Celebrating the life and work of Radical artist Franz Wilhelm Seiwert (March 9, 1894 – July 3, 1933)

The  radical German painter Franz Wilhelm Seiwert  was born on 9 March 1894 in Cologne, the only child of a postal worker Johann Seiwert and his wife Margarethe, née Düppenbecker.. His father came from Andernach, his mother from Oberpleis (now the city of Königswinter)Seiwert  grew up in humble circumstances, and began attending elementary school in 1900, which he completed in 1909. 

Franz Wilhelm Seiwert was severely burned by a radiology treatment in 1901 at  the  age of  seven and for the rest of his life feared he would die at a young age. This not only had a significant influence on his development, but also shaped his artistic work to such an extent that human suffering became the central theme of his work.

From 1910 to 1914, he attended the Cologne School of Applied Arts, and afterwards he worked for an architectural firm. During the First World War, Seiwert was not drafted due to his illness. Politically, he adopted a pacifist stance during this time, which was expressed in the fact that from autumn 1916 onwards he took part in the anti-war cultural lecture series in Cologne, privately organised by the writer couple Carlo Oskar (1984-1971) and Käthe Jatho (1891-1989). A close friendship developed between Seiwert and the couple, who soon gave him the name Franz in reference to Francis of Assisi (1184-1226), 

Seiwert  also came   in contact with other up-and-coming artists such as Otto Freundlich (1878-1943), who was of key importance for the stylistic development of Seiwert's work in the following years and put him in touch with important contacts, such as the Berlin publisher Franz Pfemfert (1879-1954). 

Seiwert received further inspiration for his art from the religious, philosophical and secular works of literary history that were presented and discussed at Jathos events, and which the artist dealt with in woodcut cycles, such as the Gospel of John (1917) or Homer's Odyssey (1919). 

An exhibition of expressionist graphics by German avant-gardists organized by the "Jatho" circle in 1916 gave Seiwert the opportunity to present his own work in the form of a bust of Christ. His participation brought him his first commission from the women's rights activist Mathilde von Mevissen  who entrusted Seiwert with painting the dome of her house in Cologne. 

The year 1917 saw Seiwert become closer to the pacifist-communist artist movement during this time and in the following years became an important agitator of the movement in the Rhineland and an ardent advocate of the Marxist world revolution, and was actively involved in the international discussions concerning proletarian culture during the revolutionary upsurge following the First World War. "Throw out the old false idols! In the name of the coming proletarian culture"  

He was also  frequent contributor to Franz Pfemfert's anti-militarist magazine Die Aktion, and in 1917, Seiwert became a member of Pfemfert's "Anti-National Socialist Party" (German: Antinationale Sozialistenpartei)  a political organisation originally clandestinely founded in Berlin in 1915, and after the end of the war in 1918/19  he was also co-founder of the Cologne branch of the Berlin "Working Council for Art". 

While the connection to Pfemfert had already enabled the artist to exhibit in the Berlin offices of the "Aktion" in 1919, contact with social revolutionary artistic circles in the following years opened up the possibility of participating in numerous important exhibitions in Germany, which ultimately led to Seiwert's work's public breakthrough. 

Also around 1919, the artist began writing social and cultural revolutionary, partly anarchist pamphlets that were published in socialist magazines. In these writings, the artist called for the "enslaved" proletariat to rebel against the capitalist consumer state and for the self-denial of its population.

On a political level, Seiwert demanded the removal of parties and leaders, rejecting Bolshevism and opposing the revolutionary centralization propagated by Russia, which in turn contradicted the Marxist doctrine he represented. Although  a  committed Communist  he was never  an  actual  member of the German Communist  party KPD and  was dismissive of party politics in general.. 

In 1919, alongside Max Ernst, Hans Arp and Johannes Baargeld, Seiwert was also instrumental in the creation of Cologne's significant, though short-lived branch of Dada. which was a radical artistic and literary movement that was a reaction against the cultural climate that supported the First World War. The Dadaists took an anti-establishment attitude, questioning art's status and favouring performance and collage over traditional art techniques. Many Dadaists went on to become involved with Surrealism.

Dada was an international, multi-disciplinary phenomenon that reacted against the nationalist climate supporting the First World War. The movement was defined by an anti-bourgeois, anti-establishment stance and a love of the absurd, nonsensical and ridiculous. The group even declared themselves anti-art, claiming, ‘Dada is anti-Dada!’. 

Beginning in Zurich, the movement was later developed in Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, New York, Paris and Barcelona during and after the First World War. It is now considered the first conceptual art movement and a watershed moment in the development of modern art. The Dada language evolved alongside other avant-garde movements including Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism and a diverse output ranged from performance to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage.

Accounts on the discovery of the term ‘dada’ vary, although it is thought poet Richard Huelsenbeck plunged a knife into a German-French dictionary at random. The term appealed to the group, reflecting their childish sense of the absurd. It had an elastic quality, as Ball explained, ‘Dada means in Romanian, ‘Yes, Yes’, in French a rocking- or hobby horse. In German, it is a sign of absurd naivety.’   

During the First World War, Zurich was a refuge for international artists, writers and thinkers. Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings initially founded the movement in 1916 in the city’s Cabaret Voltaire, with other members including Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara, https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2014/04/tristan-tzara-441896-251263-radical.html Marcel Janco and Richard Huelsenbeck. 

The Zurich group published a Dada magazine and held numerous art exhibitions spreading their anti-war, anti-art ideas. They also held regular evening events with experimental poetry readings, music and dancing, and Tzara and Arp famously explored ‘chance’ through ripping up and scattering paper pieces onto the floor. 

In 1917, Tzara went on to found Galerie Dada on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich and later became the leader of the movement, spreading the word through letters to France and Italy. After the end of the First World War in 1918, many artists returned to their home countries and spread Dada ideas further. In Berlin, Huelsenbeck founded Club Dada, with major figures including John Heartfield, George Grosz and Hannah Hoch. Their work reflected a fascination with technology, and took on deeper political leanings than the Zurich group. 

