprecedented alliance of faith organisations, Trade Unions, civil society and Peace organisations.
Tell your M.P to act now, my own Mark Williams M.P for Ceredigion has already written to me expressing his condemnation of the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.http://act.palestinecampaign.org/lobby/crisisaction/,
The media must be forced to tell the truth about what is happening in Gaza, even though over 5,000 people protested outside the BBC HQ earlier this week their coverage of the ground invasion has been business as usual. We must keep up the pressure, and confront the BBC's bias. Israels siege and occupation of Gaza must end. Acoss the world people want justice, peace and freedom for the Palestinians.
Sometimes just opening your eyes in the morning can feel like the most painful thing one can do, but as the sun shines, there is a realisation that somewhere outside, their are thousands suffering constantly far more than we can ever we can ever realise. People constantly tired because their hopes are daily being taken away by tyranny.With weary hands some of us reach for pen, because bad behaviour often makes us tired of waiting. Now is the time to get rid of greed and oppression,to awaken thoughts of gladness, to fight the lack of sympathy and empathy that governs our lands. I'm tired of waiting, for people to awake, but if your listening world, I'm not giving up yet, so will hang around now, wait for some change.
Assata Olugbala Shakur was born JoAnne Deborah Byron on July 16, 1947, in Flushings, Queens Jamaica, New York. a descendent of slaves..Following her parents’ divorce in 1950, she moved with her mother and maternal grandparents to Wilmington, North Carolina. Shakur spent much of her adolescence alternating residences between her mother, who remarried and returned to New York, and relatives in Wilmington.
Shakur enrolled in Borough of Manhattan Community College before transferring to City College of New York, where her exposure to Black Nationalist organizations profoundly impacted her activism. Shakur attended meetings held by the Golden Drums, where she met her husband, Louis Chesimard. Members of the organization familiarized her with black historical figures that resisted racial oppression and social violence.
She also began interacting with other activist groups and subsequently participated in student rights, anti-Vietnam war, and black liberation movements. During a trip to Oakland, California in 1970, Shakur became acquainted with the Black Panther Party (BPP). She returned to New York City and joined the Harlem branch. Shakur worked in the BPP breakfast program but grew increasingly critical of the BPP because of their reluctance to collaborate with other black organizations.
Shakur left the BPP in 1971 and joined the Black Liberation Army (BLA), which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) branded an anarchist group.Adopting an African name, oin 1971she took on Assata, meaning 'she who struggles,' Olugbala, meaning 'love for the people,' and Shakur, meaning 'the thankful.
An inspiring individual she was the first woman to be placed on the FBI's most wanted Terrorist list, In the early 1970', several false criminal accusations for murder, robbery and kidnapping were bought against Shakur. All except one were later acquitted or dismissed. In 1973, Shakur and two other friends were cornered by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike, and became involved in a shootout where she was severely wounded, apprehended and charged for the murder of Werner Foerster, a New Jersey State Trooper. Although Shakur protested her innocence, and subsequent medical and forencic evidence indeed proved it was not possible for her to have shot the state trooper, she was however convicted of the murder.
She was incarcenated in several prisons throughout the 1970s until she managed a daring escape in 1979 from the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey with the help of three BLA members on Nov. 2, 1979., and has managed to live in exile in Cuba since 1984 where she still lives; .She is recognised by the Cuban Government as a revolutionary fugitive in exile, venerated by supporters, the Cuban Government continue to contribute to her living expenses, and she is regarded as a living link to a revolutionary era.
The FBI's animalistic hunting of her resumed after nearly 40 years when it labelled her a terrorist, offering $2 million for her capture, still reminding the world, and becomming a symbol of America;s gaping racial divide, reminding us that the oppression of Black women by America is far from over and to many the world over she continues to remain an inspiration to all lovers of freedom, as a courageous fighter, liberator and hero, and is defended by many who do not want to see her returning to a prison cell.
Assata learned that no one has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to their oppressor; she learned that our oppressors are never going to give us the education needed to overthrow them. She learned that socialism isn’t just a white man’s concoction, because she studied the works of African revolutionaries and the goals of African liberation movements, as well as those of other colonized places. She learned that socialism was not an evil ideal designed to strip us of our freedoms, as we are told; because Assata knew that under capitalism, we don’t have any freedoms but to starve, to be homeless, or to be thrown in jail for being poor. Assata teaches us all that socialism can and will be achieved when the oppressed peoples of the world join together in struggle for a future free of exploitation.
She has since continued to dedicate her life to challenging injustice, advocating on behalf of those persecuted using her skills as a writer, artist and poet. In 1987 she published a powerful memorable book 'Assata Shakur - An Autobiography' where she outlines her beliefs, and the book contains many of her poems, two of which I include here. In this book she also writes from a perspective whose life continues to be on trial.
