After the fires of solstice have burned low
The constancy of summer returns,
Honey bees buzzing again
Zig-zagging foragers of time,
Freely dancing in communication
Round and round our gardens,
As the days warm and glow
They ravish flowers, suck on sweet nectar,
Release their tiny footprints onto leaves
Beautiful winged creatures of sanctity,
All of them endangered now
Because of chemicals and pesticides,
And the garden pest known as man
Releasing a barrage of poisons,
Intent now on making mischief
Hurrying this planet towards extinction.
The above is a powerful video by Lowkey ft. Mai Khalil Kareem Dennis (born 23 May 1986), better known by his stage name is an English rapper, and political activist of Iraqi descent known for his controversial lyrics on real life issues.In the song Lowkey delivers a conscious message
in his lyrics, contains devastating
truths about war, migration and the underlying systemic issues that
surround them Here in this song he potrays what's been going on in the world today.
Young lives are being taken away everyday. The song 'Ahmed’ is an emotive, moving dissection of the Syrian refugee crisis and
the mass desensitization that we’ve seen in its aftermath.
Please Share this to anyone
you know that's willing to listen..For all the children and refugees experiencing the flames of wars in middle east. Listen now with your hearts and minds.
Father Miguel hidalgo y Costilla Mexican insurgent Catholic priest who became known as the "father of Mexican
independence," was born on May 8, 1753, at his father's hacienda near
Guanajuato, Mexico of pure Spanih blood making him a criolla. Under the strict Spanish caste system of the day, Hidlgo's rights a criolla were far less than those of a person born in Spain known as peninsulars, but slightly better than those of an Indio or a person born of mixed Spanish and Indio blood known as mestizo. Hidalgo grew shocked and outraged by the impoverished and oppressed
condition of the people there. His dissatisfaction with Spanish rule
would grow and lead him to form an army of more than ninety thousand
poor farmers and others who shared his sentiments to fight for
independence from Spain.
A
Roman Catholic, Hidalgo’s father made sure his sons were well-educated.
Miguel Hidalgo studied with the Jesuits and later in Mexico City
where he learned Latin but also various indigenous languages. Hidalgo
was ordained as a priest in 1799. He taught and eventually became Dean
of the Colegio de San Nicholas in Michoacan. His espousal of Enlightened ideas imported from Europe eventually led
to his removal from this college and transfer to the Dolores parish.
Hidalgo’s ideas about the priesthood were certainly revolutionary for
the times; he did not support the ideal of clerical celibacy openly living with a mistress and
fathered several children in his life. He was forced to appear before
the Inquisition for his beliefs but was not found guilty. While in
Dolores, Hidalgo often disregarded Spain’s class system and frequently
socialized with Creoles, Mestizos, and Indigenous people.
Despite his traditional education for the priesthood , Hidalgo rejected or questioned many of Catholicism's most fundamental tenets, including the Virgin birth, clerical celibacy and the existence of hell. Until 1809 he pursued his
priestly functions and exerted himself to introduce various forms of
industry among his parishioners at Dolores. After Napoleon's invasion of
Spain in 1808, the colonies, unwilling to accept a French ruler, loudly
proclaimed Ferdinand VII as king. The societies they formed professed
loyalty to Spain, but authorities suspected they were designed to
prepare for independence.
The local parish priest was one of the most influential in the community and Father hidalgo often served as the host for social gatherings in his home where he would speak to a elect group of friends and potential conspirators about whether it was the duty of the people to obe y an unjust tyrant or overthrow him. The unjust tyrant he was referring to was Charles IV, the present king of Spain.
Not only did Father Hidalgo observe injustice and cruelty in his daily work with the poor, he also strongly opposed many of the king's policies. For example, rather than encouraging the growth of the colony as his father, had done, Charles1V exploited the country's wealth with schemes like his plan to use the charitable funds of the church to help pay for his European wars.
Hidalgo and several of his
friends engaged in preparations which the authorities considered
treasonable. Warned by the arrest of a friend, Hidalgo gathered several
hundred of his parishioners, and on September 16,
1810, Father Hidalgo rang the church bell to announce revolution against
the Spanish. Reaching out to the crowd from the pulpit in what has become known as the "Gritto de Dolores", (the Cry of Dolores) calling upon the people to revolt against the European-born Spaniards who had overthrown the Spanish Viceroy and announced his intention to declare independence from Spain and exhorted the crowd to join him. The people responded by shouting 'death to the Gauchupines" A name given to the Peninsulares.
Many flocked to join him, and he soon had an army of 600 men, the uprising pitted the poor indigeneous indians and and mixed mestizo groups against the privileged classes and pushed them into a violent and bloody battle for freedom from Spain.
Hilgado's declaration launched a decade long struggle that ended 300 years of colonial rule, established a independent Mexico anf gelped cultivaye a unique Mexican identity. The anniversary of Hidalgo's call is
celebrated as the country's birthday.
Joined by Ignacio Allende as their military commander, and with Father Hidalgo at their head, the army of the people marched for San Miguel, gathering strength as it marched. The revolutionaries surprising the authorities with their intensity took San Miguel with little trouble and the local militia men joined them. The rebellion snowballed with astonishing rapidity. Looting and
pillaging Spanish residences and public buildings, armed with machetes,
slings, and farming implements, the crowd had become an impassioned mob
of thousands.
Around noon on September 28, the ragtag army reached the provincial
capital of Guanajuato, where they had their first sustained encounter
with the Spanish military. Overrunning the town by sheer force of
numbers, the crowd slaughtered some 500 Spaniards, burning, pillaging,
looting the granary, and wreaking widespread havoc.
Over the next month, the army continued on its rampage, taking the
provincial capitals of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, and Valladolid
before heading toward Mexico City, the heart of Spanish power in the
Americas.
On October 30, 1810, at Monte de las Cruces on the outskirts of Mexico
City, Hidalgo’s 80,000 to 100,000-strong army defeated a much smaller
but formidable Spanish force sent to stop them. At this point, Hidalgo
made what many consider his most momentous and enigmatic decision.
Instead of following the advice of his lieutenants and sentiments of the
crowd and descending into the colony’s capital city, he opted to
retreat. Scholars continue to debate his reasons, though most consider
that he found intolerable the prospect of the mass slaughter that would
surely follow.
From this point the movement rapidly lost momentum, as his makeshift army divided and desertions mounted. Hidalgo lost heart and retreated. His forces were decisively
defeated at Aculo on November 7, 1810, and at the bridge of Calderón on
Río Santiago on January 17, 1811.Father Hidalgo and Allende were forced to flee north, but once in Texas they were betrayed by local insurrrection leader Ignacio Elizonda and turned over to the Spanish authorities. The Spanish sent them to Chihuahua to stand trial where they were found guilty and sentenced to death. Allende was executed by firing squad on June 26, 1811, shot in the back as a sign of dishonor, but Father Hidalgo, as a priest, had to undergo a civil trial and answer to the inquisition as well. He was eventually stripped of his priesthood and executed as a rebel on July 30th. The heads of both Hidalgo and Allende were preserved and hung on the walls of the granary at Guanahuato as a warning to those foolish or brave enough to follow in their footsteps.
Even though the revolution had failed, it opened the people eyes to the possibility of freedom and the priests martyrdom allowed others to pick up his mantle. The struggle for independence continued for several years until a group of liberals forced the king to make changes that frightened the conservatives in Mexico City. The conservatives finally joined forces with the followers of Father Hidalgo to defeat the Spanish, and on August 24, 1821, a treaty was signed granting Mexico independence from Spain. Mexicans celebrate national independence on September 15–16, in
commemoration of Hidalgo’s Grito de Dolores, even though actual
independence did not come until 11 years after the revered priest’s
fateful cry. Every year at midnight on September 15 Mexicans led by their President, shout the Grito, honouring the crucial and impulsive action that was the catalyst for the country;s bloody struggle for independence. Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla is today remembered and revered as the
father of his country and is seen as the great hero of Mexico's' long
struggle for Independence and champion of the downtrodden and
oppressed. His insurgency lit the fire for revolution, he remains an icon of liberation. His remains lie
in Mexico City in a monument known as 'the angel of Independence along
with other revolutionary heroes and though he never lived to see an independent Mexico ,he is regarded as the 'father ; of the nation ad is t focus of the annual celebration on 15/16,
Hidalgo is immortalised by the works of Diego
Rivera) and art associated with the Mexican muralist movement and memorial statues that have become tourist attractions.
