Thomas Chatterton was an English poet and a brilliant forger of medieval poetry who tragically died of poisoning from self-administered arsenic, aged just seventeen years and nine months old, on this day August 24 1770.
Chatterton was born at Bristol,on November 20 1752. His father, the
sexton of St Mary Redcliffe, a musician, a poet, and a numismatist, who
had dabbled in the occult had died four months previously. Thomas was raised by his mother, grandmother and older sister. But
he was close to his uncle, who had taken over his late father’s role as
sexton, and he encouraged his precocious nephew in his academic and
literary pursuits, as well as giving him the run of the church.
Inspired
by illuminated music folios discarded by his father, the young Thomas
taught himself to read and spent hours poring over old books, scraps of
manuscripts and minuments (title deeds) hidden in his father’s wooden
chest.
Chatterton's
love for reading was nurtured by his sister, who related that he did
not like reading small books. Instead, he was drawn to the illuminated
capitals of an old musical folio and the black-letter Bible. Chatterton
was a wayward child, uninterested in the games of other children, and
thought to be educationally backward. When asked what device he would
like painted on a bowl that was to be his, he replied, "Paint me an
angel, with wings, and a trumpet, to trumpet my name over the world."
Despite
his eccentricities, Chatterton's capacity for learning was recognized
by his mother at age 6, and by age 8, he was so eager for books that he
would read and write all day long if undisturbed. By the age of 11, he
had already become a contributor to Felix Farley's 'Bristol Journal.'
His confirmation inspired him to write religious poems published in the
paper.
The destruction of a cross in the
churchyard of St Mary Redcliffe by a churchwarden in 1763 left a deep
impression on Chatterton. He sent a satire on the parish vandal to the
local journal on 7 January 1764, demonstrating his strong sense of
veneration for the church. Chatterton also had a little attic that he
had converted into his study. There, surrounded by books, cherished
parchments, loot purloined from the muniment room of St Mary Redcliffe,
and drawing materials, the child lived in thought with his 15th-century
heroes and heroines.
Chatterton's childhood was
full of mystery and wonder, which would go on to shape his literary
output in later life. His love for the past, his interest in the occult,
and his sense of veneration for the church all contributed to his
unique perspective on life.
Best known by his
contemporaries for his series of Thomas Rowley poems, purportedly the
work of a forgotten Medieval monk but in reality written by Chatterton
himself on 15th century parchment.
Chatterton's
adoption of Rowley is believed to have been driven, in part, by his
desire to reconstitute the lost father figure in fantasy.
Having been
raised by two women,his mother Sarah and his sister Mary, Chatterton's
masculine identity was held back. To compensate for the lack of a
paternal presence, Chatterton unconsciously created two interweaving
family romances, each with its own scenario.
The
first of these family romances was the romance of Rowley, whom he
created as a father-like figure with a wealthy patron, William Canynge.
Chatterton imagined himself as a talented poet who could earn fame and
wealth through his work and thus rescue his mother from poverty. The
second family romance was his romance of "Jack and the Beanstalk," which
is said to have been a means of resolving his feelings of powerlessness
and oppression. Chatterton's adoption of the
Rowley persona is notable for the extent to which he immersed himself in
the character and he went to great
lengths to create a detailed backstory for him, complete with a jargon
that he called "Rowleian."
As
Thomas Chatterton's literary ambition grew, so did his need for
financial support. In search of a patron, he first turned to the
antiquarians of Bristol, who were eager to use his Rowley transcripts
for their own work. However, they were not willing to pay him enough,
and so he set his sights on the wealthier and more influential figure of
Horace Walpole. Chatterton sent samples of Rowley's poetry and a
manuscript on the rise of painting in England to Walpole, hoping to
impress him enough to secure his patronage.
Walpole,
intrigued by the possibility of discovering lost works of medieval
literature, initially expressed interest in publishing Chatterton's
pieces. But when he discovered that Chatterton was only 16 years old and
that the authenticity of the Rowley pieces was in question, he turned
his back on the young poet, dismissing him with scorn.
Yet Chatterton was not cowed: he went on to publish more than fifty
works across literary, political and historical journals under an array
of pseudonyms and is alleged to have written a poem attacking Walpole (later
persuaded from sending it by his sister Mary). ‘Walpole!’, it begins,
‘I thought not I should ever see/So mean a Heart as thine has proved to
be.’ ‘Say, didst thou ne’er indulge in such Deceit?/Who wrote Otranto?’
These ‘Lines to Walpole’ were probably a forgery by Chatterton’s
biographer John Dix but they certainly shed light on the poet’s clash
with Walpole.
All this is should be noted because Walpole himself was highly sensitive to questions over authenticity
having himself fallen foul of critics over his Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto (1764) where he had been accused of plagiarism.
The revelation led to Walpole being condemned as ‘false’ and
‘preposterous’ by the poet and clergyman John Langhorne on account of deceit. The whole affair is curious when Walpole’s extensive
antiquarian credentials are taken into account. Perhaps Walpole was ashamed that Chatterton held a mirror up to his own literary forgeries.
Chatterton's
search for a patron was not just a matter of financial need, but also a
quest for validation and recognition. He yearned for someone to
appreciate his talent and to help him achieve the literary success that
he believed he deserved. Unfortunately, his attempts to win the support
of the literary establishment were met with skepticism and rejection,
leaving him feeling disillusioned and alone.
After
being rejected by Horace Walpole, Thomas Chatterton's creativity took a
hit. However, he soon bounced back and turned his attention towards
periodical literature and politics. He started writing for London
periodicals like the 'Town and Country Magazine', where he adopted the
pseudonym Junius. Junius was a popular letter writer of that time who
was known for his strong opinions and controversial writings.
Chatterton, in his Junius persona, targeted the Duke of Grafton, the
Earl of Bute, and the Princess of Wales.
However, Chatterton's political
writings were not without consequences. His attacks on the government
and monarchy were seen as treasonous, and he was accused of seditious
libel. In 1770, he was arrested for writing a letter that accused the
Lord Mayor of London of being corrupt. Although he was eventually
released, the incident left a lasting impression on him.
Despite
the risks, Chatterton continued to write politically charged pieces.
His writing not only reflected his own beliefs but also mirrored the
sentiments of the common people who were fed up with the corrupt
government and the aristocracy. His writings became a voice for the
voiceless and inspired others to speak out against injustice.
Chatterton's political writings were a testament to his
courage, wit, and passion for justice. He used his pen to expose the
corruption and hypocrisy of those in power and gave a voice to the
common people. Although his writing was controversial and led to legal
troubles, his legacy lives on as a writer who was unafraid to speak
truth to power.
On the evening of 24 August 1770, Chatterton locked himself in his room in
his Brook Street attic and drunk a dose of arsenic mixed to water after tearing into fragments
whatever literary remains were at hand. A few days earlier, while
walking in St Pancras Churchyard, Chatterton had fallen into a newly dug
grave, which prompted his walking companion to joke that he was happy
in assisting at the resurrection of genius. Chatterton, however, replied
that he had been at war with the grave for some time, hinting at his
troubled mental state.
His body was discovered on the 25th of August. The coroner's ruling, a suicidal death as a result of insanity.He may also have been suffering from a venereal disease.
'Since we can die but once, what matters it,
If rope or garter, poison, pistol, sword,
Slow-wasting sickness, or the sudden burst
Of valve arterial in the noble parts,
Curtail the miseries of human life?
Though varied is the cause, the effect's the same:
All to one common dissolution tends.' - Thomas Chatterton
Thomas Chatterton was buried in a mass paupers grave at London’s Shoelane Workhouse Cemetery. It sadly no longer exists.Chatterton's
untimely death was a tragic end to a brilliant career that promised
great
things, as as he had
shown exceptional talent at an early age and was regarded as a prodigy.
