On the bridge between brutality and humanity

 

I'm glad that I have strong beliefs

Am able to say what I  feel,

Keep  calling for a ceasefire

An end to oppression and war,

Use my voice to question

Take a stand against barbarity,

When Fascism and cruelty 

Has become the norm for so many.

I believe in extreme kindness

Forces of good against evil,

The power of love and empathy

Among the painful tug of times undertow,

Remembering all those that struggle to be free

People who keep resisting malevolent violence,

Who  do not accept a colonising rogue country

Trying to exterminate another nation of people.

With militant identity and unfaltering breath

I support lion hearts, their liberty denied,  

Voices that continue to dream for a better world

Defying forces of injustice and suppression,

The protestors demonised and silenced

People enslaved all over the world,

On the pavements and roadsides

Far away from where I abide.

With famine and starvation in Gaza imminent

Thousands of displaced forced to eat animal feed,

As bombs continue to  rain down  on  innocents

I hope for an end to this ongoing suffering,

Ignore the politicians that cruelly diminish

Keep following rebel souls that break the chains,

Shining their truth for those unable to see

Seeking a new reality beyond current insanity,

The International Day of Happiness

The International Day of Happiness is a global celebration organised by the United Nations. It is coordinated by Action for Happiness, https://actionforhappiness.org/ a non-profit movement of people from 160 countries, supported by a partnership of like-minded organisations.  

International Day of Happiness has been celebrated since 2013 to make people aware of the importance of happiness in their lives. The UN has initiated this by including the Right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness in the Internal Law for Human Rights. 

On the day, 193 UN member states join together to highlight the importance of human joy and wellbeing.  Since 2011, the UN has adopted happiness as a “fundamental human goal” and has declared its commitment to creating “a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and wellbeing of all peoples”.  

The International Day of Happiness takes place on March 20. It is the day the UN releases its World Happiness Report, which ranks countries by their happiness levels using survey data from over 150 countries. The report is prepared on indicators such as per capita income, 

This year, Finland has topped the list again, for the sixth year in a row, with Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands and Sweden taking the other top five spots. The United Kingdom was ranked as the 19th happiest country in the world, two spots lower than last year.  

It’s a beautiful concept,but  one that should not distract us from the fact that the world is a horrible place full of meaningless suffering, and with discrimination, oppression, injustice  all over the world  increasing day by day, not  everyone in the world is fortunate enough to celebrate it  Additionally depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions can  hold many back from the activities that make us happy or the emotion itself.

However  I don't want  to  put  a  downer  on  the  day.  want  all  to  be  happy. and  if  your  are indeed happy,  try  to  remember  those in  pain  around  you,  release  your  smiles,  shine  your  light,  in  the   hope  it  blots  out  the ugliness  that  some people  have to bare,  and  with positivity  change the  world for those where  happiness does  not reveal  itself.

This year’s ‘Happier Together’ theme reminds us that lasting happiness comes from feeling connected to others and being part of something bigger. May your heart be filled with peace on World happiness day.Happy Spring Equinox too! Let the days brighten and life flourish once again.  Free Palestine.

Karl Marx, revolutionary philosopher, economist, and political theorist remembered

 

The German revolutionary socialist, philosopher, economist, political theorist and author  Karl Marx, was born  on May 5, 1818, in Trier, Germany,  whose ideas and writings have had a profound impact on political thought and social movements around the world. As one of the most influential figures in human history, Marx's ideas on communism and class struggle continue to resonate today, shaping modern political and economic systems. 

Karl Marx was born into a middle-class family, the son of a lawyer. He attended the University of Bonn and later the University of Berlin, where he studied law, history, and philosophy. It was during his time at the University of Berlin that Marx became involved in radical politics and was exposed to the works of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who greatly influenced his thinking. 

After completing his education, Marx worked as a journalist for several radical publications, including the Rheinische Zeitung and the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. His political writings attracted the attention of the Prussian authorities, which led to his expulsion from Germany. He then moved to Paris, where he met Friedrich Engels, who would become his lifelong collaborator. Together with Engels, Marx wrote "The Communist Manifesto" in 1848, a foundational text for the communist movement that called for the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of a classless society. In 1867, Marx published the first volume of "Das Kapital," a critical analysis of capitalism and its effects on society, labor, and the economy. Two more volumes were published posthumously by Engels, based on Marx's notes. 

Marx's ideas on class struggle, historical materialism, and the inherent flaws of capitalism have left an indelible mark on modern society. His works have inspired countless social and political movements, most notably the Russian Revolution of 1917, which led to the formation of the Soviet Union. Additionally, his theories have shaped the economic policies of numerous countries, as well as the academic fields of sociology, political science, and economics. 

While Marx's ideas have also been the subject of much criticism, with detractors arguing that his theories are outdated or have been responsible for the suffering and oppression of millions under communist regimes, There is absolutely no evidence that Marx himself would have supported such crimes. and there is no denying his significant impact on the course of human history. 

 Marx’s influence, which has extended beyond communist societies, can be compared to that of major religious figures like Jesus or Muhammad. The lives of hundreds of millions of people were transformed, for better or for worse, by Marx’s legacy and his ideas have transformed the study of history and sociology, and profoundly affected philosophy, literature, and the arts,  while  his  critique of capitalism and vision of proletarian revolution articulated in The Communist Manifesto and Capital continues  to help us not only understand capitalism, but fight for a world free of exploitation and domination.

Karl Marx although was German born,  had to flee Germany and settle in London, living there from 1849. Marx never got the reputation that he deserved in his life, and led a poverty and grief-stricken life. His wife and his eldest daughter died before him, creating a devastating impact on him and his health;  he  died  stateless  on the afternoon of 14 March 1883  aged 64.from a combination of bronchitis and pleurisy, exacerbated by an abscess on his lung.

