Max Romeo (b,22/11/44) - Socialism is Love

Have decided to start posting a little more music related posts here from time to time.
Max Romeo is a roots reggae legend. Max Romeo was born  Max Smith in 1944, the eldest of nine children. He acquired the nickname "Romeo" from the father of a would-be girlfriend.
Born in St. D'Acre, Jamaica, he  left home at the age of 14 and worked on a sugar plantation outside Clarendon,, before winning a local talent competition when he was 18. This prompted a move to the capital, Kingston, in order to embark on a musical career.
Max’s storied career took off when he signed a contract with Bunny Lee, one of the biggest producers of his time in Jamaica in the 60s. 
In the early 1970s he began carving out an identity as a "militant singer"-- singing about "what's happening for the people to hear... the prices too high, things are too hard and what have you."
His second album, Let the Power Fall, from 1971 included a number of politically charged songs, most advocating the democratic socialist People's Nationalist Party (PNP), which chose his song "Let the Power Fall" as their theme song for the 1972 Jamaican n General election. 
Romeo's connection with the PNP became less direct over the course of the 1970s, but his music remained politically militant, if increasingly voiced in a Rastafarian idiom: in songs like anti-clerical "The Reverend" and on "concept albums like "Revelation Time," from 1975 recorded at Lee"Scratch"Perry's legendary Black Ark Studio. Romeo noted that "Revelation Time" was "really a revolutionary album. It came from 1972, when we had a revolutionary movement, with Mr Michael Manley trying to change society from capitalism to socialism. At the time I was socialist-minded - because it’s the only form of poor people government, socialism."
In 1976, Romeo released War ina Babyon an album perceived as his best work. The politically and religiously themed album included the popular single " I chased the Devil" , which would become one of his most known songs, which was later sampled by those great dance  terrorists the Prodigy and by countless others..
Throughout his long career Max Romeo has proved that he is one of Jamaica’s most enduring stars.To this day he still delivers spectacular  live performances, I was most fortunate to catch him in Brixton a few years back.
Here he sings some  words of wisdom. His voice is  really mesmerising do yourself a favour and listen, listen, listen.

Max Romeo - Socialism is Love

You're asking, "What is Socialism, and what it really means?"
It's equal rights for every man, regardless of his strength
So don't let no one fool you, (Joshua said)
Listen as I tell you, (Joshua said)
No man are better than none,
Socialism is love between man and man

Socialism is
love for your brothers
Socialism is
linking hearts and heads,
Would you believe me?
Poverty and hunger what we are fighting

Socialism is
Sharing with your sisters
Socialism is
People pulling together,
Would you believe me?
Love and togetherness, that's what it means

Mr Big trembling in his shoes saying he's got a lot to lose,
Don't want to hear about suffering at all
(Joshua said)
One man have too many,
While too many have too little,
Socialism don't stand for that, don't stand for that at all

Socialism is
love for your brothers,
Socialism is
linking hearts and head,
Poverty and hunger is what we are fighting

Socialism is
Sharing with your sisters
Socialism is
people pulling together
Won't you believe me?
Love and togetherness, that's what it means

Socialism is
love for your brothers
Socialism is
linking hearts and hands
Poverty and hunger is what we are fighting

Socialism is sharing with your sisters
Do you believe me?
People pulling together
Ooooh
Love and togetherness, that's what it means

Socialism is
love for your brothers
Socialism is
linking hearts and hands
Poverty and hunger is what we are fighting

Socialism is
Sharing with your sisters
Socialism is people pulling together
Ooooh