Kurt Schwitters was excluded from the Berlin group, due to his work’s aesthetic qualities, instead founding his own one-man group in Hanover in 1919, in which he termed his art Merz. In Cologne, Max Ernst and Johannes Theodor Baargeld formed a Dada group in 1918, later joined by Hans Arp who made series' of ground-breaking collages.

An  earlier  post on  the  movement  can  be found here. https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/07/dada-manifestozurich-july-141916-hugo.html

Seiwert would take part in the Dada-Constructivist conference in Dusseldorf in 1922 and then establish himself as the leader of the Gruppe Progressiver Künstler (The Progressive Group of Artists). This was a group who sought to reconcile Constructivism with a realism that carried radical political views. The style that Seiwert advocated was one of sharp graphic clarity, geometric precision and which also contained words printed on the surface whose themes concentrated on Marxist writings, on workers and on unionist principles as in Soviet era Russian Constructivism. 

As Ernst was to remember though, due to political differences, Seiwert had ultimately pulled out of taking part in the much-celebrated Cologne-Dada inaugural exhibition shortly before its opening. According to Ernst, Seiwert's decision was made on the grounds that he found their concept of Dada not revolutionary enough, or as he described it, not 'socially concrete'. 

Instead, along with the ar tists  Willy Fick, Heinrich Hoerle,  Angelika Hoerle. Anton Räderscheidt and his wife Marta Hegemann, Seiwert  founded the alternate, 'Gruppe Stupid' to which Ernst  and Baargeld,would also, for a time, be affiliated. 

The Gruppe Stupid' aimed to address sociopolitical issues through an art of proletarian character. Seiwert described the group's esthetic: "We are attempting to be so clear that everyone will be able to understand us." Räderscheidt's studio was their base of operations, but by 1920 he had abandoned the constructivist style. The group exhibited together and issued a publication, "Stupid 1", before disbanding.

While Seiwert's post-war art was primarily characterized by an expressionist-cubist style, in which sculptural works predominated alongside the often symbolic, figurative and abstract prints, from 1920/21 the artist developed a representational-constructivist formal language, partly based on medieval painting, which fulfilled his claim to simplify, symbolize and typify the motifs of his propagandistic, proletarian art. 

                    

Workers,  Franz Wilhelm Seiwert  1926     

Demonstration, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert , 1925

With the change from woodcut to linocut around 1920, Seiwert also made a change in craftsmanship in an effort to implement a socialist art. At the same time, his sculptural activity declined. The artist found motifs and themes for his socially critical works of the early 1920s in the political and social events in the Ruhr region, where radical, revolutionary tendencies and the progressive impoverishment of the working class due to hyperinflation and the Allied occupation policy were particularly evident between 1918 and 1923.  In 1921, Seiwert is known to have travelled to Berlin for the first time, where he made important contact with regard to his cultural and political activities in the artist couple Margarete (1891-1984) and Stanislaw Kubicki (1889-1943), who organised an international exhibition of revolutionary artists in Berlin in 1922 with artist and writer friends.

The acquaintances he made with László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) and El Lissitzky (1890-1941) through his participation in the international “Congress of New Progressive Artists in Düsseldorf” in 1922, meant that Seiwert increasingly dealt with abstraction in his work at this time. His visit to the Berlin “1st The “Russian Art Exhibition” in 1922 with works of suprematist and constructivist art by Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953) and Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) had a lasting influence on his work.  

A kind of counterpoint to his previous writings on revolutionary theory was the pseudo-historiographical article "The Development of the Communist Movement in Germany", published in 1922, in which Seiwert attempted to explain the course and failure of the socialist post-war revolution. The failure of all Spartacist uprisings, which the artist believed was the fault of the Social Democrats, forced him in 1923 to believe that there was no such thing as proletarian art and culture, which meant that his social revolutionary graphics decreased significantly from 1924 onwards and he began to focus on sociological oil paintings as well as typographic and architectural work. 

He also took on advertising commissions during this time and, together with Heinrich Hoerle, worked as a consultant for the Cologne architects  Wilhelm Riphahn  and Caspar Maria Grod (1878-1931).  In 1924 Seiwert took part in the "1st General Art Exhibition of the West" in Moscow, where he exhibited again in 1926. In the same year he visited Otto Freundlich in Paris, who had emigrated there in 1924. This stay was followed in 1927 by another trip to France, to Chartres and Paris, during which he developed friendly contact with Fernand Léger (1881-1955) and Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957), after whose sculpture "The Kiss" Seiwert designed the gravestone for his mother in 1929.  

Seiwert expanded his political commitment in 1925 by writing several articles for the Cologne newspaper "Sozialistische Republik". From 1927 onwards, his architectural work was reflected in his collaboration with the magazine "Westdeutsche Bauschau", for which he wrote numerous articles until 1929. Together with Gerd Arntz, August Sander and El Lissitzky, Seiwert produced works for the International Press Exhibition in Cologne in 1928, where he came into contact with the Bohemian artist Augustin Tschinkel (1905-1983).

In 1929 he founded the magazine "a-z", a journal of progressive art which he edited until its final issue in February of 1933. This became a vehicle for the exposition of Figurative Constructivism, describing its origins as "From the expressionist-cubist art-form abstract constructivism was developed, which in turn led into Figurative Constructivism"and of which his 1927 painting Freudlose Gasse (Joyless Alleyway) is one of the finest examples. 

As in the work of his fellow 'Progressive', Gerd Arntz, the simplified geometry of this painting is intentional. Seiwert saw the rigid structure of his paintings as analogous to the similarly rigid structures of life imposed upon the proletariat by the ruling powers. 

As opposed to a work depicting social disintegration and decay such as George Grosz's 1918 Gefährliche Strasse for example, (and which this painting, in some ways, resembles) the rigid structures and strict compartmentalisation of Freudlose Gasse confront the viewer with an easy-to-read diagram of social order and control. Here, the picture outlines the essential stereotypes of much of 1920s German Realist painting: the bourgeois in his bowler hat, the naked prostitute and the policeman-guardian of the establishment, all neatly aligned into subordinate performative roles within the overall structure of the nocturnal metropolis. Serving as a simple lexicon of German night-life in the 1920s.