His writings showed exceptional talent and revealed his deep
knowledge of English literature and history. Chatterton was a master of
deception, having created a literary hoax that deceived many scholars of
his time. His works, which often imitated the style of medieval poetry,
were remarkable for their depth and richness. He was a true genius who
died before his time, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire
writers and readers today. Chatterton was a seminal figure and precocious and original literary
talent, whose been honoured by the powers of his
literary invention by invoking their reimaginings of his life and
legacy.
The Rowley poems were published in 1777 and the 'Rowley controversy' ' continued until the end of the century, By then most people were convinced that the poems were the brilliant creations of Thomas Chatterton.
Seen as a symbol of society's neglect of the artist he was elevated to the status of hero and martyr by the Romantics and the life of this
‘marvelous boy’, as Chatterton came to be known, would subsequently
touch some of the most eminent English poets – Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott
and Dante Gabriel Rossetti – several of whom came to regard him as a
muse who
mythologized him in their own poetry.
In popular culture Chatterton's genius and his death are commemorated by Shelley in Adonais (though its main emphasis is the commemoration of Keats), by Wordsworth in "Resolution and Independence", by Coleridge in "A Monody on the Death of Chatterton," by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in "Five English Poets," and in John Keats's sonnet "To Chatterton". Keats also inscribed Endymion "to the memory of Thomas Chatterton". French singer Serge Gainsbourg wrote a song, Chatterton:
Chatterton suicidé Hannibal suicidé [...] Quant à moi Ça ne va plus très bien
and Peter Ackroyd's 1987 novel Chatterton was an acclaimed literary re-telling of the poet's story, giving emphasis to the philosophical and spiritual implications of forgery.
Henry Wallis's painting
'The Death of Chatterton,' now displayed at the Tate Britain in London,
is the most famous image of the poet in the 19th century. Two smaller
versions of the painting are held by the Birmingham Museum and Art
Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art.
The painting alludes to the idea of the artist as a martyr of society through the
Christ-like pose and the torn sheets of poetry on the floor. The pale
light of dawn shines through the casement window, illuminating the
poet's serene features and livid flesh. The harsh lighting, vibrant
colours and lifeless hand and arm increase the emotional impact of the
scene. A phial of poison on the floor indicates the method of suicide.
Following the Pre-Raphaelite credo of truth to nature, Wallis has
attempted to recreate the same attic room in Gray's Inn where Chatterton
had killed himself. The model for the figure was the novelist George
Meredith (1828-1909), then aged about 28.
The
British Library holds a collection of "Chattertoniana," which includes
works by Chatterton, newspaper cuttings, articles dealing with the
Rowley controversy, and other items relating to the poet's life and
legacy.
In 1886, architect Herbert Horne and Oscar Wilde unsuccessfully attempted to have a plaque erected at Colston's School, Bristol. Wilde, who lectured on Chatterton at this time, suggested the inscription: "Tothe Memory of Thomas Chatterton, One of England's Greatest Poets, and Sometime pupil at this school."
In 1928, a plaque in memory of Chatterton was mounted on 39, Brooke Street, Holborn, bearing the inscription below. The plaque subsequently has been transferred to a modern office building on the same site.
In a House on this Site
Thomas Chatterton,
died
24 August 1770.
Tho end this post here are the final words from Thomas Chatterton:
Farewell, Bristolia's dingy piles of brick,
Lovers of mammon, worshippers of trick!
Ye spurned the boy who gave you antique lays,
And paid for learning with your empty praise.
Farewell, ye guzzling aldermanic fools,
By nature fitted for corruption's tools!
I go to where celestial anthems swell;
But you, when you depart, will sink to hell.
Farewell, my mother!—cease, my anguished soul,
Nor let distraction's billows o'er me roll!
Have mercy, Heaven! when here I cease to live,
And this last act of wretchedness forgive.
Today I remember again Joe Strummer this legendary heart and political soul of punk, staunch anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-imperialist whose rebel spirit and righteous anger has still not faded, his songs still resonate, with immediacy and warning after all, " theice age is coming, the sun is zooming in, meltdown expected, the wheat is growingthin."
John Graham Mellor was born August 21, 1952 in Ankara, Turkey where his father who worked in the British diplomatic service was stationed., His family moved around from continent to continent, living in Cyprus, Cairo, East Germany, and Mexico City, all before he went to boarding school in England at age 8. While on break from boarding school, he spent time in Iran and parts of Africa visiting his parents. As a result, his upbringing of living in and visiting different parts of the world helped him develop his diversity in music and shape his world perspective that would help influence his musical career.
He developed a love of music. listening to records by Little Richard, the Beach Boys and Woody Guthrie.He would even go by the nickname "Woody" for a few years
The suicide of his brother affected Strummer, as did having to identify his body after it had lain undiscovered for three days. Strummer said, "David was a year older than me. Funnily enough, you know, he was a Nazi. He was a member of the National Front. He was into the occult and he used to have these deaths-heads and cross-bones all over everything. He didn't like to talk to anybody, and I think suicide was the only way out for him. What else could he have done[
After finishing his time at City of London Freemen's School in 1970, Strummer moved on to the Central School of Art and Design in London, where he briefly considered becoming a professional cartoonist and completed a one-year foundation course. During this time, he shared a flat in Palmers Green with friends Clive Timperley and Tymon Dogg.
In 1973, Strummer moved to Newport, South Wales. his friend Richard Frame spoke with Wales Online about his experiences living in South Wales: “He was in art college in London and he was going out with a girl there,” “They split up and she went to Cardiff art college. He followed her down and she told him she wasn’t interested.”
Planning on hitchhiking back to London from Cardiff, his first thumbed lift took him to Newport. “Hedecided to call in to see a student that he had been in college within London called Forbes,” added Frame. “They went up to the Newport College of Art student union and there was a band playing. Liking what he saw, Joe decamped to Newport.”
“He thought this was as good a place to stay for a while, so he brought his stuff down from London, which included the guitar which he had bought some months previously from a shop in Charing Cross Road in London.”
“He’d come down from the leafy suburbs of the south of England and he suddenly found himself in this industrial South Wales town, which was completely alien to anything he’d experienced before, but he loved it.”
He did not study at Newport College of Art, but met up with college musicians at the students' union in Stow Hill and became the vocalist for Flaming Youth, before renaming the band the Vultures. During this time, he also worked as a gravedigger in St Woolos Cemetery.
In 1974, the band he was involved in fell apart and Strummer moved back to London, where he met up again with Dogg. He was a street performer for a while and then decided to form another band with his roommates called the 101ers, named after the address of their squat at 101 Walterton Road in Maida Vale.The band played many gigs in London pubs, performing covers of popular American R&B and blues songs.
In 1975, he stopped calling himself Woody Mellor and adopted the stage name Joe Strummer, subsequently insisting that his friends call him by that name. The surname "Strummer" apparently referred to his role as rhythm guitarist in a self-deprecating way.
Strummer was the lead singer of the 101ers and began to write original songs for the group. One song he wrote was inspired by the Slits' drummer Palmolive, who was his girlfriend at the time. The group liked the song "Keys to Your Heart", which they picked as their first single. His first gigs.prior to The Clash, were for Chileans exiled in London by the military coup of General Pinochet.
On April 3, 1976, the then-unknown Sex Pistols opened for Joe’s band, the 101ers at a venue called the Nashville Rooms in London, and Strummer was impressed by them. Strummer agreed to leave the 101ers and join Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, drummer Terry Chimes and guitarist Keith Levene. The band was named The Clash by Simonon and made their debut on 4 July 1976, opening for The Sex Pistols at the Black Swan (also known as the Mucky Duck, now known as the Boardwalk..
The Clash becoming one of the most memorable and influential bands in the original British punk rock scene. On 25 January 1977, the band signed with CBS Records as a three-piece after Levene was fired from the band and Chimes quit. Topper Headon later became the band’s full-time drummer.