Many travellers to Guanajuato make a point to visit the legendary place where Hidalgo first made his cry for independence.
Tony Benn as one of the leading light in Britain's Labour Party opposed the conservatism of Tony
Blair's New Labour, and was a strong voice for socialism and a prominent
supporter of the struggles for justice, In the 1980s, when Benn seemed to have a realistic chance of aspiring to
the Labour leadership, he was constantlyattacked and vilified by the right-wing
press in the same way that Jeremy Corbyn is today.Truth,
fairness and common sense stamped upon in pursuit of wealth
and power. He was a not your typical politician but Benn who died a few years ago leaves a powerful legacy and principles that live on. The following speech is ten minutes of his wisdom.
Tony Benn - 10 min History Lesson for Neoliberals
Today I pause to remember an exceptional photographer, who blazed new paths for women in photography, who contributed a unique and
unusual body of work, who died far too young.
Gerda Taro was born as Gerta Pohorylle on 1 August, 1910 to a
middle class Jewish family who had migrated from Poland to Stuttgart, Germany, she attended the Königin-Charlotte Realschule in
Stuttgart, the Internat Villa Florissant in Lausanne, Switzerland, the
Höhere Handelsschule (Business College) in Stuttgart, and the Gaudig
Schul in Leipzig.
As oppression of Jews and other groups became a matter of national
policy, Gerta Pohorylle became more political. One night on her way to a
dance she stopped to help some activists distribute anti-Nazi
pamphlets. She was subsequently arrested and spent the night in jail,
where she drew attention for being the only inmate dressed in evening
wear. In 1933, after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor,and made life for many Jews inhospitable and risky, so her family
decided to leave Germany. Her parents left for Palestine, her brothers
for England. Pohorylle decided to flee to Paris.Here she was first
employed as a secretary to the psychoanalyst René Spitz. She would find work as a picture editor for Alliance Photo, an
international picture agency. She met another displaced Jew, a young
Hungarian man, his name was André
Friedmann. Pohorylle and Friedmann became romantically involved and
moved in together. In the spring of 1936, they
reinvented themselves as Robert Capa and Gerda Taro.Capa taught Taro how to photograph, she made him
presentable for employers and created his “brand”.
In 1936 civil war erupted in Spain. Fascist/Nationalist forces,
backed by Nazi Germany, attempted a coup against the elected government
of the Republic, comprised of socialist and liberal parties. As
steadfast socialists, Capa and Taro left Paris and headed for Spain to
cover the war.From August 1936
on, her brief career
consisted almost exclusively of dramatic photographs from the front
lines of the Spanish Civil War. Taro worked alongside Capa, and
the two collaborated closely.They both captured arresting images of the devastation hitting the
country; torturous conditions in hospitals, militiawomen training for
combat, children playing on barricades, morgues and munitions factories
in Madrid, but most shocking were the photos taken from the frontline.
These images were then sent to leftist publications back in France,
however the photo credit was always simply ‘Capa’.
Gerda Taro and soldier, Córdoba front, 1936. By Robert Capa
Taro's work over time got overshadowed by that of Capra, and their lives since have come to represent a romantic vision of the stateless person involving themselves in terrible
battles: the social battles, the political battles of the time. However she
had a different aesthetic than Capa, her pictures
are much more posed, using strong camera angles. Capa was much more into
movement.As she chronicled the Spanish Civil War, she spotlighted the small
and intimate moments that humanized the conflict: Among the memorable pictures that survive by her are ones of defiant
farmers, fists clenched, photographed from audacious angles, photographs
of strong Republican militia women training on the beach outside Barcelona in
1936,
A photograph of a solitary soldier playing bugle against a backdrop of sky;
a young boy standing near a trench, wearing the cap of the FAI (Iberian Anarchist Federation) looking
ready to join the fight.
Perhaps most famous is her silhouette of a
woman with a pistol, down on one knee and concentrating furiously on her
shot… yet wearing impeccable high heels. Like many of Taro's wartime
images, it's an incredibly memorable shot.
When viewing her photographs you don’t feel like a spectator; on the
contrary, you feel like a participant involved with the action. Taro
believed photographs were a powerful medium which could influence public
opinion.
On 5 September, 1936. Taro and
Capa accompanied some Loyalist volunteers on field manoeuvres near
Cordoba. The manoeuvre were unexpectedly interrupted when they were
ambushed by Nationalist troops. Taro had already used up all her film;
Capa, however, shot the photograph that made him famous the photo that has been called the greatest war photograph of all time.
It shows a Loyalist soldier a split second after he has been shot.
When she returned from the front, Taro traded in her bulky Rolleiflex
medium format camera for a small Leica. She abandoned the use of more posed photographs that could be viewed as excercises in propoganda and began to shoot in a journalistic style. She and Capa
believed the only way to document the realities of war was to be as
close to it as possible. "That is really the only way in which to be
able to understand the fighting," Taro told a colleague. Capa’s comment
on that approach is more widely quoted: "If your pictures aren’t good
enough, you’re not close enough." Taro lived that approach. With or without Capa, Taro was everywhere in Spain, and started to put herself in increasingly dangerous situations, always seeking
the action. She covered the failed Loyalist offensive of the Navacerrada
Pass, which was later the subject of Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. She accompanied a team of dinamiteros, bomb-makers, on a mission in Madrid. She always sought out the locations where something was happening or about to happen.She is
believed to be the first woman photographer to accompany troops into
combat.The republican fighters had great respect for her.
Gerda Taro spent the last day of her life in the trenches of Brunete, west of Madrid, holed up with Republican fighters.It
was a critical moment in the Spanish Civil War - Gen Franco's forces
had just retaken the town, inflicting heavy losses on the Republicans'
best troops, who were now under fire as they retreated.As bombs fell and planes strafed the ground with machine-gun fire, Taro kept taking photographs.
She
was due to return to France the next day and only left the trenches
when she ran out of film, making her way to a nearby town.She jumped onto the running boards of a car transporting wounded
soldiers, but it collided with an out-of-control tank and she was
crushed. She tragically died in hospital from her injuries early the following
morning.The war that made Taro's career also took her life. She was just 26
years old.She became the first female war photographer to die on assignement.Her photographs from that day, 25 July 1937, were never found.
Her funeral in
Paris (on Aug. 1, 1937, which would have been her 27th birthday) drew
thousands who hailed her as a martyr to anti-Fascism. The French writer
Louis Aragon and the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda were among those in
attendance. Alberto Giacometti, the sculptor, designed her memorial.A few years later this celebrated photographer had sunk into obscurity,
her negatives lost and few remembering her work, overshadowed by Capa's monumental reputation within twentieth century photography.However a recent discovery of a vast collection of Capa and Taro's photographs,known as the Mexican Suitcase and recently exhibited in the US, France and Spain, has served to highlight her well.Taro helped expose the bloody price the fascist forces imposed on the Spanish people.
Taro’s photographs – taken in Valencia in 1937
a few weeks after the infamous Guernica raid as painted by Picasso – are
so close to you that you could almost touch the bodies and smell the
blood! They are truly shocking, honest and direct accounts of the price
of fascism.