From Assata’s story, we are able to learn what it means to be motivated by a deep love for the people and the struggle for freedom—and what it means to embody a determined and unbreakable spirit in the face of crackdowns and government repression designed to stifle and destroy the movement. Account after account from Assata’s comrades and fellow revolutionaries describe Assata as a light, a positive spirit who remained disciplined and committed to the struggle despite incredible hardships.
Long may Sister Assata Olubala Shaker retain her freedom and we carry on breaking down the chains.
" Nobody in the world, nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them."
- Assata Shakur
Affirmation - Assata Shakur
I believe in living
Ibelieve in the spectrum
of Beta days and Gamma people.
I believe in sunshine
windmills and waterfalls,
tricycles and rocking chairs.
And I believe that seeds grow into sprouts.
And sprouts grow into trees.
I believe in the magic of the hands.
And in the wisdom of the eyes.
I believe in rain and tears.
And in the blood of infinity.
I belive in life.
And I have seen the death parade
march through the torso of the earth,
sculpting mud bodies in its path.
I have seen the destruction of the daylight,
and seen bloodthirsty maggots
prayed to and saluted.
I have seen the kind become the blind
in one every lesson.
I have walked on cut glass.
I have eaten crow and blunder bread
and breathed the stench of indifference.
I have been locked by the lawless.
Handcuffed by the haters.
Gagged by the greedy.
And, If I know any thing at all,
it's that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all,
it can be broken down.
I believe in living
I believe in birth
I believe in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.
And I believe that a lost ship,
sneered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided home
to port.
Love is Contraband in Hell - Assata Shaker
Love is contraband in Hell,
cause love is a acid
that eats away bars. But you, me, and tomorrow
holds hands and makes vows
that struggle will multiply.
The hacksaw has two blades.
The shotgun has two barrels.
We are pregnant with freedom.
We are a conspiracy.
It is our duty to fight for our freedom
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
Reprinted from :-
Assata An Autobiography (1987/2001)
Here is a link to a campaign that continues to support and defend her:-
"Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them." - Assata Shakur
Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Ken Loach are among more than 40,000 signatories who have signed an open letter to the B.B.C calling on its journalists to reflect the reality of Gazas occupation while reporting on Israels current assault.
MPs have also signed the letter which will be delivered to the B.B.C today (15 July) during a protest outside its Portland Place, London headquarters.
A lot of people are not very familiar with doing online complaints to the BBC. Really quite simple, and quite effective, for those unable to get to demonstrations that the BBC does not deem important to cover.
They have a statutory duty to reply to complaints to protect the so called independence of the BBC. Sometimes watching the BBC news I have to awake myself up from the utter pointless of it all. Fawning excuses for News about Royal family, minus their excesses. They used to say it had a left wing bias, I only see a right wing drift. If we don't complain nothing will change.
( I have used below the Today programme as an example.
Just drawing attention to a local event in my area where people can come together in protest against all wars. Possibly there will be those here who will explain the different struggles the road to peace can take. With more and more people speaking out against wars destructive force, the road to some for justice can also be achieved. A strong reminder too, for whoever goes past that there will always be people, ever vigilant in their stand against war.
Double bass player and Jazz icon who helped change the shape of jazz, has sadly passed away aged 76. In his own words last year he said " I want to take people away from the ugliness and sadness around us every day and bring beautiful, deep music to as many people as I can." An avant garde icon, I am thankful for the magnificent music that he bought to my table, combined with his wonderful creativity, passion and political conviction.
Charlie Haden Rest in Peace.
This post is dedicated to my mum and dad, and all those others perplexed by my take on recent events.
For Fuck's sake, the difference between the Palestinians and Israelis is that the Palestinians have no military base - the struggle is akin to David and Goliath. WE, I and other colluders - gave away Palestinian land in 1948 - when we had no right whatsoever to do so - it was underhand shenanigans - and as it has turned out highly dangerous and volatile.
The recent attacks by Israel have been described as COMBAT?
A funny form of COMBAT, because where for instance are the Palestinian warplanes? Where is the Palestinian army? Where are the Palestinian tanks?
At the end of the day Israel murders and the world's governments are silent ( not just silent but complicit in it from the start - the US arming Israel to the teeth so as to have another strong Military in the Middle East?
Don't look at the BBC to find this out, they will not point out that a society that supposedly values and is apparently prepared for peace, it's people celebrate the murder of innocent civilians.
The mainstream media, wants us to demonise the victims. Israel denies and ignores all international law, continues to steal land, the Palestinians, those on the other side so to speak, remain imprisoned. bombarded by air, sea, and land.
So mum and dad if you have read this far, this is why I wont shut up. All human but the real difference between Israel and Palestine should not go by unnoticed. These are the real barriers to peace.