They recorded their first self-titled album in just a matter weeks and released it afterward. The Clash’s first single “White Riot” garnered critical acclaim in the UK, but it was the third single “CompleteControl” (that featured reggae artist Lee “Scratch” Perry) that climbed slightly higher on the UK chart (at #28).
The Clash released “Complete Control” as a response to their label who released the second single “Remote Control” without the band’s permission, which infuriated them. As The Clash was soaring in the UK punk scene, so was their reputation for several criminal misdemeanors. They committed petty crimes that ranged from stealing pillowcases from their hotel room to shooting racing pigeons. Despite these offenses, it even more bolstered the band’s “bad boy” image as many early punk rock bands had. However, The Clash was also actively tackling social and political matters as demonstrated by their 1978 single “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais.” which powerfully relates to the haves and the have-nots and asks listeners to get out of their comfort zones.
While they were recording their next album, CBS Records requested the band to modify their sound into a “cleaner” one in order to appeal to American audiences. For this, The Clash worked with former Blue Oyster Cult’s Sandy Pearlman to produce their second album Give ‘Em Enough Rope which The Clash released in 1978. While the expected American breakthrough didn’t happen (it only landed at #128 on the Billboard 200), Give ‘Em Enough Rope was another homeland success, almost topping the UK album charts (at #2). The album was supported mostly by the single “Tommy Gun,” which rose to #19 on the UK singles chart. The Clash toured extensively in their country, and also had their first American tour in early 1979, which was largely a success.
Breakthrough success in the US From their earlier influences and their American tour (whose supporting acts included R&B luminaries such as Bo Didley and and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins), they largely influenced The Clash’s shift of style when they recorded their third album London Calling in late 1979. The album exhibited several genres including ska, reggae and old school rock and roll to add to their already existing punk rock offering. The result was a tremendous success not only in the UK (where the album reached #9) but also (and finally) in the United States. London Calling peaked at #27 on the Billboard 200, and its title track reached #11 on the UK singles chart and #30 on the US dance chart.
The next single from London Calling “Train in Vain (Stand by Me)” fared even better when it peaked at #23 on the Hot 100, making it the Clash’s first entry into the US Hot 100. Part of London Calling‘s success was its relative affordability. It was a double album, although The Clash insisted that copies should be sold for a single album price.
The Clash did another US tour, which also became very successful. The band also toured much of the UK and Europe. It was also during that time that they filmed their documentary film Rude Boy, and the single “Bankrobber” which would appear on their compilation album Black Market Clash. It went to #12 on the UK album charts.
In 1980, The Clash released the triple album Sandinista! in late 1980; and as expected of the band, it was released at a lower price. It went gold in the in the UK and silver in the US.
The Clash was a band unlike any other, fusing together a variety of musical genres like reggae, rockabilly, dub, and R&B without missing a beat.and their influence on the music industry is immeasurable.
It was Strummer’s politically charged lyrics that helped bring punk to the masses. Calling out social injustices and giving a voice to the struggles of the working class, his lyrics struck a chord with legions of fans and the press alike, with Rolling Stone calling The Clash “the greatest rock & roll band in the world.”
Despite their fame and success, within the band things were not looking good. In fact, they were on the brink of disintegrating. Headon was fired because of his escalating drug addiction, and Crimes was reinstated as the band’s drummer. However, he was soon fired too, and was replaced by Pete Howard (ex-Cold Fish). Strummer and Simonon also sacked Jones for his diminishing interest in the band (Jones later would form his own band Big Audio Dynamite after his departure). The Clash hired two guitarists and together the newly-revamped group released what could be their last album Cut The Crap in 1985. It met with critical and commercial failure that even Strummer and Simonon decided to disown it. In early 1986, the two men decided to permanently severe the group.
Joe Strummer though despite this is often said to have changed people’s lives as a result of not only fronting The Clash but also writing most of their lyrics. He continued to write and perform progressive, politically-charged songs with his last band, The Mescaleros, from 1999 until his death.
A humanist and environmentalist. his empathy for the plight of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in his last three albums,all with The Mescaleros was plain to see, as was his advocacy for multiculturalism and racial and ethnic tolerance.
To this, he added green politics, raging against the corporate destruction of the environment. In "JohnnyAppleseed" (2001), he wrote: "If you're after getting the honey, hey then you don't go killing all the bees… there ain't no berries on the trees."
He inspired thousands to learn about power structures in society Two Strummer songs stand out in particular to me.. One is "Spanish Bombs" (1979), which was primarily about the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939: "The freedom fighters died upon the hill. They sang the red flag. They wore the black one… The hillsides ring with ‘Free the people’."
This helped educate many about the democratically elected Republican government’s struggle against Francisco Franco’s fascist military coup, recounting how socialists, communists, republicans and anarchists fought together for freedom, liberty and equality.
The other is "Washington Bullets" about the anti-democratic effects of American imperialism in Central and South America, from the 1959 Cuban Revolution to Pinochet’s 1973 military coup in Chile and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas' overthrowing of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979.
In it, Strummer sings: "Asevery cell in Chile will tell. The cries of the tortured men. Remember Allende… When they had a revolution in Nicaragua. There was no interference from America. The people fought the leader. And up he flew. Without any Washington bullets, what else could he do?"
In an age before the internet, ,me included many sought out information in their local libraries about these seismic world events.
Washington Bullets - The Clash
Strummer's lyrics still able to make us think, that help challenge our views of society. He also taught us, that punk is not a uniform, it's an idea, a passionate grassroots idea to create change, standing up for what you believe, about being open minded, at the end of the day we are all individuals. you've gotta do what's right for you, follow your own heart, your own true spirit.
Strummer was a family man. His children, Jazz and Lola, both girls came from his long-term girlfriend Gaby Salter. After Strummer and Salter split up, Strummer began a relationship with Lucinda Tait in 1993 and were later married. Tait had a daughter from a past relationship named Eliza, and the four of them moved to a farmhouse in Somerset England
Joe Strummer sadly died suddenly on December 22,2002 at his home in Somerset after walking his dogs the victim of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. He was only 50.
As a member of The Clash Strummer was a punk-rock pioneer with a fondness for reggae, who changed peoples lives forever.They were a force that would shape how politics and music fit together, transforming this new, angry punk sound into something with purpose. Through his songwriting Strummer consistently critiqued capitalism, advocated racial justice and opposed imperialism. He showed young people there are alternatives to the complacency, opportunism, and political ambivalence that dominate popular culture.
On top of this, The Clash always brought social issues to light, including support for the African, Jamaican and West Indian immigrant communities who struggled for unity and integration in London at the time.
As a musician, Strummer redefined music and reaffirmed the principles of committed and intelligent opposition. He seemed to be involved in so many different movements and supported so many causes before they were fashionable. The Clash were at the forefront of the Rock against Racism movement founded in the seventies to combat the rise of the far-right National Front. The Clash always brought social issues to light, including support for the African, Jamaican and West Indian immigrant communities who struggled for unity and integration in London at the time.
Never afraid of controversy, Strummer pushed the Clash to support publicly the H-Block protests in Northern Ireland, which began in 1976 when the British took away the political status of IRA “prisoners.”
But co-founding one of the most important bands of the past 50 years has, understandably, overshadowed the full breadth of Strummer’s musical interests. His career outside the Clash included forays into rockabilly, folk-rock, African music and Spanish Civil War songs.
