Sad news DJ, avant pop artist , musician, and producer SOPHIE has died following a sudden accident this morning (January 30).
The news was confirmed by a representative for the artist, who wrote in a statement to Mixmag:
“It is with profound sadness that I have to inform you that musician and producer SOPHIE passed away this morning around 4am in Athens, where the artist had been living, following a sudden accident.”
“At this time respect and privacy for the family is our priority. We
would also ask for respect for her fanbase, and to treat the private
nature of this news with sensitivity.”
The statement continued: “SOPHIE was a pioneer of a new sound, one of
the most influential artists in the last decade. Not only for ingenious
production and creativity but also for the message and visibility that
was achieved. An icon of liberation.”
Labels Transgressive and Future Classic added: “True to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch and her peers have been paying tribute on social media, remembering her
not just as a talented and innovative artist, but a pioneer for queer
and transgender representation in the music industry:the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell. She will always be here with us.” SOPHIE was 34.
Following the news of her unexpected death, SOPHIE’s fans and her peers have been
paying tribute on social media, remembering her as a trans icon and a pioneer for queer and transgender
representation in the music industry.
A trailblazing, visionary Sophie Xeon was born and raised in Glasgow,known for her innovative “hyperkinetic” take on pop music, SOPHIE won
legions of fans for her surreal production style and sound. After
spending the initial part of her career as a DJ and producer, SOPHIE
came to prominence after the release of her 2013 single ‘Bipp’ and her
2014 single ‘Lemonade’.
Her debut album Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides was released in 2018 to critical acclaim, ultimately earning a Grammy's nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album.
Outside of her own solo work, SOPHIE also won praise for her production work with several high profile artists, including Madonna, Charli XCX, Vince Staples, Let’s Eat Grandma, Kim Petras, Flume, Namie Amuro and Itzy.
Known to be intensely private, Sophie’s identity was shrouded in mystery
for the first few years of their career. In 2017, Sophie used her
voice and image for the first time on the single “It’s Okay to Cry” and
came out as a trans woman in the months following. (Sophie’s
representative had previously requested not using pronouns for the
musician.)
Speaking to Paper magazine
in 2018 about being a trans woman, SOPHIE said that her coming out
“means there’s no longer an expectation based on the body you were born
into, or how your life should play out and how it should end.
Traditional family models and structures of control disappear.”
She continued by explaining how control is key when discussing
transness, saying “‘Transness is taking control to bring your body more
in line with your soul and spirit so the two aren’t fighting against
each other and struggling to survive. On this earth, it’s that you can
get closer to how you feel your true essence is without the societal
pressures of having to fulfil certain traditional roles based on
gender.”
A fearless powerful artist, a beautiful spirit who rebelled against the normative society disrupting the cultural zetgeist, her artistry was revolutionary, she introduced new ways music can be represented, tested the boundaries within which electronic music exists, who with honesty and emotional intensity exploded ideas about underground and melding worlds of house, techno, trance, pop and the avant-garde into something brazenly new and undeniable, while helping thousands of people to find who they are. Her influence on pop today as a producer or singer can't be understated. A true pioneer, her legacy will shine on. Rest in Power. Tell people you love them when you can. It's ok to cry
Today marks Holocaust Memorial Day, on the anniversary of the liberation
of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz Birkenau,the largest Nazi death camp in occupied Poland. where 1.6 million
men, women children were killed in the holocaust. Holocaust Memorial Day also commemorates as well as victims of later genocides
in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Darfur.
The day aims to remind people of the crimes and loss of life and
encourage remembrance in a world scarred by genocide and prevent it
ever being forgotten.
Alongside the six million Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, hundreds
of thousands of others were targeted by Hitler's regime - including
trade unionists, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transpeople, (LGBT) gypsies,
disabled people and the mentally ill, and others attacked for their
race or simply being different. At Belsen, Chelmno, Revensbrul to name a
few more among hundreds where the inhumanity of man to man was
endorseded by the Nazi regime.
The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2021 is Be the light in the darkness.
It encourages everyone to reflect on the depths humanity can sink to,
but also the ways individuals and communities resisted that darkness to
‘be the light’ before, during and after genocide.
Be the light in the darkness is an affirmation and a
call to action for everyone marking HMD. This theme asks us to consider
different kinds of ‘darkness’, for example, identity-based persecution,
misinformation, denial of justice; and different ways of ‘being the
light’, for example, resistance, acts of solidarity, rescue and
illuminating mistruths.
Increasing levels of denial, division and misinformation in today’s
world mean we must remain vigilant against hatred and identity-based
hostility. Rapid technological developments, a turbulent political
climate, and world events beyond our control can leave us feeling
helpless and insignificant. The utterly unprecedented times through
which we are living currently are showing the very best of which
humanity is capable but also - in some of the abuse and conspiracy
theories being spread on social media - the much darker side of our
world as well.
We can all stand in solidarity. We can choose to be the light in the darkness in a variety of ways and places – at home, in public, and online.
Holocaust Memorial Day enables us to remember – for a purpose. It
gives us a responsibility to work for a safer, better, future for
everyone. Everyone can step up and use their talents to tackle
prejudice, discrimination and intolerance wherever we encounter them.
We must remember that genocidal regimes throughout history have
deliberately fractured societies by marginalising certain groups, and
how these tactics can be challenged by individuals standing together
with their neighbours, and speaking out against oppression and all forms
of racism and discrimination. The Holocaust is not just a Jewish
tragedy, but it is a lesson to all of
us of all faiths in all times and a continuing reminder to stand with
“others” when their rights and freedoms face attack.
In the years leading up to the Holocaust, Nazi policies and
propaganda deliberately encouraged divisions within German society –
urging ‘Aryan’ Germans to keep themselves separate from their Jewish
neighbours. The Holocaust, Nazi Persecution of other groups and each
subsequent genocide, was enabled by ordinary citizens not standing with
their targeted neighbours.
Let 's not forget that the Holocaust did not appear out of thin air, it
was built on hatred for "the other," politically weaponized by those
seeking ever more power. As politicians today say never again, some are
walking doen that same path. Today there are still those that are
stoking up increasing division in communities across the UK and
the world, antisemitism, racism and Islamophobia are on the.rise again.
We must oppose attempts to divide us along the lines of race, religion
or ethnicity.
Far right and fascist forces are growing. Many of them deny the horrors
of the Holocaust. and are whipping up racist scapegoating.Neonazi electoral advances in Europe are linked to anti-immigrant,
Islamophobic and anti-semitic violence. The wall by a Jewish cemetery
only two miles from Auschwitz was recently desecrated.
Online, despite some deplatforming of sites following the Capitol
Hill riots, fascist ideas and organisation remain. The increase in
fascist terror and planned terrorism do not operate in a vacuum.
In recent years, Muslims and Roma have faced fascist hate, as new
communities are victimised by the far right. As open nazis appallingly
revel in the crimes of the Holocaust, we hope to make a small
contribution to ensuring that Jews are not left to face nazi evil alone.
Now more than ever, we need to stand
together with others in
our communities in order to stop division and the spread of
identity-based hostility in our society. Somehow human beings around the world are capable of so much hate, we
should work together to prevent this. Remember those who have resisted,
shown bravery and courage. Remember all the victims of the Holocaust. Those who were murdered because of who they were, and reflect on the dark evils of Nazism, anti-Semitism and racism. While you do. please think about those people who are also facing genocide today; The
Uighur Muslims in China, The Rohingya in Myanmar and also the
Palestinian people too.
