Remembering Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30, 1935 – c. September 16, 1984)

Richard Gary Brautigan  American novelist,  short story  writer, poet, would have been ninety years old today had he lived.born on January 30 1935 in Tacoma, Washington where he was baptised  as  a catholic and where he would  spend most of his childhood and teenage years.

Brautigan's mother said that Richard was a religious boy and read the Bible every night before bed. Brautigan attended church in Eugene—Lutheran, Baptist, and Catholic. 

Richard Gary Brautigan grew up in the poverty of America’s Pacific Northwest during the Depression and World War II. His boyhood was without benefit of a father. An only  child , Brautigan's parents, Bernard Frederick Brautigan and Lulu Mary Kehoe, married 18 July 1927, separated in April 1934, filed for divorce in 1938, which was officially declared in 1940. Brautigan claimed meeting his biological father only twice. 

In Eugene, Brautigan attended middle and high school. Probably through English classes, he discovered the poetry of Emily Dickinson and William Carlos Williams. From Dickinson he drew the notion of the poet as eccentric outsider writing telegram-like messages from a parallel universe.

From Williams he learned to write in a contemporary vernacular about subjects that had immediate impact on readers. When he graduated from Eugene High School in 1953, Brautigan aspired to be a writer. 

Brautigan had few friends. Mostly, he was alienated: the poor kid, the tall kid, the quiet kid, the writer. He hunted with a .22 caliber rifle, and fished, which seemed his second passion. Foremost was writing, which Brautigan used as both self-definition and an escape from what must have been a soul-crushing childhood of poverty, insecurity, and hunger.

In Brautigan’s juvenile writings, one can read his efforts to develop a unique authorial voice, come to grips with a dysfunctional family, and stake out his constant themes of alienation, loneliness, loss, and death.  

Throughout childhood, Brautigan was known as Richard Porterfield. Just before his high school graduation, Mary Lu told Richard of his real father and he changed his surname to “Brautigan.”Given the adversity of his childhood, and looking ahead to his own life after high school, it is not unlikely that Brautigan wanted a new identity.

His first published poems appeared in local Oregon journals.Brautigan's first poem was this:  

The Light 

Into the sorrow of the night

Through the valley of dark despair 

Across the black sea of iniquity 

Where the wind is the cry of suffering 

There came a glorious saving light 

The light of eternal peace 

Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.

Brautigan became an atheist, then began to play with the Christian tradition, and wrote, "I saw Jesus coming out of a pay toilet." But in 1955, barely twenty years old, he wrote to a friend, "I believe that God is going to help me become a literary sensation by summer. God has made me know something about myself. I know that I am a genius with creative power beyond description. And I am very humble about it."  

He was arrested for disorderly behavior December 24th, 1955. Instead of  prison he was sent to Oregon State Hospital where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and subjected twelve times to ECT, electroconvulsive shock therapy. Eventually, he moved to San Francisco in 1956 where he would mostly remain the rest of his life.

It  was here where he published his first volume of poetry and became involved with other writers of the emerging Beat movement, including the poets Robert Duncan, Michael McClure, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.He was  actually  younger than the Beats and not thought by them to be serious enough; though he clearly loved hippie chicks, he stayed far away from drugs and the communal lifestyle of the Haight-Ashbury district he lived in during the Summer of Love,

His association with the socio-political group Diggers and Mad River exemplified a powerful personal connection to the youth culture of America, of which he seemed, at the time, the most representative, observing everything from the edges, and drinking with both Beat and more traditional poets at bars like No Name, Gino & Carlo’s, Vesuvio, and Enrico’s. 

He published 23 short pieces in the radical San Francisco Rolling Stone, launched in the city in 1967, before the Sixties were out. Cult figure for sure, Brautigan  happens to be one of my favourite writers, there are many,  but it's Brautigan I return to more often than not when  I want to smile, he also liked a drink or two or three,four and in his later work because of this it began to get dark.

The 1960s were his hey day and he was one of the most prominent to emerge from its counterculture. The Beatles loved him, not that that in itself means anything,were they not into most things. It comes as no surprise that John Lennon was a Brautigan fan.They both had a whimsical point of view that started in the square inch field and expanded into the cosmos. 

Brautigan recorded a spoken-word album for The Beatles' record label, Zapple, between 1968 and 1969. However, the album was not released until 1970 on Harvest Records as Listening to Richard Brautigan. I've got  a copu  it's truly wonderful. 

My first encounter with Brautigan’s writing was  Beatle-related: he wrote a very haunting intro to the mass-market paperback The Beatles Lyrics Illustrated called “The Silence of Flooded Houses.” 

Then I read his short story collection, The Revenge of the Lawn, and my lifelong love of his work began. I've since read and devoured nearly  everything he wrote,  

He showered readers of the 1960s and ’70s with inspiring spare, proletarian ideals in his novels. his works entwine pastoral American life and technological change with  works that are often surreal while combining satire,parody and black humour. 

In  the following poem he foreshadowed the vise-like, smothering grip that technology has over us today.

All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace

I like to think 

(and the sooner the better!) 

of a cybernetic meadow 

where mammals and computers 

live together in mutually programming harmony

like pure water touching clear sky. 

I like to think 

(right now, please!) 

of a cybernetic forest

filled with pines and electronics 

where deer stroll peacefully 

past computers

as if they were flowers

with spinning blossoms. 

I like to think 

(it has to be!) 

of a cybernetic ecology

where we are free of our labors 

and joined back to nature, 

returned to our mammal 

brothers and sisters,

and all watched over

by machines of loving grace.

All watched over by machines of loving Grace. Taken from the Adam Curtis series of the same name

There was something great in Brautigan. He claimed that drinking fueled it. But left alone, and without liquor, he was shy, a hard and precise worker who preferred his own company. A craftsman, he worried about commas, and was familiar with French and Japanese literature. He knew hundreds of important writers in Japan, America, and France, and could liven up parties with raucous wit.

Despite his prolificacy, critics reacted with diminished enthusiasm, put off by Brautigan's apparent preoccupation with sadness and death and his refusal to write further in his earlier, more humorous vein. Critics and readers trivialized his work, criticized its lack of political focus, and called Brautigan “naïve.”He often said he did not care about the critics, but losing his readers truly broke Brautigan's heart. 

While his American audience turned its back, Japan embraced Brautigan and his writing. Brautigan traveled there often, staying at Tokyo's Keio Plaza Hotel. In Japan, he felt revered, the sensai. His experiences in Japan inspired a collection of seventy-seven poems entitled June 30th, June 30th (1978), and at least half of the short chapters in his novel, The Tokyo-Montana Express (1980). 

This popularity abroad continues, with Brautigan’s writing translated into more than twenty languages. In America, his work is mostly out of print.

Underneath his humor was a swamp into which he was slowly sinking. He had never known his dad. His mother was a flibbertigibbet. She had had almost as many lovers as her son. She would store Richard with one ex-lover while going off with a new man, then retrieve her son after her passions cooled. Brautigan told his second wife, "I never thought I was loveable. I was abandoned by my mother."  

Brautigan's second wife was a Japanese woman named Akiko. The sped-up romance that brought them together didn't allow either one to know what they were getting into. Brautigan suffered from enormous outbreaks of herpes that blotched his private areas and crawled up his belly and chest for months at a time. His new wife had to get used to this. 

When Brautigan introduced Akiko to his friends in Livingston, Montana, she formally grasped each of twenty separate hands, and said, wearing a kimono, "How the fuck are you?" Brautigan tried not to laugh. He had taught her English. For her part, Akiko was a lot tougher than she looked. Friends of the family said she was smart. She left her first husband after getting together with Brautigan. 

Brautigan's friend Don Carpenter warned Richard, "If she'll leave him, she'll leave you." She did, first sleeping with two of his friends when he left her in Montana for several months shortly after the wedding. Brautigan went to Tokyo and wrote 59 stories but returned to find a broken marriage.