In 1933, Nazi threats forced Seiwert to temporarily flee to the mountain range  of  Siebengebirge, but  his health was badly deteriorating, due to the incurable radiation burns he had received as a child, and after friends brought him back to Cologne, he died  on  July 3rd 1933,  just before the Nazis undoubtedly would have come for him.  The Franz-Seiwert-Straße in Cologne commemorates the artist.

Selbstbildnis (Self-portrait) by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, 1928, 

Happy International Women’s Day! Accelerate Action

 

International Women's Day (IWD), celebrated on March 8, is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The women's day has been celebrated for well over a century, with the first one in 1911.

The day marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women's achievements or rally for women's equality.

Marked annually on March 8th, women's day is one of the most important days of the year to celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness about women's equality, lobby for accelerated gender parity and fundraise for female-focused charities.

The day is marked in various ways across different cultures. In some countries, it is a public holiday, while others observe it with demonstrations, panel discussions, and cultural events. In Italy, women receive yellow mimosa flowers as a symbol of solidarity and appreciation. In China, some workplaces grant female employees a half-day off. Countries such as Argentina and Spain hold large-scale rallies advocating for women’s rights.

One of the most recognizable symbols of International Women’s Day is the color purple, representing justice and dignity. Alongside green (hope) and white (purity), these colors were originally chosen by the Women’s Social and Political Union in the United Kingdom in 1908.

Let's not forget  either the radical history of the day itself. Ever since women fought for the right to vote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the essence of their fight has been political. They have put forward their claims on society as a matter of right, facing all kinds of state-inspired discrimination and violence against them and state-sanctioned attempts to relegate them to second, third and fourth grade citizenship based on brutal identity politics and exploitation. 

Women, however, speak in their own name and refuse to accept any limitations on their right to decide all matters which affect their lives. Their courage and determination in the front ranks of the struggle for a society which recognizes everyone as equal members of the body politic with equal rights and duties inspires everyone to also fight for the rights of all.  

In 1909 the Socialist Party of America organized a New York City march commemorating a garment workers’ strike the previous year when hundreds of women workers in the New York needle trades demonstrated in Rutgers Square in Manhattan’s Lower East Side to form their own union and to demand the right to vote. This historic demonstration took place on March 8th. It led, in the following year to the ‘uprising’ of 30,000 women shirtwaist makers which resulted in the first permanent trade unions for women workers in the USA. The famous slogan bread and roses made its debut at this protest The Socialist Party of America declared National Woman's Day, to be celebrated on February calling for better pay and working conditions as well as the right to vote. It was at the second annual meeting of the International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910, that Clara Zetkin, a prominent Marxist activist from Germany’s Social Democratic Party, proposed the following motion at the Copenhagen Conference of the Second International: “The Socialist women of all countries will hold each year a Women’s Day, whose foremost purpose it must be to aid the attainment of women’s suffrage. This demand must be handled in conjunction with the entire women’s question according to Socialist precepts. The Women’s Day must have an international character and is to be prepared carefully.” 

The conference agreed. During the First World War, she along with Karl Liebnecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and other International SPD politicians, had rejected the party's policy of Burgfrieden , which was a call to refrain from strikes during the war. Among other anti-war activities she also organised an international socialist womens anti-war conference in Berlin, 1915. She however was not just an organiser, but also a great writer and thinker. That still remains an inspiration today.  Because of her anti-war opinions, she was arrested several times, during the war and in 1916 was taken into 'protective custody'.She also held the view that still holds much resonance today, that the source of women's oppression was in capitalism, and that any form of liberation, could only be served with the self-emancipation of the working class. 

IWD, consequently, was celebrated for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. Women in these countries demanded the right to vote, to hold public office and the right to work. Russian women began celebrating IWD in 1913,  and on IWD 1914, across Europe there were marches against the impeding imperialist war and for a women's right to vote.  In 1917 in Russia, International Women’s Day acquired great significance , it was the flashpoint for the Russian Revolution. 

On March 8th  women workers in Petrograd held a mass strike and demonstration demanding Peace and Bread in protest at the deaths of more than 2 million Russian soldiers in the war. The strike movement spread from factory to factory and effectively became an insurrection. After the Russian Revolution, in 1922, in honour of the women’s role  in 1917, Lenin declared that March 8th should be designated officially as women’s day in the Soviet Union. From there, it was primarily celebrated in communist countries such as China. But on the heels of the U.S civil rights movement in the 1960s, as women fought sex discrimination in the 1960s and ’70s, the United Nations declared 1975 as International Women’s Year. 

In 1977 the U.N. officially marked IWD by inviting member countries to celebrate women’s rights and world peace on March 8. It has since been celebrated in more than 100 countries, and has been made an official holiday in more than 25. Ever since, International Women’s Day celebrations have been held on March 8 in countries across the globe — serving as an annual reminder of the revolutionary potential of working women., and  in 1996, began to adopt an annual theme for every year. The first theme was "Celebrating the past, Planning for the Future."

The International Women’s Day website https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ has announced that this year’s theme is ‘For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality and Empowerment’, calling for  urgent action that can unlock equal rights, power and opportunities for all and a feminist future where no one is left behind. Central to this vision is empowering the next generation, particularly young women and adolescent girls as catalysts for lasting change.  

Aligned with this global movement, the agency theme, ‘Accelerate Action’, is an  important rallying call  that reflects the UN's urgency to drive gender equality forward  and emphasises the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality and addressing systemic barriers and biases that women face, both within personnel and professional situations.  

While the progress made in women's rights should be applauded, it  it's a very sad fact that for many women in the present day, little if anything has improved, since all those years ago when women initially marched. Many women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men. 

This day then is an appropriate occasion to remember the too many gaps hindering, sometimes in a brutal and cruel manner, the process towards the full recognition and protection of women’s rights as universal human rights.  change is still happening too slowly for thousands of women and girls around the world. 