Released nearly 16 years after his death, Joe Strummer 001 a 32 track compilation of remastered rarities and previously unreleased tracks, stands as a testament to his vision for open borders and open hearts. This collection gives a sense of the scope of Strummer’s career, and the passion with which he pursued it. Over the years, and through various musical incarnations, he never sounded less than joyful about what he was doing. He’s ready to rumble on opener “Letsgetabitrockin,” from the 101ers, which barrels along on a tumult of guitars and a lean rhythm. Later, Strummer pushes the beat a little on a more subdued acoustic demo from 1975 of the same song, as if he’s imagining the churning full-band arrangement to come. He sings with exhilaration over a booming mix of drums and guitar on “LoveKills,” the title track from the 1986 biopic Sid and Nancy; takes on a tone of wonderment as he threads his voice through hand drums and African chanting on “Sandpaper Blues”; and lets loose with scruffy, melodic abandon on the taut “Coma Girl,” from Streetcore, his posthumous 2003 release with the Mescaleros. Even on an aching “Redemption Song” with Johnny Cash, from Cash’s 2003 Unearthed boxed set, Strummer strikes a balance between worldweary and triumphant. Strummer and Jimmy Cliff, the ska and reggae legend, are a natural pairing on “Over the Border,” from Cliff’s 2003 album Fantastic Plastic People. And Strummer builds on the Clash’s “Spanish Bombs” with jittery banjo and a vaguely Iberian tint on “15th Brigade”—his take on “Viva la Quince Brigada,” sung by Spanish Republicans in their fight against the fascists during the Spanish Civil War. The second half of 001 is given over to demos and previously unreleased tracks, many of which are illuminating. “Czechoslovak Song/Where Is England” from 1983 rides a slow, heavy dub rhythm that bears only a vague resemblance to the song it morphed into: the Clash’s synth-laced single “This IsEngland.”
The boxed set version of 001 also includes a more fully formed demo of “This Is England” from 1984, with gruff vocals and without the synths. The grungy blues “Crying on 23rd” and the countrified “2Bullets,” soaked in pedal steel guitar, are outtakes from Sid and Nancy, and both feature Strummer’s former Clash bandmate Mick Jones on bass. As fun as the older stuff is, one of the latter-day unreleased tracks is a standout. Strummer recorded “London Is Burning” in 2002 with the Mescaleros, then reworked it into “Burnin’ Streets” for Streetcore. The version here is faster, punchier and more evocative: “London is burning / Don’t tellthe queen,” he sings to set the scene. It would have been one of the best songs on Streetcore; instead, it’s an unexpected gem tucked away toward the bottom of the tracklist .
It’s a reminder of just how good Strummer could be, and makes you wonder what more he would have done had a congenital heart defect not felled him at 50. The consolation is knowing how much more material remains to be heard, and hoping there are more songs in the archives that are as good as the ones here. He performed for the last time on November 15, 2002 at a benefit for striking London firefighters. For someone who used his music to galvanize and promote progressive action, this final performance was most fitting.
Joe Strummer was an iconic musician whose music and lyrics continue to resonate with audiences today. His advocacy for political change and artistic collaborations helped shape the punk rock genre, and his influence is still felt today. Though he may be gone, Joe Strummer’s spirit lives on through his music and the many lives he touched.
Strummer's lasting legacy is that music is still used to oppose right-wing ideologies and political parties and to promote an agenda of social justice and equality. Strummer’s music remains an enduring legacy of radicalism, defiance, and resistance.
Thank you Commandante Joe, gone but not forgotten. Still carrying the keys to people's hearts and music that continues to inspire..Joe’s music still remains vital: thought-provoking, boundary-pushing, genre-fusing, in ways that most artists could only wish to match and Joe’s work still sounds just as relevant today as when it was first released.
Link to Joe Strummer Foundation http://joestrummerfoundation.org " People can change anything they want to and that means everything in the world " - Joe Strummer Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash- Redemption Song
The Clash - Clampdown
The Clash - Clash City Rockers
The Clash - Tommy Gun
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Johnny Appleseed
Joe Strummer - White man in Hammersmith Palis ( Glastonbury 2009 )
Joe Strummer and the mescaleros - London is Burning
On
this day in 1944 the above picture was taken by Robert Capa. It has since become a symbol of women’s
involvement in the French Resistance. Here we can see a man with
makeshift army fatigues to the left and a young man on the right, but
the person who grabbed everyone's attention is the girl in shorts in the
centre.
Her name was Simone Segouin, an 18
year-old girl also known as her nom de guerre, Nicole Minet.Simone Segouin was born to a farming family in the village of Thivars, near Chartres, on Oct. 3, 1925. Her father had fought in the French army against the Germans during World War I. After World War II commenced in September 1939, her father sided with the anti-Nazi resistance, and partisans used his farm as a hideout.
In 1944, at the height of the Nazi occupation of
France, she joined the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (Free-shooters and
Partisans, or FTP) – a combat alliance made up of militant communists
and French nationalists, to help liberate the capital.The group named
themselves after the French irregular light infantry and saboteurs who
fought the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War.
Simone fell in love with Roland Boursier, who was the local commander of the community Thivars, northern France. When the war broke out, Boursier asked her to be only a runner for him and take messages to the resistance group, but later asked her to join the partisans, with which she complied. Her first mission was stetealing a bicycle from a German military
administrator was the first mission she was assigned. After the
successful outcome of her first mission, the bike was painted so it
could become Simone’s ‘reconnaissance vehicle’, allowing her to deliver
messages and stake out targets. Shortly, after
displaying her skills in secret weapons training, she was allowed to
take part in dangerous combat missions. In
1944, at the height of the Nazi occupation of France, Simone Segouin
was involved in armed actions against enemy convoys and trains, attacks
against enemy detachments and acts of sabotages. She also assisted in
capturing 25 German POWs during the fall of Chartres. The French
newspaper Independent Eure-et-Loir on its August 26, 1944 issue
described her as “one of the purest fighters of heroic French Resistance
who prepared the way for the Liberation”. .
Simone became known to the world after
American reporter Jack Belden interviewed her for a Life magazine
feature headlined ‘The Girl Partisan of Chartres’ Her bravery would make her s symbol of female resistance across the world.
After the war Simone was promoted to lieutenant and
awarded the prestigious Croix de Guerre, along with other fighters who
had by then been organised into a formal military organisation called
the French Forces of the Interior (FFI).Simone
went on to become a paediatric nurse in Chartres, where her wartime
daring acts made her hugely popular . A street in Courville-sur-Eure was named for her. This legendary anti fascist heroine is still alive, and is happily surrounded by her grandchildren. Simone experienced the heaviness of the war years.People have asked Simone if she has killed anyone before. "On July 14,
1944, I took part in an ambush with two comrades. Two German soldiers
went by on a bike, and the three of us fired at the same time, so I
don’t know who exactly killed them. You shouldn’t have to kill someone
like that. It’s true, the Germans were our enemies, it was the war, but I
don’t draw any pride from it."
Segouin later worked as a paediatric nurse. in Chartres, an area where her wartime exploits made her hugely popular. A street in Courville-sur-Eure was named after her.. She and other women in the French resistance played a vital role in the fight for liberation from the Nazis, showing exemplary courage under atrocious circumstances.The price of participation was enormous. Resisters
suffered arrest, imprisonment, interrogation and sometimes torture, and
deportation to concentration camps as political prisoners. La Roquette
women's prison in Paris figured on many a woman's itinerary; another
larger women's facility in Rennes grouped women resisters from the
entire northern zone. From prisons in France, many were shipped to camps
farther east, where they perished from disease, starvation, exhaustion,
beatings, or more systematic forms of extermination.
Many Frenchwomen
were sent to Ravensbrück, the concentration camp for women east of
Berlin. Jewish resisters and those deemed particularly dangerous were
also sent to Auschwitz in eastern Poland; this is the case of the famous
convoy known as the "31,000" (the series tatooed on their arm upon
arrival). Unlike their male counterparts, full recognition of their important central role in the French Resistance has only come several decades after the events, their brave resistance should not be forgotten. The French Partisan Simone Segouin symbol of Female Resistance sadly died earlier this year on Feb. 21 at a nursing home in Courville-sur-Eure.aged 97.
