Pete Seeger (b 3/5/19) - How Can I keep from Singing

For many years now, Pete Seeger  has communicated, entertained, campaigned, torn down barriers , torn down wwalls. A fearless, tireless campaigner for social justice, peace and freedom. From the Civil Rights movement, anti McCarthyism to resistance to fascism and the wars in Vietnam, the Middle Age , and the freedom of the Palestinian  people to the Occupy movements, Pete Seeger has stood proudly in solidarity with them all. 94 today still active, still keeping the fires burning.
Happy Birthday Pete, an inspiration for us all.

How Can I keep From Singing

My life flows in endless song
Above earth's lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing
It sounds an echoe in my soul
How can I keep from singing?

While through the tempest loudly roars.
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though theough the darkness 'round me close,
Songs in the night it giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that rock I'm clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble sick with fear
And hear their death knell ringing.
When friends rejoice both far and near
How can I keep from singing?

In prison cell and dungeon vile
Our thoughts to them are winging.
When friends by shame are undefiled
How can I keep from singing.

Charity appeal on behalf of Atos

If everyone sent a parcel by freepost, including an Argos or an old phone book, the postage would normally cost £9 - this works out at £9333,696 postage cost, nearly £1million that we would normally have to pay. But Atos have provided a freepost address. So do your best.
Joiin the Peaceful protest with Anonymous - it will cost you nothing only a bit of time... Simply follow this statement by anonymous!

In econonomic hard times - please give whatever you can to help ATOS who are in such desperate need of Argos catalogues or old phone books;)

Parcels can be senr 'Free of Charge'

Atos
Wyman Dillon Research
Medical Services Customer Survey
FREEPOST (BS57707)
Bristol
BS35 3YA

Take action and demand justice for the victims of Bangladesh building collapse

Over 200 people have now been killed in the collapse of a building in Bangladesh which housed garment factories making clothes for Primark, Matalan, Mango and other major brands.
Primark, Matalan and Mango addicted to profit , have been profiting  from the backs of workers in factories like these for years, and must now be made responsible for their criminal failure to ensure workplace safety and prevent disasters  like this happening in the future. They must be made to pay full compensation, including their lost earnings, to the families who have lost relatives and the workers injured in this crime of capitalism.
This tragedy has at least bought to the worlds attention, the people who feed the consumer habit for cheap and disposable clothes.
Once again it is the case of profits, consumption and capitalism over human lives and basic principles of humanity and fundamental human rights.

Take action now and demand an end to these avoidable tragedies

http://waronwant.org/overseas-work/sweatshops-and-plantations/17864-take-action


Also on May Day: Remember the Dhaker workers and all those killed by capitalism

http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/04/508998.html

The Devil's Tree, Eglwys Rhos, near Llandudno

'At the corner of the first turning after passing the village of Llanrhos, on the left hand side, is a withered oak tree, called by the natives of those parts the Devil's Tree, and it was thought to be haunted, and therefore the young and timide were afraid to pass it of a dark night.
Its bad reputation was greatly increased by an occurence that happened there to Cadwaladr Williams, a shoemaker, who lived at Llansantffraid Glan Conway.
This shoemaker sometimes refreshed himself too freely before starting homewards from Llandudno, and he was in the habit of turning into the public house at Llanrhos to gain courage to pass the Devil's Tree.
One Saturday night instead of quietly passing this tree on the other side, he walked fearlesslly up to it, and defied the Evil One to appear if he was there. No sooner had he uttered the defiant wordsthan something fell from the tree, and lit upon his shoulders, and grasped poor Cadwaladr's neck with  a grip of iron. He fought with the incubus savagery to get rid of it, but all his exertions were in vain, and so he was obliged to proceed on jhis journey with this fearful thing clinging to him, which became heavier every step he took. At last, thouroughly exhausted, he came to Towyn, and more dead than alive, he reached a friend's door and knocked, and oh, what pleasure, before the door was opened the weight on his back had gone, but his friend knew who it was that Cadwaladr had carried from the Devil's Tree.'

From Welsh Folklore by Rev.Elias Owen, M.A., F.S.A., 1887

Curriculam Vitae / Hidden

Curriculam Vitae

Can answer phones,
cold callers get greeted,
with hardcore punks explosive throb,
am a friend of tangled daydreams,
the soaring thrust of revolution,
the sounds of raging possibility,
the language of survival,
spirits that shatter division,
the sweetness of peace and unity,
the struggle for another world.
Can be found after sunset
under shadowy moonlight,
where I throw words together,
following an extemity called hope.


Hidden

I avoid the attic,
it's where the answers lay forgotten,
it's in the garden,
where andrenaline kicks,
headfirst into the flames,
unbuckled brain,
spills out contents,
as highs and hungovers are mixed up.
Read books, play music,
with shaky hands,
perform delicate tricks,
turn the pages,
as tendrils hook,
listen to the rattling noise,
on a high moon tide.
Blinking, lie flat on my back,
on a hillside above green fields,
near out croppings of grey granite,
the steam bubbling merrily around,
follow dreams, deep and fathomless,
work for love, that shows no profit.