By his late forties, he was a has-been, as the Flower Generation gave way to the Me Generation. Sales of his work had dwindled. He battled deep depression, punctuated by alcoholism, and he had guns.

Sadly  Brautigan was found dead from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound in 1984, aged only 49, beside a bottle of alcohol and a .44 calibre gun. while living at 6 Terrace Avenue in Bolinas, California. He was discovered by a detective a month later with insects flying out of his splattered skull.

We all cast long shadows.Hauntingly his work still  magically shines for me.Richard Brautigan was a goddamn force. A spiritual, intellectual, cultural and poetic force, and thankfully we still have the books  he left us.

 A Confederate General from Big Sur (1964) according to Newton Smith, the novel is the story of a character in Big Sur who imagines himself to be a general in the Confederate army, told by a narrator working on a textual analysis of the punctuation of Ecclesiastes. (Smith 123)  

More specifically, Lee Mellon, the novel’s protagonist, believes he is the descendent of the only Confederate General to have come from Big Sur and is himself a seeker after truth in his own modern-day (1957) war against the status quo and the state of the Union. Brautigan’s friend an eccentric character called  Price Dunn was the model for the novel’s Lee Mellon.

Brautigan’s 1967 novel  Trout Fishing in America concerns a camping trip in Idaho’s Big Stanley Basin. The narrator clearly is Brautigan, who spent the summer of 1961 there with his first wife and daughter. It's  subversive commentary on American life. Trout fishing is not only a pastime enjoyed by the novel’s narrator. It is also a character within the book, the embodiment of a primal national promise that mainstream American society and culture have rejected. 

It features a scene in which a river is sold in a shop. It's funny and crazy, like the best of George Carlin, but is also poetic and can reach for a Proustian melancholy. It became  an underground hit, credited with bridging the beat poets with the west-coast counter-culture. 

In March 1994, a teenager named Peter Eastman Jr. from Carpinteria, California, legally changed his name to Trout Fishing in America, and now teaches English at Waseda University in Japan

The  book  launched a career that had, up to that point, been prolific but commercially unsuccessful. More novels followed, as well as collections of poetry and short stories.

His 1968 book  In Watermelon Sugarwas Brautigan’s third published novel is the story of a successful commune called DEATH whose inhabitants survive in passive unity while a group of rebels live violently and end up dying in a mass suicide.It brilliantly blended themes of solitude and nature with our human intrusiveness. Always joyous reading. Always Brautigan.

The Abortion:An Historucal Romance from  1971 follows a young man, the narrator, who works and lives in the library, a Brautigan world of lonely pleasure, where he meets a woman. After impregnating the woman, the narrator supports her abortion. In the process he learns how to reenter human society.  Inspiration for the Novel  The inspiration for the library is factual.

First published in 1974, The Hawkline Monster was Richard Brautigan’s fifth published novel, and the first to parody a literary genre. Subtitled “A Gothic Western,” the novel was well received by a wider audience than Brautigan’s earlier work.  As in earlier novels, Brautigan played with the idea that imagination has both good and bad ramifications, turning it into a monster with the power to turn objects and thoughts into whatever amused it.   

In his 1976 novel' Sombrero Fallout  the  opening sentences of the book hooked me straight away:  “A sombrero fell out of the sky and landed on the Main Street of town in front of the Mayor, his cousin and a person out of work. The day was scrubbed clean by the desert air. The sky was blue. It was the blue of human eyes, waiting for something to happen. There was no reason for a sombrero to fall out of the sky. No airplane or helicopter was passing overhead and it was not a religious holiday.” 

That paragraph is the start of a story being written by an American humourist. However, the man is in the middle of an emotional trauma as his Japanese girlfriend has left him after two years together. Falling apart and unable to cope, he tears up his work and throws it into the waste paper basket. He will go on to try to make it through the night alone and abandoned; and in a parallel storyline Yukiko, his ex-lover, will sleep and dream, calm and happy with only her cat for company. 

However, the story of the sombrero refuses to be abandoned, and while the writer and Yukiko are getting on with their lives, the tale of the town with the sombrero continues to develop in the waste bin. What seems a simple but inexplicable event – a sombrero which falls from the sky – causes all kinds of issues  amd  messes  with  his life. It’s a decent metaphor for our attempts to survive trauma.

Those already familiar with his work may not know of the posthumous release of An Unfortunate Woman in 2000, a dark autobiographical novel written in the eighteen months before his death. It reveals a man no longer at ease with his own head – but the book reads beautifully all the same.

The 60 odd stories contained within Revenge to the Lawn  I would say are his masterpieces, here's a few  of them , hope you enjoy. Contained within one of my favourite short stories, it's also one of the smallest in my library. Prose poetry of the highest order.

Women When They Put Their Clothes  on in the morning

It's really a very beautiful exchange of values when  women put their clothes on in the mornig and she is brand-new and you've never seen her put on her clothes before.
You've been lovers and you've slept together and there's nothing more you can do about that, so iy's time for her to put her clothes on.
Maybe you've already had breakfast and she's slipped her sweater on to cook a nice bare-assed breakfast for you, padding in sweet flesh around the kitchen, and you both discussed in length the poetry of Rilke which she knew a great deal about, surprising you.
But now it's time for her to put her clothes on because you've both had so much coffee that you can't drink any more and it's time for her to go home and it's time for her to go to work and you want to stay there alone because you've got some things to do around the house and you're going outside together for a nice walk and it's time for you  to go home and it's time for you  to go to work and she's got some things that she wants to do around the house.
Or ...maybe it's even love.
But anyway:It's time for her to put her clothes on and it's so beautiful when she does it. Her body slowly dissapears and comes out quite nicely all in clothes. There's a virginial quality to it. She's got her clothes on, and the beginning is over.

Banners of My Own Choosing

Drunk laid and drunk unlaid and drunk laid again, it makes no difference. I return to this story as one who has been away but one who was always destined to return and perhaps that's for the best.
I found no statues nor bouquets of flowers, no beloved to say: 'Now we will fly banners from the castle, and they will be of your own choosing,' and to hold my hand again, to take my hand in yours.
None of that stuff for me.
My typewriter is fast enough as if it were a horse that's just escaped from the ether, plunging through silence, and the words gallop in order while outside the sun is shining.
Perhaps the words remember me.
It is the fourth day of Marcg 1964. The birds are singing on the back porch, a bunch of them in an aviary, and I try to sing with them: Drunk laid and drunk unlaid and drunk laid again, I'm back in town.

Lint

I'm haunted a little this evening by feelings that have no vocabulary and events that shold be explained in dimensions of lint rather than words.
I've been examining  half-scraps  of my childhood. They are  pieces  of distant life that have no form or meaning. They are things that just happened like lint.


The Scarlatti Tilt

' It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a man who's learning to play the violin.' That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver.

Ernest Hemingway's Typist

It sounds like religios music. A friend of mine just came back from New York where he had Ernest Hemingway's typist do some typing for him.
He's a successful writer, so he went and got the very best which happens to be the woman who did Ernest Hemingways typing. It's enough to take your breath away, to marble your lungs with silence.
Ernest Heminway' typist!
She's every writer's dream come true with the appearance of her hands which are like a harsichord and the perfect intensity of her gaze and all to be followed by the profound sound of her typing.
He paid her fifteen dollars an hour. That's more than a plumber oran electrician gets.
$120 a day! for a typist!
He said that she does eveything for you. You must hand her the copy and like a miracle you have attractive, correct spelling and punctuation that is so beautiful that it brings tears to your eyes and paragraphs that look like Greek temples and she even finished sentences for you.
She's Ernest Heminway's
She's Ernest Hemingway's typist.

All above selections from
Revenge of the Lawn, Jonathan Cape 1972.

I would also strongly recommend a book of memoirs by his daughter Ianthe Brautigan's ' You can't catch death'.  A fascinating glimpse into Richard Brautigans life and shedding light on some of his own personal ghosts. 