Happy Birthday to Scottish Republican. Trade Unionist and Socialist James Keir Hardie who was born illegitimate today on 15 August 1856, near Newhouse in Lanarkshire, the son of Mary Keir, a domestic servant, and William Aitken, a miner who wanted nothing to do with him
Soon Mary Keir married David Hardie, a ship’s carpenter, and James Keir took his stepfather’s name and became James Keir Hardie. the family had to move from place to place as his stepfather failed to find regular employment and their poverty forced young Hardie out to work at the age of eight – first as a message boy, then at a bakery, then heating rivets in a shipyard where the boy next to him fell off a scaffold and was killed. In desperation, his father returned to work at sea. His mother moved back to Lanarkshire and at the age of 10,
Although raised as an atheist, Hardie was converted to Christianity in 1897. A lay preacher for the Evangelical Union Church, Hardie was also active in the Temperance Society. Hardie considered himself to be a Christian Socialist: "I have said, both in writing and from the platform many times, that the impetus which drove me first into the Labour movement, and the inspiration which has carried me on in it, has been derived more from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth than from all other sources combined."
Hardie remained friends with atheists such as Eleanor Marx and Frederich Engels, the dominant influence on his political ideas were his religious beliefs but Keir, was to become a giant in the socialist movement, rising from coalminer to become the first Labour Party Leader, and to become one of the greatest evangelists for the ideas of socialism. He would derive from his mother many of his good qualities. She was a woman of marked individuality and strength of character, nothing could daunt her, or dampen her convictions. At the age of ten, he went to work in a local mine,where he worked as a “trapper”, operating the ventilation doors deep underground. “I am of the unfortunate class who never knew what it was to be a child,” Hardie wrote. “For several years as a child I rarely saw daylight during the winter months. Down the pit by six in the morning and not leaving it again until half past five meant not seeing the sun.”
Through self-education he would learn the lessons of solidarity and comradeship. This would help him as he used his voice to speak of a world where woman and man were born equal. Denouncing the rich, the politicians and the establishment, all exploiters, and would see him calling for the destruction of the capitalist system. He was one of the greatest agitators of his day.
He was to help found the Independent Labour Party in 1893, and was one of the first two Labour M.P's elected to the UK Parliament. He was to mark himself out as a radical both by his dress- he wore a tweed suit and cloth cap, whilst most other members of Parliament wore more formal dress- and the subjects that he advocated - the nationalisation of the coalmines, for the unemployed, womens rights, republicanism and free education. Stuff that still echoes strongly today.
His first constituency was in West Ham, London (1892) and later Merthyr Tydfil here in Wales. In 1894 251 miners were killed after an explosion at a mine in Pontypridd and after his request for a message of condolence to be sent to the families of the bereaved was refused by parliament and a message of congratulation to Buckingham Palace on the birth of the future Edward VIII agreed, Hardie delivered a vitriolic attack on the monarchy, which resulted in him losing his seat at the next election in 1895.
In 1886, Hardie was elected secretary for the newly formed Ayreshire Miners’ Union, and largely because of his fellow miners’ confidence in him, he advanced quickly through the ranks to become secretary of the Scottish Miners’ Association within the year. In 1887, Hardie began publishing his own newspaper,The Miner in which he attempted to educate the Scottish working classes, particularly his fellow miners, from a decidedly socialist perspective.
It is important to note that Hardie’s early political career as a union leader spanned a time when British labor laws hardly existed. Conditions in the Scottish coal mines were miserable and dangerous, while relations between workers and management were often violent and sometimes deadly. Hardie’s local struggles for the rights of coal miners in Lanarkshire emphasized the need for a larger, united front working in opposition to the political and economic status quo—an empowered political party representing the needs of the working classes, on a national level, against the interests of their politically-entrenched capitalist employers.
The education Hardie gained from these early struggles against the large iron corporations convinced the young labor leader of the importance of working class unity. With this slowly but steadily growing awareness, Hardie would expand his political consciousness beyond the concerns of the local Lanarkshire miners to include all British working classes and eventually all workers everywhere, regardless of occupation or nationality.
Despite losing every seat in the 1895 election, the Independent Labour Party was growing in popularity. During this period Hardie travelled across the world to learn from other labour movements, and visited the South Wales coalfields on numerous occasions, especially during the 1898 strike. As a result he was invited to stand in the Merthyr Tydfil constituency and won the seat on 10 October 1898. With only two Members of Parliament, it was not easy for the Independent Labour Party in Westminster, but success came in the January 1906 elections as a result of an entente with the Liberals. The Independent Labour Party won 29 seats and Keir Hardie kept his seat in Merthyr Tydfil.
Hardie passionately believed in, publicly defending calls for general strikes, syndicalism and militancy and was also one of the first to call for equality between the races in South Africa, and because he was a lifelong committed pacifist and humanist, this led him to believe that the interests of the working classes were inseperable from peace, and when the First Wold War broke out in 1914, he was to oppose it, and was to address anti-war demonstrations up and down the country and to support conscientious objectors.
For years he tirelessly addressed meeting after meeting, nearly every day and night, travelling long distances to be known for his powerful oratory, often negating meals and continuing to spread ideas with comrades long into the night. Never to forget his working class roots, these people who he completely understood, he realised their plight, never deserting them, with his untarnished devotion and faith in their cause. Sadly his dreams of peace were not to be, and after a series of strokes he died in Glasgow on the 26th September, 1915 at the tragically young age of 59. He is buried in Cunnock, Ayrshire.
A magnificent bronze bust of James Keir Hardie,now stands on a pink granite plinth outside Cumnock Town Hall. Since James Keir Hardie lived for the majority of his life in Cumnock, The National Keir Hardie Memorial Committee commissioned the sculptor Benno Schotz RSA, to create the bronze bust. The memorial bust was presented by William Stewart and appropriately accepted by provost Nan Hardie Hughes, Keir Hardie's daughter, in August 1939, on the eve of World War 2. Today I remember him,because he stood in many respects unprecedented as a working class leader in our country. He was the first man from the midst of the working class who completely understood them, completely sympathised with them, completely realised their plight, and completely championed them. After entering Parliament he never deserted them, never turned his back on a single principle, and retained his unbroken affection and respect for the working class, his untarnished loyalty to them, his championship of them, his enduring faith in their cause.
We owe an awful lot to his example and the legacy which he left. Today as the country faces new crises. Hardie's vision of a powerful labour movement. fighting for change is as vital as ever. Hardie's vision couldn't be further away from his namesake Keir Starmer. Hardie pushed for socialism, democracy and fair rents, Starmer removes socialists, boycotts picket-lines and scrapped rent control pledges.
Successors have abandoned the cause, but Hardies message remains clear. "Socialism will abolish the landlord class, the capitalist class, and the working-class. That is revolution; that the working class by its action will one day abolish class distinctions." Let Socialists today continue Keir Hardie's struggle for a better and more equal world.
Nagasaki Day, observed annually on August 9th, holds a somber significance in global history. It marks the day when the Japanese city of Nagasaki was devastated by an atomic bomb during World War II. This day serves as a reminder of the immense destructive power of nuclear weapons and the need for lasting peace.
Hiroshima, another Japanese city, became the first target of an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 when ' Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, where 100,000 to 180,000 people out of a population of 350,000 were estimated to have been killed. The destruction caused by the bomb prompted global shock and horror,
Then on this day August 9, 1945,at 11.02 a.m. a second atomic bomb, was dropped on the Japanese port city of Nagasaki.The bomb which used plutonium 239, was dropped by parachute by an American B29 bomber. called the Fat Man.
Unlike Hiroshima, Nagasaki lied in a series of narrow valleys bordered by mountains in the east and the west. The bomb exploded above the ground and directly beneath it was a suburb of schools, factories and private houses. The bomb detonated above the city, causing widespread devastation and loss of life. The explosion obliterated large parts of Nagasaki, levelling 6.7 sq km. of the city and instantly killing tens of thousands of people. The intense heat and radiation unleashed by the bomb inflicted severe burns and injuries on survivors.