Regardless of personal risk, she became a tireless witness to the Spanish civilian atrocities and terror. Ssentially, her fight against fascism was existential, based on her immediate experiences.Found decades later,
her photos have now been exhibited, demonstrating the depth she achieved
in a short career. Capa was devastated by the loss of his soul mate, feeling
guilty that he didn’t protect her, although he couldn’t have. He decided
to travel to China in 1938 and then to New York in 1939, photographing
World War II, the landing of American troops on Omaha beach on
D-Day—which are the source of his most well known photographs, the
liberation of Paris, and the Battle of the Bulge as a European
correspondent.Hi relationship with Ms. Taro was “a very painful private
matter,”he never quite recovered from the loss of his great love and never married, he also never attempted
to officially commemorate her except in his book “Death in the Making,”
about the Spanish Civil War.
We are fortunate many years later to understand now the scope and scale of Gerdo Taro's work and the incredible bravery she must have shown on the battleground that was Spain. Taro
is part of a small pantheon of women photographers who saw photography
as an extension of their political commitment and of their role as new
women. Let us forever remember her work and pioneering life, as her name is again in public
consciousness, lets not lose her memory to history, or forget others like her who put themselves in
incredibly dangerous situations for the sake of their art.Perhaps we can all surely aspire, to some degree, to the tight fit between
conviction and existence that Taro, in her brief tragic life, achieved.
The term "daylight robbery" isn't actually used to describe actual robberies - whatever time of day they
might take place. It is a figurative phrase that associates an instance
of unfair trading with actual robbery. Not just any old robbery, but
one so unashamed and obvious that it is committed in broad daylight.It is thought to have originated from the window tax as it was described by some as a "tax on light".
The Window Tax was introduced in 1696, during the reign of William III, when
Britain was burdened with expenses from The Glorious Revolution of 1688
and the costs of re-coinage necessitated by the "miserable state" of
existing coins, which had been reduced by clipping small portions of the
high grade silver coins. It was levied at two shilling on properties
with up to ten windows, rising to four shillings for houses with between
ten and twenty windows. It was extremely unpopular and to avoid paying
the tax some houses from the period can be seen to have windows
bricked-up.
The Window tax was abolished in England and Wales on this day 24th July 1851. But "daylight robbery continued . The capitalism of the 18th and 19th century
was built on the piracy and slavery of the 16th and 17th. Millions of
pounds of gold, silver and spices plundered from the "New World"
financed the basis of the banking and trade system. One of the first
commodities to be traded was human beings. Slavery played a vital in
the early years of capitalism. Many English titled families of today
owe their knighthoods and dukedoms to this sordid trade.
And some will argue that the current day-to-day running of the system is daylight robbery. A
worker's wages only represent a fraction of the value of his/her
labour. The rest flows into the boss's pocket. This was what Proudhon
meant by the oft quoted "property is theft", and the system continues to be run to ensure that we slave our lives away so that the rich can get richer in what amounts to daily robbery. Then there is the case of Sir Phillip Green who shamelessly indulged in all forms of perfectly legal daylight robbery, Phillip
Green bought BHS for £200m in 2000. When he bought it, the BHS pension
fund had a surplus of £5m, rising to £12m in 2001. Now the same pension
fund is suffering a black hole of £571m, and BHS as a whole owes debts of £1.3billion.
Green used its initial success to finance his takeover of the Arcadia
group (which includes Top Shop) in 2002. He then proceeded to
essentially rob it of a fortune, using BHS assets to back loans for
other businesses in his Arcadia empire; handing out £422m in dividends
(mostly to himself) over two years; above all, dodging Corporation Tax
by gifting his Monaco-based wife, Tina, a mind-boggling £1.2billion in
2005. All this helped Philip and Tina amass a personal fortune currently
standing at £3.22billion.
Having used and abused it for his own bounty hunt, Green then dumped the
ailing BHS (and its pension fund) on a three-times bankrupt, Dominic
Chappell, whose Retail Acquisitions Ltd had barely been heard of
previously - for a derisory £1, in March 2015. 11,000 workers were left abandoned facing an uncertain future , facing the job centre but for their former boss Green just another day in paradise. From
the lofty sundeck on his latest plaything, Sir Philip, dubbed Philip
Greed, can be found surveying the new £100million jewel in his fleet of three
superyachts.
He flew into Malta the other day by private jet to join his tax exile wife Lady Tina on board.
I guess we should continue to stand guard against daylight Robbery that takes place before our eyes, the wrecking ball of capitalism that is effecting peoples lives..
But the problem is that we live in a society where capitalism itself
has become rampantly feral. Feral politicians who cheat on their expenses,
feral bankers who plunder the public purse for all its worth, CEOs, hedge
fund operators and private equity geniuses who loot the world of wealth,
telephone and credit card companies load mysterious charges on
everyone’s bills, shopkeepers who price gouge, and, at the drop of a hat
swindlers and scam artists who get to practice three-card monte right up
into the highest echelons of the corporate and political world.
A political economy of mass dispossession, of predatory practices to
the point of daylight robbery, particularly of the poor and the
vulnerable, the unsophisticated and the legally unprotected, has become
the order of the day. I strongly recommend Naomi Klein's book The shock doctrine : The rise of disaster capitalism which explores the complexities of capitalism and the effects of it's daylight robbery much better than I ever could. On that note, after seriously depressing myelf, I'm off for a smoke, and to catch the evening light. Good evening.
Last week I heard that What’s Going On, one of the most enduring albums of all time, would be getting a documentary made about it,https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/13/marvin-gaye-family-approve-whats-going-on-documentary The album What’s Going On remains one of my all time favourites, have a copy on vinyl and cd, a tightly woven masterpiece of
message and music, mixing and matching many styles; soul, funk, doo-wop,
jazz, spiritual, and classical; often within the same song. Somehow,
Marvin Gaye transformed what could have been a heavy-handed rant against
the state of the world into a cry for compassion, with songs of faith
and hope, captured in beautiful, complex rhythms and music.
Released on May 21, 1971, the album is an introspective, politically
charged nine-piece song cycle in it Gaye addresses the ravages of the Vietnam War, drug addiction, poverty, civil unrest, police brutality, injustice and
even environmental issues.The subject matter is still as relevant as the crushing emotion is fresh, on every single listen.
Gaye was
singing to his generation in an effort to wake people up to the
struggles no one was willing to discuss at that time. But these songs
are universal; they've transcended their time and place. Listen
carefully and you'll notice how much they still resonate. In days like these full of agitation and confusion it still has the capacity to soothe and question at the same time.
Marvin Gaye's title track was message music with a difference. It
was an overture and an anthem. From its warm greetings between black men
to the steady slap and patter of the congas; and with Gaye's vocals,
which glided from sorrow into soaring at the bridge ;"What's Going On"
was and still is a poetic plea for justice and contemplation within
black communities. (The whole world could stand to tune in, as well.)
Forty-four years ago, Gaye found a way to offer up a prayer in the form of a
powerful question with an equally ringing affirmation.
The record as a whole remain astonishing, have had it on playing over and over, this afternoon whilst I've been writing this post. What's Going On was I guess the first soul album to finally catch up
with the musical and counter-cultural movement that developed in the
late sixties. Against the wishes of Motown and it's leader, Berry
Gordy, Marvin Gaye moved forward with an album that was finally able to
encompass the conciousness of his generation.
The album remains in my ears incredible. There's no other way to describe it. Marvin
Gaye set his sights high and completely succeeded. It's gotta be one of the most definite albums to have emerged from the soul genre.It still remains an album about the people, for the people. From track to track it flows so well, full of beauty and atmosphere and valid social critique. It really is essential listening. Music for now. Still highly relevant and relatable. Marvin Gaye's message from the
point of a dismayed man who believes love – not more hatred and
violence – is the answer still hits the spot for me everytime. Have a listen, delve in deep, enjoy, heddwch/peace.