Brautigan, the man and his work, has never been forgotten, far from it. Scholarly work exists that examines Brautigan’s career, and there are volumes of it at the click of a mouse. I would recommend all his books their wonderful, and can make you wonder, giggle and laugh out loud. 

Though described as a ' outsider,' I don’t think  this description entirely fits Brautigan; he was a purposeful artist who sought an audience, and thoigh there’s something about his off-kilter view of the world that subtly alters your own, they are  so well  crafted and draw you in, and whenever I return  to his books, I'm never disappointed, and  they still  resonate to  this day, and this is one of the reasons he still has a following after all these years.Long live Richard Brautigan.

' It's strange how the simple things in life go on while we become more difficult.' -  Richard Brautigan

' I'll  affect you slowly as if you were having a picnic in a dream. There will be no ants. It won’t rain' 

-Richard Brautigan

' Reduce intellectual and emotional noise until you arrive at the silence of yourself and listen to it.' 

- Richard Brautigan

Richard Brautigan

(a 5 minute presentation)

Richard Brautigan reads from Trout Fishing in Watermelon Sugar

Holocaust Memorial Day 2025: For a Better Future

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day,  the 80th anniversary of the liberation by the soldiers of the Soviet Army. of over 7,000 prisoners at Auschwitz- Birkenau the largest Nazi death camp in occupied Poland. where ir  is estimated  1.1 million people,  mostly Jewish died there, including around  70,000 Poles, and 21,000 Roma and Sinti people.

Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chełmno in occupied Poland. 

Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to encompass also the persecution of these other groups.

We remember  today all the  people, murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, all victims of Nazi persecution and we  also remember  the victims of subsequent genocides. 

The genocide of the Jewish people, Roma and other minorities during World War II is a brutal reminder of what can happen in a society overtaken by division, prejudice and hatred, and the fragility of our own humanity, security and safety.Today we remember the victims but also the lesson. Never again must mean never again.

The slogan Never Again symbolised the determination of anti-fascists and the labour movement that after the Holocaust, genocide must never happen again - that no one should be annihilated because of an accident of birth and who they are.

  

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” 

 

These are the words of Elie Wiesel, a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He, along with 1.3 million other Jews, was held prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, and he was also one of only 200,000 (approx) Jews who survived it.

Elie went on to write a number of books about his own personal story and that of the Holocaust (also known as 'the Shoah’ in Hebrew) in general, and his works — along with the likes of Primo Levi (author of If This Is A Man) and Anne Frank, whose diary is famous across the world — are some of the most defining stories of that era. They are books I would implore everyone to read, especially as a 2021 study found that over half of Britons did not know that six million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust, and less than a quarter thought that two million or fewer were killed.

And though it is easy to leave history in the past, events like The Holocaust must be remembered — they must be remembered out of respect for those who lost their lives, for those who overcame the most severe form of persecution and went on to become productive members of the communities in which they settled and for those who are yet to even step foot on this planet. We must, as Elie Wiesel says, “bear witness” to these events, and pass their stories and their lessons onto the next generation, so that we can avoid such horrors happening again.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Holocaust was the greatest crime of the 20th century because of the sheer scale of the premeditated and industrialized murder that  occurred.

As we contemplate the monumental nature of this moment, it’s instructive to consider the history of International Holocaust Remembrance Day itself. This annual commemoration was created by the UN in 2005, to take place annually on January 27: the day Aushwitz-Birkenau , was liberated. In its resolution establishing the day, the UN General Assembly made it clear that this observance would not merely be about commemorating the past; it pointedly urged member states “to develop educational programs that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide.” 

The GA also made it explicit that this remembrance would not be limited to the European Jewry alone, but should also extend to “countless members of other minorities” who were murdered en masse by the Nazi regime.

From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used  persecution, propoganda, and legislation to deny human rights to so many. Using hate as their  foundation. By the end of the Holocaust more than a million inmates, primarily Jews, were brutally and systematically killed in the place where the Nazis introduced the monstrous concept of ‘industrialized murder.’ 

Among the other victims were non-Jewish Poles, political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses,Trade Unionists,. half a million mentally and physically disabled, to say nothing of the millions of prisoners of war, Poles, Russians alongside  others deemed  undesirable  who were exterminated by the nazis between 1939 and 1945.We honor their memory and must pledge to defeat antisemitism and all forms of hatred, never again allowing such horrors to occur.

Zionism however drew different conclusions from the Holocaust. As Professor Yehuda Elkana, a child survivor of Auschwitz and the Rector of the Central European University wrote in Ha’aretz, in 'The Need to Forget' in 1988:  a profound existential “Angst” fed by a particular interpretation of the lessons of the holocaust … that we are the eternal victim (arose). In this ancient belief… I see the tragic and paradoxical victory of Hitler. Two nations, metaphorically speaking, emerged from the ashes of Auschwitz: a minority who assert, “this must never happen again,” and a frightened and haunted majority who assert, “this must never happen to us again.” 

The Holocaust played an important part in the establishment of the State of Israel yet it was because of the Nakba, the expulsion of three-quarters of a million Palestinians from their homeland, that a Jewish State was formed. A series of massacres accompanied the Nakba which were aimed at ‘encouraging’ the flight of the Palestinian refugees. 

International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025 is arriving just as Israel are literally being judged on the world stage for an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.The theme for the day is “For a Better Future”.  On this pivotal day in 1945, a gleam of light appeared in the darkest place on earth. And, in the years that followed, that light grew brighter as good people around the world worked to try to ensure that the horrors of Auschwitz were never repeated.   

The development of international human rights standards, most notably the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was the product of that global effort.  

The Universal Declaration was for a better future. It recognised that “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind”.   And it laid the foundations of a better world “in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want”. 

Today, human dignity and fundamental rights are under attack from many quarters. If we want a better future, we will once again have to work for it.  

Reflecting on the rise of anti-semitism, hatred and intolerance in our society 80 years after the tragedy of Holocaust, the theme For a Better Future builds on all the things we can do to protect vulnerable communities, come together, learn both from and about the past, and take actions to make sure it is never repeated.  

Extremist groups are taking advantage of tensions  at  this moment in time to incite Islamophobic hatred within the UK.  As a result, many communities across the country are experiencing heightened vulnerability, with increasing hostility and mistrust among different groups.

The theme reminds us that genocides never just happen. They begin slowly, with insidious stages such as propaganda, ‘othering’ and dehumanisation, where those who are targeted for persecution have their freedom restricted and removed before many of them are murdered. 

Genocide develops in stages that are predictable – but not inevitable. It’s up to us to learn how to identify the warning signs in the world around us and take preventive measures to stop it.  As well as learning about the Holocaust and more recent genocides and using reputable resources to do so, there are many more things we can all do to create a better future.  

We must speak up against Holocaust and genocide denial and distortion, actively challenge racism, hatred and prejudice wherever we find it and, when witnessing a hate crime, report it to the police and the relevant bodies.

On International Holocaust Memorial Day, we must  remember all those who lost their innocent and precious lives in the past.Remember, it didn’t start with gas chambers. It started with politicians dividing the people with ‘us vs. them.’ It started with intolerance and hate speech, and when people stopped caring, became desensitized, and turned a blind eye.

Holocaust Memorial Day is about remembering everyone who is the victim of Genocide: WW2, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and Gaza etc.

This year’s HMD also marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia. The Bosnian genocide took place during the Bosnian War between 1992 and 1995.  In July 1995, the small town of Srebrenica saw the massacre of over 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys, along with the forced displacement of an additional 25,000 to 30,000 Bosniak civilians.

HMD is an opportunity to carry forward the legacy of everyone who lost their life to genocide by remembering our common humanity and challenging those who would distort or deny the past, or who discriminate and persecute today.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has  actually called for the boycott of the 2025 Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations after a state-run charity that holds the event refused to include what is coming to pass against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip in the list of genocides.  The London-based organization said in a letter https://www.ihrc.org.uk/letter-re-holocaust-memorial-day-to-councils-and-universities/ to 460 councils and universities across the United Kingdom that the HMD Trust’s move to disregard the Israeli regime’s atrocities in Gaza is in contravention of the charity’s mission, which “makes clear that genocide is not restricted to a particular period of history, geographical area or group of people.”  