On Saturday, March 17, 1883 Marx was laid to rest in Highgate Cemetery, North London  arranged for by Friedrich Engels Marx to be buried in Highgate Cemetery. in the family plot  in which his wife Jenny had been buried fifteen months earlier.  They weren’t alone for long as within a week of his death Marx was joined by his five year old grandson. The family’s life long friend and companion (who had started out as a servant) Helene Demuth joined them in 1890 – after helping Frederick Engels put together Marx’s notes that became the second volume of Capital – and then the last of the group to use the plot was Marx’s daughter, Eleanor, who died young in 1898. 

The funeral was poorly attended. Estimates vary, but it’s unlikely more than two-dozen mourners were present. The world had yet to be exposed to the work of the man laid to rest in that small ceremony.  Besides Marx’s two surviving daughters Laura and Eleanor, others  in attendance  were the French socialist leaders Paul Lafargue (Laura’s husband) and Charles Longuet (husband to Marx’s eldest daughter Jenny), Prof Roy Lankaster and Prof Schorlemmer (both revered men of science and members of the Royal Society), the German Socialist leader Wilhelm Liebknecht, G. Lochner (a veteran of the Communist League), another German socialist F. Lessner (sentenced in the 1852 Cologne Communists’ Trial to five years’ hard labour), and writer-editor Gottlieb Lemke. It is possible that Helene Demuth, long the Marx family’s devoted housekeeper and friend, who would be buried alongside the family a few years later, was also in attendance.

The ceremony was simple, with brief words in German, French and English, from the leader of the German Social-Democratic party, Charles Longuet (a son-in-law) and Marx's lifelong friend and comrade Friedrich Engels delivered  the  following  eulogy predicting Marx's work would endure through the ages. :

"On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep-but forever.

"An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt.

"Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case.

"But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark.

"Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated -- and he investigated very many fields, none of them superficially -- in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries.

"Such was the man of science. But this was not even half the man. Science was for Marx a historically dynamic, revolutionary force. However great the joy with which he welcomed a new discovery in some theoretical science whose practical application perhaps it was as yet quite impossible to envisage, he experienced quite another kind of joy when the discovery involved immediate revolutionary changes in industry and in historical development in general. For example, he followed closely the development of the discoveries made in the field of electricity and recently those of Marcel Deprez.

"For Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation. Fighting was his element. And he fought with a passion, a tenacity and a success such as few could rival. His work on the first Rheinische Zeitung (1842), the Paris Vorw?rts! (1844), Br?sseler Deutsche Zeitung (1847), the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (1848-49), the New York Tribune (1852-61), and in addition to these a host of militant pamphlets, work in organisations in Paris, Brussels and London, and finally, crowning all, the formation of the great International Working Men's Association -- this was indeed an achievement of which its founder might well have been proud even if he had done nothing else.

"And, consequently, Marx was the best-hated and most calumniated man of his time. Governments, both absolutist and republican, deported him from their territories. Bourgeois, whether conservative or ultra-democratic, vied with one another in heaping slanders upon him. All this he brushed aside as though it were cobweb, ignoring it, answering only when extreme necessity compelled him. And he died beloved, revered and mourned by millions of revolutionary fellow-workers -- from the mines of Siberia to California, in all parts of Europe and America -- and I make bold to say that though he may have had many opponents he had hardly one personal enemy.

"His name will endure through the ages, and so also will his work!"

Once it was all over, the cortege wended its way back to Marx’s Maitland Park home. A few days later, Karl’s name was etched into the simple stone tablet that stood over his wife’s grave. Just five days later, some of these same mourners would be back again in Highgate, this time to bury five-year-old Harry Longuet, the youngest child of Marx’s eldest daughter Jenny who had pre-deceased her father.  The grave was as unremarkable as the burial. Hidden away in a little-known part of the cemetery, 

The following year after his death over 5,000 people gathered, organised by the Communistic Working Men’s Club in London to commemorate the proclamation of the Paris Commune in 1871.. Far more than a quiet show of respect, this was a full demonstration, with the plan to march, to the beat of a band, to the cemetery and give rousing speeches in German, French and English. But the cemetery directors were nervous, so the police forced the demonstration to stop in some vacant land near the cemetery. The event was peaceful enough, with people listening to the speeches, cheering and heading home. 

In the years that followed, the old grave became a site of pilgrimage. Lenin visited with a group of Bolsheviks in 1903, when they were in London for an early congress. It was known to have baffled visitors who wanted to pay their respects at the grave but found it hard to locate. At a British Socialists’ conference in 1923, a  delegate Charles McLean described his effort to find the grave: ‘only after an hour’s search’ was he ‘able to stand at the foot of the grave’. He spoke of the sad state of the grave, fnce he managed to reach it, how  “an old withered wreath, which appeared to have been lying there for years, and an old flower-pot with a scarlet geranium in bloom, were all that commemorated that great leader”.and that someday ‘there would be international pilgrimages to Highgate Cemetery – just as there were pilgrimages to Mecca by the Moslems’.

Surely a better memorial was needed.  The first response came from the Soviet Union. Feeling that the UK government was derelict in its duty, they proposed in the late 1920s to exhume Marx and bring him to Moscow where he would be remembered with due respect. 115 descendants of Marx signed a petition to add weight to the request. It was refused.  

Due to the popularity of this site and high number of visitors, Marx’s remains were later moved to a public site in the same cemetery where they continue to stay today. The tomb site  and the Marx Grave Trust were established with the  active support of Karl Marx's great grandsons. The Grave Trust owns and maintains the now famous and iconic memorial at the grave of Karl Marx which  was unveiled on March 15, 1956, to  a  large  crowd the day after the anniversary of his death on March 14,  1883. 