Jean Charles de Menezes a 27 year old
Brazilian was shot today July 22nd 2005 by armed police or special forces despite being restrained, he was shot seven times in the head and once in the torso. No officers faced charges related to his death.
Everything was on high
alert following the London bombings of July 7th 2005 and some failed
bombing attempts on July 21st and it has been suggested that these events predisposed the police to
shoot first and ask questions later, though the inquest jury was unable
to decide on that issue. The end result was an innocent man was shot in the head several times at close range and lay dead, for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A killing since declared lawful according to the European Court for Human Rights http://www.rt.com/uk/337730-de-menezes-court-ruling/ a ruling that came as a huge blow to his family who had to endure a long legal battle and fight to achieve justice.Mr de Meneze's cousin Patricia da Silva said :" We had hoped that the ruling would give a glimmer of hope, not only to us, but to all other families who had been denied the right to justice after deaths at the hands of the police.We find it unbelievable that our innocent cousin could be shot seven
times in head by the Metropolitan police when he had done nothing wrong
and yet the police have not had to account for their actions.As we have always maintained, we feel that decisions about guilt and
innocence should be made by juries, not by faceless bureaucrats and we
are deeply saddened that we have been denied that opportunity yet again.
We will never give up our fight for justice for our beloved Jean
Charles."
Harriet Wistrich, solicitor for the Menezes family said,at the time “This is a
very disappointing decision for a family who have fought for the last
eleven years to get justice and accountability although we are pleased
to note that there were four of the 17 judges who dissented."This judgement will do nothing to counter a widely held belief –
particularly among marginalised communities – that there is one standard
for the police and another for the general public."
Between 1990 and 2015, there were 995 deaths in police custody or
following police contact and 55 fatal shootings by police officers in
the UK, but there has not been a single conviction
of a police officer as a result of any of these deaths. To some, this
is evidence of deplorable impunity; to others, instead it proves that
the police perform an at times unfathomably difficult job while acting
within the (criminal) law. What is beyond question is that this
statistic can only enhance the sense of injustice felt by the families
of those who lose their lives at the hands of the police.
There is a mosaic of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell station that continues to
serve as a memorial to the tragic death of an innocent man at the hands
of the Metropolitan Police.
I will mark his memory today with the following poignant song by the Folk singer and musician Chris Wood, called Hollow Wood his 2010 album Handmade Life, it really is quite beautiful and serves Jean de Menezes memory well in it there is pathos, tension, a climax
and many contrasts between the innocence of the victim, the failures of
the police and their technology and the inevitability of the end when the full force of the police
machinery descends upon an innocent young unarmed man wearing only a thin cotton jacket.
The songs tile is both a specific reference to the type of bullet used to kill him unleashing powerful forces on a young innocent. The hollow
point bullet has a with a pit or hollow in its tip, designed to
expand when it enters a target to decrease penetration and maximise
tissue damage. It is generally illegal in the UK.
Jean Charles's death was a hollow one, so, foolish, so pointless, no officer at any level has been disciplined or prosecuted for involvement in the slaying of Jean Charles.Will we see history repeated again, people treated like collateral damage.His family still seek justice and accountability Here's to the memory of Jean Charles de Menezes..We will always remember him and this grotesque miscarriage of justice and should never forget the lies the Met Police kept repeating to cover up the fact they held down an innocent man and shot him dead in cold blood. Thinking of the family and friends of Jean Charles de Menezes tonight.
Hollow Point - Chris Wood
Awake arise you drowsy sleeper
Awake arise it’s almost day.
No time to lie, no time to slumber,
No time to dream your life away.
It was a gorgeous summer's morning
It was a gorgeous summer's day.
His cotton jacket was all he carried
As he walked out to face the day.
As he was walking he was wondering
With a little dream as a young man will
And never heard footsteps behind him
By the bus stop at Tulse Hill.
But from his front door they’d had him covered.
They were right behind him from the start.
And though the video was buggered
Someone decided he looked the part.
Here comes the bus, the front doors hiss
He climbs aboard and so do they.
And now he swings down to his seat -
It’s just another working day.
But there was something in the air that morning
As they came down to Brixton town.
They sealed the station without warning -
There was something going down.
And so they journeyed on and onward.
He called his friend just to explain
How he would be late and not to worry,
And so to Stockwell Tube he came ….
Now he’s on their cameras, he’s on their radar,
He’s on their crackling radios,
His Oyster Card is in his pocket,
At 10am through the gates he goes.
And down and down dropped the moving staircase,
Deeper down go the others too.
And through the hour glass the sand is falling -
There is nothing they can do ….
When the train comes in they are right beside him.
Some say three and some say four,
Some say the cameras they were not working
As he sat down near the open door.
If he’d have stopped, if he’d have listened …
Commissioner said that it was no good -
He said they gave him no instructions
That an innocent man could have understood.
Just a Brazilian electrician -
Christ only knows what he came here for.
The hollow point was the ammunition.
Now it’s our turn now for some shock and awe….
Awake arise you drowsy sleeper,
Awake arise it’s almost day.
No time to lie, no time to slumber,
No time to dream your life away.
It was a gorgeous summer's morning,
It was a gorgeous summer's day.
His cotton jacket was all he carried
( Here's a poem for Donald Trump that I dropped down the pan
crumpled wet and soggy, maybe I shouldn't have saved it,
the original resting place captured the true essence of the man.)
Storm clouds billowing now across a frightened sky
Voice of hate and division spreads discordant cry,
The well of hope seems to have dried
As arrogant voice rises making people blind.
Fractured freedom try's to hold it's breath
In times of sadness between life and death,
As walls are proposed to keep people out
Waves of tears grow among seas of doubt.
If Trump triumphs and closes all the doors
Lets fear for his country as kindness gets lost,
As divisions get wider, faultlines grow bigger
Waiting in the darkness, unreason cruelly sniggers.
Hate-mongers and right wing bigots dancing now
In the land of liberty, the home of the brave,
Is this the beginning or the end, as intolerance consumes
Is it not the time to mend existing cracks and wounds?
Lets pray for America, lets pray they are not too blind,
Lets pray for sanity, lets pray for human kind,
Lets pray for the world, lets pray for peace,
Lets pray that one day blinkered thought will cease.
Over 150 renowned international writers, poets, and literary figures, including
Alice Walker, Dave Eggers, Natasha Trethewey, Naomi Klein and Susan Abulhawa have
signed a petition calling for the release of jailed
Palestinian poet , Dareen Tatour.
Dareen a 33-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel from the village
Al-Reineh near Nazareth,
Dareen has been writing poetry since she was 7. She is also a
photographer, and has toured villages in present-day Israel that were
depopulated of their original Palestinian inhabitants during the Nakba, As well as capturing images of these villages, she has set out to tell stories about the people who lived in them.
Her photographs have been displayed in a number of exhibitions. She also directed a short documentary about the ethnically cleansed village of Damoun. The Latest Invasion, her first collection of poems, was published in 2010.
was arrested by Israeli authorities in October
of 2015 for a series of poems she posted on her own personal Facebook
page and YouTube during the height of latest wave of violence between
Palestinians and Israelis. She was charged with incitement to violence
and identifying with a terrorist organization. She spent several months in three different jails – enduring five
separate interrogations – before being confined to house arrest in a
rented apartment in a suburb of Tel Aviv since January.
The main clause of her indictment was based on a poem that she had
allegedly posted on YouTube under the title: “Qawem ya sha’abi,
qawemhum” (Resist my people, resist them). There is nothing actually illegal in the poem not even according to Israel’s laws.Although the poem urges resistance to Israel, it does not call for
specific acts of violence. Rather, it draws attention to violent attacks
on Palestinians by Israelis. But the context matters too, and
the poem came out against a backdrop of Palestinian youths clashing with
the occupation forces. And the images of these, according to the
Israeli prosecution and media, are of “Palestinians engaged in terrorist
activity”! Dareen joins over 400 Palestinians who have been punished and targeted for their posts on social media. Palestinians often found guilty because they do not like their oppressors.
