A Palestinian girl, Ahmed Al - Tamimi aged 16 years, from a well-known activist family who lives in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, who many Palestinians view as their hero, is currently wearing prison clothes, her only crime being is that she was born in Palestine and showed resistance to her oppressors, and called for Freedom, Peace, and ending the occupation and removing the apartheid wall. Her courage is unrivalled.
This brave girl has been participating against her oppressors ,standing up against injustices. She has been protesting the theft of land and water since 2012. She has had to endure personal sacrifice, having lost an uncle and cousin to the occupation. Her parents Nariman and Bassem Tamimi, have been arrested time and again.
A video posted on facebook last Friday shows Ahed and her mother blocking two Israeli soldiers from entering their home after occupation forces had shot her 14 year old cousin Mohammad in the face by a rubber bullet, and fired tear-gas canisters directly at their home, breaking several windows.
Two years ago a video featuring her went viral as she sought to protect her brother being taken away by a soldier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=485&v=mg1-_oIfjqc
On Tueday December 18th Ahed , was abducted from her home, during a pre-dawn raid carried out by Israeli Occupation Forces. At least 30 soldiers were involved in the raid and Ahed's arrest. During this raid, occupation forces assaulted various members of her family, including Ahed's 14 year old brother, and confiscated their cell phones and computers. Later in the day after learning that Ahed was being held at a police station near Jabaa village, her mother travelled there to be present for her daughters interrogation, only to be arrested by occupation forces on her arrival. An Israeli cour yesterday extended her detention.
Ahed is currently one of 211 Palestinian child prisoners in Israeli jails as of November 2017 http://www.addameer.org/statistics Israeli Occupation forces regularly abduct, arrest, and abuse Palestinian children and torture them while in custody.The arrest of Ahed is sadly not an isolated incident, but rather follows suit with Israel's policies and increased attacks on Palestinians since Donald Trump's symbolic assault on Palestinian sovereignty with his announcement on Jerusalem. As Palestinians continue to mobilize in light of this decision, it is imperative that the international community condemns all efforts by Israel to stifle Palestinian resistance. Israel's attempts to silence and install fear in Palestine youth , must be met with outrage, while extending full support to targeted Palestinians so they are not demoralized.
The United Nations has repeatedly called on Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory. accusing Israel of being guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people, in violation of international law.
I stand against the imprisonment of Palestinians, especially children, believing that all occupied people have a right to resist their occupation. and therefore stand with Ahed and her family in this difficult time and salute their struggle of firm resistance against their illegal occupation
Please consider adding your name to the following petitions demanding Ahed and Palestinian children are released from Israeli prisons now. The international community must put an end to the ill-treatment of Palestinian children. Enough is enough. To Ahed and the children in Isreli jails. We stand by your side, and are holding you in our hearts. We wil not give up until you are free. You are not alone. I urge fellow people of conscience to demand freedom for Ahed and her fellow detained and jailed Palestinian children in occupation detention centers, interrogation centers and prisons. The resistance of the Palestinian people has never been quelled by arrests or repression, and it must be clear that we, around the world, continue to stand alongside the Palestinian peope as they defend Jerusalem and their entire land and people under attack. This includes standing with detained and jailed Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for themselves, their people, and their occupied homeland.
It is only a few days now untill the new year, but children are still being imprisoned in the modern age. Love and peace will never die, and the people of Palestine and the free world, salute you Ahed for the courage that you have shown.
Another surreal year, the story of my life, again not popped to record stores as much as i'd have wished, have spent some time trying to get over my partners bereavement. Getting there, though I doubt, I will ever quite fully recover from the loss. Despite this , here are some musical highlights from the last year that have managed to pick me up, in no particular order.Power to the music. I feel optimistic about 2018, I believe it truly will be one of change. See you on the other side. Kick the Tories out. 1. Mwstard - Cloc
2, Nik Turner - Life in Space
3. Steve Ignorant's Slice of life - Love and a lampost
4. Open Mike Eagle - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream
5. Benjamin Zepaniah - Revolutionary Minds
6. Lisa Knapp - Till April is dead
7. Lankum - Between the Earth and Sky
8. Penny Rimbaud -What Passing Bells : The War Poems of Wilfred Owen
Festive greetings.It's that time of year again, when we sing about peace and good will, amidst mistletoe and wine, merriment and laughter, and we have the simple impulse to give, share and support others, release feelings of mutual aid and solidarity..
As the tentacles of the capitalist market reach into every part of our lives, encouraging us to pay for the convenience of expressing our feelings for our fellow beings, through excessive gift giving, time also to reflect and think of others who have even less, and those who will be giving up their time to help others. The latter acts I believe are part of our nature, an impulse that I believe should not be be a once in a year anomoly, it is something as human beings that we should collectively daily nurture, as Peter Kropotkin wrote in Mutual Aid,' a factor of evolution that we need in order to survive.'
Today lets try not to forget the many organisations and services providing comfort to those that need it most,who will be dealing with a sharp rise in demand for crisis services at this time of year, as people face homelessness and benefits disruption over this festive period, because of our government and its policies. For some ,this time of the year is not a time of year for thinking about buying or recieving presents, taking time of work and seeing family and friends. It is a time of immense difficulty, fear and uncertainty, people left in isolation, feeling alone, as services are closed, many left cold, hungry and without support, in a downward spiral . People who feel they do not belong, who are discredited and denied their status as human beings.
So it is important especially at this time of year to look out for one another, and reach out to those in need of our help, the underpriveleged and marginalised, those too weak to look after or defend themselves. So happy Christmas to all, but please do not leave individuals standing alone, please keep sharing your mutual aid and solidarity. Together we can make a difference to those that need it the most, as some of us get a little inebriated, lets try and keep other spirits alive too, And after this holiday period has ended, lets keep shaping our society into a better place to live, for the many not the few. Alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much. All the very best.
They are simply rotten , as simply as that , and currently more concerned what color passports will be post brexit , at the cost of £500 m blue is their color, They just want us all to live in an isolated monolingual mono cultural country of poverty and despair, where the hardest hit struggle to suvive, who simply want some sense and reason to come back into our lives. But the self seving elitist thieving Tories keep releasing their conscious cruelty with their deliberate punitive policies, leaving the country bedridden with austerity, suffering the fall out from cuts to services,which at end of day are purely ideological. Their Christmas gift to Britains poorest children is to get rid of their free school meals.
This is Conservatism in a nutshell. There is no such thing as a fair society under a Conservative Government. How do we stop them, we keep pushing, fighting back, for a fairer society, for the many not the few, we have to stop them in their tracks. If you can, have a merry christmas, do not them steal any hope or joy that you may have stored within. Kick out the Tories.
It's come round again, the time some of us celebrate the Festival of Yuletide, others the Birth of the Sun and, for Christians, the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is a mixture of both ancient and modern traditions adapted through the ages to meet the needs of the ruling class of the time, be it Roman aristocrat, feudal lord or modern capitalist, ts roots go back into the dawn of the human experience of winter in the Northern hemisphere. People gathering around the fire to keep warm, and feasting to raise their spirits in the cold and dark; and looking forward to the return of the sun and the spring.Some people forget that many of the traditional Judeo-Christian winter holiday activities have their origins in Pagan worship, and this is particular true of Christmas which coincides with Yule.