Solidarity brothers and sisters

World Humanitarian Day

World Humanitarian Day is a time to recognize those who face danger and adversity in order to help others. The day was designated by the General Assembly to coincide with the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 UN staff.
The day serves as a way to raise public awareness of the incredible work that aid workers do. Likewise, it also encouraged those involved in the humanitarian system to fight for increased safety and security for aid workers. The event is given a different focus each year to ensure that all humanitarian causes are recognised.
Every day humanitarian aid workers help millions of people around the world, regardless of who they are and where they are. World Humanitarian Day is a global celebration of people helping people.
The UN Secretary-General held the first-ever global humanitarian summit of this scale in Istanbul in May 2016. The goal of this summit was to find new ways to tackle humanitarian needs in our fast-changing world. This three-year initiative is being managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The summit set a new agenda for global humanitarian action. It focuses on humanitarian effectiveness, reducing vulnerability and managing risk, transformation through innovation, and serving the needs of people in conflict. Full details of the summit can be found here.
Around the world, conflict is exacting a massive toll on people’s lives. Trapped in wars that are not of their making, millions of civilians are forced to hide or run for their lives. Children are taken out of school, families are displaced from their homes, and communities are torn apart, while the world is not doing enough to stop their suffering. At the same time, health and aid workers , who risk their lives to care for people affected by violence, are increasingly being targeted.
This year’s message is even more encompassing - urging the global leaders to ensure that all civilians (including the aid workers) caught in the reality of war and armed conflict are not targets of military action.
For WHD 2017, humanitarian partners are coming together to reaffirm that civilians caught in conflict are #NotATarget.
Civilians are too often affected by conflict and violence, they are driven from their homes, struggle to find sufficient and nutritious food, suffer from sexual harassment, injuries or death. Today, the United Nations (UN) is calling on global leaders to take action to protect civilians. The UN  has launched a petition urging the world's politicians to ensure all parties to conflict respect and protect civilians. Please sign it.
The UN has also reported multiple times throughout 2017 that civilians had been caught up in airstrikes in warzones such as Syria. With a death toll in the thousands and millions more trapped in dangerous situations, the UN is keen to ensure that innocent people aren’t harmed by political issues.
“Millions of people are trapped in wars that aren’t of their own making,” the World Humanitarian Day website reads. “We demand world leaders do everything in their power to protect the millions of civilians caught in armed conflicts.”
These demands include a promise not to launch attacks which will cause civilian harm, whether through direct injury or damage to infrastructure and services that will severely impact on quality of life.
As every year, this day also commemorates those who dedicate their lives to serve others. Humanitarian workers often operate in life-threatening environments, facing lootings, kidnapping, hostage situations, and in most extreme situations ,executions. This reduces the safety of aid workers, making it difficult, if not impossible, to provide life-saving assistance, deliver necessary relief items and care to those in desperate need.
The UN reminds us that in the past 20 years, over 4,000 aid workers have been subjects to attack and in 2016 alone, 91 humanitarians were killed while serving others, mostly in South Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia. It is an imperative that all parties to conflict should respect humanitarian law, protecting the civilians but also the humanitarian workers, regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, or other status.
Around the world,  dedicated people work every day to help people survive crisis, find hope for the future and build better lives for themselves and their families. When disasters strike or conflict erupts, they are there to provide immediate relief , and they stay long after to help communities recover and rebuild.

This World Humanitarian Day, we come together in solidarity with the millions of people caught in armed conflict.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, works to protect and assist those fleeing war and persecution. Since 1950, they  have helped tens of millions of people find safety and rebuild their lives. With your support, they can restore hope for many more.

Read more at http://UNHCR.org

Civilians are not a target

Alcohol Poem

I'd become disappointed
All my hopes were dashed;
I didn't get what I expected
All my dreams were smashed,
I became, thwarted, frustrated
Foiled, depleted and defeated.

Did not make my mind taste too good
Could not find a reason, why it should,
Drunk from bottles in search of oblivion
To drown my sorrows, travel deep inside,
Left me moaning, cursing my fate
At the bottom, feeling second rate.

Chain smoking, swallowed poison
Underfed my battered senses,
Abandoned pride, logic's reasons
Drifted through the passing seasons,
Could find no escape, from this deep fog
whimpered and moaned like a beaten dog.

All my energy seemed to have been spent
Felt rejected every fucking place I went,
Veins found comfort in flowing alcohol
The abyss became my lonely port of call,
This sweet addiction with it's power to destroy
Started to drown my thirst for social justice.

Not that easy though, to simply walk away
Her grip is strong as attempts to  lead you  astray.   
Hard to leave an increasing dependency
Like an old lover,that heart has been given to,
But ultimately leaves you running on empty

Releasing blurred visions, forces surrender.