We should never forget where hatred and bigotry can lead. There
can never be anytime for passivity, and we must stand strong against
the dark forces of intolerance, bigotry, racism and division that
create them.When we remember the Holocaust, “never again” must mean exactly that.
On Holocaust Memorial Day, Here is a list of some other places and people that the world sometimes forgets.
Cambodia,
Darfur,
Siebrenica,
Karabakh,
Liberia,
Sudan,
Holodonor,
Armenia, the ethnic cleansing of indigeneous Palestinians,
The Indigeneous Peoples of America,
Checknya,
Congo,
India
and the genocide of slavery
and on and on and on.
Sadly there will always be individuals, organisations and regimes who want to
exploit differences for their own ends and we must have the courage to
speak out against hatred and intolerance where we see this happening. In a world which is increasingly fractured, where we have some leaders
that are more interested in promoting division than harmony, it is vital
we remember that there is far more that unites than divides the human
race, to prevent a repeat of the horrors of the past, lets strive to work for equality , peace and justice for the whole of mankind. Be the light in the darkness.
First They Came - Pastor Martin Niemoller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the Trade Unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade Unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left To speak out for me.
January 25th marks Burns Night, the annual celebration of Scotland’s
national poet Robert Burns. Burns Night is a great occasion on January 25th when many dinners
dedicated to his memory are held all over the world. The ritual of the
Burns Supper was started by close friends of Robert Burns a few years
after his death and the format remains largely unchanged today,
beginning with the chairman of the Supper inviting the assembled company
to welcome in the haggis The poem ‘To a Haggis’a paean to the Scottish pudding of seasoned heart, liver, and lungs
of a sheep or calf mixed with suet, onions, and oatmeal and boiled in an
animal’s stomach:
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm.
is recited and the haggis is toasted with a glass of whisky. The evening ends with a rousing rendition of ' Auld Lang Syne,' This year will be a little different as celebrations will be held at home, but despite lockdown the traditions will continue.
Robert Burns is not only Scotland’s best known poet and
songwriter but one of the most widely acclaimed literary figures of all
time. He is held in very special affection by millions around the world. Admired as the bard of freedom, liberty and the common good of humankind.
Robert Burns was in rural poverty on 25 January 1759 in the village of Alloway,
two miles south of Ayr,the son
of a poor tenent farmer, Jacobite in sympathies, who had moved from near
Stonehaven in Kincardineshire. Burns had a fairly extensive education. He attended several schools and
was given lessons from his tutor, John Murdoch, who introduced him to
Scots and other literature in the English language.The farm his family worked on would provide enough to scrape through
each year provided every family member worked as long and hard as they
could.
Burns’s upbringing was one of hard labour and little leisure. His
early teenage poems, written in his own Scots dialect, reflect the life
he lived and are concerned only with the people and places he knew,
not, as with popular contemporary poets, the triumphs of mythological
heroes or the achievements of great classical civilisations. For Burns,
poetry was not work, but a way of understanding life and of
comprehending the beauties and evils he saw around him. In his life of
labour and poetry, Burns came to develop philosophical understandings of
the world around him. His poem ‘To a Mouse’ Shows this:
I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion
An’ fellow-mortal!
This is of course the most famous example of Burns’s unique poetic
understanding of life and humanity. The sympathy he has for the mouse
whose house he has turned up while ploughing the field is developed into
a reflection on his own lowly position and the now ‘broken union’
between living things. Whilst this poem is undoubtedly famous for its
unique handling of Scots, its incredibly important and valuable message
of compassion and unity is often ignored.
Burns lived through the time of the French Revolution of 1789. The
events of the revolution and the philosophical ideas that had influenced
it had an effect all across Europe. All of a sudden it seemed that the
entire political establishment of the civilised world was being put into
question. Through a development of consciousness, mankind could
completely alter the shape of society. Those who benefited from the old
regime didn’t stand a chance. For the bourgeoisie, the revolution was a
step forward in the establishment of capitalism and the withering away
of the powers held by church and nobility. But for the generation of
thinkers Burns belonged to, the revolution was a display of the power
held by the masses, and an example of how philosophical ideas could
manifest themselves in revolutionary action. Unlike the slightly later
romantic poets, who praised the revolution from their perspective as
classically trained scholars, seeing it in comparison to the great
achievements of classical civilisation, Burns instead saw the revolution
from the perspective of the oppressed masses. As a poor worker himself,
Burns saw poetry not in the efforts of the great lawyers and
politicians of the revolution, but in the mass of revolutionary workers,
who defended their demands of liberty, equality and fraternity, even
after the bourgeoisie established their rule over France. His poem ‘The
Tree of Liberty’ reflects the mood the revolution inspired in him:
‘For Freedom, standing by the tree,
Her sons did loudly ca’, man.
She sang a sang o’ liberty,
Which pleased them ane and a’, man.
By her inspired, the new-born race
Soon drew the avenging steel, man;
The hirelings ran——–her foes gied chase,
And banged the despot weel, man.’
When Burns’ father died in 1784, worn out and bankrupt after 18 years of hard graft with little reward.As
a result he satirised religion and politics that condoned or
perpetuated inhumanity in his poetry as he became a rebel against the
social order of the day.The women of his life during this time were also the subjects and inspiration of his prose.
On July 31 1786, as thought of emigrating, a volume of his poems was published in Kilmarnock, entitled Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.
It became an immediate success, and led to Burns moving to Edinburgh in November 1786.Newly hailed as the Ploughman Poet because his poems complemented the
growing literary taste for romanticism and pastoral pleasures, Burns
arrived in Edinburgh, where he was welcomed by a circle of wealthy and
important friends.
The aristocrats
belittled him though as the ‘heaven-taught ploughman’ because they couldn’t come to
terms with the fact that one of the poorest and lowest stood intellectually
above all the expensively-educated young ladies and gentlemen of Edinburgh.
These “parcel of rogues in a nation”, who had already betrayed the Scottish
people in 1707 and 1745 (when even Gaelic and tartan were outlawed), had
abandoned the lowlands Scottish dialect and wanted Burns to do the same, to
turn him into the bard of Scotland-in-Empire.
In The Cannongate Burns Andrew
Noble observes, “Had Burns adhered to the social etiquette of Edinburgh’s
genteel society, he probably would have written no poetry worth reading after
1787”.
His
burning desire for social justice and equality against class exploitation are
made explicit in many of his poems. Although he became very successful, Robert never forgot his roots. His
poems often reflected his love of farming and the difficulties faced by
working-class people.
He was handsome and managed to combine his wit and wisdom with a
down-to-earth attitude, which made him very popular in social circles.His love life was certainly complicated. In 1785, Elizabeth, his
daughter by his mother’s servant Betty Paton, was born, shortly before
he met Jean Armour. His relationships proliferated. Armour was pregnant
with his twins in 1786, while Burns was also still devoted to Mary
Campbell. Later he would have a relationship with Agnes McLehose, but
turned to her maid Jenny Clow for a more physical relationship. Early in
1786, Burns signed “some sort of Wedlock” with Armour, but her father
repudiated him and sent Jean away. They were married in 1788, and the
Ainslie letter deals with his return to her from McLehose.