Although Christians had the goal of spreading their religion across Europe, they were still quite fascinated by many of the customs and ways of the pagans. Clearly they were fascinated enough to pick up a few of those beliefs and traditions and adapt them as part of Christian celebrations!
At the time, all of these different groups shared one big celebration that just happerned to fall around Christmas time – the winter solstice. People living in the northern hemisphere celebrate winter solstice (or the shortest day of the year) smack bang in the middle of December, and this is why Christmas just so happened to fall around the same time as many existing pagan holidays.
Yule is associated with reindeer, mistletoe, pine, holly and the fox. It's colors are red, green, silver and gold. Gold is the color of the god and silver is the color of the goddess. Mithras, the Sun King, the Baby Sun God, Apollo, or the Great Mother can be invited.
The Yule tree has in fact been in traditions thousands of years before it became known as the Christmas tree in the 1840s. Dating back centuries before Jesus Christ, pagan cultures brought evergreen trees, plants, and leaves into their homes upon the arrival of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, which occurs in the northern hemisphere between December 21st and 22nd. Evergreen trees were seen as a symbol of continual life, especially at the time of the Winter Solstice. Allowing wood spirits to keep warm in the winter months. Bells and trinckets were hung in the limbs to chime when an an appreciative spirit was present, food and treats were hung on the branches for the spirits to eat. Sometimes, these trees were decorated with things that symbolized the person's wishes for the New Year , such as coins, lights and corn, which were meant to bring wealth, sunlight and a bountiful harvest, respectively. A five-pointed star, the pentagram , symbol of the five elements, air, fire, water, earth, and aether (or spirit) was placed atop the tree. Decorating the tree meant looking forward to spring and the fruit it would bring.
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Most ancient cultures in the Northern hemisphere would celebrate the winter solstice in some way, and more often than not this would involve the use of plants, a common symbol of life, fertility and rebirth. Although the specific practices were different in each country and culture, the symbolization was generally the same, to celebrate the return of life at the beginning of winter's decline and to make them think of the spring to come.
Similar belief systems could be found in agricultural pagan societies in Europe.Winter marked a point of sickness from their sun gods, the solstice marked the points of transition after which the deities would start to recover.Evergreen boughs and trees were therefore a common part of winter solstice celebrations.Midwinter houred the dark womb of the mother, who is preparing to give birth to the new child of light. The old sun has died, and the new sun is about to be reborn, The new sun is a male child, and the energies of the male and female are combined at Midwinter.
The winter solstice was a huge part of pagan life. As they were primarily agricultural people, Pagans could stop farming through the winter, and instead devoted themselves to worshipping their various gods and celebrating with those around them. As winter in the northern hemisphere tends to be a dark, cold, and hungry period of time, the winter solstice was celebrated to help keep people entertained and enjoy themselves until the sun rolled around again.e year’s harvest and the chance to enjoy the company of loved ones and rest from toiling the fields.
However these traditions came under fire with the rise of Christianity, the Church desperate to abolish pagan customs. In the third century CE, the decorating of homes with evergreen boughs was strictly prohibited by church authorities and decorating or bringing a tree into ones home to celebrate the holiday was actually frowned upon by by many puritanical Christian denominations for being seen as decadent and dangerously pagan, Oliver Cromwell himself preached against them as ' heathen traditions', until that is in 1841, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German husband had a Christmas Tree set up in Windsor Castle. Subsequently increasing their popularity.
Also in addition to the decorated tree, many other Christmas customs have their roots in early Pagan cultures and traditions. Caroling, gift exchanges, and mistletoe all originated from classical Pagan traditions. The mistletoe especially is steeped in pagan ritual, as it was often used by the Celts as a symbol of sexuality, fertility and abundance. Burning the Yule log was done to give strength to the sun, and a wreath served as a symbol of the Wheel of the Year, and the suns passage through the sky. Tradition states that the ashes of a burned Yule log should be saved for a year as a protection amulet, and a piece of this year's log should be kept to start the next years log,
Gift giving comes from the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, which was a weeklong event at the end of the year honouring the god of death. Friends and family members would give each other tokens as expressions of love.
So when you look at a decorated Christmas tree, the star hanging on top, and if you exchange presents, take a moment to reflect on their pagan origins, and what the spirit of this tradition was and is all about. This evening I hope to listen to music and sit by a warm fire, and in the wee hours of the morning will gaze at the moon and stars, contemplate dear departed ones. anyway that's enough of me rambling
In the midst of turbulent times it feels easy to fall into despair, but there is also an abundance of hope if we choose to see it. Stay safe out there, everybody.and enjoy this time in any way that speaks to you.. can. And if you just can’t manage it this year, keep holding on. Seasons greetings, happy Winter Solstice and bright blessings. Heddwch// Peace.
References ;-
Wicca - Vivienne Crowley
Everyday Wicca - Gerina Dunwich,
Celtic Rituals, an authentic guide to anciet Celtic Spirituality - Alexei Kondratiev, New Celtic Publishing
The Pagan Book of Days ; A gude to the festivals, traditions and sacred days of the year - Nigel Pennick
This Christmas try cut down on consumption
release some compassion, instead of greed,
avoid the Queens speech, seek alternative news
seeds of another society, that takes away the blues,
in this winter of discontent, its time to rise
keep on planting the seeds of insurrection,
because their trying to break us in pieces
in the name of austerity, and government lies,
making people, beg, borrow and steal
people in charge treating its citizens like garbage,
as media shields us from cruel reality
makes some think everything is fine,
the future must change, we must continue to fight
those that dictate, what we can say or what we can do,
beggers all of us, refusing to take the crumbs they give
merry crassmess to all, another world is possible.
Words written
touching, reaching out,
joining dots, rearranging
releasing free thought,
on overiding trains
of existence,
as time passes
beyond the misery and anger,
happiness can be brief
yet can be so bloody beautiful,
fleeting moments can truly satisfy
in a world at times ,we don't want to see,
if you can, keep dancing
move your precious feet,
keep listening, keep talking
release care and understanding,
show some solidarity
follow paths of peace,
beyond world's dissilusionment
scatter your individuality.
Bingo Wings (AKA Cosmo and Flapsandwich - AKA half- Hungarian half-Welsh tecno-folk duo Sandor Dus and Jason Phillips) provide this years Yule no#1 hit, and for a cracking cause too. Raising money for Boomerang Homeless charity based in Cardiff, that helps prevent families and people becomming homeless and continues to support the homeless at present and helps guide them to a better future. Its a take on Jona Lewies classic christmas number Stop the Cavalry, changing the chorus to Stop Austeity and highlights what seems to be the worst winter in recent history for rough sleepers. The single follows news of police taking rough sleepers sleeping bags, and news of deats of young people.