At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity, according to data from the World Economic Forum. That's why this year International Women's Day aims to highlight the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. 

Statistics show the gaps that still exist, in conflict zones, reports of sexual violence have surged, with a 50% increase in recorded cases in 2023. Women and girls made up 95% of the victims. An estimated 119 million girls worldwide remain out of school. Women continue to have access to only two-thirds of the rights that men enjoy in most countries.

In 2024, nearly half the world’s population participated in elections, but the growth in female political representation was at its lowest rate in 20 years. A we  observe International Womens Day,  lets stand up for all women still trapped by injustices, still suffering from abuse,  acknowledge all those  who have been persecuted, jailed, tortured, simply for being a woman. Especially those who are among the most vulnerable in this present moment of time - the refugees. 

Let us also celebrate the  powerful women who've fought dictatorship, risked their lives to fight climate change and led mass movements for justice across the world, we cannot let their contributions go unnoticed today and every day. As Audre Lorde said "I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own,"

We  must acknowlege  too that freedom from gendered oppression will not be complete without the liberation of all oppressed people, whether here in Britain or across the world.As far back as the period of the British Mandate, Palestinian women were organising together to advance the struggle for liberation, both as women and as proud Palestinians.  

Today, despite the fact that 70% of those killed by Israel in Gaza since 2023 have been women and children; despite the current complete restriction of aid which will push thousands of women further into desperation; despite Israel’s escalating violence against Palestinian women across the West Bank including the recent killing of eight months pregnant Palestinian woman Sondos Jamal Muhammad Shalabi in Nur Shams refugee camp; and despite the gendered and sexual violence that is central to Israel’s settler-colonial project; incredibly, Palestinian women continue to resist.  

In November 2023, Palestinian feminists issued a call  https://bdsmovement.net/Ending-Gaza-Genocide-Feminist-Issue-Call-From-Palestinian-Women to people across the world to escalate campaigns as a form of meaningful solidarity to bring down Israel’s regime of oppression. They called for aid to Gaza, to reject the forcible transfer of Palestinians from their home and for countries across the world to impose a comprehensive military-security embargo on Israel. Shamefully, the British government has utterly failed to answer this call. It is up to us to ensure they are held to account.  

As the statement from Palestinian feminists reads: “This moment is the litmus test for humanity and the very meaning of justice and freedom. If not now, when?” 

Actions will be taking place for International Women’s Day across the country. I encourage you  to stand, today and every day, with all those oppressed by patriarchal and colonial violence, and all those internationally who are still fighting sexism and the inequality, exploitation and hardship and  continue to try and promote gender equality and political justice, that will make this world of ours a better place for everyone. Happy International Women’s Day! Let;s not forget its socialist feminist origins.  and use March 8 to pledge to redouble our efforts  accelerate and protect and extend women’s rights “for the many not the few.”

Ramadan Mubarak! 🌙✨

With the sighting of the new moon, almost two billion Muslims worldwide have begun to observe the Holy month of Ramadan. The holy month of fasting spans a period of 29 to 30 days and celebrates the first time when the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad, according to Islam. Ramadan is the ninth month and the most sacred of the Islamic lunar calendar, that is observed worldwide.

The Islamic Calendar follows the phases of the moon, commonly known as the lunar cycle. As a result, the Holy month of Ramadan falls approximately 10 days earlier each year in the Gregorian calendar. The Ramadan start date for 2025 was  expected to fall around 28 February following the sighting of the moon over Mecca or respective countries. This year, the month-long fasting festival  started on March 1, but the fasting started on Sunday, March 2

Lasting for 29 or 30 days, Ramadan 2025 will end around 30 March, with the celebratory days of Eid al-Fitr estimated to start around 30 March, again with a possible difference of a couple of days.A joyous celebration that begins with a special prayer known as the Salat al-Eid. This day is characterised by feasting, wearing new clothes, giving gifts, and spending time with family and friends. It’s also a time when muslims continue their charitable practices by giving Zakat al-Fitr, ensuring that even the less fortunate can join in the festivities.

This holy month is among one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Muslims will fast (Sawm) and abstain from food and drink (physical component) from dawn to sunset, and offer more prayers (Salāh) and to learn self-discipline, patience, humility, and enhance community cohesion (spiritual aspect). Muslims will also donate to charity (Zakāh), and carry out charitable acts, pursue to improve one’s character, and spend time with family and friends.

For Muslim communities, Ramadan is not only a month of fasting but also a sacred time to delve deeper into and appreciate cherished human values, including upholding the rights of fellow human beings, serving communities, and strengthening bonds with each other. A month of mercy, forgiveness, and blessings. Muslims also aim to grow spiritually and become closer to Allah and their loved ones. They do this by abstaining from pleasures like smoking, drinking and sexual intercourse between sunrise and sunset each day.  

 One of the most important aspects of the Ramadan fast is called “niyyah” which literally means “intention.” Muslims must not simply (or accidentally) abstain from food; they must achieve the requirement of niyyah. A Muslim’s intention to fast must come from the heart and from a place of worship to Allah. So if someone fasts for political or dietary reasons, they will not achieve niyyah. According to scripture, “Whoever does not make niyyah before dawn, would not have fasted”. 

In much of the Muslim world, restaurants are closed during the daylight hours of Ramadan. Families wake up early, before the sun rises, and eat a meal called “sohour”. After the sun sets, the fast is broken with a meal called “iftar”. Iftar often begins with eating dates and drinking sweet drinks to give fasting Muslims a quick energy boost. It can include any type of food, but the dessert almost always includes konafa or qatayef. Konafa is a cake made of wheat, sugar, honey, raisins, and nuts, and Qatayef is a similar but smaller cake, that’s folded to encase the nuts and raisins. In between the two meals, the night-time iftar and the pre-dawn sohour, Muslims can eat freely.