The monument was designed by Laurence Bradshaw and was funded by the Communist Party of Great Britain. The party's General Secretary, Harry Pollitt, led the ceremony. Bradshaw, an artist and sculptor, was himself a Party member, had been since the early 1930s. His most famous work was designed “to be a monument not only of a man,” Bradshaw said, “but to a great mind and great philosopher.” He wanted the site to convey “the dynamic force of Marx’s intellect.” Which is probably why he made it so big. 

Since 1974, the bust and headstone have been designated a listed monument, reaching the highest Grade-1 status in 1999 of “exceptional interest.” The Marx Grave Trust wishes to ask all members of the public to respect the tomb of Karl Marx at Highgate Cemetery, London as a place of commemoration and family grave. His grave remains a pilgrimage site for followers from around the world attracting thousands of people each year and his ideas still play an important role in shaping political and cultural discourses in the UK and abroad. A ceremony is still held here annually on the anniversary of his death, to the minute, at 2.30 pm. The Marx Oration started in 1933 and is sponsored by the the Marx Memorial Libraryhttps://www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk/ and respectfully remembers the passing of Karl Marx ,

The Marx Memorial Library has been in its big, classical 1738 building — originally a school for children of Welsh artisans living in poverty since 1933, the 50th anniversary of Karl Marx’s death.  The library  specialises in Marxism, the working-class movement, anti-fascism and the Spanish Civil War. It owns a full run of the Daily Worker and the Morning Star.t

Other revolutionaries have since been buried nearby to Karl  Marx. After Claudia Jones founder of Notting Hill Carnival   Black  Trinidadian communist, feminist, journalist and Black activist died at the age of just 49 in 1964, her  ashes  were  fittingly buried to the left of Karl Marx in North London's Highgate cemetery. And the cemetery also provides the final resting place for Dr Yusef Mohamed Dadoo, chairman of the South African Communist party, Saad Saadi Adi, the Iraqi communist leader, and poet and advocate of democracy and human rights in Iraq,

In an  assault, reported to police on February 5 2019  Karl Marx's the grave’s marble plaque was repeatedly smashed with a hammer, damaging it beyond repair. A second attack on the night of February 15 saw the entire monument daubed in bright  red paint with the words “Doctrine of Hate”, “Architect of Genocide” and “Memorial to Bolshevik Holocaust”.

 "It will never be the same again, and will wear  battle scars for the future," said Ian Dugavell  of the friends of Highgate Cemetary Trust of the damage to the plaque  at  the  time ,“Senseless, stupid, Ignorant,” the cemetery said. “Whatever you think about Marx’s legacy, this is not the way to make the point.”  
The graffiti covered inscriptions of Marx’s final words of The Communist Manifesto, “Workers of all lands unite,” and the most famous of Karl Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point however is to change it.” The contrast between Marx’s messages of hope and the violent smears that covered them could not be more jarring.

“It will never be the same again, and will bear those battle scars for the future,” said Ian Dungavell, chief executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, of the plaque.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/karl-marx-grave-london-highgate-cemetery-vandalised-hammer/

“It will never be the same again, and will bear those battle scars for the future,” said Ian Dungavell, chief executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, of the plaque.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/karl-marx-grave-london-highgate-cemetery-vandalised-hammer/

The shameful attack on Marx’s grave in a far right targetted ideological assault  coincided with fascist attacks on the graves of socialist leaders in Spain and on Holocaust memorials and Jewish cemeteries in France, Poland, Lithuania and Greece. 

The monument has been attacked previously, most notably during the 1970s, when vandals damaged the face of the bust and attempted to put a bomb inside it to destroy it. 

After his grave was vandalized tin 2019, the Marx Grave Trust,  decided to monitor it with video cameras installed  hoping to deter vandals from attacking this famous monument, Cameras remain rare in cemeteries, especially around specific graves. Marx’s is the first one to be monitored at Highgate, London’s most-visited burial ground, in a city where video surveillance is almost everywhere.
Grave desecration,  is integral to fascist terrorism. According to Jewish law, “treating a corpse disrespectfully implies a belief that death is final and irreversible.” In other words, treating the dead disrespectfully gives no hope for their resurrection.
Fascists desecrated Jewish graves because it wasn’t enough that those interred were biologically dead; grave desecration meant that the fascists did not think they were dead enough. These attacks against Marx’s grave are meant to prevent Marx from coming back to life — not literally, of course, but in the figurative resurrection of a socialist movement. As Walter Benjamin once put it, not even the dead are safe from fascism; in this case, not even Marx’s grave is safe.
For fascists, Marx’s grave does not represent the site of someone dead, but of something threatening to re emerge. Marxism represents the eternal enemy of the fascist imagination; Marx is not dead, but undead. They fear that Marx is still influencing world history from beyond the grave. Worse, they fear that the socialist movement is resurrecting Marx from the oblivion of the past.
If capitalism is one day overthrown and humanity moves from its pre-history towards real history, then Marx will be more than a ghost; he will be immortalized.
Defacing a beautiful monument in this destructive manner will not change the power of his words. His overwhelming legacy refuses to die. Marx's intellectual influence still so strong, his ideas and thinking have become fundamentals of modern economics and sociology.  Marx’s legacy is pervasive, complex, and often polarizing. But  the epitaph carved in gold letters into his grey marble tombstone  in the hearts and minds of many cannot simply be erased.

The good  news  the memorial has now been partially cleaned and after securing funding for some expert grave-scaping, Highgate cemetery in north London is preparing some new plots, which means you could be buried next to Karl Marx. It will cost you, though: while a cremation plot is £5,000, a full grave will set you back “upwards of” £25,000. 

