October 30th UK.Drugs debate..

On October 30th, 2014 the UK Parliament  will host a debate on the country's drug policy. To ensure your MP represents you at the debate and works to support evidence-based drug laws in the country. visit here:-



http://www.talingdrugs.org/parliamentary-drugs-debate

Blog Stuck in rut


Blog unable to upload photos or videos at moment in time, I hope it's temporary, any suggestions please?Also missing a dear  friend, but that's another story. Meanwhile between 13 and 26th October a joint police Operation called 'mos maiorum'  takes place  in nearly all European countries to  identify, imprison  and finally  deport illegallised  migrants. Thousands of  people will be subject to so called ' racial profiles ' and will be harassed and criminalised  upon those criteria.
The following site tries to document the actions that are part of 'mos maiorum'  and to make these effects visible to everyone.
Please contribute  to document public police checkpoints  or identify  checks throughout the European union.


http://map.nadir.org/ushahidi

The Battle of the Tarpaulin - Police Brutality

Hundreds of police officers attack Occupy Democracy participants because they don't want them  to sit on tarpaulins. This was after Occupy Democracy broke  away from  the TUC march on  Saturday and headed to Parliament Square for an open Assembly,  wardens had asked protestors to leave under an old by law, then sent the police in, and  then their was a total overreaction, on behalf of the police and a standoff lasted till yesterday. What was witnessed was a scene that  had reminiscences of Hong Kong, less freedom seen in Parliament Square. The protestors sound system was confiscated and   tents and sleeping bags were not allowed into the camp. The massive overpolicing and  attempshut down this democratic forum is truly shocking and outrageous. The protestors plan to occupy  the square for the next week.  Viva  freedom.

George Orwell on the police ;-

" I have  no love for  the idealized 'worker' as he appears in the bourgeois mind, but when I see an actual flesh and blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not  have to ak myself which side I'm on."

Freudian Slip

Freudian slip:-

Tory welfare minister Lord Freud apparently thinks disabled people  should be paid less than the minimum wage. And where is the opposition to these  remarks, Millibland just keeps on shuffling and smiling,  he needs to wake up...  did he read any of his dads books for gods' sake... somewhere he must have some guts.
Lord Freud the same heartless individual who said ' The poor should take more risks as they have the least to lose.' Lord Fraud every time he opens his gob,  a shallowness  emerges  that says much about his character and  very much about the nasty party  that he represents. People holding these views should not be in government, they are  reckless and damaging, but their they are pontificating about realities that they know nothing about. He has no previous experience of the welfare system  Baron Fraud, but who asked him first to provide a review of these services, Mr Tony Bliar under New Labour. You couldn't make these things up. My mind boggles. Oh blundering Mr  Fraud has since apologised, but  he's done that before as well, over previous  gaffes of his  own making, time he got another job, same applies to the rest of his cohorts in government who are equally complicit in their appalling attitudes to the poor and disabled.

The truth of Charlie Chaplin's 1940's anti war message for all humanity rings down the ages.

Charlie Chaplin's inspirational final speech  in  "The Great Dictator "

On 15 October 1940 Charlie Chaplin's first talkie The Great Dictator debuted in New York (while the US was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany)

The physical resemblance between the Tramp and another famous man with a little black mustache was not lost on Chaplin. In his first all-talking picture, he plays both a Jewish barber and his double, Adenoid Hynkel, the absolute ruler of Tomainia. As Hynkel and his henchmen Herring and Garbitsch engineer the persecution of Jews and the invasion of neighboring Osterlich, the amnesiac barber may be the only person innocent enough to stop them. Throughout the anti-fascist film Chaplin powerfully exploits the deflating power of parody, while in the finale he abandons both character and comedy to deliver one of the most inspirational speeches in recorded history with an impassioned plea to the audience for human tolerance, encouraging us in opposing all forms of oppression,Many years later, the  world still needs to stand still and listen and stand against the forces of fascism.An earlier tribute  of mine to this great man can be found here :- 

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

Here is the full transcript.

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible- jewish, Gentile, black men, white…

We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others’ happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind.

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery ,we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.

Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say “Do not despair.”

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder!

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men—machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate!

Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it’s written “the kingdom of God is within man”, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power.

Let us all unite.

Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will!

Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!

Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance!

Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Wonderful news: British MP's vote to recognise Palestine as a state.