Underlining that such consideration should remain at the forefront of any remembrance of the Holocaust, the IHRC said, “There is no hierarchy of genocides or suffering and the fact of remembrance is not limited by the background of either the victims or the perpetrators of any of the genocides. Every genocide is unique and all are morally abhorrent.”  

Expressing grave concern and great disappointment over the absence of the ongoing genocide in Gaza from the list of genocides mentioned by HMD, the London-based organization said the failure to include it in commemorations would undermine the aim of marking the Holocaust which is purportedly to help prevent further genocides and to put a stop to genocides when they occur.

When the US, UK, and EU said ‘never again’ after the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany, it did not include Palestinians or the people of the global south.

Today I  will remember all the victims of genocides. Not just in WW2. Every single genocide. And the most recent one is the ongoing genocide in Gaza perpetrated by the illegal state of Israel on Palestinians. 

The Zionists might want you to remember the 6 million Jews that died during the Holocaust but you have to remember too all  the other millions of  non Jews that died during the Holocaust,  those  that the Zionists always conveniently forget to mention. They deny other people of victimhood, just like they deny the genocide they are committing right now.

“Never Again” was  always meant to  mean  never again for all regardless of skin colour, religion or ethnicity.We are all human. We all bleed the same colour, red. When we say 'Never Again', we have to mean it. “Never again” means we must never see the slaughter that we saw during the Holocaust again.  We do not cherry pick the victims. Every single murder and death should be remembered no matter the victims or perpetrators. Never again is for everyone. No more genocide. 

History begs us not to make the same mistakes. No human deserves death in the name of politics or power. May the lessons of the past help us build a future based on empathy and an unwavering commitment to peace.

As we remember the the Holocaust. that took place 80  years ago. Let’s focus on the current one taking place in Gaza where thousands and thousands of dead women and children are still trapped under the rubble. 

Israel is currently violating every international law put in place post WWII as well as the two ceasefires it has agreed to. Israel has massacred countless civilians in Palestine and is killing them in Lebanon too.  

Netanyahu' has been invited to the 80th Auschwitz anniversary ceremony, regardless that he has just perpetrated a holocaust in Gaza. Poland has vowed not to arrest him.  Shockingly, no Russian official has been invited to the commemoration, even though it was the Soviet Red Army that liberated the death camp.

This year, I will think in particular about the need for a lasting peace in the Middle East after more than 15 devastating months of conflict  that have seen so much human suffering. That lasting peace will only be built on a two-state solution - a safe and secure Israel and a safe, secure, free Palestine.

If Holocaust Memorial Day isn’t also a suitable day for highlighting and calling for an end to the abject inhumanity in Gaza and the West Bank caused by the wicked ‘Untermensch’ ideology of the Israeli state and its funders, then I don’t know what is.

And if Western politicians, media and elites silent about the genocide in Gaza, it will devalue the memory of both the Holocaust and the genocide amd will expose the West’s vicious, cruel, moral hypocrisy.

Sources

The number of victims. Auschwitz.org.

https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/auschwitz-and-shoah/the-number-of-victims/

In the Presence

Following poem  read out  earlier today at Midwinter Moot and  dinner at Glasshouse Cafe Welsh  wildlive  centre, Cilgerran, 

In the Presence

My current sober breath still spills

With pagan spirit and socialist faith,

As Imbolc, St Bridget day approaches

Our breaths cast needed energies.

Knowing attitudes can make a difference

Untethered, flowing deliriously,

Under holy sky, bucolic surroundings

Exhaling from within truths,

Soft and loud, in a darkening world

Finding energies to balance, heal,

Following old ways, in reverence

As brother Sun and Sister Moon play,

Grateful for the richness of diversity

The kindness delivered by human hearts,

Let mother earth sustain us all

Forgive us for our mistreatment,

With the energy of unity, flowing 

Allow forces of love to sustain,

May we all deliver care and respect

Release deep compassion to one another,

In sacred places where imagination dwells

Though hard at times, feel senses of wonder, 

With peaceful intention and understanding

Keep following free unwinding paths,

Beautiful daydreams, hunting expansions 

Whispering mysteries of sincerity, 

In the ravaging roar of thunderstorms 

In the hushed light of breaking dawns, 

Among shadows, flowers forever bloom

Illuminating the world with their light. 

Remembering the Battle of Rorke’s Drift

The Defence of Rorke’s Drift by Lady Elizabeth Butler.

In 1877, a time of colonisation and conquest Lord Carnarvon, the Secretary of State for the colonies, wanted to extend British imperial influence in South Africa by creating a federation of British colonies and Boer republics. To ensure their security, they realised that they needed to pacify Zululand, which bordered their territory for the Zulus were renowned for their martial ability.

For some  context settlers from Great Britain, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe had been settling for centuries in fertile and geographically important southern Africa. After the carnage of the Thirty Years War in Europe (1618-1648), the land around Cape Town in southwest Africa was settled by the Boers, immigrants from the Netherlands, beginning in 1652. Under the auspices of the Dutch East India company, the settlers established a Boer colony in 1671. French Huguenots joined the colony in 1689. Over the decades, Boers traveled east to establish colonies across the southern tip of Africa. Holland fell to revolutionary France in 1795 and invaded its European neighbors. As part of the war with France, Britain attacked the Dutch Cape Colony 1795, 1803, and formally annexed it in 1814. As the United Kingdom kept annexing territories, tensions continued between the British, Boers, and black African neighbors for the next century.

To try and avoid conflict with the Zulu people, Carnarvon gave the King of the Zulus, Cetshwayo, the option to surrender and disband his armies to make way for British rule and federation. When confronted with this unfavourable deal, Cetshwayo understandably refused. Thus the Anglo-Zulu war began in January 1879, when the British General Lord Chelmsford invaded Zululand.  

The Army entered Zulu territory in three sections: the right column entered near the mouth of the Tugela river to secure the abandoned Missionary Station at Eshowe; the left column made for the formerly Dutch town of Utrecht and the middle column, led by Lord Chelmsford himself, crossed the Buffalo river at the outpost of Rorke’s Drift and tried to find the Zulu army. 

On 22 January 1879, Chelmsford established a temporary camp for his column near Isandlwana, but neglected to strengthen its defences, only encircling his wagons around it. After receiving intelligence reports that part of the Zulu army was nearby, he led part of his force out to find them. 

The lacklustre fortification proved a fatal error: over 12,000 Zulus, the core of Cetshwayo’s army, launched a surprise attack on Chelmsford’s poorly-fortified camp. Fighting in an over-extended line which was too far from their ammunition, the British were swamped by the sheer volume of their enemies forces, and the difference in numbers proved to be fatal; the majority of their 1,700 troops were killed and both their supplies and ammunition were seized. 

The Battle of Isandlwana  https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2022/01/remembering-battle-of-isandlwana-of-1879.html was a major defeat and nothing short of a disaster for the redcoats, one which forced Chelmsford to retreat. Toward the end of the battle, about 4,000 warriors who had not engaged in the fighting moved to cut off the British retreat. 

Once complete, they crossed the river and turned their attention to Rorke’s Drift ,and its 140 soldiers, civilians, and patients.They were led by Dabulamanzi kapande, who was King Cetshwayo's half-brother and had commanded the Undi Corps at Isandlwana.

A depiction of Prince Dabulamanzi, from the Illustrated London News

Sited near the banks of the Buffelsrivier, approximately 100 miles north of present-day Durban, Rorke’s Drift was originally a trading post established by James Rorke who had been the son of an Irish soldier who had fought in one of the many border wars against the local African tribes.

James Rorke on the other hand made a living by trading, hunting and the occasional gun-running with the natives until his suicide. His estate changed hands until it came to a Swedish missionary, who in turn leased the compound to the British colonial forces to use as a hospital and storage space. 