Struggling
to make ends meet and trying to forget Jean in “dissipation and riot,”
Burns agreed to take a post on a slave plantation in Jamaica. Lack of
money and the “feelings of a father” when Jean gave birth led him to
postpone and then abandon his emigration. It was at this point that he
was encouraged first to publish his poems to finance the trip. This led
to him being courted by the Edinburgh literary scene and groomed as a
contributor to anthologies of Scottish song and verse like James
Johnston’s Scots Musical Museum.
Burns’s association with
slavery is problematic for those who do not view him historically, but
his poetry attests to an aspiration for freedom globally. The final
lines of For a’ that and a’ that are justly celebrated:
For a’ that, and a’ that, Its comin yet for a’ that, That Man to Man the warld o’er, Shall brothers be for a’ that.
Burns also wrote movingly of The Slave’s Lament:
The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear, In the lands of Virginia-ginia O; And I think on friends most dear with the bitter, bitter tear, And Alas! I am weary, weary O!
Burns
reached his highpoint in support of the French revolution, not just in fiery words,
but in deeds – sending them four cannon as the British bourgeoisie started its
anti-Jacobin war (‘Napoleonic’) in support of the reactionary aristocratic
regimes of Europe. With widespread starvation and troops sent against food
riots in Dumfries, he helped form a branch of the underground ‘Friends of the
People’ and teamed up with the working-class London Corresponding Society and the
United Irishmen – his poems particularly inspiring many Ulster Protestants to
rise up for Irish independence. Andrew Noble writes: “The real war fought by
Pitt and Dundas was not against France per se. Their battle was an ideological
war against the domestic pro-democracy movement in Britain and in Scotland in
particular, where they feared a mass rebellion or outright revolution”.
In
December 1792 Pitt declared martial law and unleashed a wave of repression. That
same day Burns was the first to be investigated for his support for the
revolution (singing the revolutionary anthem ‘Ca ira’ in a Dumfries theatre).
Yet the next day Burns answered with ‘On The Year 1793’. When Paine’s The
Rights of Man sold 15,000 copies, the publisher was arrested. A declaration of
loyalty and blacklisting were introduced, trade unions made illegal and
opponents deported. Reformers and democrats were portrayed as terrorists and
traitors.
Conservative
‘Burnsians’ foster the myth that Burns then became a Hannoverian loyalist or a
coward, abandoning radical writings. In fact, this is when he established safe
routes to publishers in Edinburgh and London to anonymously publish his
clearest revolutionary anti-war propaganda poems. These and others were suppressed
or denied by the literary establishment for 200 years until Patrick Scott Hogg
published Robert Burns: The Lost Poems in 1997. Just months before his death in
1796 Burns confirmed, “If I must write, let it be sedition”. When he received
the letter from his employers, the Commissioners of Excise, forbidding his
political views, he immediately scribbled “the creed of poverty” on the
envelope in defiance.
Burns
knew he was being spied on. As a cover, he joined the Dumfries Volunteers and
wrote a few token loyal poems, later to be picked up by his enemies. Yet
despite the terror, Burns couldn’t ignore provocation nor resist ridiculing the
‘Loyal Natives’, a bunch of subservient thugs also in the Volunteers. Following
one of their grovelling toasts in a pub one night he caused uproar with his own
sarcastic: “May our success in the present war be equal to the justice of our
cause!” On another occasion: “May the last king be hung in the guts of the last
priest!”
Burns
had a heart of gold, but he was no softy. His most explicit call to revolution
and a classless, peaceful society, ‘Why Should We Vainly Waste Our Prime?’
(drafted by an English radical and crafted by Burns), is determined and
uncompromising:-.
WHY should we idly waste our prime Repeating our oppressions? Come rouse to arms! ’Tis now the time To punish past transgressions. ’Tis said that Kings can do no wrong — Their murderous deeds deny it, And, since from us their power is sprung, We have a right to try it. Now each true patriots song shall be: ‘Welcome Death or Libertie!’
Proud Priests and Bishops well translate And canonise as Martyrs; The guillotine on Peers shall wait; And Knights shall hang in garters. Those Despots long have trode us down, And Judges are their engines: Such wretched minions of a Crown Demand the peoples vengeance! To-day ’tis theirs. To-morrow we Shall don the Cap of Libertie!
The Golden Age we’ll then revive: Each man will be a brother; In harmony we all shall live, And share the earth together; In Virtue train’d, enlighten’d Youth Will love each fellow-creature; And future years shall prove the truth That Man is good by nature: Then let us toast with three times three The reign of Peace and Libertie!
His correspondence
with Agnes ‘Nancy’ McLehose resulted in the classic Ae Fond Kiss. A
collaboration with James Johnson led to a long-term involvement in The
Scots Musical Museum, which included the poems including Auld Lang Syne. In just 18 short months, Burns had spent most of the wealth from his
published poetry, and in 1789 he began work as an Excise Officer in
Dumfries. His
increasingly radical political views influenced many of the phenomenal
number of poems, songs and letters he continued to pen. Burns’s social consciousness and faith in humanity are reflected in the following
poem ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That’, a poem that focusses on the divide
between rich and poor and the need for systematic change across the
world.
Is there for honesty poverty
That hings his head, an' a' that;
The coward slave - we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Our toils obscure an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.
hat though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, an' a' that?
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,
A man's a man for a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their tinsel show, an' a' that,
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that.
Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
His ribband, star, an' a' that,
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that.
A price can mak a belted knight,
A marquise, duke, an' a' that;
But an honest man's aboon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities an' a' that,
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.
Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
That man to man, the world o'er,
Shall brithers be for a' that.
Burns was also acutely conscious of the environment and the delicate ecological balance between human activity and nature. Now Westlin Winds (1775),
surely one of Burns’s most beautiful songs, captures this extremely
well. It is also both a love song and a condemnation of blood sports. In
the song Burns refers to “slaught’ring guns” and “Tyrannic man’s
dominion!”
Dick Gaughan - Now Westlin Winds
His love of nature and animals is also revealed in poems such
as The Wounded Hare (1789).
In a letter to Alexander Cunningham (4 May 1789) he writes of his views
on blood sports, saying: “Indeed there is something in all that
multiform business of destroying for our sport individuals in the animal
creation that do not injure us materially, that I could never reconcile
to my ideas of native virtue and eternal right”.
The natural world and the environment feature strongly in Burns’s work.
If he were alive today he would surely be concerned about current
threats to the environment.
Burns’s last few years were blighted by poor health but just a few
weeks before his death aged only 37 on 21 July 1796, an ailing Burns defiantly
writes: “If I must write let it be Sedition, or Blasphemy, or something
else that begins with a B, so that I may grin with the grin of iniquity
and rejoice with the rejoicing of an apostate angel”
One of the last people to meet Burns before his death was the
reverend James MacDonald. In a manuscript, cited by Burns scholar Robert
Crawford, MacDonald reveals that Burns talked to him about his staunch
republicanism and radical politics. Crawford remarks “this is Burns the
spirited rebel, Bard of Sedition, even Blasphemy”
On the 21st of July Robert Burns, the national bard of Scotland, died at
the young age of 37. In a world where famine and disease frequently
wreaked its havoc, early death was often common. However, for those who
lived past the diseases of childhood, long life was a definite
possibility. So, even in the eighteenth century, Burns’s death seemed
premature and tragic. His funeral was held four days later, the very same day his youngest son, Maxwell, was born.