'

Atos Healthcare : The Tory Capability Assessment Form

 

Meanwhile in all seriousness,  lets remind ourselves that Atos are paid £110m a year to carry out the assessments for the DWP and a further £60m of public money is being spent on administering appeals, because so many decisions have been contested. The British Medical Association has described the assessments as 'not fit for purpose',
Many people  have dropped down dead within three months of being told they are fit for work, in a humiliating and demeaning process that seems to be making sick people even sicker.
Lets not forget it was the Labour Party that first  introduced this process. A stressful and gruelling process as anyone who has gone through it will know. The scale of anxiety caused can  be very daunting.
Here's a link to the atos victims group, who tell us how it really is.
.http://atosvictimsgroup.co.uk

Plus

Fraudster Atos fined for supplying fake crip detectors for use in fitness for work tests
http://tompride.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/fraudster-atos-fined-for-supplying-fake-crip-detectors-for-use-in-fitness-for-work-tests

Samer Issawi : Victorious

Good news, in what is being considered a major victory against administrative detention, Samer Issawi has accepted an agreement negotiated by Israel and Palestinian officials to end his hunger strike. The Palestinian Prisoner Organisation  stated yesterday that Issawi will serve eight months for the alleged violations of his bail conditions, after which he will be free to return to Jerusalem.
His legendary hunger strike became a rallying cry for Palestinians who protested on his behalf, seeing  this 33 year old from Jerusalem as a symbol of their struggle. Samer had been on hunger strike for over 200 days, refusing food and recieving only infussions of water, vitamins and minerals, he was taken to hospital in recent weeks as his condition deteriorated.
By using peaceful resistance he has been able to force Israel to recognise Palestinians legitimate demands for freedom and dignity, which will open the door for other prisoners who have been arrested indefinitely.
The agreement has defused a tense situation, which  has seen weeks of street protests, that had also raised fears of an explosion of broader unrest if the prisoner had died.
He is expected to be released in December of this year.

With  his head held up high, his empty stomach defined and redefined the word  freedom, in his search for dignity.

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/samer-issawis-hunger-speech-to-israelis.html

Richie Havens ( 21/1/41 - 22/4/13) R.I.P - I was Educated By Myself/ Freedom

Ah he sang from  the soul, he sang from the heart, with  his soft tremulous distinctive voice and playing, he lifted us too, with his  forward thinking and his messages of peace and love.

 Richie Havens R.I.P.



I Was Educated By Myself - Richie Havens

I can't buy the lie and it don't matter
Even though I try to keep my health
It all seems the same such a silly game
Played by silly fools who don't even follow their own rules.

But oh, when the sunshine follows me around
Lifts my feet and takes me from the ground
High enough ro see the shelf
And know that I was educated by myself

I have seen the streets groaning, not battered
Though amongst us all, we kept our wealth
And though the rain goes pitter-patter,
it don't change the pain that we all felt

But oh, when the sunshine follows us around
Lifts our feet and takes us from the ground,
High enough for us to tell
That we were educated by ourselves

It's a simple dream, a common pattern
A universal scheme for us to sell
And though it's a long, long way between Mars and Saturn,
But right here on Earth, we know so well
That all we need is sunshine on the ground
And smiles and smiles from frown to frown
Just enough for us to yell
That we were educated by ourselves.

Freedom

(Richie Havens at Woodstock)

Freedom, freedom
Freedom, freedom
Freedom,freedom
Freedom, freedom

Sometimes I feel klike a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a mtherless child
A long way from home

Freedom, freedom
Freedom, freedom
Freedom, freedom
Freedom, freedom

Sometimes I feel like I'm almost gone
Sometimes I feel like I'm almost gone
Sometimes I feel like I'm almost gone
A long, long wayway from home

Clap your hands, clap your hands
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Clap your hands, clap your hands
Hey, yeah

I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up on my heart
I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from my heart

When I need my brother, brother
When I need my mother, mother

Happy Earth Day on Lenin's birthday

               
                          Earth Day,celebrated  today
                          on the occasion of Vladimir's birthday.
                          not sure why, never thought Lenins brand of thought
                          could be identified with modern ecology,
                          merely a conicidence of creation, and spin
                          not the rock though, across the fields, the smallest
                          minority on earth is still the individual,
                          earth first, the message for today
                          we'll strip and mine and plunder
                          the other planets later.

                          ' To rely upon conviction
                          devotion and other excellent,
                          spiritual qualities -  that is not to be
                          taken seriously in politics,
                          It is true that liberty is precious-
                          so precious that it must be retained,
                          authority poisons everybody who takes
                          authority on himself.'
                          Thanks for that comrade Illyich,
                          much prefer your words today,
                          than Peter Brabeck, from Nestle,
                          who has  just recently said,
                          'the idea that water is a human right,
                          is extreme.'

                          But sorry, comrade
                          today the earth is still divided,
                          the rich still steal more than they deserve           
                          I much  prefer  the words of Gerald Winstanley
                          the earth a common treasury, for all to share
                          as the hours pass, the earth still needs, feeding,
                          hope reflected in the tears,we and she sheds
                          waiting for another chance,in the silence between breathing,
                                             
                          The fabric of existence, woven
                          on latitudes and longtitudes of absence,
                          delivering ,a palpable beat of the heart
                          with each mornings blooming roar,
                          transmits its message,on the underside of leafs
                          feeding our sensations, driving our emotions
                          more than just a dream ,it's sensation is clear
                          spinning on it's wheel, on the precipice of catastrophe
                          with tears in eye,still try to celebrate what I hold dear.

Thich Nhat Hanh (b.11/11/26) If You are a Poet

                                             
                              ' If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud
                                floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will
                                    be no rain, without rain, the trees cannot grow; and
                                     without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is
                                      essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not
                                          here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either.       

                                                    ( for my grandson
                                                     on his first birthday, 
                                                     heddwch/peace..)