But enlightenment and liberation go hand in hand
Slowly I've been trying to find a different land,
Still searching, got many more miles to go
Trying hard  to resist, counter the flow,
Have not given up, and the battle will be long
It's getting easier though, to find a sober song.

Visualising Palestine : For Social Justice

This is a Visualising Palestine graphic which identifies how the (still living) Palestinians in Gaza have been unable to get any redress through Israel’s military court system, despite the massive damage done to them – over 2100 killed – and their environment by the IDF.
Over the past seven years, Visualizing Palestine has harnessed visual storytelling to bring public attention to the daily injustices facing Palestinians, using public information about life in Israel and Palestine to expose the damaging effects of the occupation, .with topics ranging from ceasefire violations and military aid to the uprooting of Palestinian olive trees and the segregation of travel, the demolition of homes, Administrative Detention, to mothers forced to give birth at military checkpoints. creating data-driven tools to advance a factual, rights-based narrative of the Palestinian-Israeli issue.
Its researchers, designers, technologists, and communications specialists work in partnership with civil society actors to amplify their impact and promote social justice and equality and human rights. It is here that the facts become memorable, relevant and authentic stories.
Visualising Palestine is the first portfolio of Visualizing Impact, a non-profit organisation that innovates at the intersection of technology, design and data science. Each image takes 6-8 weeks to finalize, from conception to promotion. Workshops, brainstorming and open exchanges turn the production into a social venture, an approach that extends beyond the organization. The infographics are then published under a Creative Commons license to facilitate their use as advocacy tools. Aa a result they have been published in Huffington Post, The Guardian, the Irish Times, Al-Jazeera, Open Democracy and other media outlets, as journalistic resources to inform, change perceptions, correct the narrative about Palestine, and push individuals to take action. It allows people to have a clearer perspective into an immensely complex issue.
There is a vast amount of information on the daily lives of Palestinians, their living conditions, experiences and circumstances on the ground , but it largely remains outside the mainstream media. Without being presented in a form that can easily be understood, remembered and shared, these details are not heard internationally. What is needed is a way to see the every day experiences of people living in this region, a means of bringing the facts to life.
The extent to which the Palestinian issue brings forward divisive and polarizing emotions is well recognized. That is why Visualizing Palestine’s dedication to verifiable facts and sources is all the more important. They have not had anyone bring forward facts that invalidate any of the statements made in their infographics. An invaluable  resource, helping to inform people, change perspectives , bringing statistics to life for the whole world to see. It is much needed and  needs all the support they can get.
For more information, or to see more of the infographics, visit the websites of Visualizing Palestine and Visualizing Impact. or  their twitter https://twitter.com/visualizingpal  and fsacebook page https://www.facebook.com/visualizingpalestine/  

Happy Birthday Charles Bukowski ( 16/8/20 -9/3/94) Barfly, maverick, genius.

Ah Mr Henry Charles Bukowski. This is a man that I owe a lot of debt and gratitude, For those  not familiar, I hail  him for being  one of Americas  greatest poets, novelists and short story writers. His writing that  still continues to influence, one of the main reasons I attempt to write myself.
Born  in Andernach, Germany in 1926,as Heinrich Karl Bukowski,  he came to the United States at the age of three, he began writing at  a young age, and was first published in the 1940's, he would spend the next 20 years, working in  a series of menial jobs, while immersing himself in the world of booze and hard living.
At the age of 49, after years of heavy drinking and debauchery, he struck a deal with Black Sparrow Press that allowed him to quit a work ethic that he was not comfortable with, in a post office, to focus full time on his writing. The result was over 30 poetry collections, 6 novels and two feature films based on his life and works, making him one of the most prolific writers of the 20th Century.
His work was marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships, failure, depression, gambling, life and death, and drinking and more drinking. He was a poet who wrote without pretence, privilege or sheen, embracing what so many of us try to avoid. He was heavily influenced by the geography and atmosphere of his home city of Los Angeles, and all the senses that he witnessed and devoured.
He lived alongside  his words, alongside the margins of societies edge, with the down and outs, the wrecked, the outsiders, the hopelessly abandoned, the walking wounded. Beyond the literary schools, his work emerged  to break all traditional rules, against all that is conventional, beautifully sinful, uncompromising, but  never hypocritically  righteous, releasing poetry of such passion that I believe still matters today. Utilising free verse and spontanaeity, despite the idolation that was bestowed  upon him, he joined no clichés, refusing acceptance  into any literary community, in true essence of his rebellious spirit.
Blunt and outspoken, he saw the ugliness of the earth, and was not afraid to express his ways of seeing. Remembered because of the rawness and roughness and the many manifestations of ugliness that he saw in life, I try not to forget, the beauty and tenderness that he shared too.
In simple language, he simply used the inner rhythm of his voice, to release what I have realised to be a form of magic, no cleverness or pretence disguised, just a raw undiluted life affirming truth filled with his brutal honesty.
He died in  San Pedro, California on March 9, 1994 at the age of seventy-three, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp,  but his spirit and his words live on.
So today I raise a sweet glass to my lips, unfortunately it's apple juice, i'm currently on the wagon, hey ho, will still gulp down thirstily his words of essential breath, that still continue to fill my heart with hope, in a world driven mad. So thank you kindly Charles, happy birthday. Cheers.

