The Spanish miners are now over a month of action against the Spanish Popular Party Government, and the International banking aristocracy. They are demonstrating against 60% cuts in subsidiaries, which are expected to result in the loss of 40,000 jobs.
An indefinite strike was launched on 31st of May when 2 sets of mining crew immediately withdrew their labour whilst working in dangeous and unsanitary conditions,
They have been converging since Tuesday on Madrid, for huge protest rallies, joined by thousands of sympathisers in the city. One group of about 160 miners have walked all the way from the Northern Asturia and Leon Regions, as much as 250 miles away.
They are angry, passionate and well organised. Militant and disruptive, when attacked they will fight back, their will is strong. The governments position is a weak one, especially when it looks as if they have the people on their side. They are an inspiration to us all.
International Support for
the Asturian Spanish Miners
A Spanish Miners message from the burning barricades.
It was good to hear that Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak who I wrote about here http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/release-mahmoud-sarsak.html was greeted joyously in Gaza yesterday, after he had returned home from an Israeli prison where he had been held for three years without charge or trial and without visits from his family. He was taken to a hospital in Gaza where he reemerged from an ambulance and kissed his parents and siblings.
In a press release for U FreeNetwork http://ufree-p.net/ Sarsak said that despite he was a hunger striker, he managed by his steadfastness to force the Israeli occupation to accept his condition that he launched a hunger strike for, adding ' My demands were represented in not recognising the non-combatant law, which was issued by the Israeli military court, and releasing me to my home city, Rafah in Gaza Strip."
He had endured an epic three month hunger strike that had brought him close to death, which he agreed to end last month after Israel had agreed to free him. Concerning , the many international and local support, he appreciated the role of all human rights organisations that had supported him. It is remembered that the FIFA President, Sepp Blatter had contacted the Israeli authorities seeking help in his release, and the camnpaign succeeded in reaching several European organizations and parliaments.
With former Manchester United player, Eric Cantona and British filmaker Ken Loach also among the many who signed a petition calling for his freedom., plus numerous other world renowned football players and athletes.
A victory of sorts , but as I type Akram Rikhawi's hunger strike continues http://ufree-p.net/Details.aspx?Type_ID=3&Rotator_ID=221l in an act of nonviolence that continues to inspire Palestinians and many others, sustaining their dignity under the most difficult and inhumane circumstances.
Amnesty International is now calling for the release too of Samer al Barq and Hassan Safadi http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20221 with Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Ann Harrison saying
" While the long overdue release of Mahmoud al-Sarsak is a huge relief to his family and friends, it doesn't reflect any fundamental change in the use of administrative detention as state policy by the Israeli authorities. In fact it further underscores just how unjust, arbitrary and secretive this measure is."
" Israel must immediately end the use of administrative detenrion, and release all Palestinians held under any legal provisions allowing its use, or charge and try them fairly in a court of law consistent with international standards. In particular, the internment of Unlawful Combatants Law should be repealed.
"Palestinians detained without charge should be released or charged with recognisable offences and tried according to international standards.
" The Israeli authorities must also guarantee them, and all other detainess and prisoners on hunger strike, regular access to independent doctors and lawyers. Samer al-Barg, who has been on hunger strike for almost 50 days, should be immediately admitted to a civilian hospital so that he can recieve proper medical care."
Sad to here earlier via http://exileonmoanstreet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/lol-coxhill-rip.html that free improvising saxophonist and raconteur, Lol Coxhill had died after several weeks of serious illness.
I heard him first I guess playing with the Damned, then as my tastes got wider, started hearing him all over the place, playing with all sorts of improvised groups. His saxophone could tease, growl, roar and squeak, he was a very adventurous player, not afraid to take risks and push the boundaries.
Spotted by John Peel busking, the word got round about his talent, and he ended up playing with all sorts of people, so good was he , that he could play along with anyone. Starting of with David Bedford, Kevin Ayers, and other associates of the Canterbury scene, he ended up playing with many of the greats of the improvised musical scene, Evan Parker, David Bailey, Trevor Watts, Chris McGregor, David Toop, Harry Becket etc etc etcetera...... ever versatile and inventive. Occasionally branching out into forays as an actor, collaborating with the late Ken Campbell and Derek Jarman.