Burns’ stature owes much to the huge
range of his songs and poems, some of which are still familiar nearly
two hundred and fifty years after his birth. In fact, there would be few
English speaking people who do not recognise “Auld Lang Syne”
His popularity is also linked to his
association with a brand of socialism radical for his time and timeless
in its understanding of the plight of the common man. Burns would have
naturally understood these issues having experienced hardships not
untypical for the ordinary man of the eighteenth century.jjjj The poetry of Burns has lasted the test of time because what he had to
say remains highly relevant. We still live in a world of class oppression,
where people are violent towards each other. It’s clear that capitalism Burns screams a challenging questioning of th isunjust social order in 'Man was made to mourn':
When chill November’s surly blast Made fields and forests bare, One evening as I wandered forth Along the banks of Ayr, I spied a man, whose aged step Seemed weary, worn with care; His face was furrowed o’er with years, And hoary was his hair.
Young stranger, whither wand’rest thou?’ Began the reverend sage; ’Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain, Or youthful pleasure’s rage? Or haply, pressed with cares and woes, Too soon thou hast began To wander forth, with me to mourn, The miseries of man!
‘The sun that overhangs yon moors, Out-spreading far and wide, Where hundreds labour to support A haughty lordling’s pride;— I’ve seen yon weary winter-sun Twice forty times return; And every time has added proofs That man was made to mourn.
‘O man! while in thy early years, How prodigal of time! Mis-spending all they precious hours, Thy glorious youthful prime! Alternate follies take the sway, Licentious passions burn; Which tenfold force give Nature’s law, That man was made to mourn.
‘Look not alone on youthful prime, Or manhood’s active might; Man then is useful to his kind, Supported in his right: But see him on the edge of life, With cares and sorrows worn; Then age and want—oh, ill-matched pair!— Shew man was made to mourn.
‘A few seem favourites of fate, In pleasure’s lap caress’d; Yet think not all the rich and great Are likewise truly blest. But oh! what crowds in every land, All wretched and forlorn, Through weary life this lesson learn, That man was made to mourn.
‘Many and sharp the num’rous ills Inwoven with our frame; More pointed still we make ourselves— Regret, remorse, and shame! And man, whose heaven-erected face The smiles of love adorn,— Man’s inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn!
’See yonder poor, o’erlaboured wight, So abject, mean, and vile, Who begs a brother of the earth To give him leave to toil; And see his lordly fellow-worm The poor petition spurn, Unmindful tho’ a weeping wife And helpless offspring mourn.
‘If I’m designed yon lordling’s slave— By Nature’s law designed— Why was an independent wish E’er planted in my mind? If not, why am I subject to His cruelty or scorn? Or why has man the will and power To make his fellow mourn?
‘Yet let not this too much, my son, Disturb thy youthful breast; This partial view of humankind Is surely not the last! The poor, oppressed, honest man, Has never, sure, been born, Has there not been some recompense To comfort those that mourn.’u
All in all Burns has become the personification of Scottish identity and the Immortality that Burns has rests in his work that was so deeply imbedded with hope for change, that continues to be studied , celebrated and preserved the world over, And so
this Burns’ Night will raise a glass and drink a toast to Robert Burns .immortal bard of freedom.
Nuclear arms are the most destructive, indiscriminate, inhumane and monstrous
weapons ever produced, but today is an historic one, that we can all celebrate as a major
milestone in the long march towards peace: The date 22 January marks a victory for humanity. That’s the day the
Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons enters into force, the day that
nuclear weapons become prohibited.
Efforts to outlaw nuclear weapons date back to the beginning of the nuclear age , they have always been immoral. Now, they are also classified
as illegal, just like chemical and biological weapons. This is a major
shift as it will bring about a change in the public perception of these
weapons. The TPNW is not symbolic.The Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons is the first globally applicable
multilateral agreement to prohibit nuclear weapons outright. It
prohibits their use, threat of use, development, production, testing and
stockpiling. It also commits States Parties to clearing contaminated
areas and helping victims. By providing pathways for the elimination of
nuclear weapons, the Treaty is an indispensable building block towards a
world free of nuclear weapons.
The dropping of two nuclear bombs 75 years ago, on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945, combined they resulted in the deaths of over 400,000 people. This is
exactly what these horrific weapons were designed to do-indiscriminately
kill vast amounts of people and clearly.demonstrated their enormous
destructive power. There is no doubt that if one was exploded again, in
war or accidentally, it would cause a humanitarian disaster. It is
argued that they are militarily unusable because of the destruction
their use would cause and many more people, even those who may not call themseles pacifists believe that using nuclear weapons is immoral, Now there is a further argument illegality.
A nuclear darkness has engulfed the world for seven decades, with only intermittent breakthroughs of light, after treaties had been repeatedly broken, but the gloom began to lift in July 2017 following international concerns about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons over a
hundred and twenty countries voted to adopt the Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. On October 24, 2020 Honduras provided the 50th
ratification of the Treaty, which was required for
the 90-day countdown for the Treaty to enter into force to officially
begin. which means it will become international law on 22nd
January 2021. Not only does it prohibit the use of nuclear weapons but
also related activities such as developing, testing or manufacturing
nuclear weapons and assisting others with any prohibited activities.
Built on decades of nuclear disarmament advocacy, the treaty has been led by the true experts of nuclear weapons, the survivors of nuclear weapons use and testing. The treaty recognises nuclear weapons for what they are, unacceptable instruments of mass destruction, and acknowledges their disproportionate impact on indigenous communities.
As an
individual I am delighted that the Treaty has now
been ratified, it embodies the collective moral revulsion of the international community. The entry into force of the Treaty provides
Conscience with a new powerful argument: It provides added pressure to
change the law so no-one is forced to pay through their taxes for
nuclear weapons which are now illegal as well as immoral.
I also
recognise that possession of nuclear weapons ties up resources that
could be better used to tackle the problems that face the world,
including the causes of war as well as the current Covid-19 pandemic and
climate change.Conscience is clear that there are many
alternative ways to resolve conflict, ways other than war, and that
nuclear weapons have no place in conflict resolution.
And yet 22 January will not mark the end of the journey. In fact, the
banning of nuclear weapons should be seen as the beginning of multiple
efforts to realise the objectives of the Treaty and bring about a world
free from nuclear weapons. It is now crucial to make the Treaty come
to life as a new norm of international humanitarian law. The Treaty’s
success depends on the broadest possible adherence..
None of the 9 nuclear armed states,-China, France, India, Israel. North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, have signed the Treaty. They have
even tried, unsuccessfully, to block it. As long as they refuse to sign,
the Treaty does not apply to them directly – but it does make it much
harder for them to justify their opposition. They can expect to face
increasing international criticism, as well as internal political
pressure. who will continue to work for the treaties full universalization and implementation.
The Treaty will also have a significant impact on financial
institutions (pension funds and banks) because the Treaty also bans the
financing of nuclear weapons systems. By investing in nuclear arms,
these institutions have played a major role in the threat of a nuclear
Armageddon. They will now have to choose to endorse or reject this new
standard: if they decide to reject it, they run the risk of tarnishing
their image and becoming unpopular with their clients. Financial bodies
of countries (Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Sweden, for example)
which do not support the TPNW have already made the decision to
disinvest, which demonstrates the extent of the Treaty’s impact.