Here is a selection  of some of my favourite poems from his pen. There are so many to choose from. I hope you enjoy.

don't come round, but if you do.

yeah sure, I'll be in unless I'm out
don't knock if the lights are out
or you hear voices or then
I might be reading Proust
if someone  slips Proust under my door
or one of his bones for my stew,
and I can't loan money or
the phone
or what's left of my car
though you can have yesterday's newspaper
an old shirt or a  bologna sandwich
or sleep on the couch
if you don't scream at night
and you can talk about yourself
that's only normal;
hard times are upon us all
only I am not trying to raise a family
to send through Harvard
or buy  hunting land,
I am not aiming high
I am only trying to keep myself alive
just a little longer,
so if you sometimes knock
and I don't answer
and there isn't a woman in here
maybe I have broken my jaw
and I am looking for wire
or I am chasing the butterflies in
my wallpaper,
I mean if I don't answer
I don't answer, and the reason is
that I am not yet ready to kill you,
it means I don't want to talk
I am busy, I am mad, I am glad
or maybe I am stringing up a rope;
so even if the lights are on
and you hear sound
like breathing or praying or singing
a radio or the roll of dice
or typing -
go away, it is not the day
the night, the hour
it is not the ignorance of impoliteness,
I wish to hurt nothing, not even a bug,
but sometimes I gather evidence of a kind
that takes some sorting,
and your blue eyes, be they blue
and your hair, if you have some
or your mind - they cannot enter
until the rope is cut or knotted
or until I have shaven into
new mirrors, until the world is
stopped or opened
                            forever

  I am dead but I know
the dead are not like this

the dead can sleep
they don't get up and rage
they don't have a wife.

her white face
like a flower in a closed
window lifts up and
looks at me.


the curtain smokes a cigarette
and a moth dies in a
freeway crash
as I examine the shadows of my
hands.

an owl, the size of a baby clock
rings for me, come on come on
it says as Jerusalem is hustled
down crotch-stained halls.

the 5.a.m, grass is nasal now
in hums of battleships and valleys
in the raped light that brings on
the fascist birds.

I put out the lamp and get in bed
beside her, she thinks I'm there
mumbles a rosy gratitude
so I stretch my legs
to coffin length
get in and swim away
from frogs and fortunes.


well, that's just the way it is . . .

sometimes when everything seems at
its worst
when all conspires
and gnaws
and the hours, days, weeks
years
seem wasted -
stretched there upon my bed
in the dark
looking upward at the ceiling
I get what many will consider as
obnoxious thought
it's still nice to be
Bukowski


no help for that

there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled

a space
and even during,
the best moments
and the greatest times

we will know it

we will know it
more than
ever

there is a place  in the heart that
will never be filled
and

we will wait
and
wait

in that space.



safe

the house next door  makes me sad
both man and  wife rise early and go to work
they arrive home early in the evening
they have a young boy and a girl
by 9.p.m all in the lights in the house are out
the next morning both  man and
wife rise early again and  go to
work.
they return in early evening,
By 9 p.m. all the lights are
out

the house next door makes me
sad.
the people are nice people, I
like them.

but I feel them drowning,
and \ I can't save them.