Listen, like share and if your able chip in some solidarity. Available here :- https://tantrumrecords.net/2017/12/16/a-home-for-christmas/
Nicked, but had to share. The music industry has for too long been in the hands of those who only care about making profits. Every now and again people organising together can take back some control - Liar, Liar . Rage Against the Machine, the NHS choir, Ding Dong The Witch is Dead. all hit high up in the Top 40s and reflected a big political mood shift in the country. We now have a chance to do this again this Christmas and say that we've had enough of this vicious government, a better world is possible. Kick the Tories out. Download this song today on all major platforms, please help get this song into Christmas charts, all proceeds will be split between Foodbanks and the People's Assembly. Links here - iTunes Bandcamp Amazon Spotify
Watch as leaves blow around
remember nature, continually awakens
a powerful current, that forever embraces
releasing petals of real change
new ideals, new visions
drowning old ones in their path
following freedoms breath
carrying nourishment
winds that rise against oppression
In our winters of discontent
carry on lookin out for one another,
release some hope and kindness
a bit of passion to friends in need,
lets light this world with happiness
some charms to stop the pain,
lift hearts that might be currently lost fused brightly,sharing solidarity,
the gift of laughter, music rising
breaking forces of curbing nature.
releasing dances of rebellion,
weaving magic to always awaken,
some simple loving touch emotion
to try and heal and stop the aching,
What if we say we mean it when we say Peace on Earth?
Let us spread the sounds of peace and connection and hope.
Here is Palestinian American poet and political activist Suheir Hammadd's beautiful poem What I Will
What I Will
I will not dance to your war drum. I will not lend my soul nor my bones to your war drum, I will not dance to your beating. I know that beat. It is lifeless. I know intimately that skin you are hitting. It was alie once hunted stolen stretched. I will not dance to your drummed up war. I will not pop spin break for you. I will not hate for you or een hate you. I will not kill for you. Especially I will not die for you. I will not mourn the dead with murder nor cuicide. I will not side with you nor dance to bombs because everyone else is dancing. Everyone can be wrong. Life is a right not collateral or casual. I will not forget where I come from, I will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved near and our chanting will be dancing. Our humming will be drumming. I will not e played. I will not lnd my name nor my rhythm to your beat. I will dance and resist and dance and persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than death. Your war drum ain't louder than this breath.
My home is my castle
one day you must see,
my books, like friends
sincere and dear,
they tell me of love
and all kinds of things,
feed me daily influence
take me to a world of dreams,
some are dangerous
to be treated with care,
others cast spells of wisdom
messages that dare,
constantly supplying need
nourishment when wreckless,
allowing freedom to grow food for thought to sow.
"It is often said that Anarchists live in a world of dreams to come, and
do not see the things which happen today. We do see them only too well,
and in their true colors, and that is what makes us carry the hatchet
into the forest of prejudice that besets us." - Anarchism It's Philosophy and Ideal (1898 ) - Peter Kropotkin
Zoologist, evolutionary
theorist, revolutionary and,Anarchist Philosopher Peter Alexeivich
Kropotkin (Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин) was born on 9 December 1842 into an aristocratic Russian
family, and received a privileged education,as a member of the Russian
ruling class.
At he age of
15,he entered the Corps of Pages in St Petersburg, an elite Court
institution attached to the imperial household. In 1862 he was promoted
to the army and utilising the privilege that members of the Corps could
choose their regiment, he decided to reject the career expected of him
by his family and instead joined a Siberian Cossack regiment in the
recently annexed Amur district.In Siberia he saw the horrors of the
Tsarist penal system and witnessed the poverty and injustice, caused by
it, and became frustrated by the central bureaucracy and local
corruption in St Petersburg.
Around this time, he also became aware of anarchist ideas there, when
the exiled poet Mikhail Mikhailov gave him a copy of Proudhon's System of Economic Contradictions to read. In 1871, he renounced his aristocratic heritage in 1871,abandoning material success
and would spend his life in the Spirit of Revolt that is the title of one of
his famous essays, he became convinced that the government was
unable as well as unwilling to make meaningful change in the lives of
peasants and workers. Kropotkin turned toward anarchism to find a viable
path to social change. He believed that capitalism and authoritarianism creates
artificial scarcity, which leads to privilege and inequality.
He worked with the Jura workers’ federation in
Switzerland, smuggled forbidden radical literature back to Russia, and
joined a workers’ circle in Russia, his political activities earned him a sentence in a St. Petersburg prison,
which ended in a spectacular and risky escape in June 1876. Prison in
Switzerland and France reinforced his views on repressive authority and
helped forge his belief in the need for non-violent, humane, and less
centralized forms of government. His 1877 plea for decent treatment in
prisons, which he called “universities of crime,” was decades ahead of
its time.
Like many an exile, after extensive travel across Europe, he ended up in
England 1886 in the midst of radical debate across Western Europe. He
moved between London, the south coast of England, and Switzerland,
endlessly torn between debate in the city and clean country air for his
prisonruined health. When not creating revolutionary theory, he wrote
copiously, undertook technical translations, and contributed the definitive treatise on Anarchism for the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.
He continued his writing on science in numerous journals at this time as
well as contributing to the anarchist press. An expanded second
English-language edition of Modern Science and Anarchism appeared in December 1912, published to mark Kropotkin’s 70th birthday by the group around Freedom.
Age had not diminished his hopes or activity, and he still stressed
that the task of anarchists was “to aid the people to display in full
its creative powers for working out new institutions, leading to free
Anarchist-Communism” against the “two enemies” of Capital and the
State.Through his many writings he attempted to put anarchism on a
scientific
basis, and pointed out the economical and social value of the human
being, and the failure of Capitalism to reach this objective.He saw
human co-operation as ultimately being driven not by government, but by
groups of individuals, working together,
in order to make the world a better place. He combined the qualities of a
scientist and moralist with those of a revolutionary organiser and
propogandist. He lived completely by his words and deeds, and was also
known for his kindliness and towering intellect.
Kropotkin was a man of his time, a man of 19th-century science,
philosophy, who was one of the great naturalists of his day, a
sensibility that
developed in him in congruence not only with his cientific interests
but through lived experience,.In his book Mutual Aid contended
on the basis of his own naturalist research in Siberia that cooperation
was as much a part of animal and human behavior as conflict. He was also
in the forefront of challenging the prevailing Darwinian principle that
evolution was strictly about competition and the survival of the
nastiest.
Given Kropotkin’s belief that brutality, unbending repression, and
inhumanity were the inevitable products of a centralized state, it is no
coincidence that he was most impressed with commune -based democracy in
Switzerland and with the self-help and cooperative movements in
England.With the advent of the Russian Revolution, Kropotkin approved of
soviets as giving the masses a voice but was appalled to see them
subordinated to the direction of the Party. Like most anarchists, he
held that replacing one autocracy with another, monarchy or republic,
solves nothing, and that progress and justice for the working people can
grow only from local power, cooperation, and equality. Returning to
Russia
after the 1917 Revolution, he was honored by the new government, who
desiring to legitimize Bolshevik authority with the reputation of a
universally respected anarchist, Lenin maintained cordial relations with
Kropotkin; Bolshevik propagandists
took advantage of this to publicize the lie that Kropotkin was more or
less in favor of the Bolshevik program. In fact, Kropotkin opposed their
authoritarian program, as he made clear in a series of statements and
protests. Far from endorsing Lenin’s seizure of state power, Kropotkin
is quoted as saying “Revolutionaries have had ideals. Lenin has none. He
is a madman, an immolator, wishful of burning, and slaughter, and
sacrificing.”
Kropotkin died of pneumonia on February 8,1921 in the city of Dimitrov in Russia. In the 1920s Roger N. Baldwin summed up Kropotkin this way.