On the  anniversary, of  Karl Marx  being  laid  to  rest lets  continue our struggle for a world free of injustice, discrimination and inequality.

Remembering Tony Benn

Remembering the one and only indomitable Tony Benn who died at the age of 88  ten  years  ago on Friday 14 March 2014.  which  incidentally  was  the  same  day  that Karl  Marx  died  in 1883. A constant thorn in the establishment’s side, Tony Benn was an inspiration to me and to all who struggle for peace and justice worldwide. 

Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn was born  into an affluent political family on the  3rd of  April 1927, and was influenced heavily by his mother, a feminist and prominent member of the reformist Congregationalist Church, as well as his father, a Liberal MP who advised him aged eight to “never wrestle with a chimney sweep”. Taking this advice on board, Benn strived to keep personal abuse out of politics for the entirety of his career. He became famous for his exemplary parliamentary manners, often taking even the harshest of media attacks with a smile.

Coming to power in the Wilson government in 1950, he became the Labour Member of Parliament for Bristol South East. Benn became a household name with his ultimately successful three-year court battle to be rid of a hereditary peerage following the death of his father, setting an important precedent. His efforts to secure re-entry to the lower house rendered him a class traitor to many on the right. In his view, little good came from ennoblement; he would later lament how the establishment uses the Upper House as a tool to decapitate radical movements. Tantamount to political castration, ennoblement would often turn the most hard line of communist trade unionists in to purring kittens overnight.

Tony Benn  would  be one of Labour’s longest-serving MPs, whose radical vision of a better, fairer society continues to inspire today. His contributions were always fearless, optimistic, full of humour and were always placed in the context of the historical struggles to demonstrate that through organisation and dedication anything was possible.

There  was hardly ever been an important working class gathering that did not  have  Benn as a speaker. And whenever possible he would speak. With his articulated voice Tony Benn delivered a vision of the possible, a tireless fighter for peace, justice and equality who for decades was the most independent-minded, powerful and passionate voice at Westminster, and the man whose crusading zeal led to the new law which allowed him to renounce his own peerage and return to the House of Commons in 1963. He represented Bristol South East until 1983, when the constituency was abolished.  

From 1964 to 1966, Benn served in Harold Wilson’s Cabinet as Postmaster General. He was then appointed Minister of Technology, in which office he oversaw the development of Concorde. The 1970 election was won by the Tories, but Benn returned to government on Labour’s victory four years later, first as Secretary of State for Industry and later as Energy Secretary. 

In 1979, Thatcher came to power, and Labour were to remain in opposition for the next eighteen years. Benn was at the heart of the internal discord that convulsed his party in the early 1980s: he infamously stood for the deputy leadership in 1981, but was very narrowly defeated by Denis Healey. Seven years later, he challenged Neil Kinnock for the leadership, but was soundly beaten. In between, Benn had become the MP for Chesterfield.  He retained his seat at the next three general elections, and watched from the backbenches as neo-Thatcherites Blair and Brown ascended to government. 

Benn was widely seen as a key proponent of democratic socialism and Christian socialism, though in regards to the latter he supported the United Kingdom becoming a secular state and ending the Church of England's status as an official church of the United Kingdom.

Originally considered a moderate within the party, Benn moved left,  after leaving ministerial office seeing himself more and more as the modern embodiment of the old radicalism. He took to making frequent historical references in his speeches, and commemorated calendar-occasions - the Levellers of the 1640s, the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the suffragettes, the Chartists. 

The terms Bennism and Bennite came into usage to describe the left-wing politics he espoused from the late 1970s and its adherents. He was an influence on the political views of Jeremy Corbyn, who was elected Leader of the Labour Party a year after Benn's death, and John McDonnell, who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer under Corbyn.

A great campaigner  who  used  his voice  to  speak  about the greedy among us, the multinationals,  consistently in  opposition  to wars  from the  Falklands to Afghanistan and Iraq. A tireless supporter of  the  anti austerity  movement and for Palestine. He denounced the British government’s role over the years as “less than honest” in its supplying of arms to Israel and all too often joining the US in giving them the support they demanded. He insisted that a British Government should act firmly and independently, and not supporting Israeli troops who he described as “An occupying army in a neighbouring state which they have attacked in acts of aggression against international law.”  Tony Benn was also in favour of a boycott of Israeli goods. 

A champion of so many  progressive  causes. he proposed the Commonwealth of Britain Bill — which aimed to transform our democracy by devolving power, guaranteeing social rights and abolishing the monarchy. Benn supported any strike that was going. standing shoulder to shoulder with us all. with his  strong voice clearly saying that the powerful should always be held to account. Benn also had a strong connection with Wales throughout his parliamentary career and campaigning work. He openly supported Welsh miners during the 1984 strike. He also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Glamorgan in June 2011 for his work as an author and politician.

He was a rare breed indeed, who offered genuine ideas, based on unwavering principles and convictions. A man of great honesty and integrity. famed for  his  belief  in socialism and for being  a  political  radical. who believed not only in parliamentary activity but also in extra-parliamentary activity. Frustrated at politicians’ inability to get involved with grassroots projects, he retired from parliament in 2001after 51 years in parliament.  – famously “in order to spend more time on politics”.  After leaving Parliament, Benn was President of the Stop the War Coalition until his death. He became the elder statesman of the left, a familiar face at demonstrations, puffing away on his pipe, or taking a brief rest from the marching to chat with anyone and everyone who wanted to speak with him. He addressed protests and television audiences with as much fervour as activists a quarter of his age. Crowds rallied in their thousands to hear him speak at the 2002 Glastonbury festival  and he went on to address each Glastonbury festival there, 

 One of the greatest politicians in the history of this country, he was well loved and respected. even following his retirement  in 2001.In 2006 the left wing icon topped a poll conducted by BBC Daily Politics that asked people to pick a political hero, pushing Margaret Thatcher in to second place. Tony Benn was a beacon of integrity in a forest of deception and expedience. The world remains poorer without his warm spirit. Two  of  my  favourite  possessions are  signed copies of  his  1984 book Writings on the Wall: a Radical and Socialist Anthology 1215-1984 and his 1979  book Arguments  for  Socialism.