The mission station was at this time occupied by Lt. Gonville Bromhead and his company, as well as 100 Natal Native Contingent troops, but Lieutenant John Chard  from the Royal Engineers had been dispatched from the main army before the battle of Isandlwana began with orders to make defensive preparations at Rorke’s Drift, and as the senior officer, he took command.  

In the film 'Zulu' it makes a point of suggesting that the 24th Regiment, and in particular 'B' Company, was mainly Welsh. In fact, the Welsh constituted only 11% of the 24th. Regt. at Rorke's Drift. Although the regiment was then based in Brecon in South Wales and called the 24th. Regiment of Foot (later to be the South Wales Borderers), it was formerly the Warwickshire Regiment. 

Many of the defenders had never been to Brecon. Of the 24th Regt. at the defence, 49 were English, 18 Monmouthshire,16 Irish, 1 Scottish, 14 Welsh, 3 were born overseas. and 21 of unknown nationality. 

As afternoon drew near, the wind carried the sounds of distant gunfire through the valleys to Rorke’s Drift. It was the distinct sound of the two 7-pounders that the British main body had carried with them. At first it caused little concern, for just a year earlier a small British force had triumphed over 6,000 Xhosa warriors, so this would surely go no differently. 

As the cannon fire subsided, a lone rider came galloping towards them. The man was terrified and without his weapon, only repeating a single sentence over and over again.

More riders soon arrived, this time men of the Native Mounted Contingent. None spoke English but they had a note that read that the camp at Isandlwana was in danger of being overrun, becausethat Zulu forces were approaching.. 

Lieutenant Chard, had to decide whether to flee or fight. Given that the position had become more hospital than outpost, it was simply impossible to leave, as the injured occupants would travel too slowly and the fast Zulu army would inevitably kill them on the road. The only option was to stay and fight. 

Rorke’s Drift was to be fortified at once. Under the guidance of Bromhead, Lieutenant John Chard and other officers, the men began barricading the missionary compound. Everything useful was dragged out of the storehouse, except for the kegs of rum and water. The reserve ammunition boxes were opened. They had 20,000 cartridges, enough to make a stand. They stockpiled food, mostly hardtack and bully beef, and stacked the heavy 200lb mealie bags and biscuit boxes into a defensive wall. 

Most of the compound was shielded by a waist high stone fence, which they now reinforced. Both buildings were solid brick houses, though, with the larger storehouse being about 30m from the hospital, which was small, divided into 11 rooms and crammed with men who were now making shooting holes in the walls, while all windows and doors were barricaded. The men knew that their enemy would be merciless and spare no one, not even the wounded. 

The last remaining biscuit boxes and mealie bags were used to create a barricade in front of the storehouse, a last keep in case of a breakthrough.As the evening drew nearer, the lookouts on the roof spotted the first Zulu warriors.There hadn’t been enough time to clear the fields around the station and there was plenty of cover for the enemy.  

Any man who diminished morale was locked up.This was a crucial decision: it is hard to imagine the panic and sense of despair that the men must have felt knowing that thousands of Zulus, who had just defeated a well-equipped army of far greater numbers, were on their way and they, mostly classed as ‘walking wounded’, had to defeat them while being heavily outnumbered, vulnerable and with no hope of reinforcement from the main army.  

At this point, the defenders numbered nearly 500 thanks to the assistance of native contingents of infantry and cavalry, The cavalry, numbering about 100 native troops who had retreated from the Battle of Isandlwana, took position on the far side of a large hill from where the Zulus were expected to approach. 

Understandably, fear of the approaching army spread through the camp. As battle approached, the Swedish missionary assigned to the station, Otto Witt, fled with his companions. The cavalry troops briefly engaged the Zulus for the second time that day but also turned and ran. 

The Zulus approaching Rorke’s Drift were of the 4,000 men strong Undi-Corps. During the battle at Isandlwana they had been part of the ‘Horns of the Buffalo’, the Zulu tactic to envelope their enemies. They had been tasked with widely outflanking the British but ultimately came too late to take part in the battle. The defeat of the British had been achieved without them and they had been denied glory.

The Zulu military organisation was divided by age and rank, and there was a deep rivalry between the regiments. Only those mature veteran regiments who had won glory in battle were awarded the rights to marry and to bear the sacred white shields into battle. 

The Zulu warriors were not suicidal fanatics, but cunning, courageous and highly athletic light infantry men, in their physical prime, around 30 years old, hungering for pride and social status. They very much wanted to prove themselves. Led by Prince Dabulamanzi kampande, they had made their way to Rorke’s Drift well-versed in the art of war and under orders to show no mercy. 

Skilled in using their traditional weapons One of their primary weapon was a light spear called an iklwa (or assegai), that could either be thrown or used in hand-to-hand combat. Many also used a club called an iwisa (or knockberrie). All warriors carried an oval shield made of oxhide.  

A few Zulus equipped themselves with firearms (muskets), but most preferred their traditional equipment. Others were equipped with powerful Martini-Henry rifles, taken from the dead British soldiers at Isandlwana, and although they were untrained in handling those effectively, even an unskilled rifleman could find his target.

When they appeared on the scene, the Native Mounted Contingent had turned and fled, which left 154 men as the defenders of Rorke’s Drift, 20 of whom were ill. 

At around 16:30, the battle began. The first Zulus attacked in a frenzy. Worked up by their witch doctors and narcotic stimulus, they charged towards the south wall of the mission, 600 warriors against only a few defenders. 

The British soldiers fired into the advancing men. A trained British soldier was able to load and fire the Martini-Henry Rifle every 7-8 seconds, so people managed around 8-9 shots each in the time it took the Zulus to close in. They sprinted from cover to cover, disregarding the men that fell. At 200m, the rifle fire caused massive damage, as the Zulu shields offered no protection against the high calibre bullets, and just before they reached the barricade, the British officers ordered a salvo at point blank range.

The devastating effect of the fusillade broke much of the attack strength. Still, single men and small groups fought on, trying to scale the walls. Pumped up on adrenaline, they jabbed with their Assegai spears against the defenders, but once they tried to climb the barricades, they were easy targets for the longer British bayonets. 

Once at the barricades, it was close quarter combat. The British officers dashed from point to point, revolvers in hand, inspiring the men to stand firm, shooting into the mass of attackers that pressed the defences. Where they could, the men worked together, one stabbing, the other reloading. The officers knew that the first battle they had to win was the psychological one; if the men faltered in fear, if they hesitated to kill or lost their heads in terror, all was lost. 

The Zulus could not be allowed to enter the compound. The men did not hesitate. Desperation met aggression, and they knew that they would either fight or die  At 17:00, the great mass of the Undi-Corps threw itself against the mission. The British held. 

Soon a belt of corpses lay around the mission, another obstacle the attackers had to step over. The Chaplains and the wounded passed ammunition and water to the defenders. It was evening, but still, the sun was beating down and the constant fighting was exhausting and dehydrating. It was adrenaline and camaraderie that kept the men sharp. And still the Zulus came on.  

By 17:30 the defenders were nearly overwhelmed. The lines were too thinly held and they now ran the risk of losing everything.The growing exhaustion and the casualties had made them retreat to the inner line and establish a centre of resistance around the storehouse, behind the walls of biscuit boxes and mealie bags. 

By 18:00, the Zulu commanders on the other side were getting frustrated. This was supposed to be an easy battle, but the casualties were high and there had been no major break in yet. They had been fighting for 90 minutes, but the British line still held firm, though the hospital had been cut off.

In the close confines of the hospital, the defenders found it possible to stab their assailants one by one as they struggled to break through the narrow doorways. Private Hook killed five or six in succession in this way. 

In the close fighting along the barricades, even the officers’ revolvers came into action to deadly effect. The revolver was so inaccurate at anything beyond point-blank range that it was normally considered only as a weapon of last resort, but in this sort of combat its rate of fire more than compensated for this disadvantage, so that even this weapon decisively outclassed the Zulu muskets.Several survivors, including Hitch, noted the good service performed by Lieutenant Bromhead’s revolver at a crucial point on the perimeter. 