Our key priority is to continue making the Treaty as universal as
possible by getting as many states to sign and ratify it, increasing its
legal influence. Monitoring its implementation will also be a very
important task as it is a means of demonstrating its effectiveness.
The Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament and many other peace organisations in the UK
will continue to campaign for the UK to honour its commitment to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to make tangible steps towards
disarmament. Until the UK does so, Conscience will argue that UK
taxpayers should not be forced to pay for nuclear weapons which are now
not only immoral but illegal.Now the UK must get in step with the rest of the world, acknowledge the foolishness
of continuing to threaten the world with mass destruction, join the
Treaty and disarm.
20-year old Czech philosophy student
Jan Palach died on January 19 1969 after suffering for
three days in hospital from self-inflicted third-degree burns. On
January 16 1969, Palach, a quiet student of philosophy standing at the top of Wenceslas Square, at the
foot of the steps of the Czech National Museum, poured petrol over his
head and lit it on fire, five months after Soviet tanks had rolled into Czechoslovakia to end a swelling reform movement, to protest against the lack of freedom and the passivity of its citizens, hoping to inspire compatriots to stand up to their occupiers,.His act was modelled on the 1963 self-immolation of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thin Quang Duc in Saigon, protesting at the Vietnam war.
During an interview in the hospital and in his suicide letter,
he called for a strike and expressed dissatisfaction with the
resignation of citizens toward the regime’s policies.“People must fight against the evil they feel equal to measure up to at that moment,” he managed to say, With 85 percent of
his body covered in third degree burns, he passed away in the hospital
three days after his self-immolation attempt.He had made the ultimate sacrifice. Palach left a short
and succinct suicide note at the site explaining the motives for his actions. Ominously, he signed his suicide note 'Torch Number One', giving the impression that he was part of a larger group, which in fact did not exist.
He left a letter at the site explaining the motives of his final act:
“As our nation is living in a desperate situation, and its
reconciliation with fate has reached its utmost stage, we have decided
that in this way we will express our protest and shake the conscience of
the nation …ˮ
It did. Following Palach’s self-immolation, many Czechs and Slovaks went
on hunger strike; others took to the streets. They insisted that
Palach’s calls, expressed in his farewell letters, to abolish
censorship and stop the dissemination of the Soviet propaganda
publication Zpravy should be heeded.
In death, Jan Palach would become known as “the conscience of the
nation”, hailed as a martyr of exceptional courage and character. He is held up as the national symbol of the Prague Spring, a period
of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak
Socialist Republic that lasted approximately seven months, from January
5th to August 21, 1968.
The Prague Spring began with the election of reformist Alexander
Dubček as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
(KSČ). In August that year, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact
members invaded Czechoslovakia to suppress the reforms. The week after
the invasion saw nonviolent resistance spark across the country, and the
beginning of a massive wave of emigration, due to the suppression of
speech, media, and many other freedoms. Jan Palach became a symbol of
that resistance,
Palach’s funeral at Prague’s Olšany Cemetery on January 25 turned
into a huge demonstration of opposition against the Soviet Union's crushing of the liberal reforms of the Prague Spring, attended by at least 200,000 people. Protests and services of remembrance took place across the country, with people shouting anti-communist and anti-Soviet slogans.
The authorities allowed these demonstrations and marches to take place,
sensing the need of the people to voice their discontent. But soon,
marches were broken up as the regime reasserted its control. Palach’s
grave in Prague, which was attracting far too many visitors, had become a
shrine adorned with flowers, candles and poems.During October of 1973, without
asking the family’s permission, the Secret Police had him cremated and
replaced Palach with the body of an elderly lady in the Olšany grave.
His ashes remained with his mother in Všetaty. The police would not even
allow her to put the urn in the local cemetery until 1974. The Secret
Police watched his grave, forbidding followers from placing flowers on
Palach’s resting place. Palach’s ashes were transported to Olšany, Prague in
1990.
Palach wrote in his suicide letter that he did not want others to
follow his example. Yet some did not heed his warning. The day
after Palach’s death Josef Hlavatý committed an act of self-immolation
in front of a memorial to first democratic Czechoslovak president, Tomáš
Garrigue Masaryk in Pilsen. Notably marking a month after Palach’s funeral
18-year old Jan Zajíc, a former friend of Pelach's poured gasoline on himself at Wenceslas Square on 25 February 1969, In his suicide note, entitled ‘Torch no.2’, Zajic wrote:
‘I
am not doing this to be mourned, nor to be famous, and I am not out of
my mind, either. With this act, I want to give you the courage to
finally resist letting yourself be pushed around by a few dictators.’
Other deaths by fire took place in Jihlava and Košice. The
self-immolation trend was not limited to Czechoslovakia, though.
Students in other Communist countries also attempted suicide in this way.It was later copied by a wave of Indian students
who set themselves alight in 1990 in protest at changes in quota systems
for entry into university and the civil service.In
Britain in 1993, Graham Bamford, a 48-year-old former haulage
contractor, burned himself to death outside the House of Commons to
protest at the horrors of Bosnia. It was later echoed at the start of the Arab Spring revolution in
Tunisia, which began after street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on
fire in December 2010..
After Palach’s courageous death, however the situation in Czechoslovakia did not improve.His act failed to overturn the consolidation of power by Soviet-backed
hard-liners who brought a period of repression that lasted until the end
of communist rule in 1989. Th protests and Palach's demands went unheeded. Censorship remained in place and the Soviet occupiers continued distributing, their propaganda publication. Nothing had changed and the Czech and Slovak drifted in apathy,.
Tet Jan Palach;s name though became a key point of reference in seminal events leading
up to the fall of communism, with rallies in his name crucial in
mobilising support outside dissent circles.Twenty years later, anti-Communist dissident Vaclav Havel was
detained as he laid a flower at the top of Wenceslas Square to
commemorate Palach on January 16, 1989, sparking thousands
of demonstrators, mainly students, to flock to Wenceslas Square every day for a week in what later became known as ' Palach week.' Lots of people consider these gatherings to his memory to have been a dress rehearsal for the
Velvet Revolution the following November that brought down Czechoslovakia's communist regime, which saw Havel becomming the country's president, with many seeing this as the ultimate testament to
Palach's legacy.
Following the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia, a bronze cross honouring both Palach and Jan Zajic was embedded into the
ground on Wenceslas Square, as if melting into the pavement, on the
exact spot where Jan Palach had staged his desperate protest. A small memorial with Palach’s
death mask adorns the façade of Charles University’s Faculty of
Philosophy, and the square on which the building is situated is named
after him. Squares in Rome and Luxembourg also bear the martyr’s name.
Streets named after Palach can be found in Luxembourg, France, Poland,
Bulgaria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. There is even a Palach
memorial inside a glacier tunnel in Switzerland.
Palach’s self-immolation has been widely referenced in music, literature, poetry, movies, and other cultural forms.Songs and poems have
been written about Palach.The music video for the song “Club Foot” by the band Kasabian is also dedicated to Palach. Written by Charles Sabatos, the book Burning Body: Icon of Resistance: Literary Representations of Jan Palach also carries his memories. A radio play and a documentary also focus on
the Všetaty native. In 1991 President Havel posthumously awarded him a
medal for serving democracy and upholding human rights,
He was also immortalised by the 2018 movie named after him, starring
Czech actors. The movie is currently available on Netflix in Czech with
English subtitles. More information on the movie can be found here.