Tatour faces up to five years years in prison, according to her lawyer. On Sunday, June 26, leading Israeli newpaper Haaretz ran a board editorial titled “Free the Palestinian Poet, Arrested for Expressing her Opinions.” The justice system did not listen.The following day, a few Israeli writers held a solidarity event, and Dareen Tatour wrote an open letter of thanks, published by the website Free Haifa .
The petition which is still open to ignatories can be found here:- https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/dareen/
It reads as follows:-."We believe in the
rights of artists and writers to freely express their artistic vision,
and share work freely. The Israeli government’s actions reveal a desire
to silence Tatour, part of a larger pattern of Israeli repression
against all Palestinians," the literary figures stated in their
petition.
"Expressing resistance to oppression and occupation through poetry is by
nature non-violent and should not be criminalized by any government,"
they added.
This petition marks the launch of an international solidarity campaign
organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and Adalah-NY to demand the release
of Tatour and to draw attention to the widespread arrests and detentions
of Palestinians for political expression on social media, as well as
Israel’s targeting of Palestinian writers and artists.
Tatour is banned from the entire northern district of Israel as well
as from using the internet. She is forced to wear an electronic ankle
bracelet which monitors her movements. .
The literary organization PEN in response to sustained pressure, released a statement on Tatour’s persecution but sadly denied Tatour’s very self-identification as a
Palestinian, the group called her an “Arab-Israeli” and did not call for her release or failed to
mention Israel’s ongoing military occupation.
In a brief statement sent to Jewish Voice for Peace on 11 July Tatour explained the effect that her
imprisonment has had on her work.
“The poem, if it remains on paper, only adds to its writer’s worries
and fatigue. The worst thing that can happen to an artist in general,
and a poet in particular, is to be imprisoned in the democratic era in
which we live for expressing their opinion,” Tatour writes.
“Imprisonment is tantamount to cutting the cords of feelings and
emotions whose letters connect between what they are writing and the
people,” she adds, “and if this communication is cut there is no value
to all to what is written by this poet, no matter how outstanding their
style. Actually there is no value and meaning to the human existence of
the individual in this democracy and basically no value to this
democracy.”
“My freedom, after nine months of harsh detention and exile, is a
guarantee to the endurance of freedom for every poet, writer and artist,
wherever they are,” she adds.
Pressure continues to mount on Israel to give Tatour that freedom.Award-winning poet, songwriter, and novelist, Naomi Shihab Nye, referred to the way
Tatour’s use of the word “resistance” has been criminalized: “The word
“resist” – when it is resisting oppression and inequality – will always
be a gleaming, beautiful, positive word. In fact, it needs to be said
more often.” Writing poetry should not be considered a crime, Dareen just used her freedom of expresion and her pen to write about the plight of her people and the injustice they daily feel and encounter, I don't feel that this warrants any form of punishment.She comes from a long tradition of poets in Palestinian society who try to evoke and communicate and reveal their sense of anger and sorrow. Poets who carry the additional role of being spokespersons, who try to
articulate the struggles, desires, and political views of the people.
I would urge voices of good conscience and fellow poets to support Dareen's continuing plight, and join the call to free her.
Here, the poet Tariq al Haydar translates Tatour’s words into English:
Resist, my My people, Resist them
Resist, my people, resist them.
In Jerualem, I dread my wounds and breathed my sorrows
And carried the soul in my palm
For an Arab Palestine.
I will not succumb to the "peaceful solution,"
Never lower my flags
Until I evict them from my land
I cast them aside for a coming time
Resist , my people, resist them.
Reit the settler's robbery
And follow the caravan of martyrs.
Shred the digraceful contitution
Which imposed degradation and humiliation
And deterred us from restoring justice.
They burned blameles children;
As for Hadil, they niped her in public,
Killed her in broad daylight.
Resist, my people, resist them,
Resist the colonialist's onlaught.
Pay no mind to his agents among us
Who chain us with peaeful illusion.
Do not fear doubtful tonques;
The truth in your heart i stronger,
As long a you resist in a land
That has lived through raids and victory.
So ali called from his grave:
Resist, my rebellious people.
Write me as prose on the agarwoood;
My remain have you as a response.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist, my people resist them.
You can stay abreast of Dareen’s case at the following links :-
Saved myself £25 but still incredibly sad, because of the 138 Labour MPs who yesterday voted with the Tory
government to spend £200 billion on weapons of mass destruction, and have
demonstrated again why unlike Jeremy Corbyn and the 48 who voted
against do not represent the real opposition to this government that the
country needs and makes the split within the party even deeper. The decision to hold a vote now was made not in the interests of national security, but simply to embarrass the Labour Party.Theresa May and the rest of the Tory's must be laughing their socks off.
Parliament has voted now in favour of renewing Britain's nuclear deterrent, Trident by a majority of 355 after it was backed by almost the entire Conservative Party and more than half of Labour MPs , the vote was passed despite opposition from Scottish National party MPs and those of Plaid Cymru
and thankfully my local MP liberal Mark Williams plus the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong unilateralist who spoke
out against the plans during a debate in parliament on Monday
afternoon.
Feel absolutely betrayed and has left me bitter and angry but I guess it solidifies my view that the Parliamentary Labour Party does not represent it's members, I was a member back in the day, drawn in chiefly because of it's position of unilateralism a party that seemed to be about principles, for peace that have for a long time now been sadly abandoned.Whose idea was it in the first place to commission Trident, Tony bloody Blair who admitted that the only purpose of maintaining the nuclear weapons system was to give Britain status. Remember that each of these warheads is eight times more powerful than the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima.These weapons have no legitimate purpose: their use should be illegal
under almost every conceivable circumstance, as huge numbers of
civilian casualties would be unavoidable. That is why the International
Court of Justice ruled in 1996 the threat or use of nuclear weapons
would be contrary to the rules of international law. Not only are these weapons immoral, potentially genocidal and
strategically irrelevant in the face of the realistic threats we face
today, they are also hugely expensive.
The Government's National Security Strategy identifies international
terrorism, cyber-attacks and natural hazards as greater threats than
nuclear war.These warheads cannot be used without inflicting massive loss of civilian life and poisoning the environment for decades.
Fair play however to SNP MP member Mhari Black who said that " These nuclear weapons serve no other purpose than to satisfy the ego of the British establishment, we can't afford to look after the disabled, we can't afford to look after the unemployed, we can't afford to pay pensions on time, and all the people who have been making that argument for austerity are now the very same people who are telling us that we can afford to write a blank cheque." and to principled Welsh MPs who followed their conscience.
Ditching Trident, and joining the vast majority of countries without nuclear weapons, should have been the common sense decision for Parliament to take, and would have been the right thing to do.
I will add that Nuclear weapons don't make me feel safer a world without these weapons of mass destruction would though. The money saved by ditching Trident would be enough for a fair social security system and a properly funded NHS enabling us to build
120 state of the art hospitals and employing 150,000 new nurses, build 3
million affordable homes, install solar panels in every home in the UK
or pay the tuition fees for 8 million students.
The vote effectively means the UK will continue to possess and deploy
its nuclear weapons arsenal, threatening other countries with
annihilation and exposing its people to serious risks of nuclear
accidents, use or attacks, for a further generation.
Yes said it before, but yes my mind truly boggles at the stupidity of politicians playing dangerous games with our lives.