Ok I would be the first to admit that I don't always like what emerges out of the  house of commons, but  as a result  of tireless campaigning, yesterday finally  resulted  in the historic occasion  which resulted in the UK Parliament  voting to recognise the state of Palestine. This follows the Swedish Parliaments decision to do the same. Wonderful news. It  saw as many as 274 voting for the motion to 12 against in a momentous  event that  gave  me much joy, when usually the only thing that emerges from these dusty corners are dark shadows.
Surely it is a big thanks to all  who for years  have marched, demonstrated  for the rights of the Palestinian people and is  also a sign of times in the fact   that British Parliament seems to have noticed and reflected  what  it's people really feel  in the wake  of  Israels recent onlslaught in Gaza, that left over 2,000 Palestinians dead,  and that people are now wide awake to its continuing illegal military occupation and recognise that Israel is losing the battle for public opinion and is part of a growing international trend that demands justice for the Palestinians. The time is  now right for the Palestinians to have the state that it deserves.
This symbolic  vote will mean absolutely nothing if further action is not taken, to bring the  Palestinians dream of statehood into reality. International pressure must continue to be mounted  until oppression is ended and the maxim  from the 'rivers to the sea' is finally achieved.

Steal this poem - Claire Faucet

This poem is copyleft.
You're free to distribute it and diffuse it,
re-write it and abuse it,
and use it.
For your own ends,
and with your own ending.

This is an open source poem
entering the public domain.
Here's the source  code,
add a little salt and pepper if you  like,
share it out amongst your friends.

Because I didn't write  this poem
I moulded it,
picked the lines out of a skip as I was walking on over here
took used up fragments of leftover ideas,
and put them to use.

Think about it -
I can't tell you anything new.
In all these millennia of human existence
there certainly can only be a few ideas to be thought through.
So we treat them like rare commodities?
Plunder artistic reserves for new ideas buried deep beneath the permafrost,
suffocate them with patent protection
and junk the rest?
Or  do we re-use them and recycle them?
Pile our public spaces high with shared ideas beyond anyone's imagining.

So I steal a verse  here and a line there
a riff there and a rhyme there
pass it on around the circle,
roll it up
add a joke
here have a toke
does it get you high?

This poem  is indebted to Gil Scott Heron. Abbie Hoffman, Jim Thomas
   and Sarah Jones
This poem is indebted to all the words I've read and the voices I've known
This poem is a community  of intellect, your and mine
This poem  is ripped off line after line after line

Because intellectual property is theft
and piracy is our only defence against the thought police.
The revolution
will be plagiarised!
The revolution will not happen if ideas are corporatised
So steal this poem
and use it
For your own ends
and with your own ending.

This poem is copyleft
all rights are reserved

Claire Faucet is a performance poet, activist and researcher for Corporate Watch.
Her poetry can be found online at http://www.re-clairethestreets.blogspot.com
and her political writing at http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk

The above poem reprinted  from:-
This poem is sponsored  by : Poems  in the face of corporate power
2007

Apple : Irony alert

Apple one of the the major  success stories of the dot-com era  is often accused of treating its own workers poorly and is no stranger to controvery.
According to recent Pocket Gamer  report  Apple has pulled 'Sweatshop' a satirical  game designed  to raise awareness about the inequities of forced labour, from its APP store, because it was 'uncomfortable selling a game based  around the running of a sweatshop. Though it apparently  has no such qualms  about selling a sweat shop produced phone. The technology giant whose own Foxconn facility  is routinely plaqued by suicides, riots and human rights allegations, has cited  clothing factory managers as routinely 'blocking fire escapes,' 'employing child labour' as reasons why the game was unsuitable for sale, according to Simon Parkin, head of games at liitlecloud, which created the game to highlight the human cost of fashion.
There is nothing ethical about apple, remember that they pay contract workers so little in China that they have been committing suicide, while their founder Jeff Bezos sits on a personal fortune of 427 billion, and Apple itself recently announced a $13.5 billion profit for the first quarter of 2014, while its warehouse workers suffer low pay and unfair working conditions, combined with a long term practice of using underpaid student labour and underpaying its  own share of British corporate tax. Long too,  has it had a history of allegations concerning human rights and labour rights abuses and lets not forget . Where things have improved recently for Apple is within its  public relations department, but scratch under the surface it is still very sensitive to any outside criticism. Apple's reputation still not squeaky clean, their thirst for maximum profit still seems to be their major concern and is still  in many peoples eyes a less than honest company. Apple also happens to be one of the most aggressive  patent lawsuit filers in the world, that  agressively pursues litigation  and excessive  claims  against its competitors. In effect a bully.Apples' dismal record on human rights has long been questioned and is probably worse than we know about such is this companies insistence on secrecy, besides treating  humanity with disrespect, Apple documents  show that suppliers  to the company also disrespect the environment, their suppliers routinely  discharging  toxic waste into our communities,  without regard to the  effect the  waste has  on  residents, wildlife or the planet, its commitment to ethical values  continues to be very dubious.  Scratch under the surface, Apple not as  nice and shiny as they try to make out.