Fame for him was of no consequence.
Still playing up untill his death, still exploring the undiscovered possibilities of his saxophone, he will be missed by musicians and fans alike.
Lol Coxhill with Robert Wyatt - Soprano Derivitavo/ Apricot Jam
with Kevin Ayers and the Whole World - Oh My
Lol Coxhill, Vortex JazzClub Dec/2008
Lol Coxhill for Paul Burwell - By the Paths of the Deep River
In Guantanemo Bay a prisoner is subjected to 14 days of sleep deprivation. Combined with lack of food and water, detainess can lose their will to live Day and night shifted from one place to another, shackled and moved to maximise disruption, isolation a constant daily routine. Many still held without charge, their fullness of time daily exhausted, captors whispering anonomously, torture is good my friend, torture is good. Like a reset button, time illuminates, is reduced and maximised, through language's corridors drifts.... Logic is carried, deconstructured, conclusions are wrestled with. The world s, becomes an illusion, that overwhelms. Awakeness can distort, penetrate to deep, the need to shut out can be like a silent scream, deeply unsettling, strangely familiar, there is no beginning, there is no end, no near, no far, distance appears, and in moments reaches vanishing point. become very sad, painful and troubling...... No year turning, nothing tears apart, while the world is sleeping, twisting and turning, looking frantically for some way out, sleeps absence can become a nightmare without exits repsite. Walls shifting in discomfort, voices mounting in an endless drone, the broken minds instict becomes useless , life becomes very dark. The fleeting somnambulist finds simple ways of being, above the pitiless wave, heart races, and fear cannot forget, the vatic voice becomes a subconscious scream. Memory plays tricks,the stock of sap is spent, stormy eyes fade into the light and back again. Inner voice seeks sanctuary among whispering breeze, despite the darkness, nothing refuses to be conquered. Does the dream of flight pursue, when freed? Nothing exists when freedom is denied.
Yesterday I found out that the Tower of London currently has on display a blood diamond. A family whose twenty-nine members were killed during Israel's 22 day offensive of the Gaza strip issued an appeal to Queen Elizabeth 11 about the Steinmetz Jubilee Pink Diamond http://www.steinmetzdiamonds.com/en/jubilee-pink-diamonds.html
This is currently on display in an exhibition at the Tower of London.It was the Steinmetz supported Givati Brigade who were responsible for one of the worst war crimes committed during the assault on the besieged residents of Gaza City in January 2009.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem http://www.btselem.org/describes the incident as follows:
'On 4 January 2009, at the start of the ground phse of Operation Cast lead, about 100 members of the extended Samouni family were uddled inside one house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City. The next morning, an Israeli airstrike killed 21 people inside the house, including 9 children and 10 women, and injured dozens of other family members.
During the next 2 days, the army refused access to medical teams in spite of being informed of the trterrible outcome by family members who managed to escape the bombed homes and to human rights and humanitarian organisations, including B'Tselem.
When medics managed to get to site, they found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses, and evacuated several wounded people.
The army refused permission to evacuate the bodies and they remained in the rubble for a further two weeks.'
It seems that in my opinion that the Queen of England
on behalf of the British people should decline this gift and demand that De Beers be instructed to remove this offensive blood diamond display immediately. The 35.60-carat pink diamond , crafted by Steinmetz Diamonds, has been on display at the Tower of London since June 1st, marking the Queens Jubilee. Does this lady not have enough Diamonds, does she not shed a tear or two, when she realises the methods used to procure them, does she simply ignore the demonstrations that have been held every week at the Tower of London since the Jubilee , and this blood diamond has been on went on display . Today there will be a demo taking place outside the De Beers jewellry shop in Picadilly and Bond Street. It will hopefully inform shoppers (and perhaps Mrs Windsor) that the diamond market is heavily contaminated with cut and polished diamonds that have been used to fund human rights violations,and that the Israeli Diamond Industry is a major source of funding for the Israeli military who stand accused of serious war crimes and possible war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by the Human Rights Council,that these blood diamonds are not subject to any regulation and are sold to unsuspecting consumers labelled as conflict-free diamonds.