On the stereo now, the singer and punk pioneer Alan Vega of the seminal New York influential electronic and proto-punk band Suicide,whose minimalist music, a fusion of his partner Martin Rev's
ominous, repetitive keyboards and Vega's rockabilly snarl, helped paved
the way for the electronic artists of the future has passed away, aged 78 going peacefully in his sleep on July the 16th
.The following is a statement from his family :-
"With profound sadness and a stillness that only news like this can
bring, we regret to inform you that the great artist and creative force,
Alan Vega has passed away.Alan was not only
relentlessly creative, writing music and painting until the end, he was
also startlingly unique. Along with Martin Rev, in the early 1970's,
they formed the two person avant band known as Suicide. Almost
immediately, their incredible and unclassifiable music went against
every possible grain. Their confrontational live performances,
light-years before Punk Rock, are the stuff of legend. Their first,
self-titled album is one of the single most challenging and noteworthy
achievements in American music. Alan Vega was the quintessential
artist on every imaginable level. His entire life was devoted to
outputting what his vision commanded of him. One of the greatest aspects
of Alan Vega was his unflinching adherence to the demands of his art.
He only did what he wanted. Simply put, he lived to create. After
decades of constant output, the world seemed to catch up with Alan and
he was acknowledged as the groundbreaking creative individual he had
been from the very start. Alan's life is a lesson of what it is
to truly live for art. The work, the incredible amount of time required,
the courage to keep seeing it and the strength to bring it forth--this
was Alan Vega.Alan is survived by his amazing family, wife Liz
and son Dante. His incredible body of work, spanning five decades, will
be with us forever."
Some will say that without Suicide there would be no punk,
no alternative music as we know and love it today.His band was unique inspiring a
generation to pick up an instrument and tell us a story without
constraints or walls, the ugly truth about life. Baby baby baby, he’s blazing away, like a stars stars stars in a universe. RIP Alan Vega, your legacy and influence lives on.
Today marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, a moment in time that has come to represent the defining struggle
of the age: a clash between not just between the opposing political
ideologies of socialism and fascism, but between civilization and
barbarism, good and evil.
The fascists launched a coup against the democratically elected Popular Front Government in Madrid on the night of 17th July 1936 inpired mostly by General Franco. Hitler and Mussolini quickly sent aircraft, troops and supplies to the
right-wing generals bent on overthrowing Spain's elected government.
But the people rose, millions of people around the world felt passionately that rapidly
advancing fascism must be halted in Spain; and more than 35,000 volunteers from dozens of other countries went to help
defend the Spanish Republic, forces of red and
black fought back united against fascism. In the countryside, peasants took control
of the land, redistributing
large estates and, in many places, collectivizing the land and setting
up communes and a civil war was was waged, the workers immediately set up barricades and within hours the rising
had been defeated. Arms were seized and given to workers who were
dispatched to other areas to prevent risings. Madrid was also saved
because of the heroism and initiative of the workers. Hearing of what
had happened in Barcelona they had stormed the main army base in the
city. Workers' militias
were established. Workplaces were taken over and for ten months after July 1936, the people held power. Taking over
the factories and the running of the whole of society. They organised
workers’ committees in enterprises and streets. They believed that they
had power and fought to defend and extend it.
But in a series of tragic events were sadly defeated aided by the British government who
had agreed to a policy of 'non-intervention' along with the help of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. By April 1939, all of Spain was under fascist control and
Franco declared a victory .Solidifying his power with a brutal dictatorship by oppressing and systematically killing any political opposition.Over half a million people were killed in
the war, and in the next few years many tens of thousands more were
executed, not forgetting all those who died from
malnutrition, starvation, and war-engendered disease. General Franco's military regime remained in power
until his death in 1975 depriving Spain of
freedom for several decades afterwards, the wound inflicted still resonates.
About 300 people volunteered from Wales against the tyranny of fascism,
with 35 of whom not returning home but the important historical truth is
the international flavour of those who volunteered to fight in this
brutal war. A great idealistic cause of the first half of the twentieth
century, that has been of great interest to me over the years. Two local
people from my neck of the woods went to serve Arthur Morris and a
Percy Jones. More information here http://irelandscw.com/docs-WelshMorris
, I have yet though to see a monument erected to them. Over 40,000 other selfless men and women fought
side by side for the ideas of liberty and social justice, solidarity and
mutual aid from 53 different nationalities. Rallying to the republican
cause.
For many it was not just a war to defeat the fascists it was the
beginning of a new society. A revolution in fact,
unfortunately revolutions do not succeed when the people are divided. There are many lessons to be learnt from this struggle, a struggle that
continues to do this day.
Lets not forget all those who were killed serving with the International Brigades who nobly fought bravely in a spirit of solidarity, and political and moral awareness to try and save us from fascism's threat that still sadly lingers and haunts us today.The dark shadow cast by the Spanish Civil war, still matters, and the wound inflicted on Spain still within living memory for many has yet to close. We
must continue to resist oppressive forces, with our shout of no
pasaran.
The poet and political activist John Corford was just 21 years old when he died in Spain in August 1936, I will leave you with these two poems by him written in the teeth of death. Poem
Heart of the heartless world,
Dear heart, the thought of you
Is the pain at my side,
The shadow that chills my view.
The wind rises in the evening,
Reminds that autumn is near.
I am afraid to lose you,
I am afraid of my fear.
On the last mile to Huesca,
The last fence for our pride,
Think so kindly, dear, that I
Sense you at my side.
And if bad luck should lay my strength
Into the shallow grave,
Remember all the good you can;
Don’t forget my love.
A letter from Aragon
This is a quiet sector of a quiet front.
We buried Ruiz in a new pine coffin,
But the shroud was too small and his washed feet stuck out.
The stink of his corpse came through the clean pine boards
And some of the bearers wrapped handkerchiefs round their faces.
Death was not dignified.
We hacked a ragged grave in the unfriendly earth
And fired a ragged volley over the grave.
You could tell from our listlessness, no one much missed him.
This is a quiet sector of a quiet front.
There is no poison gas and no H. E.
But when they shelled the other end of the village
And the streets were choked with dust
Women came screaming out of the crumbling houses,
Clutched under one arm the naked rump of an infant.
I thought: how ugly fear is.
This is a quiet sector of a quiet front.
Our nerves are steady; we all sleep soundly.
In the clean hospital bed, my eyes were so heavy
Sleep easily blotted out one ugly picture,
A wounded militiaman moaning on a stretcher,
Now out of danger, but still crying for water,
Strong against death, but unprepared for such pain.
This on a quiet front.
But when I shook hands to leave, an Anarchist worker
Said: 'Tell the workers of England
This was a war not of our own making
We did not seek it.
But if ever the Fascists again rule Barcelona
It will be as a heap of ruins with us workers beneath it.'
reprinted from Penguin Book of Spanish Civil War Verse, edited by Valentine Cunningham (Penguin, 1980)
Some positivity today, here is one of my favourite poets Benjamin Zephaniah's passisonate, defense of the strength of Britain's multicultural cohesion.It reminds us that anyone with a fixed idea of what Britain is, is actually anti-British.
Britain has always been multicultural, right back to settlers in
medieval times. I will add that the world is a melting pot blended with various attributes, qualitities and culture, the following recipe simply explores the diversity and richness that we all share.
Take some Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.
Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.
Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Sudanese.
Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians
And Pakistanis,
Combine with some Guyanese
And turn up the heat.
Sprinkle some fresh Indians, Malaysians, Bosnians,
Iraqis and Bangladeshis together with some
Afghans, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese
And Palestinians
Then add to the melting pot.
Leave the ingredients to simmer.
As they mix and blend allow their languages to flourish
Binding them together with English.
Allow time to be cool.
Add some unity, understanding, and respect for the future,
Serve with justice
And enjoy.
Note: All the ingredients are equally important. Treating one
ingredient better than another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste.
Warning: An unequal spread of justice will damage the people and
cause pain. Give justice and equality to all.
This sticker sticks fascists!