I will never forget the moment when this wonderful man walked into the studio unannounced and demonstrated principles and courage missing from most MPs today by challenging the refusal by the BBC to simply air a humanitarian appeal for Palestinians following Israeli bombing. and shone a light on the shameful BBC bias. His words  have  never been more  relevant. Where have Politicians like this gone?

We must continue his deeds, set about building a genuine alternative to capitalism. On the torch of his unfaltering belief  in a better world , there lies a world where politics is not the language of brute force but an articulated vision of the possible - of justice, progress and peace and equality.

"There is in every human heart from the beginning of time there have been two flames burning, the flame of anger against injustice and the flame of hope that you can build a better world. And those two flames are burning in our hearts today, in the hearts and minds of millions of people. " - Tony  Benn

‘In politics there are weathercocks and signposts. Weathercocks spin in whatever direction the wind of public opinion may blow them. Signposts stand true, and tall, and principled. Signposts are the only people worth remembering in politics’ -Tony Benn

Dare to be a Daniel, was the title chosen by Tony Benn for his early memoir, the first lines of the following poem are from an old salvation Army hymn that had been sung to him by his parents. I try to keep faith, dare to be different.  

Dare to be a Daniel

Dare to be a Daniel, 

Dare to stand alone, 

Dare to have a purpose firm, 

And dare to let it know.

Dare to stand with the voiceless, 

|the occupied daily denied, 

stand shoulder to shoulder, 

with  devoted  words of meaning, 

committed breaths carrying no fear.  

Seed the earth with love, 

persistent grains of freedoms cry, 

move forward with language of hope,

in blazing movements of united flow.  

Seek out the hallmarks of truth and justice,

drink from the vessels of life, 

keep faith as our changeless songs hum out, 

In fearless cry, together we right their wrongs.  

On the breeze, our voices lift, 

for tomorrows bright sun to shine again,

leave footprints by rivers' wave of friendliness,

in flows of solidarity and stealth.

Happy Ramadan/Ramadan Mubarak

Yesterday marked the start of the month of Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar.⁠ ⁠For Muslims worldwide, the month of Ramadan is precious. It is one of the most important dates on the Islamic calendar observed by around 1.8 billion Muslims across  the  world. The festival begins with the sighting of the crescent moon, which usually appears one night after a new moon. 

One of the five pillars of Islam - along with faith, prayer, charity, and the pilgrimage - Ramadan commemorates the Quran first being revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, A sacred moment which is honoured by Muslims  who  observe a month of fasting (known as sawm), a time of year when spiritual, family and community connections are prioritised, and when the practice of taking care of others and working for the collective good, is more vital and more urgent than ever. 

Whilst Ramadan is a deeply significant time for Muslims worldwide, it marks an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to come together and make a positive impact. The values of empathy, generosity and compassion resonate all  over  the  globe. 

Ramadan is  also  a  time  of  peace . which is needed now  more  than  ever. May this month bring about lasting peace to all in Gaza and other war ravaged regions of the world. 

To  all my Muslim brothers and sisters Ramadan Mubarak at this special time of year. I'd also like to reiterate my own steadfast solidarity with the Muslim community, who continue to be dismissed, denigrated and dehumanised. I stand with you, always.

To all the  politicians such as Keir Starmer who have  enabled and justified Israel’s genocide in Gaza, blocked calls for a ceasefire, I  will never  forget your  empty Ramadan Mubarak messages  and total  hypocrisy.  

To wish someone a Happy Ramadan, the greeting most commonly used is ‘Ramadan Mubarak’. This translates to ‘Blessed Ramadan’. Another commonly used greeting is ‘Ramadan Kareem’, which translates to ‘Generous Ramadan’.

To everyone  who’s marking Ramadan I hope this month inspires us to spread peace, love, kindness and unity across the world. May this holy month fill your lives with blessings as full as the stars in the sky and  the lessons of solidarity, compassion and mercy be an inspiration to all of  us. 

In Praise of St David's Day/ Dydd Gŵyl Dewi

 

It's become a bit of a tradition to mark the very special occasion of St David's Day/ Dydd Gŵyl Dewi, which celebrates my nations patron saint.Today we, as a country. come together to celebrate our culture. history and everything that makes us proud to be Welsh.

As with St. Patrick’s Day, the Welsh have parades in their major cities, where you’ll see the traditional dress and the red dragon proudly on display on the Welsh flag, or the flag of St. David himself, a yellow cross on a black background,alongside the wearing of one or both of Wales’s national emblems, the daffodil and leek.

This is because the daffodil begins to bloom early in the year around this time, and the ancient tradition of eating and wearing leeks on St David’s Day supposedly goes back to the 6th century. It is said that St David told Welsh warriors to wear leeks in their helmets in battle against the despised Saxons to differentiate themselves from their enemies,  and that the leeks won them victory. This is pure legend of course, but soon the association between leeks and war was firmly cemented in the Welsh mind. In the 14th century Welsh archers adopted green and white for their uniform in honour of the leek. And to this day the Royal Welch Fusiliers uphold the tradition of eating raw leeks on 1 March.

Welsh women will often dress in their national finery. The Welsh dress was a traditional farming dress with an apron topped with a distinctive tall Welsh hat. It was worn on special occasions such as going to church, and today it is kept for celebrations such as St. David’s Day parades.