As we begin this Holy Month, Palestinian, Lebanese, Sudanese and Syrian people are beginning to rebuild their lives despite their homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship being destroyed as Winter sets in. Fearless women in Afghanistan continue to fight for their freedom. Over a million Rohingya remain in Cox’s Bazaar, some for decades. Civilians continue to come under attack and face famine in South Sudan and Yemen. 

Meanwhile, Uyghur Muslims in China endure their religious freedoms being repressed, mass surveillance, arbitrary detention, and the erosion of their cultural and religious identity.

This Ramadan, lets remember the importance of charity, and in giving back to affected communities as well as keeping those who have lost their lives in the Gaza genocide in mind.

Lets stand united, stand alongside Muslim communities  around the world and continue to challenge injustice in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Iran, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen and many other places.

The  other  night  I was speaking to a palestinian friend in gaza  and  despite Israel halting all aid from going inside of Gaza on the first days of Ramadan, they were gathering for Iftar in the rubble of their destroyed neighborhood, I have never encountered such faithful, resilient, and indomitable people as Palestinians before.

Under the weight of a prolonged Israeli blockade and widespread devastation left by Israeli military attacks, Palestinians in Gaza are clinging to the traditions of Ramadan with unwavering determination.. Remember that nearly eivery single mosque has been destroyed in the north of Gaza. yet they keep their faith despite everything. Thouigh undoubtedly. anxious about where their meals to break their fasts will come from.

Remember the women and children fasting in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Their resilience shines a light of hope in the face of adversity.

This Ramadan, lets also all be  reminded of our collective responsibility to firmly stand against Islamophobia, racism, and hate in all their forms. 

To all who are observing this holy month, May this sacred time bring peace to your hearts, light to your souls, and strength to your faith. Ramadān Mubārak, May it be a blessed one. Filled with love, light and countless blessings. Wa Salam (with peace), Free Palestine  🌙✨

Marking the 40th Anniversary of the end of the Great Miners' Strike of 1984 - 1985 .

 

The first few weeks of March  will be a time of deep reflection for hundreds of thousands of people across the UK  and here in Wales who will recall what they were doing when the 1984/85 coal miners’ strike began and ended. On March 3rd 1985 the UK Miners’ Strike ended in  defeat for Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers when miners reluctantly and bitterly voted to return to work, after just two days short of a year on strike in what was Britain’s longest and largest industrial dispute. and a turning point for the working class in Britain. 

Here's a  short updated  history of this iconic but bitter strike that came to define the decade,  It was the most prolonged and significant in post-war history and destined to change the face of industrial relations in Britain beyond recognition. A story of hardship and hope, division and defiance, perseverance and pride. 

The  appointment of Ian MacGrego  as  head  of the National Coal Board  on 28 March 1983,  is seen as the moment at which the strike became inevitable? Given his record at British Leyland (appointed by a Labour government) and later at the British Steel Corporation, it was quite clear that he was appointed by the Prime Minister as Chairman of the National Coal Board with a mandate to butcher the mining industry. 

His appointment was  greeted with particular disdain by the National Union of Mineworkers, especially by its president Arthur Scargill. Scargill was concerned at MacGregor's uncompromising business methods,branding MacGregor "the American butcher of British industry." 

On March 6, 1984, the National Coal Board announced its plan to cut the nation’s coal output by 4 million tons, in an effort to stem a $340 million annual loss, and of the imminent closure of Cortonwood colliery, Yorkshire, and Polmaise colliery, Scotland, together with 20 other planned pit closures and the loss of 20,000 jobs .

At the time, Britain had 170 working collieries, commonly known as pits, which employed more than 190,000 people. Scargill and the NUM estimated the board’s plan would mean the closure of 20 pits and the loss of some 20,000 jobs.

This led to a swift response from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).national president, Arthur Scargill who said the plan would lead to 80,000 job losses. Scargill's prediction proved to be  correct

The same day the plan was announced, Scargill used this as an opportunity to call a nationwide strike against the planned pit closures.

Yorkshire and Scottish miners came out on strike, swiftly followed by Durham and Kent. On March 8, , Arthur Scargill, announced that the strikes were official under Rule 41 of the union’s constitution and called on the other NUM Area coalfields to support the action.

Controversially, he never held a national vote within the NUM, and not all miners were on board with the walkout. In some parts of the country, miners kept working, causing tensions with picketing workers who branded them as “scabs.” 

Support in Wales was initially confused with the Executive Committee (EC) of the South Wales National Union of Mineworkers (SWNUM) recommending strike action during their conference of March 9, and local NUM lodges in South Wales voting 18 to 13 to stay in while respecting any picket lines, by 12th March, half of Britain’s 187,000 miners had downed tools becoming one of the most inspiring but bitter class struggles in British history.

Using Scargill’s militant  picketing tactics, the striking miners managed to shut down many pits across Britain. But unlike in the 1970s, Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – riding high from her victory in the Falklands – had secretly and cynically prepared for battle by stockpiling two years’ worth of coal before announcing the closures. And she was hellbent on defeating “the enemy within” by any means necessary, even if it meant turning the full force of the state against its own people. 

For the first time in a postwar national strike, British police were openly used as a political weapon.Paramilitary riot police placed mining communities under total siege. A scab workforce was organised to break the strike, and billions were spent to keep the power stations running without coal. The full weight of the courts was used to sequestrate the funds of the miners' union and break its resolve. Civil liberties were forgotten as miners were beaten and arrested even when standing still. Agent provocateurs and spies were deployed. State benefits were withheld in order to starve the miners back to work. What had begun as an industrial dispute degenerated into a clash of ideologies and civil class war.
For twelve months, the miners and their families held out against  unprecedented onslaughts and unimaginable hardships in order to save jobs and preserve communities.The South Wales miners alone would prove to be obdurate, solid and immovable throughout the long year of hardship and deprivation. Their heroism, determination and courage alongside striking miners across the UK  astonished the world, and would charge and inspire the political consciousness of hundreds of thousands of people, as it did for me, aged 16 and a half at the start of the strike as  they demonstrated their unconquerable will to fight.