Palach’s incredible sacrifice was not in vain. He stood up to the harsh
regime while others merely accepted the political situation. He gave his
life because he believed in democracy and human rights.Though his immediate political goals failed, Jan Palach inspired and
steeled the resolve of countless others to fight for freedom during the
two decades of ‘Normalisation’ that followed the crushing of the Prague
Spring. And for this he will
never be forgotten.
Civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King is honored with a holiday across the US on the third Monday of January,
between 15-21, every year since 1986 - three years after president
Ronald Reagan wrote the holiday into law. Countries outside the US also recognise the life and achievement of Martin Luther King Jr. On this day we remember his life and work, celebrate the victories of
the civil rights movement, and reflect on what still needs to be done
in the pursuit of racial justice.
Martin Luther King was born on Jan. 15, 1929 in Atlanta and became the most visible spokesperson
and leader in the civil rights movement. From the mid-1950s until his death in 1968 King sought equality and human rights for African Americans. Through peaceful protests, he and his followers fought for all victims
of injustice and the economically disadvantaged. King was the hidden
motivation behind many watershed events
He rose to national prominence when
he led the boycott of the 1955 Montgomery’s transit system after Rosa Parks,
an African-American, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a
city bus. King later in 1957 helped form the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference serving as its first president. With the
SCLC, he helped organise the non-violent 1963 protests in Birmingham,
Alabama. He also helped to organise the 1963 March on Washington, where
he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
On October 14 1964 King
received the Nobel Peace Prize for combatting racial inequality through
non-violent resistance. In 1965, he helped to organise the Selma to
Montgomery marches, and the following year he and the SCLC took the
movement north to Chicago to work on segregated housing.
In the final
years of his life, he expanded his focus to include opposition to
poverty and the Vietnam War. On March 29 1968, King went to Memphis,
Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, who
were represented by AFSCME Local 1733, King was killed by an assassin .at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on 4 April 1968 and died later that same day at St Joseph's Hospital. News of his death was followed by riots in many US cities.
American white supremacist James Earl
Ray was convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr, entering a
guilty plea to forgo a jury trial and the possibility of a death
sentence, and was sentenced to 99 years' imprisonment.This
sentence was extended to 100 years after Ray and six other convicts
temporarily escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, in
Tennessee, in 1977, only to be captured three days later. He died on 23
April 1998, aged 70.
MLK Day is a federal holiday, though it was not made official until 18 years after his assassination.
Efforts
to honor King with a federal holiday began just months after his death. Those efforts failed, as did a 1979 vote by Congress that
came after King's widow, Coretta Scott King, spoke out in favor of the
day. Momentum for the holiday grew in 1980 when entertainer Stevie
Wonder released "Happy Birthday" in King's honor, leading to a petition
calling for MLK Day.
In 1983, 15 years after King's death, 22 senators actually voted against an official holiday honoring him. The North Carolina senator Jesse Helms undertook a 16 day fillibuster of the bill claiming that King's "action-oriented Marxism" was "not compatible with the concept of this country" He was joine in his opposition by Senators John McCain, Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassly, among others. Ronald Reagon reluctantly signed the legislation, all the while grumbling that he would have preferred
a day similar to Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which is not technically a national holiday.
To this day, after MLK Jr. Day, was formally recognised we often are presented with a sanitized,
nonconfrontational version of Dr. King that is a far cry from the
radical activist who was reviled during his time for his powerful
justice work. Whether these misconceptions are promoted by those who are
genuinely unfamiliar with Dr. King’s true history or by those who seek
to silence today’s black activists with his more “acceptable” example,
one thing is clear: there is a whole lot more to Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.’s inspiring legacy than we are taught in school.
The reality is that Martin Luther King held revolutionary ideals
rooted in the 18th-century vision of freedom and equality and grounded
by a Christian theological vision of social justice. With these ideals,
he and his fellow civil rights workers intentionally created national
discomfort in cities, north as well as south, throughout the 1960s.
We should not forget that King told the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) board on March 30,
1967, "The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism
and evils of racism."
Just a few days later, on April 4, 1967—exactly one year before King was assasinated he
delivered an infamous speech at Riverside Church in New York City
condemning the Vietnam War. He called for an end to the "nightmarish
conflict" as well as for the nation to "undergo a radical revolution of
values," saying in part:;
"A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world
order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just."
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our
nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of
hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from
dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically
deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love."
Holding true to his principles is what compelled him to take a deeply
reflective antiwar stance in the era of the Vietnam War. King
articulated the great revolutionary hope that human beings might one day
live in a world of individuality, mutuality and respect.
King’s ideals were also derived from a human rights tradition rooted
in the long fight against slavery. He recognized that many before him
had paved the way for him and his contemporaries to take up the fight
for freedom and equality. He felt duty-bound to keep antiracist protests
and democratic freedoms alive in the United States even as the forces
of Cold War geopolitics were distorting them in the greater part of the
world, in the name of political freedom. On MLK Day, it is worth remembering his stirring, passionate condemnation of
U.S. militarism,and his arguments about why
opposition to it can't be extricated from anti-racism or anti-poverty
activism. Mainstream media outlets will remember
King’s “I have a dream” speech, but forget that he also said, “We must
see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism
are all tied together.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is
also a fine opportunity to note that King belongs to a
pantheon of famous historical figures who were, to the surprise of many
admirers, committed socialists. King questioned the “captains of
industry” and their ownership over the workplace, the means of
production (“Who owns the oil?… Who owns the iron ore?”), and believed
“something is wrong with capitalism. "There must be a better distribution
of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”
Martin Luther King Jr as part of a wider movement, standing alongside socialists such as Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin , and A Phillip Randolph in not just attempting to dismantle the Jim Crow system, but replacing it with an egalitarian social democracy, committed to building a broad movement to overcome the failings of capitalism and achieve both racial and economic equality for all people,
He also sacrificed his life to continuous political struggle. His dream
sometimes became a nightmare and was met with frustrated reactions that
at times were vitriolic, scornful and violent. For his militancy King was hounded by the FBI , denounced as a communist, n bombarded with death threats,
It is sad to recollect
that most of the American public, either because of fear or complacency,
accepted the forms of inequalities that had been heaped upon racial
minorities in their country as though they were ordained by God. Only 22% of Americans approved of the freedom rides fighting segregated transportation. King,
however, sustained a utopian vision of what life could be like for all
Americans and people around the world if national leaders and common
citizens alike exercised our political will for the common good.
Though Martin Luther King Day is an American holiday, the man himself
was thoroughly international.
He had long supported anti colonial struggles in developing countries, His political thoughts traverses all
borders.Like so many strugglers in the long fight against racism, King
appreciated that it was, at it's heart a global project. Many years later despite some victory's and gains, the march for
equality is unfinished, and for some his dream is unrealised, take for
instance the case of the Palestinians who are daily imprisoned.
We cannot let go of Dr King's dream, because, surely it is everybody's
dream, we must continuously try to change the world, remember those in
the U.S.A fighting for jobs and freedom, a land still lanquishing to
find itself, while perpetrating injustice, discrimination and
inequality. A country that imprisons more of their citizens than any
other country in the world. African Americans in particular, though they
are 12% of the population, make up 38% of the state prison population,
despite their crimes being no different from their white and hispanic
counterparts.