Among the 270,000 people present when this criminal act occurred were 2,500 labour conscripts from Korea and 350 prisoners-of-war. Nagasaki was completely destroyed. About 73,884 people were killed and 74,909 injured, with the affected survivors suffering the same long-term catastrophic results of radiation and mental trauma as at Hiroshima.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were largely civilian towns, meaning there wasn't a strong military reason to drop the atomic bombs over those particular cities. No one was excluded from the horrors of the atomic bomb, a "destroyer of worlds" burnt hotter than the sun. Some people were vaporised upon impact, while others suffered burns and radiation poisoning that would kill them days, weeks or even months later. Others were crushed by debris, burned by unimaginable heat or suffocated by the lack of oxygen. Many survivors suffered from leukemia and other cancers like thyroid and lung cancer at higher rates than those not exposed to the bombs. Mothers were more likely to lose their children during pregnancy or shortly after birth. Children exposed to radiation were more likely to have learning disabilities and impaired growth.
The day after the attack on Nagasaki, the emperor of Japan overruled the military leaders of Japan and forced them to offer to surrender (almost) unconditionally. On the same dayYosuke Yamahata a Japanese army photographer began photographing the devastation and hibakusha survivors. Over a period of about twelve hours he took around a hundred exposures; by late afternoon, he had taken his final photographs near a first aid station north of the city. In a single day, he had completed the only extensive photographic record of the immediate aftermath of the atomic bombing of either Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
Yamahata’s photographs were published in the Mainichi Shinbun issue of August 21 and in 1952, his photographs of Nagasaki appeared in the September 29 issue of Life. The same year, they appeared in the book Kiroku-shashin: Genbaku no Nagasaki.
Yamahata became a casualty himself in 1965 and on his 49th birthday and the twentieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima he died of terminal cancer, probably caused by the effects of radiation, received at Nagasaki.
Today his images, still resonate with the truth, and the shocking tragedy of this atrocity.
Hibakusha is a term widely used in Japan, that refers to the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it translates as 'explosion effected Survivor of Light.'. These survivors speak of the deep, unabating grief they felt in the days, months and decades since the attack They have described the shame of being a survivor , many were unable to marry, find jobs, or live any sort of normal life.
They have said that many Hibakusha never speak of the day, instead choosing to suffer in silence. They told what it was like to be suddenly alone in middle age, to lose their parents, spouses, children, and livelihoods in a single instant. In memory of them, we should make sure that the misery and devastation caused by nuclear weapons is never forgotten.
Even if Japan was not fully innocent, the people of Japan did not deserve to pay the price for their nations wrongdoing, and there was absolutely no moral justification in obliterating these two cities and killing its inhabitants in what was clearly a crime against humanity and murder on an epic scale. Hiroshima and Nagasaki held no strategic importance. Japan were an enemy on the brink of failure an members of the country's top leadership were involved in peace negotiations.
Many believe that these two atrocities were a result of geopolitical posturing at its most barbaric, announcing in a catastrophic display of military capability, of inhumane intention showing America's willingness to use doomsday weapons on civilian populations.The bombings serving as warnings and the first act of the Cold War against its imperialist rival Russia. A message to the Russians of the power of destruction and technological military capability that the US had managed to develop.
The bombs dropped were of a indiscriminate and cruel character beyond comparison with weapons and projectiles of the past.But the horrors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima played a significant role in shaping the post-war world order. Efforts to prevent further nuclear devastation culminated in the establishment of organizations such as the United Nations and initiatives to promote disarmament and non-proliferation.
Lets not forget that in our our current dangerous times, many world leaders remain recklessly committed to their nuclear arsenals. There are an estimated 16,000 nuclear weapons in the world at the present time with over 90% held by USA and Russia, but also by the UK, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and lately North Korea. This is more than enough to wipe out most of the human race and most other life.
Nagasaki Day is significant because it serves as a solemn remembrance of the lives lost and the suffering endured by the people of Nagasaki and to honour their memory.. Memorial ceremonies, peace rallies, and artistic expressions pay tribute to the resilience and spirit of the survivors.
In the face of global tensions and the persistent threat of nuclear conflict, Nagasaki Day underscores the importance of pursuing diplomatic solutions, dialogue, and disarmament. As the world reflects on the tragic events of August 9, 1945, it is a time to recommit to the pursuit of peace, unity, and the preservation of human lives.
By learning from the past and advocating for a world without nuclear weapons, we honor the memory of the victims and work towards a brighter, safer future for all.
For Nagasaki Day let us echo the call of the Hibakusha, and press our leaders to take the actions necessary to ensure these immoral, illegal weapons are never ever used again.
Robert Oppenheimer -
Now I become death , the destroyer of worlds
Further reading:-
Nagasaki Journey; The Photographs of Yosuke Yamahata.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Socialist agitator and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and an official of the Communist Party was born on 7 Aug 1890 to a working-class, Irish-American family in Concord, New Hampshire.. Flynn, using her freedom of assembly, was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a visible proponent of women’s rights, birth control, and women’s suffrage
Her mother, Annie Gurley, who was related to George Bernard Shaw, emigrated from Ireland.
She supported the family through tailoring, and resented her work being referred to as “sewing.” She advocated equal rights for women and endowed her children with a keen knowledge of Irish history, English classic literature, Greek mythology, and working-class solidarity.
Thomas Flynn, her father, earned a living sporadically; his contributions to the family were political rather than economic. He made an unsuccessful run for the New York Assembly in 1920 on the Socialist Party ticket, though he did get more votes than the Republican candidate.
The Flynn household was the center for Irish freedom fighters like James Larkin and James Connolly, who were impressed by Elizabeth’s intelligence and encouraged her rebellious nature. The young Elizabeth Gurley Flynn attended Socialist meetings with her parents and read The Worker and other left-wing publications, as well as the works of Edward Bellamy, Upton Sinclair, Karl Marx, and Frederick Engels. Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women and August Bebel’s Women and Socialism finally propelled her into socialist activism.
At fifteen, Flynn mounted her first soapbox to inaugurate her career as a “jawsmith,” as professional agitators were then called. Her experiences, along with her youthful beauty, her radiance, and her passion to remake the world, made Flynn a moving spokesperson. By the end of 1906, Flynn had been arrested (for the first of many times) and was speaking regularly, using a style that appealed to the emotions and provoked arguments.
The poverty and exploitation Gurley Flynn saw all around her reinforced her inherited politics, engendering in her a hatred of capitalism. The revolutionary philosophy of Marx and Engels, and the socialist orators she heard in her youth, steeled her determination to change the world.
Working-class audiences loved her. Middle-class intellectuals and bohemians were fascinated by her. Even her critics acknowledged the intellect, eloquence, and spirit of the orator that novelist and journalist Theodore Dreiser christened the East Side Joan of Arc.
In public squares and union halls around the country, she inspired countless women and men to join and play an active role in the labor movement with ironclad logic cloaked in effervescent wit.. In an era when street life and mass strikes had a direct impact on ordinary people, Flynn’s notoriety was akin to that accorded to media stars today. The Rebel Girl, as she was called, led immigrant workers in major strikes in Lawrence, Massachusetts and Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey.
A great orator, Flynn saw court trials on labor issues as important extensions of organizing; she participated in fights for free speech in Missoula, Montana (1908), and Spokane, Washington (from 1909 to 1910). As part of her defense work, Flynn created the Workers’ Defense League, an organization that fought for the victims of the post-World War I Red Scare. She also helped establish the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
She left a permanent record of her protest campaigns through her writing; she produced leaflets, pamphlets, and articles, as well as a regular newspaper column that ran for twenty-six years. Gurley, as friends and family referred to her, and om 1906 joined the IWW as an organizer.