The striking miners faced off against police forces backed by Thatcher’s government, in clashes that often turned violent. The stakes were high on both sides: Scargill compared the strike to Britain’s fight against Nazi Germany, while Thatcher viewed it as an opportunity to crush militant labor unions for good. Documents declassified in 2014 revealed that Thatcher considered calling out the military to transport food and coal, and even declaring a state of emergency in order to strengthen her government’s position. 

Miners on picket lines were brutalised and attacked by baton-wielding police in full riot gear. For me at the time this was to be a year of great awakenings, seeing their fight, I started to see connections with other peoples struggles. The plight of the poor and unemployed, Nicuragua and Apartheid South Africa, people being daily attacked by Margaret Thatchers rabid Government. I decided  to take sides with with those who decided to take on the right wing policies of Thatchers government.
The rights and wrongs of whether the miners should have had a national ballot has been widely discussed, but like many others at the time I believed that once the miners were out, it was our duty to support and work for them. Within weeks of the strike starting 80%  of miners supported the strike, standing against what they saw as the unjustifiable attacks on their right to existence and resistance.

Some of the worst violence occurred in South Yorkshire, including a standoff at the British Steel coking plant in Orgreave on June 18, 1984 involving 10,000 miners and 5,000 police officers

At Orgreave it became apparent, of the true intentions of Thatchers government, with the full collusion of the police ,it was noticed that they had no intention of finding reconciliation or settlement to this industrial dispute. The sole intention was an ideological one, to mortally wound the National Union of Mineworkers, to defeat it with military force and with naked violence ,by any means necessary.
As the miners  attempted to blockade the Orgreave coking plant. The police showed the lengths they would go to break the strike with violent attacks, mass arrests and deliberate but fortunately unsuccessful attempts to fabricate evidence and frame miners. The insult was added to by the BBC reversing footage of miners defending themselves from police attacks to try and make out that the police were attacked first. 
It was one of the most brutal attacks by the state on its own citizens of the last 20th Century.It saw the police  going berserk under state orders, repeatedly  attacking  individuals  wherever they sought refuge,  as they fled into a nearby Wheatfield and into the community of Orgreave, where the police  carried on their pursuit through the streets. A scene of ugliness, fear and menace, as  all concepts of Law and order that  the constabulary  were supposed to withhold abandoned all its basic principles.
 At the end  the day in what became known as the “Battle of Orgreave.”  over 100 people were arrested, for no crime whatever, with many  more being injured along with  the Miners leader Arthur Scargill.

Following Orgreave, the police  conducted a deliberate  and co-ordinated  attempt to frame arrested miners  for one of the most serious events  on the statute book - the offence of Riot. No police officer has ever been prosecuted or even disciplined for their role in the terrible events that occurred.Campaigners have long been calling for a public inquiry into the horrendous events that occurred on 18 June 1984, simply asking for an apology to the victims who suffered in this bloody confrontation.  A report in 2015 by the police watchdog, the IOPC, said there was “evidence of excessive violence by police officers, a false narrative from police exaggerating violence by miners, perjury by officers giving evidence to prosecute the arrested men, and an apparent cover-up of that perjury by senior officers”.

Despite increasing hardships the miners fought on with determination and bravery. During the course of the strike over 6,000 were arrested, with over 20,000 miners being injured in acts of state violence.
Throughout the strike I would witness, how the right wing media  was used  to vilify and undermine. The media being used to lie, and used as a political weapon to crush the miners resiliance, the media  also enabling to misrepresent, and divide the movement,being  used to  churn out a Niagara of lies against the miners..The propoganda part of Thatchers assault, was being pushed out  everyday, at her so called ' enemy within.'

Psychological  pressure was utilised with the police encouraged to wave wads of cash at pickets, designed to undermine and demoralise, the use of scabs increased, bussing them through picket lines in a determined effort to break the will of the striking miners. NUM headquarters harboured a spy. Phone tapping of leaders of the dispute was routine.Anti-union laws were also used against the NUM, which was effectively hounded out of legal existence and its funds sequestered by the capitalist courts.

Throughout the country, groups emerged, either as individuals or part of miners support groups, raising money and awareness, standing in solidarity. Disparate groups found common ground,  from the Unemployed, the Peace Movement, students, other Trade Unions, all standing firmly behind the miners in their great struggle. 

One of the most commented upon aspects of the strike was the involvement of women, who grouped together to set up ‘Women Against Pit Closures.’ The women from the mining communities in particular acted as bulmarks of strength, organising welfare and support which was vital in sustaining the strike, setting up food kitchens to feed hungry miners and their families, to going on national rallies in London or fundraising as far away as Canada. At the heart of their actions was a sense of solidarity with their menfolk, and a real sense of the mining community.

Women’s activism drew on traditions of protest in the coal fields going back to 1926. Strengthening one another’s morale, supporting isolated women, fundraising and campaigning, women fed and clothed entire communities. Women’s action groups acquired expertise on all strike-related matters from DHSS claims to mortgage repayments and international solidarity. They also provided the strike with many of its most respected and sought-after public speakers.  

Had there been no support from women the strike would have collapsed very quickly. As Elaine Robe from Hatfield Main Women’s Support Group wrote: “We attended and organised pickets, rallies and raised money. We didn’t want to be an appendage to the NUM.” 

For many women the strike was liberating, uplifting, and enriching, meeting and talking to people or travelling without their husbands. Others reported how their mental health improved. Many vowed to carry on being politically active after the strike was over. 

Welsh Women’s Support Group

The  strike saw a radically new development; a network of some 300 miners’ support groups. These extended the length and breadth of the country, from Aberdeen to Belfast and from Ipswich to the Isle of Wight, in response to the NUM’s call for fundraising on behalf of the beleaguered mining communities. 

The miners’ supporters included the young, the poor, student and inner city radicals, peace activists, and the unemployed, for whom trade unionism had hitherto had little meaning, as well as  ethnic minorities in inner city areas such as London, Birmingham and Bradford. Liverpool raised a million pounds with Catholic and Protestant churches fundraising side by side. 