“Kropotkin is referred to by scores of people who knew him in all
walks of life as “the noblest man” they ever knew. Oscar Wilde called
him one of the two really happy men he had ever met…In the anarchist
movement he was held in the deepest affection by thousands–“notre
Pierre” the French workers called him. Never assuming position of
leadership, he nevertheless led by the moral force of his personality
and the breadth of his intellect. He combined in extraordinary measure
high qualities of character with a fine mind and passionate social
feeling. His life made a deep impression on a great range of classes–the
whole scientific world, the Russian revolutionary movement, the radical
movements of all schools, and in the literary world which cared little
or nothing for science or revolution.”
Kropotkin’s funeral, on February 13, 1921, was arguably the last
anarchist demonstration in Russia against Bolshevik tyranny, until the
fall of the Soviet Union with thousands in attendance with the tacit
approval of Lenin himself,making this funeral ceremony into a
demonstration of unmistakable significance.Alexander Berkman and Emma
Goldman and many other prominent anarchists
from abroad participated. They managed to exert enough pressure on the
Bolshevik
authorities to compel them to release seven anarchist prisoners for the
day; the Bolsheviks claimed they that would have released more but the
others supposedly refused to leave prison. Victor Serge recounts how
Aaron Baron, one of the anarchists who was temporarily released, addressed the mourners from Kropotkin’s graveside before vanishing forever into the jaws of the Soviet carceral system.
When Kropotkin died, a few weeks before the Kronstadt rebellion, the
repression of anarchists in Russia had not been completed yet.but in the
course of the same year, this movement was to be smothered by the
Bolshevik party, its leaders arrested, killed, on the run or deported.
Being the foremost opponents of tyranny, the anarchists were among the
first victims of Soviet prisons and firing squads. Emma Goldman,
Alexander Berkman, and many others tried to warn the world of the
horrors of Lenin and Stalin, but most people only learned about the gulag archipelago much later from Aleksandr Solzenhitsyn.
Deportation befell Grigori Maximov (1893-1950) who had represented the
Russian Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists at Kropotkins burial.
Maximov arranged for a photo report of the ceremony that started at the
home of the deceased in the village of Dmitrov and ended at the
graveyard of the Novodevičy monastery, with an in-state and procession
in Moscow in between. The photo report was meant to become a memorial
album (Berlin 1922) to 'make humanity acquainted with the work of
Kropotkin'.
Kropotkin's message that mutual aid and social cohesion should
be encouraged over massive social inequity and the exaltation of the
individual over society is as relevant to the central debates of our
time as it was to the debates of his time. His legacy lives on, in the
actions of the many who have been inspired by him and in his many
writings, all of which are freely available online, a rich source of ideas for libertarians today.
Kropotkin, Emma Goldman summarised, “gave up his title and wealth for
the cause of humanity. He did more: since becoming an anarchist he had
forgone a brilliant scientific career to be better able to devote
himself to the development and interpretation of anarchist philosophy.
He became the most outstanding exponent of anarchist-communism, its
clearest thinker and theoretician. He was recognised by friend and foe
as one of the greatest minds and most unique personalities of the
nineteenth century.”
His legacy still lives on, in his many writings, and the actions of
those who were inspired by him, as does his Spirit of Revolt. Like him
there are many who want to see in this world and end to privilege and
inequality, a world based on cooperation and mutual aid.
So on this day I say happy birthday to comrade Peter Kropotkin and reprint one of his fine essays from the 1880's.
The Spirit of Revolt
'There are periods in the life of human society when revolution becomes an imperative necessity, when it proclaims itself as inevitable. New ideas germinate everywhere, seeking to force their way into the light, to find an application in life. These ideas are opposed by the inertia of those whose interest it is to maintain the old order; they suffocate in the stifling atmosphere of prejudice and traditions. The accepted ideas of the constitution of the state, of the laws of social equilibriam, of the political and economic interrelations of citizens, can hold out no longer against the implaceable criticism which is daily undermining them. Political and economic institutions are crumbling. The social structure, having become uninhabitable, is hindering, even preventing, the development of seeds which are being propogated within its damaged walls and being brought forth around them.
The need for a new life becomes apparent. The code of established morality, which governs the greater number of people in their daily life, no longer seems sufficient. What formerly seems just is now felt to be crying injustice. The morality of yesterday is today recognised as revolting immorality. The conflict between new ideas and old traditions flames up in every class of society, in every possible environment, in the very bosom of the family. The son struggles against his father, he finds revolting what his father has all his life found natural; the daughter rebels against the principles which her mother has handed down to her as a result of long experience. Daily, the popular conscience rises up against the scandals which breed amidst the privileged and the leisured, against the crimes committed in the name of the law of the stronger, or in order to maintain these privileges. Those who long for the triumph of justice, those who would put new ideas into practice are soon forced to recognize that the realization of their generous, humanitarian and regenerating ideas cannot take place in a society thus constituted; they perceive the necessity of a revolutionary whirlwind which will sweep away all this rotteness, revive sluggish hearts with its breath, and bring to mankind that spirit of devotion, self-denial, and heroism, without which society sinks through degradation and vileness into complete disintegration.
In periods of frenzied haste towards wealth, of feverish speculation and of crisis, of the sudden downfall of great industries and the ephemeral expansion of other branches of production, of scandulous fortunes amassed in a few years and dissipated as quickly, it becomes evident that the economic institutions which control production and exchange are far from giving to society the prosperity which they are supposed to guarantee; they produce precisely the opposite result. Instead of order they bring forth chaos; instead of prosperity, poverty and insecurity, instead of reconciled interests, war, a perpetual war of the exploiter against the worker, of exploiters and of workers among themselves. Human society is seen to be splitting more and more into two hostile camps, and at tthe same time to be subdividing into thousands of small groups waging merciless war against each other. Weary of these wars, weary of the miseries which they cause, society rushes to seek a new organisation. it clamours loudly for a complete remodelling of the system of property ownership, of production, of exchange all economic relations which spring from it.
The machinery of government, entrusted with the maintenance of the existing order, continues to function, but at every turn of its deteriorated gears it slips and stops. Its working becomes more and more difficult, and the dissatisifaction caused by its defects grows continuously. Every day gives rise to a new demand. "Reform this," "reform that," is heard from all sides. "War, finance, taxes, courts, police, everything must be remodelled, reorganised, established on a new basis." say the reformers. And yet all know that it is impossible to make things over, to remodel anything at all because everything is interrelated; everything would have to be remade at once; and how can society be remodeled when it is divided into two openly hostile camps? To satisfy the discontented would be only to create new malcontents.
Incapable of undertaking reforms, since this would mean paying the way for revolution, and at the same time too impotent to be frankly reactionary, the governing bodies apply themselves to half measures which can satisfy nobody, and only cause dissatisfaction. The mediocrities who, in such transition periods, undertake to steer the ship of State, think of but one thing: to enrich themselves against the coming debacle. Attacked from all sides they defend themselves awkwardly, they evade, they commit blunder upon blunder, and they soon succeed in cutting the last rope of salvation; they drown the prestige of the government in ridicule, caused by their own incapacity.
Such periods demand revolution. It becomes a social necessity; this situation itself is revolutionary.