Sadly King's legacy was gravely dishonoured every day that bloody Donald Trump
sat in the Oval Office. Yet despite this Dr King's words
can still be be both sobering and inspiring, his words are a
timeless representation of the struggles that disenfranchised people face. As the fight against white supremacy, militarism, and economic
inequality continues, it’s important to remember that while King stood
for hope, he also stood for action.
Today’s Black freedom movement stands firmly in King’s legacy, and should be recognised as such.
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor … it must be
demanded by the oppressed!” King determined. Reminding us that “The
ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments
of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at during times of
challenge and controversy,” He also warned us that “We must learn to
live together as brothers, or we will perish together as fools,”and that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in
an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of
destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." “These are revolutionary times,” King
declared. “All over the globe, men are revolting against old systems of
exploitation and oppression, and out of the wombs of a frail world new
systems of justice and equality are being born.”
More than 50 years after his death, Martin Luther King Jr's rich radical legacy and his words live long in the memory
of millions worldwide because he put forward a vision of a society that provides equality for people of all races and backgrounds.This is the cause that King spent his life fighting for, and it is one we should recommit to as we honour his legacy. The power of his words speak as much to the present day as hey did to the turbulent times he witnessed.
Lets continue to honor this champion of the poor and the oppressed,in our actions and deeds. In the face of continuing cruelty and injustice, speak out, and speak up, for surely history will
judge us all for our silence.
Martin Luther King was a Socialist
Here is an old poem of mine in his honour
Strength to Love
Martin Luther King had a dream
That still today stirs our conscience,
He rejected violence to oppose racial injustice
Spread a message of peace, love and understanding,
His only weapons were his words and faith
As he marched in protest with his fellow man,
A force for good, but radical with intention
Pursued civil disobedience was not afraid
of confrontation,
We are all born equal under skin
This noble struggle never stops within,
The causes of poverty must still be eradicated
There is so much more room for change,
As fresh iniquities call, lets keep hope alive
Standing firm let our voices ring out,
Keep sharing deeds of deep principle
In the name of pride and in the name of love,
We are all still citizens of the world
As Martin Luther carries on reminding,
“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.
The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.”
We must continue to resist and overcome
“Let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
One day soon, all our dreams will be realised.
The
People’s Charter had been launched in the spring of 1838 to demand
universal male suffrage and other egalitarian electoral reforms. - See
more at:
http://www.internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2013/11/on-this-day-4111839-the-newport-rising/#sthash.1XaXbYTG.dpuf
The
People’s Charter had been launched in the spring of 1838 to demand
universal male suffrage and other egalitarian electoral reforms. - See
more at:
http://www.internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2013/11/on-this-day-4111839-the-newport-rising/#sthash.1XaXbYTG.dpuf
The political movement of Chartism developed following the 1832 Reform
Act due to the widespread disappointment at the provisions in the act.
In June 1836 the London’s Workingmen’s Association was formed and in
1838, the members launched a People’s Charter and National Petition
which called for radical changes to the way in which Britain was
governed. Supporters of the movement were from then on known as
Chartists.
At the time only 19 percent of the adult male population of Britain could vote. The Chartists wanted the vote for all men (though not for
women) and a fairer electoral system. They also called for
annual elections, the payment of MPs, and the introduction
of a secret ballot.Working conditions in many coalfields and ironworks in South
Wales were harsh, and there was often conflict between workers
and employers. Much of the working class population were living in poverty, but
without a voice in politics, and they did not feel they could change
their situation, Given these circumstances, it was no surprise
that Chartism developed quickly. In the summer of 1838 a Working
Men's Association was formed in Newport, Monmouthshire to publicise the People's
Charter.
The People's Charter called for six reforms to make the political system more democratic, namely:
A vote for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for a crime.
The secret ballot to protect the elector in the exercise of his vote.
No property qualification for Members of Parliament in order to allow the constituencies to return the man of their choice.
Payment
of Members, enabling tradesmen, working men, or other persons of modest
means to leave or interrupt their livelihood to attend to the interests
of the nation.
Equal constituencies, securing the same amount
of representation for the same number of electors, instead of allowing
less populous constituencies to have as much or more weight than larger
ones.
Annual Parliamentary elections, thus presenting the most
effectual check to bribery and intimidation, since no purse could buy a
constituency under a system of universal manhood suffrage in each
twelve-month period.
Tensions rose after the government turned down the mass petition for the Charter, presented to the House of Commons with over 1.25 million signatures.Leaders like John Frost and Henry Vincent called for 'physical force' to
obtain the Charter, and to add further fuel to the indignation felt in May 1839 eloquent public speaker Henry Vincent,https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2018/05/henry-vincent-1051818-2912-1878-radical.html well known locally for his speaking tour
of South Wales a year earlier, on 2 August all of 20 miles away in
Monmouth was arrested for making inflammatory speeches. When he was tried on the
2nd August at Monmouth Assizes he was found guilty and sentenced to
twelve months imprisonment. Vincent was denied writing materials and
only allowed to read books on religion.
Chartists in Wales were furious and the decision was followed by several outbreaks of violence. John Frost called for a massive protest meeting to show the strength
of feeling against the imprisonment of Henry Vincent. Frost's plan was to march on Newport where the Chartists planned to demand the release of Vincent. On 4 November 1839, some seven or eight thousand men from nearby iron and coal-mining villages assembled and roused with much anger marched into Newport ,and attempted to take control of the town. They marched to Westgate Hotel, where
they had heard that after several more arrests, local authorities were temporarily holding several chartists, began chanting "surrender our prisoners". However the authorities in Newport had heard rumours that the Chartists were armed and planned to seize Newport. Stories also began to circulate that if the Chartists were successful in Newport, it would encourage others all over Britain to follow their example, so were waiting for them. Troops protecting the hotel were then given the order to begin firing into the crowd, killing at least 22 people, and another fifty being wounded and resulted in the uprising being bought
to an abrupt end. Among the injured was a Chartist named John
Lovell, who was shot in the thigh and badly wounded. It would be the last large scale uprising in the history of mainland Britain.
the attack on Westgate Hotel
Following the Newport defeat, South Wales was placed under martial law and hundreds of Chartists arrested or forced into hiding.Within days many of the alleged the ringleaders including Frost
were arrested and in December"True Bills" for High Treason were foundagainst 14 men and more than 40 counts for sedition, conspiracy, riot and burglary.
The 14 men committed for Trial were:
John Frost, age 54, a draper, Newport
Zephaniah Williams, age 44, an inn keeper, of Blaina
William Jones, age 30, a watchmaker & beer house keeper, of Pontypool
Charles Waters, age 26, a ship's carpenter, of Newport (formerly Chepstow)
John Lovell, age 41, a gardener, of Newport
Jenkin Morgan, age 40, a milkman, of Pillgwenlly
Richard Benfield, age 20, a miner, of Sirhowy
John Rees, age 40, a miner, of Tredegar
James Aust, age 25, a gardener, of Malpas (formerly of Caerleon)
Solomon Britton, age 23, a collier, of Garndiffaith
George Turner, age 37, a collier, of Blackwood
Edmund Edmunds, age 34, a mine agent, of Pontllanfraith
and, to be tried in their absence:
John Rees, (Jack 'the Fifer'), a stonemason, of Tredegar
David Jones, (Dai 'the Tinker'), of Tredegar
- but the two were never captured
The Trials commenced on 31st December 1839 - and all fourteen men faced the Death Penalty.