They are surviving.
they are not
homeless
but the price is terrible.

Sometimes during the day
I will look at the house
and the house will look at
me
and the house will
weep, yes, it does, I
feel it.


alone with everybody

the flesh covers the bone
and they put a mind
in there and
sometimes a soul,
and the women break
cases against the walls
and the men drink too
much
and nobody finds the
one
but keep
looking
crawling in and out
of beds.
flesh covers
the bone and the
flesh searches
for more than
flesh.
there's no chance
at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular
fate.
nobody ever finds
the one.

the city dumps fill
the junkyards fill
the madhouses fill
the hospitals fill
the graveyards fill

nothing else
fills.

the laughing heart

your life s  your life
don't let it  be clubbed into dank submission
be on the watch
there are ways out
there is a light somewhere,
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch
the gods will offer you chances,
know them,
take them.
you can't beat death in life, sometimes
and the more often you  learn to do it,
the more light there will be
your life is your life
know it while you have it
you are marvellous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

nirvana

not much chance,
completely cut loose from
purpose,
he was a young man
riding a bus
through North Carolina
on the way to somewhere
and it began to snow
and the bus stopped
at a little cafe
in the hills
and the passengers
entered
he sat at the counter
with the others,
he ordered and the
food arrived,
the meal was
particularly
good
and  the
coffee,
the waitress was
unlike the woman
he  had
known,
she was unaffected,
there  was a natural
humor which came
from her
the fry cook said
crazy things
the dishwater
in  back
laughed, a good
clean
pleasant
laugh
the young man watched
the snow through the
windows
he wanted  to stay
in that café
forever
the curious feeling
swam through him
that everything
was beautiful
there,
then the bus driver
told the passengers
that it was time
to board,
the young man
thought, I'll just sit
here, I'll just stay
here,
but then
he rose and followed
the others  into
the bus
he found his seat
and looked at the cafe
through the bus
window,
then the bus moved
off, down a curve,
downward, out of
the hills,
the young man
looked straight
forward,
he heard the other
passengers
speaking
or other things,
or they were
reading
or attempting to
sleep,
they had not
noticed
the
magic
the young man
put his head to
one side
closed his eyes,
pretended to
sleep,
there  was nothing
else to do-
just to listen to the
sound of the
engine
the sound  of the
tyres
in the
snow.

one for the shoeshine man

If you see me grinning from
my blue volks
running a yellow light
driving straight into the sun
I will be locked  in the
arms of a
crazy life.

Further Reading:-

Love is a Dog from Hell - Charles Bukowski;1977

Burning in Water, Drowning in Flames - Charles Bukowski; 1974;

Play the Piano Drunk like a percussion instrument until the fingers begin to bleed
-Charles Bukowski; 1978

Factotum - Charles Bukowski;  1979

Post Office- Charles Bukowski,  1971

Charles Bukowski; Locked in the arms of a crazy life- Howard Sounes; 1996


I have posted poems from  Bukowski, several times over the years, here is a link to two of them ;-

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/charles-bukowski-captain-is-out-to.html

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/charles-bukowski-16829-9394-genius-of.html

Beyond Doubt

Stubbornness can be linked with awkwardness
A refusal to play by rules of engagement,
Keep questioning if you doubt
But it's ok to accept assistance,
Investigate your fears and bias
Learn about new potential,
Mental processes will still define you
Past grinning gaze and teeth that gnash,
Allow tools to sharpen reason
With endeavour  purpose will become known,
Passing obstacles, retaining integrity

Defiiantly keep holding onto your ground,
Accept mistakes as learning opportunity

Fill the night with scents of  cognition,

Go easy in the chisseling chambers of time
Try not to spend those long hours, skulking in the dark.            
                                       