Schools across Wales hold celebrations, with a number of children dressing in traditional costume – a black hat with white trim; long skirts and shawls. Many boys, meanwhile, will wear a Welsh rugby or football shirt. Schools across the country will also hold an Eisteddfod (a traditional festival of Welsh poetry and music) on this day.

St David’s status as a modern national icon is a good example of how easily myth can trump historical evidence (or rather the lack of it). He lived and died fifteen hundred years ago, during a period of Welsh history often referred to as ‘the Age of the Saints’. The fifth and sixth centuries saw an intense bout of religious activity in Wales as holy men like David preached the word of God, founded churches and, if the monkish historians of the Middle Ages are to be believed, performed all manner of miracles.

Yet we have very little reliable information about who St David was, what he did, or even when exactly he lived. It seems likely that his fame stemmed from the establishment of a monastery in modern-day Pembrokeshire in the late sixth century – a settlement which we know today as the cathedral-city of St Davids. However the earliest direct references to him are found in manuscripts dating from the eighth century, almost 200 years after his death, so it is difficult to be sure about much else.

Luckily the Welsh have never been inclined to let a lack of evidence get in the way of a good story. While little is known  about his life, much of the traditional tales about St David are based on Buchedd Dewi (Life of David), which was written by the scholar Rhigyfarch at the end of the 11th Century.

Rhygyfarch's life of St David is regarded by many scholars as suspect because it contains many implausible events and because he had a stake in enhancing St David's history so as to support the prestige of the Welsh church and its independence from Canterbury, the center of the English church (still Catholic at the time). According to David Hugh Farmer in The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Rhygyfarch's history of St David "should be treated as propaganda, which may, however, contain some elements of true tradition." So most of what we know about Saint David is really legend; and none the less inspiring for it.

St David's existence at least does not seem to be in doubt; it is attested to in written records from earlier dates. He was born in the 6th century in or around South Cardigan and North Pembrokeshire in what is now southwest Wales, the exact year of his birth is unknown, with estimates ranging from 462 to 515 AD.  Born into local royalty, his mother was Saint Non, daughter of a Celtic chieftain, a  woman of great beauty and virtue.St David's father was a prince called Sant, son of the King of Cardigan But David wasn't the child of a love-filled marriage. He was concieved after his father either seduced or raped Non, who went on to become a nun.

St David's greatness was prophesied, both in the Christian and pagan worlds. Merlin, the great mage at the court of King Arthur, foretold his coming. St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, who at that time lived near St Davids, or Mynyw as it was then known, is said to have wanted to found a monastery nearby, but was told by an angel that the place was reserved for another who would appear in due course. St Patrick’s disappointment was soothed by a vision which showed him that his true vocation lay in Ireland. St Davids father, was also warned by an angel that he would find three treasures by the River Teifi in Cardiganshire, which should be set aside for his son; a stag, a salmon and a swarm of bees. These seemingly strange gifts each had a great significance. The stag, said to eat snakes, represents Christianity's conquering Satan (the serpent); the fish represents Saint David's abstinence from liquor; and the bees represent his wisdom and spirituality.

Even from his birth strange things have been said about St David. It is said he was born in a wild thunderstorm, the birthing process was said to have been so intense and fraught that his mothers fingers left marks as she grasped a rock. As St David was born a bolt of lightning from heaven is said to have struck the rock, splitting it in two and at the moment of birth a spring of pure water gushed out of the ground. A blind old man who held St David at the baptism had his sight restored by applying this remarkable water to his eyes. This is one of the colourful stories about the childhood of Dewi Sant.

Non named her son Dewidd, though local Dyfed pronunciation meant he was commonly called Dewi. David is an Anglicised variation of the name derived from the Latin Davidus.

Brought up by his mother in Henfeynyw near Aberaeron, David is said to have been baptised at nearby Porthclais by St Elvis of Munster. It is said that a blind monk, Movi, was cured after drops of water splashed into his eyes as he held David.

St David was educated at a monastery, usually taken to be Whitland in Carmarthenshire, under St Paulinus of Wales. He is said to have cured his tutor of blindness by making the sign of the cross. Seeing him as blessed, Paulinus sent him off as a missionary to convert the pagan people of Britain. Having chosen life as a missionary monk,he travelled to France, Ireland, and the Middle East to learn and to proselytize and went from place to place helping the poor, and teaching men to live as he did and is known for converting his countrymen to Christianity.

It is said  that once when St David  was preaching at a large outdoor gathering, in Llanddewi Brefi people complained they couldn’t hear or see him  until a white dove landed on St David’s shoulder, and as it did, the ground on which he stood rose up to form a hill, making it possible for everyone to see and hear him , both near and far off, where a church now stands. The dove became his emblem often appearing in his portraits and on stained-glass windows depicting him. Doves are considered pure due to their typical role as a messenger or a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

There are many other stories about the man, no one can actually tell if any of them are actually true or not but create a nice tale to tell nevertheless. It is also said that he once rose a youth from death, and milestones during his life were marked by the appearance of springs of water.

In 550 AD, St David was named the Archbishop of Wales at the Synod of Brefi church council and stayed in the settlement of Mynyw and set up a large monastery. David was a bit of a disciplinarian and hard task masker, but the monks in this monastery  obeyed him and lived a simple life, drinking water and eating only herbs and bread. He became known as Dewi Dyrfwr (David the water drinker) as meat and beer were forbidden. Although the monks farmed the surrounding land, St David insisted that they did not use animals to carry their tools,and they were to carry them. Also none of the monks were allowed any personal possessions and they spent evenings praying, reading and writing.

Eventually became so unpopular with his monks for the life of austerity he made them live, that they tried to poison him. St David was informed about this by St Scuthyn, who as legend says, presumably in the absence of a ferry or a Ryanair flight, travelled from Ireland on the back of a sea-monster for the purpose.