Remember too, that civilians are dying. Israeli airstrikes in the past few days have killed at least 83 people, including 21 children aged 16 and younger.
More than enough reasons for us not to remain silent.
Pay freezes and below inflation pay rises have reduced public sector workers pay by 20% since the rotten coalition Government came to power in 2010 Public sector pensions have been attacked and public services have been slashed across the country. So this is why I will be supporting up to 2 million people out on a coordinated strike action across the country tomorrow being planned by among others the NUT, GMB, FBU, PCS . Lets make sure that the strikers are supported in our communities. Remember that they are fighting for us all, as they give the coalition a message that they can't ignore.
We should also remember those unemployed existing on depivation levels, with benefit sanctions, the thousands of workfare victims, the disabled under attack, all those suffering under the coalitions draconian policies. The Tories and their friends are not looking after us but together in solidarity we can, they can't ignore us, when they see us all fighting back.
Tears of Gaza:
The video that social media keeps removing. Please share it while you can.
Be moved by this video, its why we continue to love and support Palestine and Palestinians and Sorry for the ugliness but this is the the horror and terror visited daily on Palestine. Children and civilians living in fear. So bloody sad.
This is not the sunshine, this is Gaza being bombarded!
Following my recent post on Armed Forces Day, a poem by Siegfried Sassoon.
The trenches of the First World War were a vast area of darkness and danger, dank and miserable conditions, often infested with rats who ate the flesh of the dead. The stench of unwashed humanity, all squashed together, combined with the smell of rotting flesh, and overflowing latrines, and the lingering smell of death and battle on accounts must have been unbearable.
Siegfried Sassoon witnessed all this and came to see and understand the futility of conflict. In the following poem, the line ' No one spoke of him again.' illustrates how many soldiers found dead in the trenches at the time were simply forgotten. All this suffering, erased, because death which occurred in such vast numbers simply merged into one. Over 16 million deaths and 20 million wounded in what is considered to be among the deadliest of
conflicts in human history.
We should not forget the 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were shot on the orders of the military top brass, many suffering from shell shock, and what is now known as Post Traumatic Stress. Charged with desertion after becoming dazed and confused, young disturbed, traumatised teenagers some of them , who had simply volunteered for duty.
Many other soldiers during the First World War were driven to suicide, or left with mental exhaustion, depression and shell shock because of this war.
It has taken time, but the stigma of mental health issues caused by conflict are very real indeed. In the end no glory in war, only sadness, this is how I choose to remember. This why humanity too, should not forget the barbarity and futility that the world has ever known.
Suicide in the Trenches
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy.
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark.
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,.
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by.
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
The N.H.S turns 66 today - happy birthday and lets make sure it is not the last. This is our N.H.S. Everyone rich or poor, woman or child can use it. or any part of it. There are no charges except for a few special items.We love it, we pay for it, and we will certainly fight for it. We must not allow the Tories to dismantle it, and strongly say no to any attempt at privatisation. There is still plenty of money to go round, it's just the case of it being in the wrong hands.
It has endured so long in our hearts and minds because of its founder, the late great Nye Bevan who said ' Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence, for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune, the cost of which should be shared by the community'
So while I'm at it, I will raise a glass to Nye Bevan's honour too, here's to the next 66 years.
The night is long faced
accustomed as it is to misfortune
every night the Palestinian
under occupation, since 1948
tries to sleep in its shadow.
It's people killed everyday
children left as orphans,
daily it is hit, in the face
and in the guts,
again and again
until this process
starts to feel normal.
This is the taste of occupation
people learning to live in fear everyday,
knowing that any minute, their front door
could be kicked down, trying to stay human,
trying desperately to stay sane
knowing that their children, mothers and fathers,
may never return home again.
The children are seen as terrorists,
for simply using slingshots against tanks
and fierce looking men with machine guns
the media likes to portray them as perpetrators
its people as the enemy,
while turning the bully
into a victim.
In the mornings, seeds of bitterness spread
as grim days stretch out this peoples agony,
and the longing for their liberation
and though Palestine does not exist on the map
it exists in the hearts of millions around the world.
Like the night, they have learnt
that with warm buds of thirst,
freedom is existence, and survival is resistance
and that one day, from the rivers to the sea ,
with hope on their sides, they will be free.
Every word the truth. Why can't Millibland be more like this. Perhaps he has no real life experience, does not know lots of vulnerable people, or those daily under the receiving end of the Conservatives bullying approach.
We need more people like Glenda Jackson, voices of truth speaking against smiling tyrants of the oppressed in this country, whilst so called representatives twidding with their mobile phones, collect their cash, show no real interest at all, showing us that they have no bloody compassion at all.