Don't Be a Sucker :Post-WW2 Anti-Fascist Educational Film , 1947

Don't Be a Sucker! is a short educational film produced by the U.S. War Department in 1943 and re-released in 1947. The film depicts the rise of Nazism in Germany and warns Americans against repeating the mistakes of intolerance made in Nazi Germany and avoid falling for fascism. It emphasizes that Americans will lose their country if they let themselves be turned into "suckers" by the forces of fanaticism and hatred. The film was made to make the case for the desegregation of the United States armed forces by simply revealing the connection between prejudice and fascism.
This film is not propaganda. To the contrary, it teaches how to recognize and reject propaganda, as was used by the Nazis to promote to bigotry and intimidation. It shows how prejudice can be used to divide the population to gain power.
It  is very relevant again in the era of Brexit, Farage, Theresa May, Trump ,Charlottesville, VA.  et al. Something that needs to be reposted in these dangerous, broken, fractured times.
I am sharing after the weekend, when my stomach turned aftervarious groups of neo-Nazis including the National Socialist Movement and the Traditionalist Workers Party held an event called 'Unite the Right' in Charlottesville, VA. where they waved Confederate and Nazi flags, brandish weapons, scream “Jews are Satan’s children”
They used the same  dog-whistle politics, citing “freedom of speech,” like Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists in the 1960s, and the National Front, the BNP, and Britain First and the English Defence League that have followed in their wake in Britain.
Due to the hard work of the combined opposition of local antifascists and the numerous groups who made the journey to the city, the rally was called off before any speeches were made. But throughout the day violent clashes continued to take place as antifascists defended the streets against people who were openly identifying themselves as national socialists and ethno-nationalists. Later in the day as the event appeared to be coming to a close, James Alex Field Jr, who was seen holding a shield with American Vanguard, drove a vehicle at speed into a group of antifascists, which included a contingent of Wobblies, Black Lives Matter, and Democratic Socialists of America. Though different sources are saying slightly different things, it appears that 19 people were badly injured and one woman who bravely came out ro demonstrate was killed, she was Heather Heyer, a local Charlottesville antifascist .Rest in Power
Now the racists/Nazis are currently getting  all upset and whining about losing their jobs, .too bad, idiots. Their  bosses and the companies  they worked for also have the right to choose not to be associated with racists and Nazis just as the sane people of the world have the right to identify and ostracize them.
Frighteningly though there are white nationalist enablers actually in the White House. They demonize immigrants and Muslims. They boast about their close ties to the alt-right  They refuse to condemn far-right violence and terror by name. And in one case, they’ve literally helped to establish a political party with European neo-Nazis.Their presence in the White House emboldens neo-Nazis and brings their ideology into the mainstream.
They are Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka. It's time for the White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to show them the door.
The hatred unleashed by President Trump’s campaign is not new to this country or to the world. We’ve seen it before, and we know that it will not be vanquished just by firing these three men, or even by the eventual end of the Trump presidency.
But firing them will send an important message that the White House will not allow these dangerous ideologies to fester within the president's closest circle of advisers. It’s a first step , and one that General Kelly needs to take now.
As long as Bannon and co. are still in the administration, any White House condemnations of white supremacy will be ultimately ineffective and inadequate. Their proximity to the most powerful person in the world is shameful  and dangerous.
We  afford to  sit by in silence while White nationalists, neo-Nazis, the KKK and the Trump administration terrorize communities of color, Muslims, immigrants, the LGBT community, Jewish people and people with disabilities.
We don't have a Muslim problem. We don't have a Jewish problem We have a Fascism problem. Stop calling it alt-right. Start shutting it down. We can't afford to be suckers any more.
Please share the word.

Anti Fascist Poem

                                            Dedicated to Heather Heyer R.I.P

There should be no platform
For bigoted people with fascist views,
It's time to block and remove the space
That promotes superiority of white race,
Alt right equals Nazi, it's as simple as this
Provoking Nazi salutes, spreading hate.

Yesterday Heather Heyer was murdered
In Charlottesville, USA, this occurred,
During an anti fascist demonstration
Slain by stagnated forces of negation,
Enough is enough people cry
We do not forget, we do not forgive!

Fascism does not arrive as a friend
Already using the language of persecution,
Daily threatening minorities and the vulnerable
Spreading message of repugnance and hate,
Harassing, prejudiced and spreading fear.
They will never be given a welcome here.

40 years ago the fascists were beaten
At the battle of Lewisham,
Intolerance was not accepted
Today we must face them again,
Standing together, proud and strong
We will resist, they shall not pass.