The world is currently experiencing an escalation in racism and xenophobia with an increase in a wave of hate crime and racial abuse following the EU referendum. Violence and intimidation and calls of 'go home' directed against minorities, racist graffiti daubed on community centres, we must condemn all those that try to stoke up division in our society, prevent bigotry from spreading and becoming the new norm.
It is our duty to reaffirm that everyone is welcome in our communities, apart from rascists and fascists of course.We should offer genuine solidarity with victims of any racist incident
that occurs – and feel bold enough to intervene when they happen.We must seek to challenge and defeat the politics of hate within our local communities , building continuing resiliance and resistance to the politics of hate and fear, The fascists may spread fear and division but we can counter them with unity and hope, spreading a vision of peaceful co-existence and intercultural respect. The destructiveness of fascism – and racism more generally – is not
limited to its principal enemies. Far from affording privileges to large
swathes of society as some suggest, the oppression of marginalised
groups hurts us all.We have the abilities to stand united against our common enemy, to show refugees
that they are welcome, and to show the fascists that we are not afraid. Beyond support for their toxic ideas, fascists also have a long history of physically attacking people and communities.
Solidarity against fascism is not an altruistic option; it’s a rational necessity. With our resolve and determination we can beat fascism. We cannot allow sieg heiling Nazi
scum any space, and we will not sit back and watch their racist, hateful
attacks on refugees and migrants. Now is the time to get involved, get
active and get organised to take the fascists off our streets. Take a look at these stickers hot off the #stickittothetories
presses – printed for Aberystwyth Anti – Fascists. They’ll soon be on
their way to be stuck all over the genteel, and soon to be fascist free,
seaside town of Aberystwyth and its Hinterland(!) in mid Wales.
Oh yes- there are hundreds more of them too.
If you have a problem with fascists where you live, then get some of
our bespoke stickers, especially printed with your town/city /whatever
name – and along with other anti-fascist activities – you too can become
a fascist free zone. http://stickittothetories.org.uk/p…/anti-fascists-your-town/
Terrible, tragic news from yesterday after monstrous killing of 84 innocent people on Bastille day a symbol of freedom and liberty in what was an undeniable act of terrorism. This latest retaliatory, reactionary manifestation of hate in Nice coming eight months after the Islamist militant shootings and suicide bombings in Paris that killed 130 people.
Each atrocity has been used to expand police and intelligence
powers. Following the Paris attacks, the Hollande government instituted
an unprecedented “state of emergency,” providing authorities with the
power to ban demonstrations and detain suspects without charge. Over
recent months, millions of French workers and students have defied the
laws, engaging in mass demonstrations and strikes against the Socialist
Party’s regressive labour legislation.
The latest
attack comes amid mounting social tensions and escalating French
participation in US-led military operations in the Middle East, like the US, the French government has
actively backed Islamist groups in a bid to topple the Syrian regime of
Bashar al-Assad.However, Washington viewed Islamic State’s
advance into Iraq during 2014 as a threat to the US-backed government
and its dominance of Iraqi oil and resources. The US and its allies,
including France, have waged an air war on the Islamic State, while
continuing to back other Islamist forces within Syria.
The French government immediately announces an extension on the
clampdown on civil liberties and further military action in Syria and
Iraq. Francois Hollande gave no explanation as to how these
might prevent a further atrocity. Because he has no evidence that they
will. On the contrary.
Moreover, although it is not known at this time whether the
attacker was aided in any way by a group based in Iraq or Syria,
Hollande has already vowed to employ yet more violence in those
devastated countries. Again we are watching a Western leader adopt the
same failed policies of the past while expecting those policies to yield
different results. This is the definition of insanity.
Clearly religiously driven terrorism is a phenomenon that our ideals
of democracy, openness and free trade find it difficult to come to
grips with short of resorting to elements of the police state. But if we
allow the horrendous acts of a few to fundamentally change our society
for the worse then the terrorists will have achieved one of their
principal goals - so clamping down on hysterical demands to either 'hit
back' or 'shut our borders' must be seen
for what they are: expressions of panic and grief. These must be
resisted, and those who express them need to be given time to engage
their brains. Only by firmly carrying on with our way of life and
working to counter the bigoted mindsets can we prevail. It will never be an easy task. Our Governments attempts to try and neutralise the threat is
going to be a difficult one, but they must try to do so without curtailing civil liberties too
much or allowing the public to become fundamentally divided. Otherwise those who carry out these attacks in the name of whatever twisted ideology have won and the swamp that terrorism breeds in will grow.. I cannot help feeling great sadness for the world that we live in right now and feel lucky that I am not in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the meantime we must continue to stand together in this difficult time and show our solidarity with the victims and their families and all those innocents who fell victimised by several decades of US led,
UK, NATO illegal, immoral invasions, occupation, mass destruction, unwinnable wars part of the military industrial complex for corporate profit alone, combined with, western aggression in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe,
etc where the seeds of this awful nightmare have been sown. We must not lose our shared humanity
Dadaism was an art movement founded by Hugo Ball in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland hundred years ago this year that became an international art movement. They had one
rule which was to never follow any known rules. It arose because they
were against the culture and values of the early 20th century which it
was believed had caused and supported the carnage of the First World War
in 1914-18. On the following link http://arthistoryunstuffed.com/tag/dada-manifesto/ Dr Jeane Willett explains how Dada was a reaction to the "psychological catastrophe" that was Word War 1 and a reaction to the futility of war.They saw the unremitting slaughter as the undeniable proof that the
nationalist authorities on both sides had failed society and that the
system was corrupt. United in their protest against the war and in their
opposition to the establishment, 'they banded together under the battle cry of DADA!!!!'
The Dadaist's aimed to destroy
traditional values in art and to create a new art to replace the old. Dada's weapons of choice in their war with the establishment were
confrontation and provocation.Art in revolt., anti-establishment, provocative that refused to be categorised into any ideological group, crazy, wild and free. They attacked traditional artistic
values with irrational attitudes and provoked conservative complacency
with outrageous statements and actions. They also launched a full scale
assault on the art world which they saw as part of the system. It was
considered equally culpable and consequently had to be toppled. Dada
questioned the value of all art and whether its existence was simply an
indulgence of the bourgeoisie.It was an “anti-movement movement dedicated to anti-art,” with
deliberately nonsensical tactics and a Nihilistic message, i.e. that
life is essentially meaningless.
The great paradox of Dada is that they claimed to be anti-art, but even their most negative attacks on
the establishment resulted in positive artworks that opened a door to
future developments in 20th century art. The effect of Dada was to
create a climate in which art was alive to the moment and not paralysed
by the traditions and restrictions of established values.It lay the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for
performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a
celebration of antiart to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses
in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism.
' Dada signifies nothing,’ declared one of Dada’s main players, Tristan Tzara.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/tristan-tzara-441896-251263-radical.html
‘Not even the Dadaists know what Dada is,’ concurred one of his key collaborators, Johannes Baader.
The word itself was enigmatic: a word picked randomly from a French-German dictionary, in French meant hobby horse, in German it means ‘good-by,’ Get off my back,’ ‘Be seeing you sometime.’” Dada meant all of this, and nothing at all.
During World War 1 many Anarchists, revolutionaries, pacifists,artists,writers and intellectuals who were
opposed to the war sought refuge from conscription in neutral Switzerland.
Zurich was a melting pot for these exiles and reviled the political and cultural norms of the time. For them, the bloodshed of World War One didn’t just
mark a futile loss of human life, it confirmed other forms of expiry –
the failure of the entire project of Western philosophy, the death of
the human “spirit”, and the inadequacy of language, which had been
abused for politically corrupt ends and defiled by jingoism.
Born 1886 in Pirmasens, the writer Hugo Ball who was the inspiration for the classic Talking Heads song I Zimbra with his poem "Gadji beri bimba studied German literature, philosophy,
and history at the universities of Munich and Heidelberg (1906-1907).