When we study in the works of our greatest historians the genesis and development of vast revolutionary convulsions, we generally find under the heading, " The Cause of the Revolution," a gripping picture of the situation on the eve of events. The misery of the people, the general insecurity, the vexatious measures of the government, the odious scandals laying bare the immense vices of society, the new ideas struggling to come to the surface and repulsed by the incapacity of the supporters of the former regime- nothing is omitted. Examining this picture, one arrives at the conviction that the revolution was indeed inevitable, and that there was no other way out than by the road of insurrection.
Take for example, the situation before 1789 as the historians picture it. You cn almost hear the peasant complaining of the salt tax, of the tithe, of the feudal payments, and vowing in his heart an implacable hatred towards the feudal baron, the monk, the monopolist, the bailiff. You can almost see the citizen bewailing the loss of his municipal liberties, and showering maledictions upon the king. The people censure the queen; they are revolted by the reports of ministerial action, and they cry out continually that the taxes are intolerable and revenue payments exorbrient, that crops are bad and winters hard, that provisions are too dear and the monopolists too grasping, that the village lawyer devours the peasant's crops and the village constable tries to play the role of a petty king, that even the mail service is badly organised and the employers too lazy. In short, nothing works well, everybody complains. " It can last no longer, it will come to a bad end'" they cry everywhere.
But, between this pacific arguing and insurrection or revolt, there is a wide abyss - that abyss which for the greatest part of humanity, lies between reasoning and action, thought and will - the urge to act. How has this abyss been bridged? How is is it that men who only yesterday were complaining quietly of their lot as they smoked their pipes, and the next moment were humbly saluting the local guard and the gendarme whom they had just been abusing - how is it that these same men a few days later were capable of seizing their scythes and their iron-shod pikes and attacking in his castle the lord who only yesterday was so formidable? By what miracle were these men, whose wives justly called them cowards, transformed in a day into heroes marching through bullets and cannon balls to the conquest of their rights? How was it that words, so often spoken and lost in the air like empty chiming of bells, were changed into actions.
The answer is easy.
Action, the continuous action, ceaselessly renewed, or minorities brings about this transformation. Courage, devotion, the spirit of sacrifice, are as courageous as cowardice, submission and panic.
What forms will this action take? All forms - indeed, the most varied forms, dictated by circumstances, temperament, and the means at disposal. Sometimes tragic, sometimes humorous,
but always daring; sometimes collective, sometimes purely individual, this policy of action will neglect none of the means at hand, no event of public life, in order to keep the spirit alive, to propogate and find expression for dissatisfaction, to excite hatred against exploiters, to ridicule the government and expose its weakness, and above all and always, by actual example, to awaken courage and fan the spirit of revolt.
When a revolutionary situation arises in a country, before the spirit of revolt is sufficiently awakened in the masses to express itself in violent demonstrations in the streets or by rebellions and uprisings, it is through action that minorities succeed in awakening that feeling of Independence and that spirit of audacity without which no revolution can come to a head.
Men of courage, not satisfied with words, but ever searching for the means to transform them into action - men of integrity for whom the act is one with the idea, for whom prison, exile, and death are preferable to a life contrary to their principles - intrepid souls who know that it is necessary to dare in order to succeed - these are the lonely sentinels who enter the battle long before the masses are sufficiently roused to raise openly the banner of insurrection and to march, arm in hand, to the conquest of their rights.
In the midst of discontent, talk, theoretical discussions, an individual or collective act of revolt supervenes, symbolizing the dominant aspirations. It is possible that at the beginning the masses will remain indifferent. It is possible that while admiring the courage of the individual or the group which takes the initiative, the masses will at first follow those who are prudent and cautious, who will immediately describe this act as "insanity" and say that " those madmen, those fanatics will endanger everything."
They have calculated so well, those prudent cautious men, that their party, slowly pursuing its work would, in a hundred years, two hundred years, three hundred years perhaps, succeed in conquering the whole world, - and now the unexpected intrudes! The unexpected, of course, is whatever has not been expected of them, those prudent and cautiousness! Whoever has a slight knowledge of history and a fairly clear head knows perfectly well from the beginning that theoretical propoganda for revolution will necessarily express itself in action long before the theoreticians have decided that the moment to act has come. Nevertheless, the cautious theoreticians are angry at these madmen, they excommunicate them, they anathematize them. But the madmen win sympathy, the mass of the people secretly applaud their courage, and they find imitators. In proportion as the pioneers go to fill the jails and the penal colonies, others continue their work; acts of illegal protest, of revolt, of vengeance, multiply.
Indifference from this point on is impossible. Those who at the beginning never so much as asked what the "madmen" wanted, are compelled to think about them, to discuss their ideas, to take sides for or against. By actions which compel general attention, the new idea seeps into people's minds and wins converts. One such act may, in a few days, make more propoganda than thousands of pamphlets.
Above all, it awakens the spirit of revolt: it breeds daring. The old order, supported by the police, that magistrates, the gendarmes and the soldiers, appeared unshakeable, like the old fortress of the Bastille, which also appeared impregnable to the eyes of the unarmed people gathered beneath its high walls equipped with loaded cannon. But soon it became apparent that the established order has not the force one had supposed. One courageous act has sufficed to upset in a few days the entire governmental machinery, to make the colossus tremble, another revolt has stirred a whole province into turmoil, and the army, till now always so imposing, has retreated from a handful of peasants armed with sticks and stones. The people observe that the monster is not so terrible as they thought they begin daily to perceive that a few energetic efforts will be sufficient to throw it down Hope is born in their hearts, and let us remember that if exasperation often drives men to revolt, it is always hope, the hope of victory, which makes revolutions.
The government resists; it is savage in its repressions. But though formerly persecution killed the energy pf the oppressed, now, in periods of excitement, it produces the opposite result. It provokes new acts of revolt, individual and collective, it drives the rebels to heroism; and in rapid succession these acts spread, become general, develop. The revolutionary party is strengthened by elements which up to this time were hostile or indifferent to it. The general disintegration penetrates into the government, the ruling classes, the privileged, some of them advocate resistance to the limit; others are in favor of concessions; others, again, go so far as to declare themselves ready to renounce their privileges for the moment, in order to appease the spirit of revolt, hoping to dominate again later on. The unity of government and the privileged class is broken.
The ruling classes may also try to find safety in safety reaction. But it is now too late; the battle becomes more bitter, more terrible, and the revolution which is looming will only be more bloody. On the other hand, the smallest concession of the governing classes, since it comes to late' since it has been snatched in struggle, only awakes the revolutionary spirit still more. The common people, who formerly would have been satisfied with the smallest concession, observe now that the enemy is wavering; they foresee victory, they feel their courage growing and the same men who were formerly crushed by misery and were content to sigh in secret, now lift their heads and march proudly to the conquest of a better future.
Finally the revoluition breaks out, the more terrible as the preceding struggles were bitter.
The direction which the revolution will take take depends, no doubt, upon the sum total of the various circumstances that determine the coming of the catclysm. But it can be predicted in advance, according to the vigor of revolutionary action displaced in the prepatory period by the different progressive parties.
One party may have developed more clearly the theories which it defines and the program which it desires to realize; it may have made propoganda actively, by speech and in print. But it may not have sufficiently expressed its aspirations in the open, on the street, by actions which embody the thought it represents; it has done little, or it has done nothing against those who are its principal enemies; it has not attacked institutions which it wants to demolish; its strength has been in theory, not in action; it has contributed little to awaken the spirit of revolt, or it has neglected to direct that spirit against conditions which it particularly desires to attack at the time of revolution. As a result, this party is less known; its aspirations have not been daily and continuously affirmed by actions, the glamor of which could reach even the remotest hut, they have not sufficiently penetrated into the consciousness of the people; they have not identified themselves with the crowd and the street; they have never found simple expression in a popular slogan.