Many of these groups were run by members of the Labour Party, the Communist Party, and non-aligned trade unionists. The strongest were large, efficient, and formidably well-organised; others were small, informal, and extemporary in nature; many were set up by constituency Labour parties or local trades councils. 

Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) also  played a vital role  organising links with pits  and gave help as they recognised the state’s oppression. By the end of the strike, 11 LGSM groups had emerged with the London group alone raising £22,500 by 1985 (equivalent to £73,000 in 2021) in support. Their story is told in the 2014 film Pride.and consequently the NUM led the pride demonstration in London  in 1985.

After the end of the miners' strike in March 1985, several  LGSM pride  members joined the newly-formed Lesbians and Gays Support the Printworkers, established on a similar model to LGSM - to raise funds for striking printworkers in dispute with Rupert Murdoch.

Members of CND were also very active. Virtually every TUC-affiliated trade union had members fundraising, with women trade unionists often working directly with women in the coal fields. NUPE’s successful Fill a Bag and Feed a Family campaign was supported by Belfast’s lowest paid workers: school cooks, council employees and cleaners. It was these prodigious fundraising efforts that extended the duration of the strike and stood between the miners, penury and capitulation for so long.

The chant of the miners’ support groups was: “The miners united will never be defeated”. It was an energising time, new friends were made, the camerardie that emerged was simply amazing.Many saw this struggle as a tipping point between social democracy, civil liberties and the welfare state and of the one hand, and on the other, neoliberalism, authoritarianism and austerity.

Culture and music are important in any political struggle, Songs and words are another way to win minds, put over political ideas and boost morale in any struggle and that was certainly true when Maggie Thatcher declared war on the Coal Industry and the Miner’s.Many artists, writers, musicians,  were also heavily involved in the process  of  solidarity,  passionately supporring  the strike .Some, such as Billy Bragg, Chumbawamba,, The Men  they cou;dn't hang wrote songs about the strike, while many many others, including the Redskins and Crass, participated in benefit concerts to raise money. 

Throughout 1984 there were regular musical events, fundraisers and rallies in support of strikers and their families. Soup kitchens and food parcels funded from supporters enabled mining families to feed their children and themselves while they were without pay. 

Billy Bragg - Which Side Are You On?

The  raising of  funds  was so  necessary   as  have to  remember that sStriking miners and their families were not eligible for security benefits and their dependants were prohibited from receiving ‘urgent needs payments’ under the Social Security Act of 1980, although £15 was nonetheless deducted from benefits to cover ‘notional strike pay’. 

The NUM did not make strike payments although they did issue a small allowance to active pickets. Family income had been depleted by the previous year’s overtime ban. Poverty therefore became endemic once household savings had ran out with some strikers and their families finding themselves perilously near to destitution.

Sadly eventually some miners started drifting back there will broken, what with the increasing hardships they faced, but it should be noted  that 63% of the miners stayed out  to the bitter end. despite the strikers being pitted against the full force of the ruling class, while still amassing huge sipport and  solidarity  across the  country,  they were  betrayed  ulrimately by the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party’s refusal to mobilise support, especially  their spineless leader  Welsh 'windbag' and class traitor Neil Kinnock, who refused to attend picket lines or events supporting the miners, in effect helping Thatchers dirty war of attrition. 

In fairness the Party rank and file were with the miners. Labour Party activists, premises and equipment were involved in the miners' strike to a degree probably not seen in any dispute since the 1920s. The National Executive Committee backed the miners and called for a levy to support them. Conference condemned police violence and defied Kinnock's request to condemn pickets' violence.

But what most people saw, courtesy of TV, was the public weaseling of Kinnock, Roy Hattersley and others. We should not underestimate the role played by these acrions  in dampening the spirits of the labour movement. The notorious strike-breaking Union of Democratic Miners also appeared on the scene. They recruited working miners using the absence of a national miners ballot, particularly in Nottinghamshire as an argument.

Their leaders, including at least one Labour councillor, encouraged miners to scab and thus undermine the strike. The socialist MP Denis Skinner recounted that they even burned down the pickets’ kitchen at the Clipstone pit in his constituency. One of their leaders was later jailed for stealing £150,000 from a charity for elderly miners.

When the strike was over members of  the scab UDM settled in for the long period of prosperity and security promised   to them by a grateful establishment. Their  UDM leader Roy Lynk was awarded an OBE for ‘services to trade unionism’ but after paving the way for mass pit closures and privatisation, he and Nottinghamshire’s former strike-breakers. to their fury, bu  with irony were betrayed too Nottinghamshire’s pits were closed in contrast to the promises lavished upon them during the strike.

After a year on strike and some of the most bitter class war in UK history on  3^rd March 1985, an NUM delegate conference narrowly voted to end the strike  after facing the  harsh reality that workers were going hungry without wages or depleted reserves of union pay. It  ended without any peace deal over pit closures and Thatcher’s government not making  a single concession.The final vote was 98 to 91 to return to work. A turning point for the working class in Britain, this iconic strike came to define the decade. 

The argument is still repeated that the miners lost because their action was reckless, the state was too strong and no national ballot was called. Tactically a strike ballot of miners could have been held, even after the strikes had begun, as it would have undermined scabbing, reduced coal production, and the Tories and right of the Labour movement would not be able to accuse Scargill and the NUM leadership of being undemocratic. The union could have organised meetings with Nottinghamshire miners away from management to persuade them that action was needed to defend their jobs. 

Many though however, understand that the key reason for the defeat was the betrayal and spineless role of the TUC, the trade union bureaucracy, and the leader of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock and  the  full forces of  the  state against them. 

The miners would  march back to work together, broken hearted but their heads held high in defiance. 