South Wales Chartist Song, 1839, to rally support for John Frost and other imprisoned leaders of the Newport Rising 1839.
Uphold these bold Comrades who suffer for you,
Who nobly stand foremost, demanding your due,
Away with the timid, 'tis treason to fear—
To surrender or falter when danger is near.
For now that our leaders disdain to betray
'Tis base to desert them, or succour delay.
A Hundred years, a thousand years we're marching on the road
The going isn't easy yet, we've got a heavy load
The way is blind with blood and sweat & death sings in our ears
But time is marching on our side, we will defeat the years.
We men of bone, of sunken shank, our only treasure death
Women who carry at the breast heirs to the hungry earth
Speak with one voice we march we rest and march again upon the years
Sons of our sons are listening to hear the Chartist cheers
Sons of our sons are listening to hear the Chartist cheers.
John Frost's trial was heard first and this ended on the 8th January. Zephaniah Williams, on the 13th January and William Jones, on the 14th January. All three were found "guilty, with mercy".[This
meant that although they were sentenced to death, the final decision to
allow mercy was with Her Majesty and her Government]
John Lovell, Charles Waters, Jenkin Morgan, Richard Benfield and John Rees - on the advice of their counsels, Messrs, Stone & Skinner,
were urged to plead guilty in the hopes that the Crown prosecutors
could prevail upon the Judges to set the death penalty aside in their
cases and on the 15th January 1840, they appeared together in court and pleaded guilty. The remaining four Chartists in Monmouth gaol - James Aust, Solomon Britton, George Turner, Edmund Edmunds
- were brought before the bar and to everyone's amazement, the Attorney
General withdrew all charges against them and they were freed with a
verbal admonishment.
On the 16th January 1840, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones were sentenced by the Lord Chief Justice Sir Nicholas Tindal:
"After the most anxious and careful investigation
of your respective cases, before juries of great intelligence and almost
unexampled patience, you stand at the bar of this court to receive the
last sentence of the law for the commission of a crime which, beyond all
others, is the most pernicious in example, and the most injurious in
its consequences, to the peace and happiness of human society - the
crime of High Treason against your Sovereign. You can have no just
ground of complaint that your several cases have not met with the most
full consideration, both from the jury and from the court. But as the
jury have, in each of those cases, pronounced you guilty of the crime
with which you have been charges, I should be wanting in justice to them
if I did not openly declare, that the verdicts which they have found
meet with the entire concurrence of my learned brethren and myself.
In the case of all ordinary breaches of the
law, the mischief of the offence does, for the most part, terminate with
the immediate injury sustained by the individual against whom it is
levelled. The man who plunders the property, or lifts his hand against
the life of his neighbour, does by his guilty act inflict, in that
particular instance, and to that extent, a loss or injury on the
sufferer or his surviving friends. But they who, by armed numbers, or by
violence, or terror, endeavour to put down established institutions,
and to introduce in their stead a new order of things, open wide the
flood-gates of rapine and bloodshed, destroy all security of property
and life, and do their utmost to involve a whole nation in anarchy and
ruin.
It has been proved, in your case, that you
combined together to lead from the hills, at the dead hour of night,
into the town of Newport many thousands of men, armed, in many
instances, with weapons of a dangerous description, in order that they
might take possession of the town, and supersede the lawful authority of
the Queen, as a preliminary step to a more general insurrection
throughout the kingdom.
It is owing to the interposition of Providence
alone that your wicked designs were frustrated. Your followers arrive
by day-light, and after firing upon the civil power, and upon the
Queen's troops, are, by the firmness of the magistrates, and the cool
and determined bravery of a small body of soldiers, defeated and
dispersed. What would have been the fate of the peaceful and unoffending
inhabitants of that town, if success had attended your rebellious
designs, it is impossible to say. The invasion of a foreign foe would,
in all probability, have been less destructive to property and life.
It is for the crime of High Treason, committed
under these circumstances, that you are now called upon yourselves to
answer; and by the penalty which you are about to suffer, you hold out a
warning to all your fellow-subjects, that the law of your country is
strong enough to repress and to punish all attempts to alter the
established order of things by insurrection and armed force; and that
those who are found guilty of such treasonable attempts must expiate
their crime by an ignominious death.
I therefore most earnestly exhort you to employ
the little time that remains to you in preparing for the great change
that awaits you, by sincere penitence and by fervent prayer. For
although we do not fail to forward to the proper quarter that
recommendation which the jury have intrusted to us, we cannot hold out
to you any hope of mercy on this side of the grave.
And now, nothing more remains than the duty
imposed upon the court - to all of us a most painful duty - to declare
the last sentence of the law, which is that you, John Frost, and you,
Zephaniah Williams, and you, William Jones, be taken hence to the place
from whence you came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle to the place of
execution, and that each of you be there hanged by the neck until you be
dead, and that afterwards the head of each of you shall be severed from
his body, and the body of each, divided into four quarters, shall be
disposed of as Her Majesty shall think fit, and may Almighty God have
mercy upon your souls."
These three chartist leaders were the last men in Britain sentenced to be "hanged, drawn and quartered.
Zepaniah Williams, John Frost, William Jones John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, William Jones - were
returned to Monmouth Gaol to await public execution. The Government had
decided that an example should be made of three members of the lower
middle classes for having misled thousands of workmen into taking
insurrectionary action against Queen and State.
The severity of the
sentences shocked many people and thanks to the vigorous lobbying and protests in support
of the convicted Chartists, it led to to their sentences being commuted to
transportation for life.
When they actually received a total pardon in
1856. Jones stayed in Australia as a watchmaker and Williams stayed in
Tasmania, where he subsequently made his fortune discovering coal.
However, John Frost, who had worked as a school teacher in Tasmania,
returned to Britain, where he received a triumphant welcome in Newport.
The Newport rising was a turning point for the
Chartist movement. In response to the conditions, Chartists in Sheffield, the East End of
London and Bradford planned their own risings. Samuel Holberry led an
aborted rising in Sheffield on January 12th 1840; police action thwarted
a major disturbance in the East End of London on January 14th, and on
January 26th a few hundred BradfordChartists
staged a failed rising in the hope of precipitating a domino effect
across the country. After this Chartism turned to a process of internal
renewal and more systematic organisation, but the transported and
imprisoned Newport Chartists were regarded as heroes and martyrs amongst
workers.
'Physical force Chartism' was no longer popular however,
and an uprising of the size seen in Newport for the time being has never happened again. However the movement gained strength and popularity throughout
Britain and although it failed its purpose at the time, five of the Six Points of the original Charter which the Chartists had campaigned for have since been conceded, only the demand for Annual Parliaments not so far being accepted.
A
beautiful mural
depicting four scenes from the Newport
Rising, located in a pedestrian underpass in the city, was shamefully destroyed in 2013 to make way for a shopping center.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/destruction-of-chartist-mural.html Despite this nearly two centuries after the drafting of the People’s Charter, long may the Chartists struggle and its leaders be remembered who helped give voice to the discontent of the time in their struggle for democracy.