The most active writers of such a party are known by their readers as thinkers of great merit, but they have neither the reputation nor the capacities of men of action; and on the day when the mobs pour through the streets they will prefer to follow the advice of those who have less precise theoretical ideas and not such great aspirations, but whom they know better because they have seen them act.
The party which has made most revolutionary propoganda and which has shown more spirit and daring will be listened to on the day when it is necessary to act, to march in order to realize the revolution. But that party which has not had the daring to affirm itself by revolutionary acts in the prepatory periods nor has a driving force strong enough to inspire men and groups to the sentiment of abnegation, to the irresistable desire to put their ideas into practice, - (if this desire had existed it would have expressed itself in action long before the mass of the people had joined the revolt) - and which did not know how to make its flag popular and its aspirations tangible and comprhensive, that party will have only a small chance of realizing even the least part of its program. It will be pushed aside by the parties of action.
These things we learn from the history of the periods which precede great revolutions. The revolutionary bourgeoisie understood this perfectly, it neglected no means of agitation to awaken the spirit of revolt when it tried to demolish the monarchical order. The French peasant of the eighteenth century understood it instictively when it was a question of aboloshing feudal rights; and the International acted in accordance with the same principles when it tried to awaken the spirit of revolt among the workers of the cities and to direct it against the natural enemy of the wage earner - the monopolizer of the means of production and of raw materials.
From Le Revolte 1880 Geneva
Further Reading
Pyotr Kropotkin- Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899)/ Mutual Aid (1902)
George Woodcock & Ivaan Avakumovic - The Anarchist Prince (Black Rose Press,1996)
pp
Peter Kropotkin : From Prince to Rebel" (1996) by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovic, Black Rose Books, 1996
Cahm, Caroline. 1989. Kropotkin and the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism 1871-1886. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Passing colors glowing, tinsel hung high
Christmas lights, shimmering and sparkling
the smell of food, enticing on tongue
another world lingers though
a different reality resides
in the corner of our eyes
beyond the tragedy of hunger
the waste of consumerism
austerity that daily bites.
For some now the air drips with sadness
as the cold season blows again
people on long and tiresome journeys
drifting among thrift stores
food banks and charity shops
as the sky above turns dark and grey
citizens left wanting, running on empty
struggling on, feeding on misery and decay.
Perhaps some small acts of kindness
will be sufficient to keep some gladness alight
against buffeting winds, strength can grow
allow people to decorate hearts with hope
fill glasses full of reason and some cheer
with little things, perhaps time will heal
abandon the past, infiltrate the future
share some sustenance of survival.
Today a lot of us are absorbing the outrageous news to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Far right organisations that oppose the two state solution will now congratulate the retard, this dangerous sower of division, and most pro- IsraeL President in American history.
A consequence of this will be the American embassy being relocated from Tel Aviv to the Holy City. This is the first time that a president of the United States has gone against precedence of American foreign policy on the Palestinian - Israeli issue.According to the United Nations, Jerusalem, one of the most oldest and fought over cities in the world, has international status; no peoples has full legal authority over it. This has been respected until now.
Trump has claimed the move is part of the Middle East peace process; a series of failed talks facilitated by the United States that have left the Palestinians disappointed. Recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital will be disastrous to any mediation talks between the Palestinians and Israelis. Not only does Trump's decision legitimise the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and disregards Israel's violations of international law, but it also endangers the Palestinian's right to self determination. Creating more blood in the process which will cost many lives, exposing te lie tat he wants peace in our times. This change in policy not only flaunts international law but is a barrer to peace that flouts an international consensus that a future that a future Palestinian state would have its capital in East Jerusalem.
Nikolay Mladenov, United Nations Special Coordinator he Middle East Peace Process, had argued in the past that Jerusalem should be negotiated between both the Israelis and Palestinians. However, Trump's decision, which is based solely on Israel's national interests, implies that the Palestinians are not allowed to decide or have a say on their own affairs, and that they have no other choice than to watch the further disintegration of their land and their fundamental human rights.
This move will not help Israel or ultimately the Palestinian people, just another reckless sprouting of a very dangerous individual. It just has to be stopped as he inflames tensions in the region and provoke anger among radical groups across the world.
As I write , travel warnings for Jerusalem from the State Department are in place, and embassies across the globe are on alert because of this politically motivated announcement., violence is erupting in the West Bank and Gaza.
Hands of Jerusalem, it is imperative now to work fast to reach a final status solution and work fast to reach a final status solution and a peace solution between Palestinians and Israelis that Trump has now recklessly damaged, that allows the Palestinians to establish an independent state side by side . with Israel and its capital in East Jerusalem. Please write to your MP's urging them to sign Early Day motion 665 protesting the US recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/665
Evil triumphs when good people do nothing.
The poor man counts his blessings
the rich man counts his gold,
comforts and privilege he has many
while the poor shiver in the cold,
looking for a brighter tomorrow
for some good health, good friends and cheer
that's surely better than the rich mans crock of gold,
they say that everyone is born equal
but that's not a true reflection of society,
the gap between rich and poor gets bigger every day
but a just and fair society must surely be on its way,'
we must always appreciate the blessings in life
yet should take nothing ever for granted
keep on fighting for justice, a better world for all.
.
" It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children, those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly. and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick , the needy and the handicapped."
- Hubert H.Humphrey
Since all the Brexit chaos, the plight of the most vulnerble members in our society, including disabled people and the low paid seems to be increasingly overlooked. This is one of the greatest social injustices of our time, which has meant an additional 400,000 children in the UK being pushed into benefit changes, including the roll out of Unversal Credit.( earlier post on this can be found here https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/stop-roll-out-of-universal-credit-day.html ) Since the Conservatives have been in power with their ideological policies of austerity we have seen them intentionally diminish the rights of its own citizens. Their policies such as the bedroom tax, benefit sanctions and now UC have also diproportianally affected the disabled. Research commissioned by Salford Council
suggests that a sudden loss of income by removing benefits could
damage mental health, create tensions within family relationships and
cause individuals to commit crimes. This clearly has implications for
claimants’ human rights, especially as the Government has admitted
sanctions were applied wrongly in 30% of cases.
The United Nations have recently slammed the government too over its treatment of migrant workers, in tems of exploitation, low pay and health care access, specifically citing the fact that the Tories ignored its last set of recommendations. The Tories have also faced a barrage of criticism about their policies that have directly impacted on the vulnerable, disadvantaged and marginalsed that do not respect their rights. Concerning the treatment of disabled people the UN inguiry stated that the UK government have committed "grave" and "systematic" violations of human rights. https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2017/08/24/breaking-un-just-accused-tories-creating-human-catastrophe-uk/ The inquiry was triggered by the
grassroots campaigning organisation Disabled People Against Cuts ,https://dpac.uk.net/
which had grown increasingly concerned by the disproportionate impact
of the coalition’s cuts on disabled people. Surely If you have mental health conditions and legitimate physical
disabilities, you should be looked after not made to feel like you're
worthless. What has this country become?