R.I.P 'Louakanikos' The Greek Riot Dog

'Loukanikos'  a ginger mongrel internationally known as the 'Riot Dog' has sadly passed away at the age of 10, His name translates into English as 'sausage'. This valiant much loved stray dogs health was adversely affected by  police asphyxiating  gas and from being kicked on numerous occasions by the police. Forcing him to retire from active protest 2 years ago. More than just a dog, he was a protector and a beloved comrade facing down riot Police daily as demonstrators took to the streets  of Greece against the police murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15 year old Greek student  who was gunned down in cold blood in the center of Athens, and later against austerity measures, he was usually  to be found at the thick of all the action in front of the crowds, charging and yelping alongside protestors when they confronted  police on the streets of Athens.So legendary was this noble creature that he had a bar named after him in Madrid, and. In 2011 Time magazine listed  Loukanikos as one of its personalities of the year.
He was on the couch sleeping when suddenly his heart stopped. A leftist newspaper Avgi, says the dog  has been buried in the shade  of a tree in the city centre. This  courageous four legged revolutionary who led many a fight for justice will bark no more.
Rest in Power.

Louakinikos in action

Once a time in Athens - The Legend of the Riot Dog

David Rovics - Riot Dog

7 facts about Workfare.

" There is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood  of finding work.... workfare is least effective  in getting people into jobs   in weak labour markets where unemployment is high." This week their is a week of action against it, workfare profits the rich by providing free labour, whilst hurting the poor by taking away  welfare rights if people refuse to work. The government is misleadingly calling it now 'Help to work' but it is business as usual, it is draconian, exploitative, unjust and wrong, many charities are now refusing to have anything to do with it because :-.

1. There is no evidence that workfare schemes lead to employment.

2. You're  five times more likely to be sanctioned than get a job on a government work programme.

3. Workfare  is undermining voluntary and  charitable values.

4.Forced Labour is illegal.

5. Workfare is not just for the long-term unemployed.

6.Courts have repeatedly ruled  against workfare schemes.

7. Workfare is heading for collapse but we need  to  push for it.

Facts reblogged from here, where you will find more information.:-

http://realfare.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/7-facts-you-need-to-know-about-workfare/

Empty promises and broken 'pledges' lead folk to one conclusion:-

and its too late for Cable and Clegg to start sounding off now, they have backed the Tories throughout, we all know now what their party stands for, everything the Tories have done has been done with liberal democrat support. Milliband as for him apparently shifting his party to the left, come on, same as Blair,who created a version of the social democrats mark 2, under the guise of New Labour, where is their pulse, where is their opposition, their anger, their fiery direction.As for the Tories, unreformed unapologetic Thatcherites and UKIP more of the same. I feel political scepticism is more than justified, most people I encounter feel alienated from the lot  of them, and do not understand the need to rush out to vote for them. Its not that people are disengaged with politics as a whole, I think  people just feel let down by the so called democratic systems and norms that does nothing for them in return.Regarding most careesrist politicians as fraudsters and liars, a self serving elite, who carry on  wining and dining, fostering division, with empty gestures, carving and making scapegoats out of sections of the community, as austerity grippens,  is it any wonder  that people increasingly feel abandoned, and left with not much hope, pessimistic and more than a little dissillusioned. Many people feel nauseated with the lot of them and simply cannot be bothereed with their message.
To change this country for the better, me thinks, the only hope for us, is to start thinking outside of the box, but  people are still demonstrating, occupying, resisting with direct action, it is not a question of people simply apathetic, people are wide awake, change is happening NOW. Anger,does not reflect disengagement, and as we see, people are able to express their political dissatisfactions in so many different ways in our modern world. But the status quo carries on regardless, carries on not listening, as no confidence in their empty hollow words  continues to grow.
But out of their fading  embers, hopefully a fairer, system can be built, personally for me one that proactively is used to combat oppression, exploitation and repression, surely another world is not impossible.

How the ISIS theatre of murder was born - Heathcote Williams

David Cameron says he is 'standing firm  and will not be cowed" by ISIS brutality. Poet Heathcotte Williams  responds.

Montage and narration by Alex Cox.