He frequently visited other places in South Wales, and churches were afterwards built in  many of these villages in memory of him.  A legend says that he once went to Jerusalem with two companions, St Teilo https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/02/st-teilos-day-dydd-sadwrn-teilo.html?m=1 and St Padarn. The three left Wales together "with one mind, one joy, and one sorrow." When after a hard journey they arrived at Jerusalem they were received with joy and hospitality, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem gave St David, before he returned to Wakes, a remarkable bell which " shone with miracles," a staff, and a coat woven with gold. 

His last words to his followers before his death are thought to have been: "Be joyful, keep the faith and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do." The phrase gwenwch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd - 'Do the little things in life' - is still a well-known phrase in Wales.

Here I offer you this beautiful song from Bob Delyn a'r Ebillion called Pethau Bychain Dewi Sant ( St David's Little Things) from the album Dore.

 

Geriau/ Words

Pethau bychain Dewi Sant
nid swn tan ond swn tant.
Nid derw mawr ond adar mân,
nid haul a lleuad ond gwreichion tân.

Ond o, dyna chi strach, trio cael hyd i sach
 i gadw'r holl bethau bach.

 Pethau bychain Dewi Sant,
 y ll'godan ond nid yr eliffant.
 A darnau'r gwlith nid dwr y moroedd,
 ond yn y briga', stwr y mae.

 Ond o, dyna chi strach, trio cael hyd i sach
 i gadw'r holl bethau bach.

 Pethau bychain Dewi Sant,
swn 'yn traed ni yn y nant.
Yr hada' yn disgyn yma a thraw,
a'r tamad, y tamad ola' o wenith yn dy law.

Ond o, dyna chi strach,
trio cael hyd i sach i gadw'r holl bethau bach.

Map y byd yn llyfr y plant,
pethau bychain Dewi Sant.

Y pellter sydd rhwng dant a dant ar ol nawdeg naw a chant
 pethau bychain Dewi Sant.

Ond o, dyna chi strach,
 trio cael hyd i sach i gadw'r holl bethau bach.

English Translation Lyrics:

St David's little things,
not the sound of fire
but the sound of chords.
Not a large oak but small birds,
not the sun and moon but the sparks of fire.

But oh, what a hassle it is to try and find a sack
to keep all of the little things.

St David's little things,

the mouse but not the eliphant.

And the dew drops, not the water of the seas,
but in the branches, uproar is found

But oh, what a hassle it is to try and find
a sack to keep all of the little things.

St David's little things,
the sound of our footsteps in the stream.
The seeds fall here and there,
and the scrap, the last scrap of wheat in your palm.

But oh, what a hassle it is to try and find a sack
to keep all of the little things.

The world's atlas in a children's book,
St David's little things.

The distance between a tooth and a tooth between ninety nine and a hundred - St David's little things. But oh, what a hassle it is to try and find
a sack to keep all of the little things.

 St David is also said to have lived for over 100 years, and some say, hold your breathe, to the age of 142 or 147 (his clean living ways, sure must have helped him) and died on Tuesday 1 March 589, in the week after his final sermon. He was buried in the grounds of his monastery, which was said to have been "filled with angels as Christ received his soul". 

 Mynyw is now known as St David’s, the UK’s smallest city (,near the southwestern tip of Pembrokeshire.) in his honour. The monastery has since become the magnificent St David’s Cathedral and was a prestigious site of pilgrimage in the middle ages and is still a site of immense interest to this day. It is said by some that two pilgrimages to St Davids are equal to one pilgrimage to the Vatican in Rome. His shrine  became so famous that three English monarchs - William 1, Henry 11 and Edward 1 are said to have made pilgramages to it.  

 

 

St David’s Day has been celebrated in Wales on 1st March since the 12th Century when David was made a saint by Pope Callixtus II, at the height of the Welsh resistance to the Normans. You will find churches and chapels dedicated to him in south-west England and Brittany, as well as Wales. His influence also reached Ireland, where the Irish embrace his beliefs about caring for the natural world.

The nickname ‘Taffy’ for a Welshman links back to St David as the original and ultimate Welshman – the term dates to the 17th century and derives from ‘Dafydd’, the Welsh for David.

William Shakespeare name-dropped St David in Henry V. When Fluellen’s English colleague, Pistol, insults the humble leek on St David’s Day, Fluellen insists he eat the national emblem as punishment: “If you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek” (Act V, Scene I).

Although now replaced by the daffodil, the leek was originally the symbol of St David’s day. There are differing stories about how the leek came to take its place in Welsh history. 

 One account tells the story of the ancient British king, Cadwaladyr whose soldiers were about to fight the Saxons. The story goes that St David advised the Welsh to wear a leek on their clothes so they could recognise each other in battle. Another legend is set in 1346, when the Prince of Wales (Edward the Black Prince), defeated the French at the Battle of Crécy. The story tells us that the Welsh archers fought heroically in a field of leeks, and as a reminder of their bravery, the Welsh began to wear leeks in their caps every St David's Day. 

However, it seems that the daffodil supplanted the leek in the 20th century after the Welsh politician David Lloyd George (later to become prime minister) allegedly insisted that daffodils be used during the 1911 investiture of the Prince of Wales. Today, although the leek remains associated with Wales, the daffodil is undoubtedly a more attractive and fragrant alternative. And of course, daffodils are usually plentiful and in full bloom by 1st March.

Whatever the true story of Dewi Sant is , there is no doubt that he was indeed a figure of much historical and spiritual significance that still carries with him much importance to the people of Wales today,  a cheerful and celebratory day as my country comes together in honour of their patron saint to celebrate Welsh history, culture, and identity with pride.