As “One Big Union,”contending that all workers should be united as a social class to replace capitalism and wage labor with industrial democracy. the IWW stood in direct opposition to the staid American Federation of Labor (AFL), which primarily organized skilled white men. Founded in 1905, the IWW was a new and irreverent labor union and social movement that sought to organize all workers--unskilled, immigrant, and migrant--regardless of race, sex, or creed.
Flynn used her energy, commitment, and oratorical talent in strikes and free-speech battles throughout the country. In Minnesota’s Mesabi Range in 1908, she spoke to miners about the IWW. She fell in love with the West, and with IWW member Jack Jones. Flynn, who was naïve, romantic, and by her own account, lusty, married Jones in January 1908; she departed almost immediately to fulfill her speaking engagements.
After two years of marriage, with her baby due, Flynn decided that she had fallen out of love and did not want to settle down. She left Jones and returned home to the Bronx to live with her supportive mother and sisters. Fred Flynn was born on 19 May 1910. Flynn’s family looked after him so that she could continue her life as an organizer. Flynn later regretted that she had missed being an attentive, present mother.
Flynn organized iron miners in Minnesota, copper miners and timber workers in Montana, textile workers in the renowned strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, silk workers in Paterson, New Jersey, and hotel cooks and waiters in New York City. The IWW met strong resistance, which sometimes turned violent. Towns tried to discourage labor organizers by enacting legal restrictions on free speech. Fueled by zealous commitment, the IWW generally regained the right to speak in public.
Flynn led the organizing operations in major strikes of the century. Lawrence, Massachusetts was a major textile-producing center in 1912. Flynn estimated that 30,000 workers were employed there in woollen mills. They were paid starvation wages to labor in dirty, noisy, unventilated, and unsafe mills. The IWW became the organizing core of the woollen workers’strike. Flynn gave speeches and took care of the logistics: arranging for outside speakers and entertainment, setting up schools and dances, organizing the food distribution, arranging to send the children away from the violence, and sustaining long parades and pickets that formed many blocks of human chains.
The violence of the strike--one woman was killed and many people were beaten and injured--brought news reporters and humanitarians to Lawrence, fueling a nationwide protest that helped force the employers to negotiate.
On March 14, 1912, the strike was settled; worker demands for wage increases and increased overtime pay were met. Another outcome of the Lawrence strike was Flynn’s encounter with the don of Italian anarchists, Carlos Tresca, who became her lover for fourteen years (from 1912 to 1926) and remained the love of her life until he was murdered in 1943. He edited an Italian-language anarcho-syndicalist newspaper, was a master of propaganda and agitation, and often aroused uncontrollable emotions, which frequently landed him in jail.
With the victory of the Russian Revolution, the American government grew alarmed about bolshevism and immigrant radicals. Repressive legislation was passed, culminating in the Palmer Raids. In 1919, IWW headquarters in many cities and towns were raided, IWW leaders were arrested, tens of thousands of immigrants were beaten and jailed, and some were even deported. These indictments decimated the IWW and other leftist organizations.
Flynn’s response was to mobilize a broad coalition called the Workers Defense Union (WDU) to represent these political prisoners, who numbered more than fifteen hundred. Over 170 labor, socialist, and radical organizations participated in this truly united front organization, which consisted of unions, cooperative apartments, vegetarians, consumers, and progressive women.
Over the next five years, Flynn worked tirelessly to raise money, provide lawyers and bail, publicize the cases, visit prisoners, provide relief for prisoners’ families, and appeal to government agencies to secure pardons. Most of the people she represented were poor and remained unknown, but a few, like Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were the focus of Flynn’s energy from 1919 to 1926, became a worldwide cause célèbre.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2014/08/remembering-sacco-and-vanzetti-executed_23.html
Along with defense work, Flynn labored tirelessly on the Passaic strike of 16,000 woollen workers in 1926. The longest textile strike in history, it lasted over a year and was a dismal failure, partly due to sectarian battles between the Communist Party and the union. Flynn’s hectic life, with its constant organizing and traveling, began to take a toll.
In 1923, Flynn experienced betrayal and emotional devastation when Tresca - always a ladies’ man - had a child with Elizabeth’s younger sister, Bina. In 1926, Flynn finally suffered a physical and mental collapse. Flynn spent most of the next ten years recuperating in Portland, Oregon, at the home of Dr. Marie Equi, an out lesbian who was involved in prison reform. Equi also provided abortions and dispensed birth control, which was then illegal. The hundreds of letters in the collection include one Flynn wrote to her sister Kathie in which she describes this period as one of the most difficult times in her life, but acknowledges that it gave her a chance to reflect, rest, and plan for the future
Prompted by the suicide of her brother, Tom, and a need to be with her son and her mother, who were both ill, Flynn returned east in 1937. Shortly after her return to New York, Flynn became a member and a paid officer in the Communist Party of the United States. During the New Deal, the Communist Party was the nation’s largest, most important left-wing organization. Having doubled its membership between 1936 and 1938 to just over 80,000, the Party was the largest it had been in its American history. Party leaders had long wooed Flynn because she had a devoted following. She saw joining the Party as a way to continue her IWW commitment to labor organizing and defense work.
Yhe transition was not entirely smooth, however. Having come from a flexible anarchist movement, Flynn was unaccustomed to and uncomfortable with the discipline and doctrinal shifts often directed from Moscow. She preferred militant direct organizing to bureaucratic reform work, radio talks, and internal party politics. Her constituency remained the immigrant workers, and in the late 1950s and 1960s, the militant civil rights workers and students. Having come into the Party at the top, she never developed her own base, although she was one of its most popular speakers and columnists. Nonetheless, Flynn adjusted; she generally remained silent when she disapproved, carrying out back-and-forth Party policy in speeches and writings. However, in her personal writings, she jotted down her disagreements. Flynn assumed the position of chair of the Women’s Commission, a largely honorific, powerless post, and in 1938, was elected to the Communist National Committee, but she was more of a figurehead than a powerbroker.
In 1942, Flynn ran unsuccessfully for a Congressional seat in New York, receiving 50,000 votes. Flynn was also a regular and popular teacher at the Party’s Jefferson School and its national training school. Flynn had barely settled into life with the Communist Party when she was ousted from the American Civil Liberties Union. She had helped found the ACLU and was on its National Board of Directors. In l940, the ACLU demanded that Communists resign from its official posts. Flynn alone refused and defended her position. Denied a hearing, she was expelled. Flynn’s expulsion for guilt by association haunted the ACLU; in l976, the organization repudiated the ouster on the grounds that it was inconsistent with its basic principles.
During the 1940s, Flynn traveled to Paris where she attended the International Women’s conference, meeting with many other female activists who played significant roles in resistance movements of Nazi-occupied countries. In 1946, CPUSA started their Party Building Campaign, with the goal to recruit at least 20,000 new members to the party. The same year, they published Flynn’s propaganda pamphlet, Meet the Communists, which emphasized the party’s role in combating fascism and capitalism. Though membership was not exactly exclusive, the pamphlet specifically targeted veterans, Black-Americans, women, workers, and youth. Flynn described the CPUSA as “a vanguard political party of the working class, to bring together those who are ready not only to fight for day by day immediate gains, both economic and political, but who are also ready to curb and control by nationalization, and eventual to abolish through Socialism, the octopus of monopoly capitalism.”
Long before most Americans understood the danger posed by Mussolini, she recognized his fascist regime as a threat to democracy around the world and spoke against it. She also opposed the Ku Klux Klan, which she saw as a uniquely American fascist organization. Flynn’s commitment to the struggle for Black liberation was unsurpassed among white activists of her era. She campaigned alongside Black comrades against lynching, suppression of voting rights, housing discrimination, job discrimination, education discrimination, and police brutality. In the final years of her life, when she was appealing the denial of her passport under Section 6 of the McCarran Act, she wrote numerous articles in which she argued that freedom of movement was necessary for the exercise of one’s First Amendment rights. All Americans should be this un-American.