The Government of the UK is currently now in chaos and its future leadership is
uncertain. Sadly it is unlikely that any immediate change in leadership
will lead to the recognition of the UK's human rights obligations.With increased reliance on foodbanks, unemployment rates, the housing crisis, mental health care austerity cuts to welfare and services which are causing unnecessary deaths and misery. and discrimination against migrants, it is more than time for something to change and for to the heartless Tories to be held account for their shameful flagrant abuses , mistreatment and their systematic violations of peoples human rights.We must continue to seek an end to Austerity and to the mounting injustice we've been seen over
the past six years or so and continue to work with groups or
organisations who seek to advance justice, human rights and respect for
all human beings - in all our diversity.
In the meantime I would urge you to take action at least on Universal Credit
Deep concerns about the roll out and impact of Universal Credit will be highlighted this coming weekend, because this Christmas will be cancelled for thousands of families claiming the new benefit UC. Despite knowng UC causes serious problems for claimants. Theresa May's toxic Tory government is pressing ahead and rolling it out to thousands of people who will have to wait weeks to receive any money.
Claimants are descending into debt,relying on food banks, getting into rent arrears and in many cases getting evicted from their homes because of in-built problems with UC. People with disabilities will be among the hardest hit of these cruel welfare reforms.
UC replaces five benefits - child tax credit, housing benefit, income support, income based jobseekers allowance, income related employment and support allowance and working tax credit. Seven million households will be affected, including one million low paid part-time workers. For the first time ever people actually in work could face being sanctioned, having their benefits stopped if they are unable to prove to the job centre that there searching for better paid work or more hours, in a completely illogical measure by our current out of control government.
The government is imposing UC, despite losing a parliamentary vote on its extension to millions more people. On October 18, Parliament voted by 299 votes to zeros to temporarily halt the introduction of UC. Opposition parties in Parliament led by Labour, passed a motion calling for the government to pause the rollout of UC. The vote was allowed as part of an Opposition Day Debate.
In the face of mounting anger in the population, Theresa May's crisis ridden government instructed its ministers and MPs to abstain. This was due to their fear of a rebellion by at least 12 Tories as well as MPS from its governing partner, the DUP, who were prepared to back Labour. The government responded to the vote by declaring it was not binding, and with no regard to the mounting anger will continue to roll out UC regardless. For fucks sake.
This is why tomorrow Saturday 2 December 2017 I will be supporting Unite Community's national day of action against it, to send a message to the Tory government that they must stop and fix UC before rolling it out to thousands of families who will face a cold hungry Christmas and the threat of losing their homes.
Personally do not believe it can be fixed, or modified it needs to be stopped and scrapped completely. It is crucial that we carry on campaigning against its implementation to defend those on the receiving end of brutal cuts and to push for the complete abolition of these policies that will hurt those who are already the most disadvantaged in our society who are merely being treated as collateral damage. We must continue to resist these devastating policies, an end to this cruel austerity measure and give support to all those that currently need it. Remember no one is immune to becoming ill or losing their jobs.I will be tomorrow joining a demo in my home town of Cardigan, at 1 o clock outside the Guildhall,lets make our voices be heard and tell the government that we wont simply stand back and let this happen. Many , more events will be happening across the country the following story gives more reasons if needed why everybody should be protesting against Universal Credit this Saturday. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/universal-credit-single-parent-stories-a8060451.html
Yesterday I searched for something
some hope I guess, but could not find it,
what else was bloody needed
so I begged ,prayed and pleaded,
mind in array, how could I actually tell
no answers came all seemed like hell,
as politicians pillaged and clouds turned dark
left their truly horrible inedible mark,
I searched for solutions ever so far away
but lacked religion a God that could rearrange,
found some power on the streets instead
friends like me still hungry for change,
fighting, struggling for an end to this mess
releasing thoughts of another world instead,
as this planet whirled on the path of destruction
searching for that elusive place called heaven,
a place where we could all find salvation
a kinder place that can't be broken or stolen.
All the best, hope you feel it to, its the things we can't change that should worry us the most, stop a while reflect on what is right, build and build, move all obstacles in sight, to let things simply be can just become a haunting echo.
Hungry bellied
magnetic undulations of the wind,
our flowers are growing again as winter approaches
freedom has no ending, inside or outside,
whisked in the air ,a force beyond control
in all our wildness, the whiff of escapes radiant smile,
the animating power of expression
manifestations of delight in unknown,
open wounds can be closed by time itself
in moments of kindness, generate warmth,
where surge of spirit is keenly felt
remorse, regret can be abandoned,
distance can be covered without recall
with compassion and love on our lips,
desolation can be completed.
William Blake was a British, poet, painter, engraver, visionary who was born in the Soho district of London on November 28, 1757, to religious dissenting parents, James, a hosier, and Catherine Blake. Considered eccentric, if not mad, in his own day,he is now highly regarded as a seminal figure of the romantic age, and for his expressiveness and creativity, as well as the philosophical and mystical undercurrents that reside within his work
How the hell he's only got a fleeting mention here on this blog over the years cannot fathom because long have I admired and found inspiration from his life and work.
Two of his six siblings died in infancy, and from an early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions, at four he saw God “put his head to the window”; around age nine, while walking through the countryside, he allegedly saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree and had a vision of "a tree filled with angels .These visions would have a lasting impact on the art and writings that he created.
His parents observed that he was different from his peers and did not force him to attend conventional school. He learned to read and write at home. At age ten, Blake expressed a wish to become a painter, so his parents sent him to drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. When he turned fourteen, he apprenticed with James Basire, (because art school proved to costly),who was official engraver to the Society of Antiquaries. He sent Blake to draw the tombs and monuments at Westminster Abbey, a task which brought him to his lifelong love of Gothic art. After his seven-year term ended, he studied briefly at the Royal Academy.of Arts school of Design .where he began exhibiting his own works in 1780,
In 1782, he married an illiterate woman named Catherine Boucher. Blake taught her to read and to write, and also instructed her in draftsmanship. He also helped her to experience visions as he did. Catherine believed absolutely in her husbands visions and genius , and supported him in everything he did. She would help him print the illuminated poetry for which he best remembered today; the couple had no children. He was faithful to her despite writing about sexual energy and polygamy and their marriage remained a close and devoted one until his death.
In 1784 he set up a printshop with a friend and former fellow apprentice, James Parker, but this venture failed after several years. For the remainder of his life, Blake made a meager living as an engraver and illustrator for books and magazines. In addition to his wife, Blake also began training his younger brother Robert in drawing, painting, and engraving. Robert fell ill during the winter of 1787 and succumbed, probably to consumption. As Robert died, Blake saw his brother’s spirit rise up through the ceiling, “clapping its hands for joy.” He believed that Robert’s spirit continued to visit him and later claimed that in a dream Robert taught him the printing method that he used in Songs of Innocence and other “illuminated” works.
Blake’s first printed work, Poetical Sketches (1783), is a collection of apprentice verse, mostly imitating classical models. The poems protest against war, tyranny, and King George III’s treatment of the American colonies. The poem below To Autumn is taken from it. He published his most popular collection, Songs of Innocence, in 1789 and followed it, in 1794, with Songs of Experience. Some readers interpret Songs of Innocence in a straightforward fashion, considering it primarily a children’s book, but others have found hints at parody or critique in its seemingly naive and simple lyrics. Both books of Songs were printed in an illustrated format reminiscent of illuminated manuscripts. The text and illustrations were printed from copper plates, and each picture was finished by hand in watercolors.