Out of all the saints in the UK, David is the only one to have been born in the country where he is a saint. Scotland’s St Andrew was Palestinian, Ireland’s St Patrick was Romano-British and England’s St George was a Roman soldier who was actually born in Cappadocia, Turkey, around 270AD.with Greek family ties.

In 2000 the National Assembly for Wales voted unanimously to make St David’s Day on the 1st March a bank holiday.to celebrate out patron saint just like they do in the Republic of Ireland and Scotland, but sadly the idea was rejected by Westminster, surprise, surprisea, because  of  the  cost  to  the economy although a one off bank holiday for the s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 cost £1.2 billion  .It's that time of year again when we must ask the same question. St Andrew's/St Patrick's Day are public holidays, why not so in Wales. Dydd Gŵyl Dewi St David's Day Bank Holiday has overwhelming public support in Wales and the support of all Senedd political parties. Why do we allow a foreign country to forbid us to celebrate our national identity on St. David's Day with a bank holiday?  Does Germany overrule French Bank Holidays?

Nevertheless, St David’s position as the patron saint of Wales has only grown stronger since then, with parades and concerts now a staple part of the festivities each year.

Every year in Cardiff there is a National St David’s Day parade. Performers range from local school children, who usually wear traditional Welsh clothing, to theatre groups and dragons. Daffodils and leeks are pinned to clothes. Flags and banners are waved during the parades, including the Welsh flag and the flag of St David.

The parade typically ends at the Hayes in the town centre, where crowds will gather to proudly sing the national anthem, “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau”. 

Other villages and towns in Wales may also hold their own parades, and lots of Welsh heritage sites allow free admission for the day. People also attend church services and choir recitals by professional choir groups or school children. 

There’s also a concert held in St David’s Hall in Cardiff, where the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales perform traditional Welsh songs.  In Swansea, there’s the Croeso (meaning “welcome” in Welsh) festival, which is a two-day event that  celebrates  Welsh  culture. With music, food stalls, cookery demonstrations, and an event called the daffodil dash. See  the  full  line  up here. https://www.visitswanseabay.com/events/croeso/

Some visit St David’s in Pembrokeshire, known as the religious centre of Wales. The purple-stoned cathedral is found in the UK’s official smallest city (roughly 1,600 people), where two trips to it are equal to one pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Wow!  The residents like to decorate the city with bunting and have a weekend of events in the cathedral and around the town. Events include their very own St David’s Day parade: the Dragon Parade and the Ras Dewi Sant marathon, said to be one of the toughest and prettiest races in the world, with the route going through the changing Pembrokeshire Coast Path.  The annual Dragon Parade journeys from Oriel y Parc across the city to Cross Square. The parade is so popular, the road is closed for the duration of the parade so that everyone can join in safely. Typical visitors include families, schools and children dressed in traditional Welsh costume.  Those part of the parade will pridefully hold their handmade dragons high so that they can be seen from all around. The theme of the St David’s Day parade changes slightly each year to celebrate a different aspect of the event. For example, in 2020, the theme celebrated the colours of Saint David’s famous black and yellow flag.

To conclude this post  I share the following moving poem Rhyfel (War) in both English and Welsh by the Welsh language poet/ pacifist Ellis Humphrey Evans, better known by his bardic pen name Hedd Wyn. (Blessed Peace).https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/07/remembering-pacifist-poet-hedd-wynn_42.html It is one of his best known and most frequently quoted works in which he interweaves ideas about faith, music, class and conflict in a lament for the brutality and devastation caused by the First World War which  still  has  much  relevance  in  the  times  we  live.

 War (Rhyfel) by Hedd Wyn

English translation by Gillian Clarke

Bitter to live in times like these.
While God declines beyond the seas;
Instead, man, king or peasantry,
Raises his gross authority.

When he thinks God has gone away
Man takes up his sword to slay
His brother; we can hear death’s roar.
It shadows the hovels of the poor.

Like the old songs they left behind,
We hung our harps in the willows again.
Ballads of boys blow on the wind,
Their blood is mingled with the rain.

Original Welsh poem by Hedd Wyn

Gwae fi fy myw mewn oes mor ddreng,
A Duw ar drai ar orwel pell;
O’i ôl mae dyn, yn deyrn a gwreng,
Yn codi ei awdurdod hell.

Pan deimlodd fyned ymaith Dduw
Cyfododd gledd i ladd ei frawd;
Mae sŵn yr ymladd ar ein clyw,
A’i gysgod ar fythynnod tlawd.

Mae’r hen delynau genid gynt,
Ynghrog ar gangau’r helyg draw,
A gwaedd y bechgyn lond y gwynt,
A’u gwaed yn gymysg efo’r glaw. 

This time of the year also serves to remind me that the miracle of spring is just around the corner. Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus i bawb /Happy Saint David’s Day to you all. Heddwch/ Peace.

 Even the smallest of things can cause the biggest of change and help the most people. 'Do the little things', click the link below and then the button to help people in palestine!  I 'wneud y petha bychan', cliciwch y linc isod a wedyn y botwm i helpu pobl yn palestine!https://arab.org/click-to-help/palestine/

Links to a few earlier St David's Day/  Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Posts

Gillian Clarke - Miracle on St David's David's Day 

 https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2013/03/gillian-clarke-8637-miracle-on-st.html

The Praise of St David's Day Showing the reason why the Welch -men Honour the Leeke on this Day 

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-praise-of-st-davids-day-showing.html

Evan James (Ieuan ap Iago) An Ivorite song to be sung to the tune of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2014/03/evan-james-ieuan-ap-iago-1809-2091878.html

Harri Webb -  The Red , White and Green

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/03/harri-webb-7920-311294-red-white-and.html

The Welsh Language - Alan Llwyd

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-welsh-language-alan-llwyd-b1948.html