If like me you feel uneasy about this diamond being on display at the Tower of London you can leave them a message on their facebook page which I did yesterday.http://www.facebook.com/TOL.London
The comment will probably dissapear quite quickly but at least you will be sending them a message.
The occupation of Palestine has gone on now for so long now, it has become an analogy in human history. We have seen their struggle for dignity and their right to exist. Despite being occupied and their lands being torn from them, they continue to remind us of their yearning for peace and justice. Mahmoud Darwish, their poet laureate used his poems to express the grave historical injustices imposed on the Palestinian people.
The treatment of the Palestinians I believe is a universal crime. What Darwish did with his great powerful poetry was make us all witnesses, such was his universal appeal.
I come from There
I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
And the immortal olive tree.
I walked this land before the swords
Turned its living body into a laden table.
I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learned the words worthy of the court of blood
So that I could break the rule.
I learned all the words and broke them up
To make a single word:
HOMELAND
" What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national gestures, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocricy- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and depotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me , that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocricy, America reigns without a rival."
1852
Danny Glover reading from Frederick Douglass's speech , 5/10/05, L.A
On 18/8/1634 Urbain Grandier, a handsome and successful seducer of women and
priest of the parish of Loudun a small French town, was tried, tortured and burnt at the
stake. He had been found guilty of being in league with the devil and
seducing an entire convent of nuns in what was the most sensational case
of mass possession and sexual hysteria in history. Grandier maintained
his innocence to the end and four years after his death the nuns were
still being subjected to exorcisms to free them from their demonic
bondage.was accused and convicted of sorcery, This event would inspire Aldous Huxley's book The Devils of Loudun. An historical narrative of supposed demonic possession, religious fanaticism, sexual repression and mass hysteria. Later turned into a controversial film by Ken Russel The Devils ( 1971). Aldous Huxley's vivid
account of this bizarre tale of religious and sexual obsession
transforms our understanding of the medieval world.What is seem as liberation is in fact enslavement, fanaticism as seen with its appearance in the human condition has penetrated through all history. With his compelling narrative, Mr Huxley manages to hit the nail on the head. Religion becomes not only the opium of the people, but also becomes the pornographer of the masses. Strongly recommended, as are most of his books.Relevant when it was written, relevant today, its message still echoing with warning. Truth and reason still being manipulated by our leaders and so called prophets.
Be careful where you lay your devotions.
' At all times, all to many Christians have behaved as though the devil were a First Principle, on the same footing as God. They have paid more attention to evil and the problem of its eradication than to good and the methods by which individual goodness may be deepened, and the sum of goodness increased. The effects which follow too constant and intense a concentration upon evil are always disastrous. Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse than it was, before the crusade began. By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself. Though frequently Manichaean in practice, Christianity was never Manchaean in its dogmas. In this respect it differs from our modern iodolatries of Communism and Nationalism, which are Manichaean not only in action, but also in creed and theory. Today it is everywhere self-evident that we are on the side of Light, they on the side of Darkness. And being on the side of Darkness, they deserve to be punished and must be liquidated ( since our divinity justifies everything) by the most fiendish means at our disposal. By iolatrously worshipping ourselves as Ormuzd, and by regarding the other fellow as Ahriman, the Principle of Evil, we of the twentieth century are doing our best to guarantee the triumph of diabolism in our time.'
This video originally appeared for the Ministry of Justice (Moj) employment and support allowance appeals video, back in March, then this video was pulled after less than a week, on the orders of senior officials. When you click on the original video link it has dissapeared http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L8EPHDjequ , not sure why it was pulled because the video is actually reasonably informative and reassuring for people who have no experience of appeal tribunals.
Normally MoJ videos get very little attention, but because of Mr Graylings intervention, this video became very popular indeed.
He apparently e.mailed the ministry complaining about, amongst other things, the fact that it told claimants:
. that they are twice as likey to win their appeal if they appear in person rather than having a paper hearing;
. that the DWP doesn't normally send a representative to the hearing;
. to send additional evidence to the tribunal, when Grayling wants it sent to the DWP.
Now the video is back, and to their credit, after their initial panic MoJ officials seem to have left it unaltered.