Thatcher though was graceless in victory. “There is no such thing as society,” she infamously declared. Her neo-liberal blueprint would result not only in the selling off and selling out of the coal industry, but also the decimation of Britain’s manufacturing industry, the subjugation of all trade unions, and the doubling of unemployment and inflation.
Though the heroic struggle ended in defeat, the proud and dignified nature of the return to work, like the Maerdy miners  of South Wales who marched back to work behind colliery bands and banners who thus robbed Thatcher of the "total" victory she and her class sought. Nevertheless, the Tory government subsequently closed over 100 pits and more than 100,000 were made redundant. The pit closure programme was carried through remorselessly. It tore the guts out of the industry and out of the mining communities. The mining industry was decimated. Subsequently, most of Britain's collieries closed and by  the time  the industry was privatised in 1994  there were just 15  collieries left and by the time Thatcher died in 2013, only three remained. .

It would lead to lasting unemployment and poverty,  the shattering of organised labour, the hollowing-out of mining and other working-class communities, and a steady increase in social inequality in British society, with lingering scars in former mining areas, just as the workers had warned with their slogan "Close a pit, kill a community".
The strike  may have been defeated but years later I remember the courage and sacrifice made during this bitter struggle and the spirit of revolt they unleashed, and those who remained defiant to  the end, and acknowledge the miners who were arrested and locked up on trumped up charges.The communities that never fully recovered from the financial blow of the strike. Those who fought for the survival of a humane society here in Wales and across Britain, and a vile government  who used the powers of the state in almost all its entirety to defeat the miners and to teach the whole working class a lesson.
Miners and their families will remember those miners and their strike supporters who will have passed away since, and in particular those who were killed either by reckless lorry drivers at picket lines at the time or from the “death by malice” of someone hurling a brick at a striking miner, as was the case with  the two individuals  mentioned  a bit  earlier David Jones outside Thorseby Colliery in the Nottingham coalfield and Joe Green who was killed on the picket line.

The folksinger Dick Gaughan was also a  tireless supporter of the Miners Strike, performing at benefit gigs all over the UK. Immediately after the strike he wrote a song about it entitled The Ballad of 84, first performed at a benefit for sacked miners at Woodburn Miners Welfare Club in Dalkeith, Midlothian in '85.  Gaughan's song recalls the strikers who died, as well mentioning Malcolm Pitt and others who were imprisoned:

Let's pause here to remember the men who gave their lives / Joe Green and David Jones were killed in fighting for their rights / But their courage and their sacrifice we never will forget / And we won't forget the reason, too, they met an early death / For the strikebreakers in uniforms were many thousand strong / And any picket who was in the way was battered to the ground / With police vans driving into them and truncheons on the head/ It's just a bloody miracle that hundreds more aren't dead... And Malcolm Pitt and Davy Hamilton and the rest of them as well / Who were torn from home and family and locked in prison cells'.

Whatever the cold economic arguments about the profitability of coal, or otherwise, the end of the strike paved the way for the destruction of a proud industry and the communities it had sustained for generations.The legacy of its defeat can be seen today in our workplaces and communities following an advancement of free-market capitalism that has resulted in low pay, precarious work and the extensive privatisation of our public services. 

Passions remain unwaned, with a lingering resentment toward the government and police force that endure to  this day, but  in the end I feel the miners strike has left us with a legacy that we should be proud of, of a people and community standing together in solidarity in the face of adversity. 

I will never forget the tremendous hardship and suffering the miners  and their families suffered whilst trying to protect their communities The fighting spirit of the miners lives on , It has left behind a tradition of courageous struggle, which can  still be seen among us today with people fighting for their lives and what they believe in.

Forty years  after this bitter dispute  ended  the courage and determination of the miners and their families, struggling to defend their communities from an unparalleled assault by the ruling class, should serve as an inspiration to a new generation. The miners might have  lost the strike but they had made history. Their struggle to defend their industry and their communities had earned them their place alongside the Chartists, the Levellers, the demonstrators at Peterloo, and the Jarrow marchers of 1936 in the annals of English radicalism.. 

Lest we  forget  either  that out of the strike came a rebirth in many ways. While many former miners faced unemployment, others went back to college and requalified for new professions. Miners’ wives, in even greater numbers, returned to education and became teachers, social workers or probation officers. The children of mining families, brought up during and after the strike, made the fullest use of the expansion of the university sector. 

The strike had politicised mining families and encouraged many of them to become involved in other causes, to become local councillors or even MPs. And while the pits closed, the heritage of the mining industry was preserved through mining museums, the revival of banner-making for the Durham miners’ gala, and the political struggle continues through the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.https://otjc.org.uk/

The strike is rich in lessons, and we would be doing that heroic struggle no favours if we did not also try to understand the mistakes which played an important role in the dispute as well as drawing inspiration from the colossal resolve and sacrifice of the miners’ struggle.and the voices of those who sustained it for a year,  and offers some guidance and hope to public and private sector trade unionists in dispute today. The circumstances are very different, of course, but today’s activists could certainly draw courage and resolve from that momentous time  in  history. .

Test Department and the South Wales Miners Striking Choir - Comrades in Arms

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 and our rich heritage which has long endured, despite everyone 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? 

Creating a St David’s Day bank holiday would be such a powerful affirmation of our Welsh culture, language, and heritage. Wales has a rich history and a thriving cultural identity that deserves greater recognition, If we can have a bank holiday for  a  coronation  we can have a bank holiday for our national day! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿People in Wales deserve time to celebrate the national day.  Please sign and share  the  following. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700770! 

Despite this St David’s position as the patron saint of Wales has only grown stronger  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  with  pride 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.

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. 

Also on St Davids Day, calls grow for any new first minister to push for further devolution in Wales. This time, the civil service is the subject - and  Cymdeithas yr iaith is leading the charge. Read more in Welsh and English below: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2024/03/01/st-davids-day-devolution/

Enjoy the first day of Spring!  Remember compassion, kindness and unity matter. Keep this as your mantra as we celebrate  today all  things Welsh. From Wales to the world 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. "Gwnewch y pethau bychain" – Do the little things✨ Wise words from St David, reminding us that small acts of kindness make a big difference. 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/

Enjoy the  following  wonderful  lecture by Prof Ronald Hutton, where he introduces vivid characters from Welsh mythology, from the proud and wilful Arianrhod to the supreme bard Taliesin...

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