The above poem can now also be found here too :-

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2017/08/14/anti-fascist-poem-by-dave-rendle/

Demand freedom for Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin Now

Prominent leftist leader, feminist, human rights defender and Member of the Palestinian parliament Khalida Jarrar and Khilam Saafin, president of the Union of Palestinian Women's Committes and prominent struggler for the liberation of Palestinian women and the Palestinian have currently been held without being charged or tried for 36 days. They both face indefinite detention without charge or trial.
The ‘arrest’ of the two women should be seen in light of the Israeli policy to deprive the Palestinian people of its leadership. In Palestine and internationally, there has  already been a furious response. Their administrative detention orders can be renewed indefinitely and with no prior notice.
They  have been held without charge or trial since 2 July. According to Addameer Association’s lawyers who represent both women, the Israel military commander issued a three-month administrative detention order against Khitam Saafin on 9 July. The decision was confirmed by a military judge on 12 July. Khalida Jarrar, who is an elected parliamentarian, was given a six-month administrative detention order on 12 July and a military judge confirmed the decision on 18 July. Although six months is the maximum period of detention for each order, they can be renewed indefinitely.
Both women were arrested by Israeli soldiers during pre-dawn raids on their homes on 2 July. According to eyewitnesses, at 3:30am that day, between 40 and 50 armed Israeli soldiers conducted a raid on Khitam Saafin's home in Beitunia, a neighbourhood of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, in order to arrest her. On the same morning at around 4am, a similar Israeli military raid was carried out to arrest Khalida Jarrar in her home in Ramallah. In the raid, the soldiers also confiscated Khalida Jarrar’s phone, tablet and the hard drive of her home computer.
Both women were first held in Ofer military compound near Ramallah and then transferred to HaSharon prison inside Israel in the afternoon of 2 July. The transfer of both women to HaSharon prison violates international humanitarian law; detainees from occupied territories must be detained in the occupied territory, and not in the territory of the occupying power. Israeli authorities accuse each woman of membership in an illegal organisation, claims they both deny.

As with all cases of administrative detention, the “evidence” against Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin is secret, and neither they nor their lawyers are allowed to review it. This violates a central tenet of fair trial standards.
Khitam Saafin, aged 54, is the president of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, an organization that works for community-based economic and social development of women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She has been an outspoken activist for Palestinian women’s economic, national, and social liberation for decades who has spoken internationally and participated in many worldwide events, including the World Social Forum, linking women’s struggles internationally with the struggle of Palestinian women for national and social liberation.
Khalida Jarrar, aged 54, is an elected Palestinian parliamentarian and outspoken critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and Palestinian security cooperation with the Israeli military. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Addameer Association, a human rights organization, and an appointed member of the Palestinian Higher National Committee to Follow-up with the International Criminal Court. She has been a strong advocate for the rights of Palestinian prisoners and their families. She has been subjected to decades of harassment and intimidation by the Israeli authorities, including a travel ban imposed since 1998. The ban was lifted once for a couple of days in 2010 to allow her to travel for medical testing in Jordan for a serious chronic medical issue that she continues to suffer from. Israeli authorities have repeatedly declared her a security risk, but did not charge her with any criminal offence until April 2015. On 2 April 2015, she was arrested by Israeli soldiers at her home in Ramallah, and placed under administrative detention. On 15 April 2015, at the review hearing of her administrative detention order, the military prosecution brought 12 charges against her relating to membership of the banned political party Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and incitement to kidnap Israeli soldiers. She has vehemently denied this accusation and her lawyers have claimed that it has no basis. Following an unfair trial in an Israeli military court, Khalida Jarrar was convicted of four of the charges, including incitement. She served 14 months in prison and was released in June 2016 with a five-year suspended sentence.
Israel’s use of administrative detention of Palestinians is widespread and has led to mass hunger strikes by Palestinian detainees and prisoners, protesting against the conditions in which they are held and being detained without charge. Administrative detention, ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security is used by Israel as an alternative to the criminal justice system to arrest, charge and prosecute people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Although six months is the maximum period of detention for each order, they can be renewed indefinitely and Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association.
According to Israeli NGO, HaMoked—Center for the Defence of the Individual,http://www.hamoked.org/home.aspx Israel is holding 465 administrative detainees without charge or trial as of August 2017.For decades now Israel has used its cruel administrative policies to trample over the rights o Palestinian detainees. Instead o indefinitely detaining Palestinians without charge or trial, I believe Israel should end its use of administrative  detention, which inflicts huge emotional suffering on detainees and their families, placing them in a permanent state of uncertainty.
The arrests of Khalida and Khiltam represent an attack on the political activity and popular organization of the Palestinian people and a blatant assault on the Palestinians women's movement. Therefore, it is necessary that the people of the world support and demand their immediate release, and all the thousands of Palestinian prisoners  of conscience behind Israeli jails.
The Palestinian people have the right to struggle against the occupation of their land and to use all means available under international law for their lives and their country.Israel must end illegal detentions, and all detainees must be charged and have access to a fair trial.
For a Free Palestine!  Solidarity with Palestinian women and the Palestinian people! From the rivers to the sea Palestine will be free.