In 1910, he moved to Berlin in order to become an actor and collaborated
with Max Reinhardt and worked as a director and stage manager for
various theater companies in Berlin, Plauen, and Munich. He also started
writing, contributing to the expressionist journals Die Neue Kunst and Die Aktion, both of which, in style and in content, anticipated the format of later Dada journals At
the beginning of the First World War he tried joining the army as a
volunteer, but was denied enlistment for medical issues. After
witnessing the invasion of Belgium, he was disillusioned saying: "The
war is founded on a glaring mistake, men have been confused with
machines". Considered a traitor in his country, he crossed the frontier
with the cabaret performer and poet Emmy Hennings, and settled in Zurich. Here, Ball continued his interest in
anarchism, and in Mikhail Bakunin in particular; he also worked on the
book of Bakunin translations, which never got published. Although
interested in anarchist philosophy, he nonetheless rejected it for its
militant aspects, and viewed it as only a means to his personal goal of
enlightenment.It was in Zurich on February
5th, 1916 that he and his partner
opened the 'Cabaret Voltaire', a rendezvous for the more radical element
of the avant-garde. This venue was a cross between a night club and an
arts centre where artists would exhibit their work to a explosive mixture of
experimental music, poetry, readings and dance and political theater.
— poetry shorn of intelligible words, where melodies and
statements in which the message was cannibalized by the absurdity of the
language. His intentions regarding the Caberet Voltaire are defined in the following words " It is necessary to clarify the intentions of this
cabaret. It is its aim to remind the world that there are people of
independent minds - beyond war and nationalism - who live for different
ideals." (from the contribution entitled "Lorsque je fondis le Cabaret
Voltaire" ["Why I founded the Cabaret Voltaire"], in the publication "Cabaret
Voltaire," Zürich, 1916).
The Dadaists were in there own way the very first performance artists, who besides sound poems also
invented the simultaneous poem (whereby verses are read out in different
languages and at different speeds at the same time) and were the
precursors of modernn-day slam poetry.
Among the original contributors to the 'Cabaret Voltaire' were Jean
(Hans) Arp, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco and Richard Huelsenbeck. Although the Dadaists were united in their ideals, they had no unifying
style. Between 1917-1920 the Dada group attracted many different types
of artists including Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Johannes Baader,
Francis Picabia, Georg Grosz, John Heartfield, Max Ernst, Marcel
Duchamp, Andre Breton, Kurt Schwitters, and Hans Richter.
At the first public Dada-Soirée, at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, a hundred years ago today on
July 14, 1916, Hugo Ball read aloud his Dada manifesto and summed up his absurdist nature: ‘How
does one achieve eternal bliss? By saying Dada. — and recited several of his sound poems, including
"Karawane," reënacted below consisting of nonsensical words.The meaning however resides in its meaninglessness, reflecting the chief principle behind Dadaism.
Hugo Ball - Karawane
.
’
Hugo stayed active in Dada movement for another six
months, but the manifesto created conflict with his friends, notably
Tristan Tzara because he was at odds over Tzara's ambition to make Dada into an international movement with a systematic doctrine Some of Hugo Bell' other best known works include the poem collection 7 schizophrene Sonette, the drama Die Nase des Michelangelo, a memoir of the Zurich period Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary, and a biography of Hermann Hesse, entitled Hermann Hesse. Sein Leben und sein Werk (1927). Hugo would retire to Ticino, where he completely devoted himself to
mystical Catholicism.He died in 14 September 1927.d in' Abbondio, Switzerland, 14 September 1927.
After the war, the face of Dada began to change. Many of the
Dadaists who were exiles in Zurich began to drift back to their home
countries and found that life was quite different there. As they
relocated to Berlin, Cologne, Hanover and some as far as New York,
Dada developed an international reputation but each of these venues had
its own distinctive style inspired by the artists who settled there.In post-war Berlin, Dada became less anti-art and
adopted a more political stance. Reality bit hard as the war-weary
population struggled to survive the effects of economic meltdown. There
was social and political disorder as Left fought Right for control of
the government. In this climate the irreverent posturing of Zurich Dada
would have been totally inappropriate, so Dada in Berlin emerged with a
harder hitting punch.Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, John Heartfield and George
Grosz were the main artists who developed the strident political satire
of Berlin Dada.
Dada would ultmately self destruct,the internal squabbling brought Dada to an abrupt
end. And even though it would not last it still endures, it has become a state of mind. In their subversiveness and experimentation, the Dadaists were forging
modes of working and forms of art that would either anticipate or
directly influence the shape of much art to come and.the heart of dada still to be found in its poetry and provocations, its polemics and experiments with chance.... maybe the time for Dada is right now?
Dada Manifesto ( 1916, Hugo Ball) read at the first public by Dada soiree, Zurich, July 14, 1916.
" Dada is a new tendency in art. One can tell this from the fact that
until now nobody knew anything about it, and tomorrow everyone in Zurich
will be talking about it. Dada comes from the dictionary. it is
terribly simple. In French it means "hobby horse." In German it means
"good-by," "Get off my back," "Be seeing you sometime." In Romanian:
"Yes, indeed, you are right, that's it. But of course, yes, definitely,
right." And so forth.
An international word. Just a word, and the word a movement. Very
easy to understand. Quite terribly simple. To make of it an artistic
tendency must mean that one is anticipating complications. Dada
psychology, dada Germany cum indigestion and fog paroxysm, dada
literature, dada bourgeoisie, and yourselves, honored poets, who are
always writing with words but never writing the word itself, who are
always writing around the actual point. Dada world war without end, dada
revolution without beginning, dada, you friends and also-poets,
esteemed sirs, manufacturers, and evangelists. Dada Tzara, dada
Huelsenbeck, dada m'dada, dada m'dada dada mhm, dada dere dada, dada
Hue, dada Tza.
How does one achieve eternal bliss? By saying dada. How does one
become famous? By saying dada. With a noble gesture and delicate
propriety. Till one goes crazy. Till one loses consciousness. How can
one get rid of everything that smack of journalism, worms, everything
nice and right, blinkered, moralistic, europeanized, enervated? By
saying dada. Dada is the world soul, dada is the pawnshop.
Dada is the world's best lily-milk soap. Dada Mr. Rubiner, dada Mr.
Korrodi. Dada Mr. Anastasius Lilienstein.
In plain language: the hospitality of the Swiss is something to be
profoundly appreciated. And in questions of aesthetics the key is
quality.
I shall be reading poems that are meant to dispense with conventional
language, no less, and to have done with it. Dada Johann Fuschgang
Goethe, Dada Stendhal. Dada Dalai Lama, Buddha, Bible and Nietzsche.
Dada m'dada. Dada mhm dada da. It's a question of connections, and of
loosening them up a bit to start with. I don't want words that other
people have invented. All the words are other people's inventions. I
want my own stuff, my own rhythm, and vowels and consonants too,
matching the rhythm and all my own. If this pulsation in seven yards
long, I want words for it that are seven yards long. Mr. Schulz's words
are only two and a half centimetres long.
It will serve to show how articulated language comes into being. I
let the vowels fool around. I let the vowels quite simply occur, as a
cat miaows... Words emerge, shoulders of words, legs, arms, hands of
words. Au, oi, uh. One shouldn't let too many words out. A line of
poetry is a chance to get rid of all the filth that clings to this
accursed language, as if put there by stockbrokers' hands, hands worn
smooth by coins. I want the word where it ends and begins. Dada is the
heart of words.
Each thing has its word, but the word has become a thing by itself.
Why shouldn't I find it? Why can't a tree be called Pluplusch, and
Pluplubasch when it has been raining? The word, the word, the word
outside your domain, your stuffiness, this laughable impotence, your
stupendous smugness, outside all the parrotry of your self-evident
limitedness. The word, gentlemen, is a public concern of the first
importance."