As the hospital was overrun, Private Williams was instructed to defend the window through which the Zulus were trying to enter while the others limped away. The intense firefight set the hospital ablaze and forced the patients to break their way through the wall which would allow them to escape behind the barricade. 

After 15 minutes of hacking at the plaster wall, Private Hook made it through as the others continued to defend the hospital. 9 out of the 11 patients made it out. The escape from the hospital is famous for its demonstration of selfless bravery: the fit could have abandoned the invalid, but they left no man behind. Both Williams and Hook were awarded Victoria Crosses. 

Soon it was surrounded, and the Zulus were throwing burning spears on the thatch roof. It caught fire and the men inside had no choice but to flee. Everything played out in a few minutes. Men jumped out of the windows, some making a dash across the compound. Others tried to carry the wounded and sick with them, while others fought the Zulus who were now breaking through the doors. They were cut down by the Zulus. 

Darkness fell at 19:00. British ammunition was running low and rifles were running hot from constant use. Again, the Zulu tried to throw assegais wrapped with burning grass on the store-house roof but this time they were shot down in the attempt. 

Slowly but surely, the Zulu spirit was wavering. Throughout the night the aggressive chanting was heard around the compound, but the major weakness of the Zulus, their lack of a supply system, was getting to them. They were hungry, thirsty and exhausted.  

It was a sleepless night for the defenders, but as dawn broke, the Zulu were gone. The Zulu host may still appear, but they would no longer attack.After a while the British ventured out to the battlefield. They searched the remnants of the hospital for survivors, but it was a gruesome sight. The Zulu had hacked their comrades to pieces. 

The official report said that 350 Zulus were counted dead, but according to diaries, it was many hundreds more. At 8 o’clock in the morning, a relief company finally appeared, and Rorke’s Drift was saved. 

I first heard of battle of Rorke’s Drift  incidentally when I was  twelve, when I first saw the film Zulu, directed in 1964 by Cy Enfield,  arguably, one of the greatest British war films of all time.The film stars Stanley Baker as Lieutenant John Chard and a young Michael Caine as Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead.and  also featured the Welsh  actor. 

.It’s still one of my favorite movies, though am  not into  the florification of  war  in  any kind, but  back in the day it made a colossal impact, and I   even subsequently did  a history project on it while a school, though  nowadays acuially prefer the other  film made  about the  conflict Zulu Dawn,  which  has more historical  accuracy..

In the film Zulu we see  the heroic Welsh garrison at Rorke's Drift match the awesome Zulu war-chants with a stirring rendition of Men of Harlech.but I'm  sorry to say no one sang Men of Harlech,  just a  bit of  artistic licemse. ;, 

The Battle of Rorke’s Drift, a heroic defence of missionary station and hospital  has since  gone down in history as the ultimate example of the victorious underdog, where just over 150 British troops triumphed against an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu warriors. Rorke’s Drift was merely an outpost as opposed to a fortified position, and the defenders, and defences, were not fit to fight. Nonetheless, they prevailed against the battle-ready Zulu army.

A total of 11 Victoria Crosses would be awarded to the defenders for a victory against a force that had outnumbered them by far. The most ever awarded for a single action by one regiment. 

The ultimate recipients were as follows: 

Lieutenant John Rouse Merriott Chard 

Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead 

Corporal William Wilson Allen 

Private Frederick Hitch 

Private Alfred Henry Hook 

Private Robert Jones 

Private William Jones 

Private John Williams Surgeon

Major James Henry Reynolds 

Acting Assistant Commissary James Langley Dalton 

Corporal Christian Ferdinand SchiessJones 

Private John Williams Surgeon-

Major James Henry Reynolds Acting Assistant 

Commissary James Langley Dalton 

Corporal Christian Ferdinand Schiess

An image showing John Chard receiving his Victoria Cross.

Cetshwayo had no bronze crosses or silver medals with which to decorate his heroes. But he did have a means of showing his special approbation. The wood of the Umzimbete or uMyezane tree was specially reserved, on pain of death, for the Zulu king. From it, little dumbell-shaped beads were cut, which if strung together, formed an interlocking necklace. These beads were given to Zulu warriors who specially distinguished themselves in battle. A warrior wearing a necklace of these beads was regarded with no less respect than a British holder of the VC.

The battles of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift were the first two decisive battles of the Anglo-Zulu war. They set the tone for the rest of the war which would last until July 1879. The Zulu success at the Battle of Isandlwana showcased the strength of the Zulu nation and army as well as the overconfidence of the Imperial forces under Lord Chelmsford. But Zulu success was short-lived, their defeat at Rorke’s Drift the first of many. 

By March, reinforcements arrived to aid the Imperial army. Several battles and skirmishes ensued, the last being the Battle of Ulundi. The British forces defeated the Zulu army, ultimately ending the war and Zulu control over the region. 

King Cetshwayo was later hunted down and captured, the Zulu monarchy was suppressed and Zululand divided into autonomous areas. In 1887, it was declared a British territory, and became part of the British colony of Natal ten years later.

King Cetshwayo was taken to Cape Town where he was imprisoned, first in the Castle, and later under much less-rigorous conditions at Oude Molen, near present-day Pinelands.More than three years were to pass before his eventual return to Zululand. He sailed to England in September 1882 to meet Queen Victoria and on his return, was reinstated as King, but on terms set by the British Government. 

King Cetshwayo again settled at Ondini, but his homestead was attacked by Zibhebhu. He was injured and took refuge at Eshowe, where he died on 8 February 1884.   

His grave is in a clearing in the Nkandla Forest, and is tended by the Shezi clan. The area is considered to be sacred by the Zulu people. 

But  what is mainly forgotten,is that  as in any battle there are casualties not seen or felt until well after the engagement are  was over, in the case of Rorke’s Drift  many of the defenders suffered what we now know as PTSD,  post traumatic stress, following the battle  This was predominantly caused by the fierce close-combat fighting they had with the Zulus. 

Most of the rank and file recruits to the British Army were rough and ready lads from labouring or slum backgrounds who had limited options in life. Army life was disciplined and secure and, the occasional tangle with Zulus aside, more secure than the precarious environment and drudgery of civilian life for men of their station.  The psychological effects of a brutal battle for survival against huge odds on the men who fought in it can only be imagined. There was no recognition of or tolerance for what was later classified as “battle fatigue” and latterly labeled Post Traumatic Stress. What we do know is that many of the survivors died young. There was at least one confirmed suicide and several who “fell on hard times”.

Take Private Robert Jones, for instance,Wikipedia records that after leaving the army, Jones settled in Herefordshire’s Golden Valley where he became a farm labourer and married Elizabeth Hopkins with whom he had five children. In 1898 Jones died in Peterchurch from gunshot wounds to the head at the age of 41. He had borrowed his employer's shotgun to go crow-shooting. His death certificate records a verdict of suicide whilst being insane.

The coroner heard that he was plagued by recurring nightmares arising from his desperate hand-to-hand combat with Zulus.Despite the accolade of his Victoria Cross  the trauma he experienced blighted his life and most likely led to his early death. 

Due to the stigma of the time about suicide, when Jones was buried his coffin was reputedly taken over the wall instead of being carried through the church gates into the graveyard and his headstone faces away from the church, the only one in the churchyard to do so. 

His gravestone can still be found today in the graveyard at St Peter’s Church, Peterchurch in the Golden Valley; the inscription reflects the fact that his regiment was renamed ‘The South Wales Borderers’ some two years after their action at Rorke’s Drift.

Robert Jones’ Gravestone at Peterchurch

Honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King is honored with a holiday in his memory today.The Monday following King’s January 15 birth date was declared a holiday in 1983 after a long struggle initiated in the House of Representatives by Michigan member John Conyers just four days after the civil rights leader had been assassinated in 1968. 

Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, tirelessly advocated for a holiday to honor his legacy. She led campaigns to ensure his work for justice would never be forgotten. The demand was soon taken up trade union activists who highlighted that King was shot while supporting a strike by municipal workers in Memphis. 

Writing in The Nation in 2006, William P Jones recounted how General Motors threatened to discipline a small group of employees who refused to work on King's birthday in 1969 but backed down after a larger group walked off their jobs in solidarity. Later that year striking New York City hospital workers returned to their jobs only after managers agreed to higher wages, better benefits and a paid holiday on King's birthday. The campaign spread: dressmakers in New York, car workers in Detroit and teachers in Chicago and Indianapolis either secured it as a holiday in contract negotiations or simply refused to work.  

As support for King’s birthday being made a holiday grew, President Carter endorsed the idea, Stevie Wonder dedicated his 1980 song ‘Happy Birthday’ to it and six million people signed a petition backing a King Day Bill in Congress. However, after the Bill was passed by large majorities in the House and Senate in 1983, it took nearly two decades for every state to adopt it as a holiday. Though Martin Luther King Day is an American holiday, the man himself was thoroughly international. His political thoughts traverses all borders.Like so many strugglers in the long fight against racism, King appreciated that it was, at it's heart a global project. 

This year Martin Luther King Day arrives on the same day as Donald Trump, a convicted Felon, abject racist, self dealing fraud and twice impeached president lie as he speaks the Oath of Office for the second timea  let us reflect on the true meaning of leadership and the values it represents.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. is a name that echoes through history as a symbol of justice, equality, and hope. Born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta  this visionary leader  rose to national prominence when he led the boycott of the Montgomery’s transit system after Rosa Parks, an African-American, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus.

King later helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and went on to lead protests throughout the South and, in 1963, was a central figure in the March on Washington, becomming  one of the most influential leaders of the 1950's and 1960s civil rights movement and advocated for racial equality and economic justice for all Americans. Known for his nonviolent approach, Dr. King believed in the power of peaceful resistance to combat racial injustice. His speeches stirred hearts and changed minds.

He spoke out passionately against what he considered the three evils: racism, poverty, and war, and was a major opponent of the Vietnam War. Dr King faced unimaginable challenges. Yet, his unwavering determination helped dismantle segregation and pave the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

Before his tragic assassination on April 4, 1968 in Memphis. at the age of 39, Dr. King had been arrested several times and was investigated by the FBI under its COINTELPRO program for possible ties to Communists. His example of grassroots anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist struggle continues to inspire new generations.

On  August 28 1963 Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a Dream” speech in Washington. which became a timeless call for equality. 

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Just four years later he said that the dream he had had that day was “a little superficial.”

Dr King’s world view, which was most comprehensively espoused not in his famous ‘I have a dream’ oratory in 1963 but in a much less well-known speech four years later that connected his civil rights crusade with the struggle against war and poverty. 

The setting for the speech was a conference of ‘Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam’ held at the Riverside Church in Manhattan on April 4, 1967, packed with 3,000 people. King had given five sermons there previously but this was the moment when he outlined a wider world view that led to President Johnson cutting off contact with him and attacks in liberal and conservative papers alike.  King had agonised over the speech for months. In opening, he said it was not easy to oppose the US government “in time of war” and described doing so as “a vocation of agony”. Explaining that many people had questioned the wisdom of him speaking, saying ‘peace and civil rights don’t mix’, he added:  “And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.”  

The full speech can be read here :-

 https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm.  

While it is full of wonderful prose, King does not use the impassioned rhetoric of ‘I have a dream’ but gives instead seven reasons why he felt compelled to speak, an analysis of the history of the Vietnam war and his conclusion that it is “but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit”. 

On the latter, he says presciently:  “If we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing ‘clergy and laymen concerned’ committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala -- Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.” 

 King calls the change that is need “a true revolution of values” and demands a shift from a society where “machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people”. He says:  “A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.  

“A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. 

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” 

Think about those words. Over recent decades, we have seen the spiritual death about which King warned unfold painfully with each new US war, descending now to the point where arming and justifying genocide against the Palestinian people is normalised in the upper circles of both parties in Washington.  

Let's not  forget the fact either that  by the end of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. was un-apologetically an avowed socialist. .Until his final days, he stood with striking workers, organized the Poor People’s Campaign, and demanded an end to the economic oppression that kept Black and working-class people in poverty. MLK’s legacy is not one of passive unity, but of struggle.

Many years later we cannot  let go of Dr King's dream, because, surely it is everybody's dream, we must continuously try to change the world, remember those in the U.S.A fighting for jobs and freedom, a land  still lanquishing to find itself, while perpetrating injustice, discrimination and inequality. A country that imprisons more  of their citizens than any other country in the world. African Americans in particular, though they are 12% of the population, make up 38% of the state prison population, despite their crimes being no different from their white and hispanic counterparts.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy shines as a beacon of hope, progress, and the unwavering belief in a better tomorrow. Dr. King's steadfast commitment to justice, equality, and humanity shines as a beacon of hope and progress. His work was dedicated to building bridges, empowering communities, and creating a more just and equitable society. He inspired generations to rise against oppression through compassion and courage and believe in a better tomorrow. As Dr. King demonstrated, leadership is about uniting, uplifting, and transforming society for the collective good, leaving behind a legacy rooted in love, integrity, and humanity. 

In stark contrast, today, America faces the somber reality of convicted felon Donald Trump's presidential inauguration. Trump's record stands as a troubling reminder of what leadership is not. Marked by controversy, division, self-interest, and retribution, his actions have repeatedly undermined democratic values and eroded the principles that bind this nation together. 

Where Dr. King championed justice and unity, Trump has fueled lies, hatred, and bigotry, prioritized personal power, and threatened peoples rights, freedoms, rule of law, and our democracy. 

Under Trump's leadership, the Republican Party has transformed into a vessel for wealth and authoritarianism, prioritizing power over the well-being of everyday Americans.

Leadership demands service to the people, not vengeance or exploitation. Yet, Trump,a 34-time convicted felon,has made clear his intent to punish his perceived enemies and prioritize self-preservation over accountability. Gravely dishonouring Dr. Kings  deeds. Trump  stands as a stark reminder of why we must hold leaders accountable with the highest standards of integrity.  

Let Dr. King's legacy guide us in recognizing the profound difference between a leader who uplifts and unites and one who divides and prioritizes self-interest. Dr King's words can still be  be both sobering and inspring, his words are a timeless representation of the struggles that disenfranchised people face.

Today, as we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy, we also celebrate his enduring vision of equality, peace, and community. His unwavering efforts and work for those on the margins, those facing oppression, and those often ignored and toward social justice, civil liberties, and equal rights for all,remains powerful  and inspiring.

Lets continue to honor him and continue to live his legacy through our  actions.Compassion has never been more important. So today, let’s recommit to building a world where kindness, equality, and truth are not ideals but realities. In the face of cruelty and injustice, speak out, and speak up, for surely history will judge us all for our silence. we can still find the courage to stand up and say enough.

'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' - Martin Luther King Jr.

Here is an old poem of mine in Dr. Kings  honour

Strength to Love

Martin Luther King had a dream
That still today stirs our conscience,
He rejected violence to oppose racial injustice
Spread a message of peace, love and understanding,
His only weapons were his words and faith
As he marched in protest with his fellow man,
A force for good, but radical with intention
Pursued civil disobedience was not afraid
                                            of confrontation,
We are all born equal under skin
This noble struggle never stops within,
The causes of poverty must still be eradicated
There is so much more room for change,
As fresh iniquities call, lets keep hope alive
Standing firm let our voices ring out,
Keep sharing deeds of deep principle
In the name of pride and in the name of love,
We are all still citizens of the world
As Martin Luther carries on reminding,
“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.
The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.”
We must continue to resist and overcome,
One day soon, all our dreams will be realised.

Gaza ceasefire deal reached by Israel and Hamas brings hope.