Perhaps the Torys don't want to be seen as being helpful, after all they are the rabid nasty party, deeply lacking in compassion or empathy, and have an image to maintain dont they?
Today in Labour history June 27th, 1905, The Industrial Workers of the World , also known as the wobblies was founded at a 12 day Convention in Chicago. The wobbly motto is ' An injury to all is an injury to all.'
They were noted for their use of poetry and song to promote their radical ideas, publicise strikes and other protests and generally present the case for what was, for a time at least, a dynamic and imaginative orgainisation. Their work was designed to provoke thought, and was deliberately immediate in its message, in order to get it across to as many people as possible. A potent symbol to them was the death on 19th November 1915 of Joe Hill. His defiant songs were sung on picket lines across America, they saw him as an innocent man, framed and murdered by a corrupt judiciary who feared the power of his words, he became their martyr.
The Wobblies struck at the core of America's dark soul, attacking capitalism, demanding an end to wage slavery, equality, promoting workers solidarity based on revolutionary principles, with a combination of anarchist, socialist and anti-war beliefs. Their tactics was not only the spreading of infomation, but was also combined with direct action, general strikes, sit ins and acts of sabotage.
At their peak the organisation claimed over 100,000 members with as many as 300,000 workers who rallied in their support. The IWW became for its members to be, not only their union and party, but their social centre, their home, their school, and in a manner of speaking their religion, a faith in which they lived by. Singing and reciting their poetry and songs.
' We meet today in freedom's cause
And raise our voices high
We'll join our hands in union strong
To battle or to die.'
' If the workers took a notion
They could stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean
They can tie with mighty chains
Every wheel in the creation
Every mine and every mill
Fleets and armies of the nation
Will at their command stand still.'
They were founded and led ( though they did not really have leaders) by miner and socialist William 'Big Bill' Haywood (1869 -1928)
and mine workers agitator Mary ' Mother' Jones (1837 -1930)
A famous Wobbly slogan whenever aked who their leader was ;
' We are All Leaders!'
At a time when other trade unions refused to accept immigrants, minorities and women, and unskilled workers, their only restriction was that you had to be a member of the working class. Together they energised people, sparks were lift, and in every strikes and protest across America their presence would be felt. They began to become known as revolutionaries with a singing voice.
Solidarity Forever- Pete Seeger
Their power and subsequently their weapon was their utter refusal to compromise in a single-minded march towards a utopia that pitted them against the combined forces of the state and business. It was this and their refusal to support U.S entry into World War 1 and their refusal to abandon strikes and other revolutionary tactics during the war which was used as an excuse, for thei membership to be increasingly attacked, beaten, their organisers thrown in jail. Non violent IWW strikers were attacked by police and troops, and vigilantism and lynchings were encouraged against them. They were labelled as 'enemy aliens' and traitors and hundreds were arrested. Combined with splits within their organisation , their influence faded, but never died. Membership unfortunately began to decline, but as individuals and in small branches across the world their legacy lives on, not forgotten still promoting its original aims organising workers by industry rather than trade, still thirsting for solidarity, still organising, still resisting.
In these divided times,of economic despair, perhaps what we need now is a strong international radical voice that stands defiantly, on behalf of the people, following an old tradition of solidarity that does not seperate along lines of nationality, race or gender, speaking too to the unemployed, the sick, and the marginalised spreading messages of hope among the carnage that is being unveiled by bankrupt economic policies.Today we do not have to ride freight trains to spread our messages, today it's just a click away and infomation can be spread in an instant. Following the combined flags of red, black and green. An organisation is urgently needed that does not condemn the actions of its membership, that listens and understands.
Preamble to current IWW Constitution
'The working class and the emplying class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the god things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth. We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer hands make the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organisation formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thusmaking an injury to all. Instead of the conservative motto, ' A fair day's wage for a fair day's work.' we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system.' It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.'
It is not a dream, when we think of another world, it is is achievable and clearly signposts and the paths are already marked.Struggle can be hard, but with solidarity, I guess it can be beautiful too. Paul Robeson - Joe Hill
Utah Phillips & Ani Di Franco - Unless you are free.