Please write immediately in English, Hebrew or your own language calling on the Israeli authorities to:


Immediately release Khitam Saafin and Khalida Jarrar and all other administrative detainees or to promptly charge them with an internationally recognizable criminal offense and bring them to trial in conformity with international trial standards;Take immediate steps to end the practice of administrative detention.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 19 SEPTEMBER 2017 TO:

Minister of Defence
Avigdor Leiberman
Ministry of Defence
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
Email: minister@mod.gov.il
pniot@mod.gov.il
Fax: +972 3 691 6940

Salutation: Dear Minister
Commander of the IDF – West Bank
Major-General Roni Numa
GOC Central Command
Military Post 02367, Battalion 877
Israel Defence Forces, Israel
Fax: +972 2 530 5741, +972 2 530 5724

Salutation: Dear Major-General Roni Numa
And copies to:
Minister of Public Security
Gilad Erdan
Kiryat Hamemshala
PO Box 18182
Jerusalem 91181, Israel
Fax: +972 2 584 7872
Email: gerdan@knesset.gov.il

Salutation: Dear Minister
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

HIS EXCELLENCY MR MARK REGEV, Embassy of Israel
2 Palace Green Kensington W8 4QB, 020 7957 9500

There is also a petition one could sign here :-

https://www.change.org/p/israeli-occupation-forces-free-khalida-jarrar-and-khitam-saafin-now

LOWKEY - GHOSTS OF GRENFELL (ft. MAI KHALIL)

Rapper Lowkey, a North Kensington resident affected by the Grenfell disaster, brings the community together to call for justice with his latest release, Ghosts of Grenfell. Many of the local residents, key players in the community generated relief and support efforts, are featured in the accompanying video, demanding to know where are all those friends and neighbours who are still “missing”. It is probably the most powerful , emotive, apposite song you will hear all summer.
The hard-hitting track pays tribute to victims of the devastating fire in June and lashes out at the “political class, so servile to corporate power”
.It asks: “Did they die or us?” and includes the words: “People crying in the street, watching the burning of their kinfolk/Grenfell Tower now historically a symbol.
“People reaching form their windows, screaming for their lives/Pleading with their cries, trying to reason with the skies… every single person in that building was a hero.
“The street is like a graveyard, tombstone lurching over us… now it’s flowers for the dead, printing posters for the missing.”
The second half of the five-minute track becomes an appeal to “whom it may concern at the Queen’s Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea” for the whereabouts of people still missing after the devastating fire in June, with contributors holding up named images of residents who have not been found. The song finishes: “The blood is on your hands, there’ll be ashes on your grave, like a phoenix we will rise.”
Hopefully thisvideo will contribute to the wider call for justice.
Lowkey – Ghosts of Grenfell, featuring vocals of Mai Khalil and Asheber. For September 2017 tour info and tickets: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/...
Produced by Quincy Tones and Jo Caleb. Mixed by Guy Buss.
Film – Exec Producers: Lowkey, Fahim Alam and Tariq Chow; Directed by Fahim Alam; Director of Photography: Jeffrey Celis

Please – Donate to the Grenfell Tower Appeal and support the Justice 4 Grenfell campaign

http://justice4grenfell.org/