Overgrow the system... Give thanks to the Mother

Tuira Kayapo is an indigeneous Elder Mama warrior  who showed the world  what happens  when Women   take  charge of their power. She walked  into the 1989 Altamira Gathering in Brazil  against the destruction  of Dams in the Zingu, in her war paint, naked and carrying a large machete. She then walked up to the President of Brazil's Light holding Company Petrobras  and running the blade of her  machette  three times over his cheeks, proclaimed his act  on her people and on the entire Amazon as an act of war. She then stated in Kayopa :-
" You are a liar - We do not need electricity. Electricity is not going to  give us our food. We need our rivers to flow freely, our future depends on it. We need  our jungles for hunting and gathering. We do not need your dam."
Everyone stood in absolute  awe  at her audacity, especially the President of Petrobras who looked quite afraid .. yet what I see in her is a true example of WHAT Mamas are capable of in their full  Power...
We have ALL become tired of this mess the world is in... It is time to reclaim our truth. Don't play with our good hearts and intentions. I am grateful  for women like  Chief Kayapo, who was bold enough  to say no to colonialist exploitation. Bravely demanding respect, to allow her and her people  to live as they want and choose, expressing the feelings of her entire nation.

Fly Kites not Drones : Poppit Sands, nr St Dogmaels, Cardigan, West Wales.

 

 

Over  the past couple of months we have witnessed drone strikes in at least seven countries -  Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Palestine, Yemen, Egypt and Iraq and Syria probably on the list soon. Devastatingly killing innocents it is now is clear  that  our political leaders  are  using  these
lethal forces  rather than look for diplomatic  or political situations.
Join me tomorrow, kites not drones at Poppit Sands near St Dogmaels, Cardigan, West Wales, in a symbolic, 'Stop the drones' demonstration supported by Drone Network Cymru/Wales and CND Cymru/Wales. We need to build a world where children can   play and fly  their kites safely, instead of spending their lives in fear.
Please  take a look at the following link:-

Child victims of drone warfare.

-http://childvictimsofwar.org.uk/get-informed/drone-warfare/

Moazzam Begg - Wronged Man is free again

Moazzam Begg a native born British citizen, family man  of  Pakistani  descent, spent three years incarcenated  in  the most notorious detention centre created, Guantanamo Bay without being charged with any crime.
Arrested  in Pakistan in 2002  he was transferred  to Bangram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, where he suffered torture and witnessed U.S interrogators  beat an  innocents taxi driver to death, he would spend the   next three years in   very tortuous uncomfortable conditions.
Throughout this time, Begg , now 45 was repeatedly, deprived of legal rights, but after public outcry  was returned to Britain in 2005. Despite the indignation and suffering  he encountered, he did not lose his humility or dignity.
He went on to become a prominent human rights activist, writing  books, advocating on behalf of other prisoners of conscience, whilst campaigning against the so called war on terror, and working with survivors of abuse and mistreatment across the globe.
But constantly  he was harassed and intimidated,  marked out  because he was probably seen as one of Britains most prominent muslims. Well known  to muslims and non-muslims alike as  a representative of justice, truth and human rights in the face  of oppression , and injustice.
Last December  at Heathrow his passport was confiscated, and told it was not in the public interest to retain it, then later   he was arrested  for having allegedly travelled to Syria  to assist Syrian rebels in terrorist activities, but had not visited this land since December 2012 and this was to assist in humanitarian relief and support.It seems that he may have become a victim of the government again, because of his continuing  outspoken criticism  of the British governments conduct   during the War on terror. The arrest  of one of the Wests most prominent  Muslim critics certainly raised alarms with many.  Using dubious charges against dissidents  has  been a hallmark  post 9/11. Though these tactics are routinely condemned, they still  continue to be implemented,  showing us the crude  corrosive measures our governments use, which ultimately undermine the foundations of western freedoms.
After 4 months in Belmarsh, Londons Central Criminal Court acquitted him yesterday of all charges, prosecutors saying "  there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction in this case.'"
"The more this continues, the more it's going to alienate people." Begg  said about his case. Campaigners are  now concerned that the governments new hardened line as spelled  out at their recent party conference  will result in  greater harassment and victimisation.
So  it comes that an innocent man, has been freed  for the second time in his life. Lets hope his voice can now be used again to speak out against injustice and to contribute to  our understanding of each other , and that the world knows now what was  always crystal clear -that this is an innocent man.
I am overjoyed by his release but outraged by the imprisonment itself.
Gareth Peirce Beggs solicitor said : "Moazzam Begg is a good and brave man. He is a rare individual who will talk to  everyone and listen to everyone, even to those he profoundly  disagrees. He has spent the near decade since he was released from the  the torture of Bagram and Guantanamo in attempting to wake the world up  to injustice  and to comprhehend its causes and effects. His intelligent  voice of reason and  intelligence is desperately  needed now. We are relieved he is free again."
Long may it be so.

Here is a link to CagePrisoners the human rights group founded by Moazzam Begg

http://www.cageuk.org/

Cassetteboy - Cameron's Conference Rap

Applause please for Cassette Boy , with another fantastic satirical mashup.
Cassette Boy has made him speak the truth for once. Seriously though Dave thanks for legalising parody videos.