The Cold War period (from 1945 to 1955) was a difficult one, especially for Communist Party members and other leftists. During the New Deal and World War II, the Communist Party was tolerated because the Democratic Party needed its members to push liberal legislation and help organize the Congress of Industrial Organizations. As well, the Soviet Union was an American ally.
After the war, the Soviet Union became the number one enemy, thus Communists in the United States were considered to be the enemies within. Communist Party members and sympathizers, suspected of being anti-American, were often shunned and even lost their jobs. Party membership declined almost fifty percent due to the repression and fear.
In 1948, several members of the Communist Party, along with other radical aliens, were arrested and held for eventual deportation. Later that year, twelve top Party leaders--the entire National Board, with the exception of Flynn--were arrested for having violated the Smith Act by conspiring to teach, advocate, and overthrow the American government by force and violence.
With her expertise in defense organization, Flynn became the chair of the Smith Act Defense Committee. She toured the country, raising money for publicity, legal fees, and support for families of the accused, and alerting Americans to the threat to their basic freedoms - the right of assembly and the right to free speech. Anti-Communist hysteria mounted with the Korean War and the Rosenberg trial. Loyalty oaths were enforced and books were burned. The McCarran Act was passed, mandating government registration of Communists and members of Communist front organizations. The FBI sent agents to disrupt the support committee meetings and sympathizers were considered guilty by association. States passed anti-subversion laws, and Communists were denied the right to unemployment and social security benefits and were evicted from their homes.
In June 1951, a second group of Smith Act victims, referred to as “second-string CP leadership,” were arrested and prosecuted. The New York Times described Flynn as the most notorious and important of the accused. Flynn acted as her own counsel, bearing the brunt of the courtroom offensive for ten months. She was eloquent, courageous, and witty, calling up her long career and her personal reasons for joining and advancing the Party. Judge Dimock was so impressed with Flynn’s intelligence and her belief in the Bill of Rights that he offered her the option of spending the rest of her life in Russia as a substitute for prison. Flynn’s reply to this unprecedented offer was unequivocal: “I am an American; Iwant to live and work in the United States of America. I am not interested in going any place else and would reject any such proposition.”
On 20 January 1953, all the defendants were found guilty. From 1953 to 1955, Flynn waited while the case went through the appeals process; during this time, she wrote her autobiography, I Speak My OwnPiece. First published in 1955 and republished in 1973 under the title Rebel Girl, it covered Flynn’s life up to the period before she joined the Communist Party. The autobiography, which is political rather than personal, minimizes her leading role in the IWW, probably in order to emphasize her Communist Party years; nevertheless, it is powerful, informative, and often exciting.
On 11 January 1955, Flynn went to Alderson Federal Reformatory for Women in West Virginia to serve her twenty-eight-month sentence. Flynn tells the story of her incarceration in The Alderson Story: MyLife as a Political Prisoner, which she wrote after her release and published in 1963. Flynn was assigned to a maximum-security residence, although at the age of sixty-four, arthritic, overweight, and suffering from high blood pressure, she was clearly no threat. Flynn was much older than most of the prisoners and had a hard time with the noise and loud music, as well as the adolescent personalities of the other inmates. She used the time to read over two hundred books: poetry, plays, classics, philosophy, and psychology. She had intended to write the second half of her autobiography, but prison officials censored her writing and she even had difficulty obtaining paper.
In The Alderson Story: MyLife as a Political Prisoner, she detailed not only the physical brutalities of incarceration but also its psychological toll: “The heavy shadow of prison fell upon us in those three days — the locked door and the night patrol. The turning of a key on the outside of the door is a weird sensation to which one never became accustomed. One felt like a trapped animal in a cage.” She also took the opportunity to expose the classist and racist nature of the US prison-industrial complex. “Norich women were to be found in Alderson,” she wrote, highlighting how the prison system mostly consumed poor and working-class women, the majority black and Spanish-speaking with past lives defined often by abuse, mental illness or drug addiction.
Following her release from the penitentiary, Flynn didn’t hesitate to jump right back into leftist political work and communist activism. She also ran for office again, putting her name forward for New York City Council in 1957. In 1961, her long years of work were recognised by comrades, who elected her to become chairperson of the Communist Party, the first woman to ever hold the position. After winning back her passport from the government, Flynn traveled to the Soviet Union in 1964 to spend time working on her next book. While there, however, she became ill and passed away at the age of 74. on 5 September 1964, of stomach and intestinal inflammation aggravated by a blood clot to her lungs. Flynn was given a full-scale state funeral in Red Square, attended by over twenty-five thousand people. In accordance with her wishes, her body was returned to the United States to be buried in Chicago’s Waldheim Cemetery close to the Haymarket martyrs. and other labour heroes. The New York Times gave her a substantial front-page obituary. .
Flynn described herself as a “professional revolutionary, an agitator” against the injustices of capitalism, racism, and misogyny. As Prof Mary Anne Trasciatti wrote: “It is no exaggeration to claim that Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was involved in almost every major campaign of the US left in the first two-thirds of the 20th century.”
During her illustrious and stormy life, she was best known as a fiery orator, an adept organizer, and a remarkable publicist. As an indigenous Marxist of the heart, nurtured by class struggle and her parents’ working-class socialism, her strength was her ability to communicate with working people.
Her autobiographical writings, speeches, and articles,call attention to the crucial issues of the twentieth century--war, poverty, sexism, and civil liberties--and are written in a clear, simple style that generally avoids party rhetoric and political cliché.
"Yes, her hands may be hardened from labor, And her dress may not be very fine; But a heart in her bosom is beating That is true to her class and her kind. And the grafters in terror are trembling When her spite and defiance she'll hurl; For the only and thoroughbred lady Is the Rebel Girl.“
Hill was in frequent correspondence with Flynn in the months before his execution. They only met in person once, but became close through their letters, and Flynn launched a fierce campaign to save Hill. She even wrangled a meeting with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to plead for Hill’s pardon. President Wilson lobbied Utah governor William Spry to postpone Hill’s sentence, but Spry bristled at the suggestion that Utah’s courts would ever execute someone without a proper trial. Hill died by firing squad on November 19, 1915.
Hazel Dickens - The Rebel Girl
Although she’s been dead for almost six decades, it looks like Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is still getting under the skin of right-wingers. Just two weeks after it was installed, a historical marker commemorating her birth in Concord, N.H., has been demolished on the order of Republican state officials. The green and white cast iron plaque—the kind you see on the side of highways or in public places noting where significant events occurred or famous persons once lived—was erected on May Day in downtown Concord, where Flynn was born in 1890.
The sign was barely bolted into place before conservatives demanded its removal, embarrassed apparently that the state might recognize someone who devoted her life to fighting for workers’ rights, women’s right to vote, birth control, civil liberties, and economic equality. But it was Flynn’s leadership in the Communist Party USA that really boiled their blood.
“This is a devout communist,” complained Joseph Kenney, a Republican member of the Executive Council, the five-person body that approves state contracts, judicial nominees, and other positions. “How can we possibly promote her propaganda, which still exists now through this sign in downtown Concord?”
But in a state with the motto “Live Free or Die,” is there really any better figure to represent that rebellious spirit than “The Rebel Girl” herself.
The removal of the recently installed memorial in Concord, N.H., commemorating the life and work of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is outrageous .Throughout her activist career, the Rebel Girl struggled against repressive laws at the local, state, and federal levels and tried to forge a movement of workers that cut across ethnic, racial, and gender barriers. Her efforts, while not always successful, are a wellspring of inspiration for socialists looking to build a movement for genuine social change
The indomitable Flynn was/is a heroine of the labor movement and suffrage and jer name and legacy deserve to be remembered and respected. Overreacting to her Communist Party membership is pure Joseph McCarthy.We must ensure that “rebel girls” and “inconvenient people” remain in our memory as we build on the legacies they have so graciously bestowed.