I welcome the news of a  prospective  ceasefire deal  between Israel and Hamas  which  Qatar announced announced late on Wednesday evening, It is of enormous relief but it has not yet been formally agreed, but I'm also saddened  that it's  tragically taken 15 months of mass murder and total devastation against  2.1 million Palestinian women, men and children in Gaza  to  get to  this  stage.

And while it brings much  needed hope.in  Gaza deaths  continue to  mount up  and  the deal is still  a very  fragile one, with  nothing to indicate any new level of trust between Israel and Hamas, but they have  at  least agreed  at the  moment to a deal which could halt the war in Gaza and see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, the US and mediators Qatar have said,

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said the agreement would come into effect on Sunday so long as it was approved by the Israeli cabinet.  

According to the agreement, Hamas will release 33 hostages in the first phase, spanning six weeks, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners. Implementation of the agreement will begin on Sunday, Jan. 19. The details of the second and third phases will be announced after the completion of the first phase of the agreement.

US President Joe Biden said it would "halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed-humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families".  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal's final details were still being worked on, but he thanked Biden for "promoting" it. Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said it was the result of Palestinian "resilience". 

The deal will hopefully bring a desperately needed pause in Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip  and provide relief to  those  who  have endured  unimaginable  suffering. A genocide that has shattered  all  bounds  of  human decency, setting record  levels  of  brutality,crimes  against  humanity, with  the  most  children maimed  and killed, the  most healthcare  workers targeted, and the most hospitals destroyed in modern  history.,  

The world will now see the magnitude of Israel’s criminal and genocidal aggression. It will see the price of the collective failure to stop a genocide. More than 46,000 people have lost their lives and another 110,000 have been injured. Hospitals and schools in Gaza have been reduced to rubble. Families have been forced to face unbearable cold, hunger and despair. In just the past few days, 8 infants have died from the cold. 

For too long, children have witnessed horrors no child should have to see. Girls have been uniquely impacted by this crisis. When food is scarce, they are often last to eat. Many girls are using small pieces of tent fabric as a poor substitute for period products. And when schools finally reopen, girls are less likely to re-enroll.  

In  the  words of Stephen Flynn MP: "The collective punishment of the Palestinian people will not be forgotten by history.. "All those who sat silent, who encouraged, and who armed the extremists in the Israeli government will be judged by history too".

But this deal at least offers hope and an end to months of appalling violence. Despite news of a ceasefire, the danger is far from over. Children in Gaza are not safe yet. Famine is looming. Gaza is facing a catastrophic hunger crisis, with children dying of starvation, dehydration and disease. The youngest children have known nothing but hunger, fear, and destruction.

Now let the journey of healing begin, starting with allowing the burying of  the  dead, allowing the Palestinian people ro  attending  to rheir wounded, providing for basic human needs and rebuilding livelihoods. The world must not fail the Palestnian  people again.

This ceasefire deal must herald a  new era of justice and safety for Palestinians.While this ceasefire agreement is devastatingly overdue, with many tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who were needlessly killed in the months before a deal was reached, today is an historic day. I continue to  stand with the Palestinian in Gaza and across the world as they take to the streets to celebrate. 

Even on the last night and day before the announcement, around seventy people were killed and hundreds injured as Israel escalated its bombing. Among those murdered in the final hours before the deal was journalist Ahmed Hisham - the nephew of Khaled 'Grandpa' Nabhan who was killed in an Israeli bombing a year after his granddaughter Reem, as Israel continued until the last moment the targeted murder of more than two hundred Palestinian journalists reporting on its crimes:  

Now the people of Gaza and a watching world must wait to see whether Israel will break its decades-long habit and actually honour the deal but  it seems  the israeli occupation tragically, has already broken the ceasefire with a huge bombardment of Gaza City in the north of the Strip that is taking place now and has already  slaughtered at least 72 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, in continued bombing during what is supposed, under the 'ceasefire' announced last night, supposed to be a 'conflict pause' until the full supposed ceasefire comes into force on Sunday.  

Israel's intensified bombing  again targeting doctors and journalists as well as refugees huddled in tent camps- began almost the instant the so-called 'deal' was announced despite, or perhaps because of, Donald Trump's sick 'sweeteners' to the Netanyahu government to incentivise it to agree. This is the Israeli military norm. 

The long-awaited, urgently needed ceasefire/hostage deal has already slammed into the hard realities of domestic and international politics. Netanyahu has delayed a Cabinet vote on the deal, accusing Hamas of reneging on key components (a spokesperson for the terror group says it remains “committed” to the deal). 

The official ceasefire begins on Sunday, but the deal of which it is part says that a 'conflict pause' came into force as soon as the announcement was made - but rather than pause Israel is intensifying its bombing, a clear breach of the reported terms of the agreement. 

Leaked details of what Trump promised Israel in return for the agreement are already being reported in the Israeli media - and it includes the 'right' of Israel to break the deal and recommence bombing and military operations whenever it wishes. It seems to wish so from the outset, just as it did in Lebanon..

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  has  also released a statement denying that Israeli forces will withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor in the first phase of the #ceasefire agreement, adding that the IOF will remain in the corridor in phase A for the entire 42-day period.  "During Phase A, starting on the 16th day, negotiations will begin on ending the war. If Hamas does not agree to Israel’s demands for ending the war (achieving the war’s objectives), Israel will remain in the #Philadelphi Corridor on the 42nd day and, consequently, beyond the 50th day," the office said.  "In practical terms, Israel will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor until further notice," the statement concluded.. they’re probably afraid that journalists will enter Gaza if they leave that part

The people of Gaza deserve peace and full compensation for Israel's genocide, destruction and illegal occupation. None of them are in sight yet.

The ceasefire deal is a result of sustained pressure from people worldwide. A groundswell movement that has been led by Palestinians in Gaza, the diaspora, and powered by many millions of people, healthcare workers, aid workers and journalists.

For 15 cruel months, Palestinians have endured horror after horror. Civilians have paid the ultimate price , with their lives. Women, men and children have had their homes destroyed, displaced time and time again, starved as a weapon of war and denied medical care and aid. Over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed and according to the UN, 369 aid workers, 1,057 healthcare workers and 160 journalists have been killed despite their protection under international law. They are not, and should never be, a target. 

Now they must be protected and receive justice. Those responsible for atrocity crimes must be held to account and we must do everything within our power to end Israel’s impunity once and for all, end the brutal military occupation and the apartheid regime. Israel’s apartheid and illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory has been ongoing for 57-years and, even with this deal, will   sadly continue on with the UK’s support. The UK must stop supporting Israel’s leaders while they commit war crimes and illegally occupy Palestinian land. Take action to end UK complicity. Hopefully, this deal means that Israel will stop its bombardment of the Gaza Strip , but Gaza is in ruins.  A true ceasefire is when the occupation, apartheid and genocide that has been ongoing since 1948 ends in it’s entirety.

The international community must now ensure  the  following, lifesaving humanitarian aid enters Gaza immediately, the urgent rebuilding of medical and other essential infrastructure;  and an end to the illegal 18-year blockade on Gaza. At  the  same time access to independent human rights investigators  and an end to the brutal military occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as ruled by the International Court of Justice.  

An end to the system of oppression and domination of apartheid,  and  Justice and accountability for victims of war crimes and genocide including the enforcement of ICC arrest warrants. Also the  immediate and unconditional release  of  health  care workers including  Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and ensure  their  protection as mandated  by  international  law, 

Until Israel ends its genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory, the UK must stop arming, trading with and supporting Israel.  Palestinians urgently need unrestricted access to humanitarian aid, and support to rebuild Gaza , but there must also be justice and accountability for the war crimes committed against them. 

Justice will only be achieved when Palestinians can live in dignity, with equal rights and justice with the occupation and system of apartheid dismantled.I  live  in  hope  that  all  this is achieved. Please take action to end the UK’s support – and call for accountability – for Israel’s crimes. 

End UK Support for Israel's War Crimes

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