Blake was a bold rebel and nonconformist all his life in both his thought and art who was once arrested on a trumped up charge of sedition. A man who hated tyranny and celebrated liberty and was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions and openly wore the red revolutionary bonnet in the streets. He espoused savage anarchy and also peace and love and was also an anti monarchist who found it necessary to protest conformity and war in his lifelong struggle for individualism.
He was associated with some of the leading radical thinkers of his day, such as Thomas Paine, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. In defiance of 18th-century neoclassical conventions, he valued imagination over reason in the creation of both his poetry and images, asserting that ideal forms should be constructed not from observations of nature but from inner visions. He declared in one poem, “I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s.” Works such as “The French Revolution” (1791), “America, a Prophecy” (1793), “Visions of the Daughters of Albion” (1793), and “Europe, a Prophecy” (1794) express his opposition to the English monarchy, and to 18th-century political and social tyranny in general. Theological tyranny is the subject of The Book of Urizen (1794). In the prose work The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93), he satirized oppressive authority in church and state.He abhorred the way in which Christians looked up to a God enthroned in heaven, a view which offered a model for a hierarchical human politics, which subordinated the majority to a (supposedly) superior elite. He also criticised the dominant philosophy of his day which believed that a narrow view of sense experience could help us to understand everything that there was to be known, including God. Blake's own visionary experiences showed him that rationalism ignored important dimensions of human life which would enable people to hope, to look for change, and to rely on more than that which their senses told them.
Despite his famously radical politics and vehement rejection of much of the social establishment about him, he has since been affectionately adopted by a wide British public as a kind of patron saint. I believe it is precisely because of his politics and anti-establishment views that people feel so much affection for Blake.
While his poetry seemed to focus on the darker aspects of emotion, the texts still adhered to the characteristics typical of the Romantic Period. Blake, like many Romantics of his time, wanted to forge a new path for himself, idealize the individual, feeling over reason, importance of nature and imagination, and removal from corrupt limiting societies.
In 1800 Blake moved to the seacoast town of Felpham, where he lived and worked until 1803 under the patronage of William Hayley. He taught himself Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Italian, so that he could read classical works in their original language. In Felpham he experienced profound spiritual insights that prepared him for his mature work, the great visionary epics written and etched between about 1804 and 1820. Milton (1804-08), Vala, or The Four Zoas (1797; rewritten after 1800), and Jerusalem (1804-20) They envision a new and higher kind of innocence, the human spirit triumphant over reason.
Blake believed that his poetry could be read and understood by common people, but he was determined not to sacrifice his vision in order to become popular. Blake’s final years, though spent in great poverty and periods of depression because of critical and public failure as an artist, he was cheered by the admiring friendship of a group of younger artists who called themselves “the Ancients.” In 1818 he met John Linnell, a young artist who helped him financially and also helped to create new interest in his work. It was Linnell who, in 1825, commissioned him to design illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy.His engraving The Ancient of Days,was popular enough to generate commissions for reproductions. To our good fortune, Blake was happy to create several copies of his favorite engraving, at least a baker’s dozen and each one of them unique, the last of which was completed only a few weeks before his death in 1827 from gallstones.
In 1827, the last year of his life, Blake wrote to a friend about those Englishmen who despised “Republican Art” and who, after the French Revolution, thought they were in a “happy state of agreement to which I for One do not agree”. It is amazing that he appears to have retained his radicalism and confidence in humanity. He wrote in The Everlasting Gospel:
Thou art a Man, God is no more
Thy own humanity learn to adore”
On the actual day of his death, he drew one last portrait of his beloved wife, and died a few hours later. However Catherine believed that her husband's spirit remained with her. She continued to sell copies of his illuminated works and paintings, but would not agree to a sale before 'consulting Mr Blake.' On the day that she died, she cheerfully called out to her husband, as if they were in the sae room, that she was coming to him.
William Blake is buried in Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, City Road, Finsbury, London, England. This cemetery was originally the 'Dissenters' graveyard. There is no church attached to the cemetery and the ground is unconsecrated. Here Catherine too was buried four years later among other notable figures of dissent like Daniel Defoe and John Bunyan. A grave marker now stands near to where they were buried.
His works have since been used by people rebelling against a wide range of issues, such as war, conformity, and almost every kind of repression. In the present day among our own progressive idylls we can be like Blake and continue to dream of heaven on Earth, building the new Jerusalem, the new moral world and a restored Albion of free and equal imaginations.
I conclude with this set of four seasonal poems written by Blake, aptly titled "To Spring,” and “To Summer.” 'To Autumn" "To Winter" these seasonal invocations can be read alone, but Blake also intended them to interconnect. The personas of the seasons can be read as counterparts to Blake’s spirits: Tharmas (most like spring), Orc (most like summer), Los (most like autumn), and Urizen (most like winter).In the poem Blake hints at the promise of future growth. Within the harvest are the seeds for future crops. As Autumn flies over the bleak hills to make way for Winter, he leaves behind “his golden load”: an abundance of food, seeds for the Spring, and a feeling of joyous celebration, reflecting his particular view of human nature.
To Spring
O thou with dewy locks, who lookest down Thro' the clear windows of the morning, turn Thine angel eyes upon our western isle, Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!
The hills tell each other, and the listening Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turned Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth, And let thy holy feet visit our clime.
Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls Upon our love-sick land that mourns for thee.
O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put Thy golden crown upon her languished head, Whose modest tresses were bound up for thee.
To Summer
O Thou who passest thro’ our vallies in Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer, Oft pitched’st here thy golden tent, and oft Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld With joy, thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.
Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car Rode o’er the deep of heaven; beside our springs Sit down, and in our mossy vallies, on Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream:
Our vallies love the Summer in his pride.
Our bards are fam’d who strike the silver wire: Our youth are bolder than the southern swains: Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance: We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy, Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven, Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.
To Autumn
O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stainèd
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.
The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of
Morning, and Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.
The spirits of the air live on the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.“
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat;
Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.
To Winter
O Winter! bar thine adamantine doors:
The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark
Deep-founded habitation. Shake not thy roofs,
Nor bend thy pillars with thine iron car.'
He hears me not, but o'er the yawning deep
Rides heavy; his storms are unchain'd, sheathèd
In ribbèd steel; I dare not lift mine eyes,
For he hath rear'd his sceptre o'er the world.
Lo! now the direful monster, whose 1000 skin clings
To his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks:
He withers all in silence, and in his hand
Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.
He takes his seat upon the cliffs,--the mariner
Cries in vain. Poor little wretch, that deal'st
With storms!--till heaven smiles, and the monster
Is driv'n yelling to his caves beneath mount Hecla.
The following two sites contain useful material and links about William Blake :-
William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books (reproductions from the Blake Trust, with introduction by David Bindman, Thames & Hudson, W.W. Norton & Co., 2001)
The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake (ed. David Erdman, with commentary by Harold Bloom, revised edition, Anchor, 1997) William Blake : Visionary Anarchist - Peter Marshall , Freedom Press
In the following video, author, poet Iain Sinclair gives an inside look to the history behind Blake’s radical works.
