30th Anniversary of the Miners Strike : Their brave struggle not forgotten.

30 years ago on March 1, 1984, the state owned National Coal Board under American Ian MacGregor aided and abetted, by the then Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher announced  that it planned to close 20 coal pits with the loss of over 20,000 jobs. This decision was to go and pit Mrs Thatchers government against the NUM and its then president, Arthur Scargill.
The year-long strike  that followed would change the political, economic and social history of Britain forever. The courage and determination of  the striking miners, their families and communities would charge and inspire the political consciousness of hundreds of thousands of people, as it did for me, aged 16 and a half at the start of the strike.
It would see the full force of  the state  out to try and break and tear apart  communities with  the use of road-blocks, beatings, snatch squads, phone taps and the erosion of civil liberties.

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

Later at Orgreave it became apparent, of the true intentions of Thatchers government, with the full collusion of the police ,it was noticed that they had no intention of finding reconciliation or settlement to this industrial dispute. The sole intention was an ideological one, to mortally wound the National Union of Mineworkers, to defeat it with military force and with naked violence ,by any means necessary.
Despite increasing hardships the miners fought on with determination and bravery. During the course of the strike over 6,000 were arrested, with over 20,000 miners being injured in acts of state violence.
Throughout the strike I would witness, how the right wing media tried to vilify and undermine. The media being used to lie, and used as a weapon to crush the miners resiliance, the media  also enabling to misrepresent, and divide the movement.The propoganda part of Thatchers assault, was being pushed out  everyday. At her so called enemy within.
Psychological  pressure was  also used, with the police encouraged to wave wads of cash at pickets, designed to undermine and demoralise, the use of scabs increased, bussing them through picket lines in a determined effort to break the will of the striking miners.

Throuhout the country, groups emerged, either as individuals or part of miners support groups, raising money and awareness, standing in solidarity. Disparate groups found common ground,  from the Unemployed, the Peace Movement, students, other Trade Unions, all standing firmly behind the miners in their great struggle. The women from the mining communities in particular acted as bulmarks of strength, organising welfare and support, collecting food and money and giving much needed moral energy. Lesbian and Gay support groupss also  played a vital role and consequently the NUM led the pride demonstration in London  in 1985. It was an energising time, new friends were made, the camerardie that emerged was simply amazing.
Sadly eventually some miners started drifting back there will broken,  but it should be noted  that 63% of the miners stayed out  to the bitter end, and finally they were defeated, there can be no denying this unfortunate fact.

Sadly they were also let down  by the Labour Party,  especially  their spineless leader Neil Kinnock, who refused to attend picket lines or events supporting the miners, in effect helping Thatchers dirty war of attrition. Other Trade Union leaders let them down to, unfortunately.
30 years later I remember the courage and sacrifice made during this bitter struggle and the spirit   of revolt they unleashed, and those who remained defiant to  the end, and acknowledge the miners who were arrested and locked up on trumped up charges.The communities that never fully recovered from the financial blow of the strike. Those  who fought for the survival of a humane society here in Wales and across Britain, and a vile government who used the state in almost all its entirety to defeat the miners and to teach the whole working class a lesson. Passions remain unwaned, and I feel the miners strike has left us with a legacy that we should be proud of, of a people and community standing together in solidarity in the face of adversity.
30 years on solidarity is needed  more than ever, as we remember the miners struggle, and continue our own for jobs, social justice and welfare. in our opposition to the current Con Dem coalition Government, who are carrying on where Thatcher left off.
The fight continues.

Test Department and the South Wales Striking Miners

- Comrades in Arms

Evan James (Ieuan ap Iago:- 1809 - 20/9/1878) An Ivorite song to be sung to the tune of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

On a lighter note, happy St Davids day/ dydd dewi sant. Cymru rydd!
Evan James was a modest tradesman living in Pontypridd in the mid nineteenth Century. Born in 1809 in Caerphilly. He was a weaver by trade, who would spend his spare time reading literature and composing simple poetry. From an early age he showed a natural gift gor music and became fond of the harp. He also happens to be the author  of Wales National anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (land of my Fathers), giving the Welsh nation inspiration and passion, and something to sing about on Rugby International days.
An occasional  publican, his circle of interest was the local eisteddfodau, the Ivorite charity society, and the motley  circle of poets who gathered at the Rocking Stone/ Y Garreg Siglo on Pontypridd  Common, the central point for the meeting of the Gorsedd or gathering of the bards, which were first organised by a hero of mine, that rascal called Edward Williams, otherwise known as Iolo Morgannwg. Oh and Evan also went under the bardic name of Ieuan ap Iago.
Anyway off in a while to warm my soul with a hearty bowl of cawl, and a tasty piece of cheese.
Heddwch/peace

Can Iforwal:
 i'w chanu ar don Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

Gyfeillion Iforwal a breinuddawlllawn bri,
Cyflwynaf trwy draserch iachannerchi chwi,
Os noddir trwy burdeb ein hundeb yn iawn,
O frody ei gysur a gawn

Byrdwn;

   Iaith, iaith, noddwn yr hen iaith
   Hoff aeg odidog enwog yw
   Tan faner Iforiaeth bydd fyw.

Gwir yw'r hen ddihareb 'mewn undeb mae nerth'
Trwy'r profiad a gawson ni wyddom ei gwerth,
Mae braint ac anrhydedd o'i golud i'w gael
A rhinwedd gorfoledd gwir fael.

Byrdwn;

Y firain Iforiaeth hoff heiaeth ei flawd
Gwir brawf o'i gweithredoedd ar gyhoed a gawn,
Cynhorthwy tra rhyfedd o'i rhinwedd a roes
Mewn adfyd, tan glefyd a gloes

Byrdwn;

Boed heddwch a chariad wyr mad yn ein mysg
Gan ddiwyll ymdrechau i daenu gwawl dysg,
Meithrinwn gyd-deimlad o'r bwriad di-ball
Fo'n gynne, er lles naill y Llall.

Byrdwn;

Er pob creulonderau am oesau tra maith
Ni lwyddodd un gelyn yn erbyn ein hiaith
Er lladd ein Tywysog galluog a'n Llyw
Mae'r berffaith hen  famiaith yn fyw.

Byrdwn;

An Ivorite song:
to be sung to the tune of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

Ivorite friends privileged and honoured
I offer adoration and greetings to you,
if properly protected our union in purity,
My brothers, it's comfort we'll have

Refrain

   Welsh, Welsh, we will protect the old tonque
   Beloved and splendid and famed
   Beneath the Ivorite banner will live.

True is the old proverb 'in union there's strength',
From our experince it's value we know,
There's honour and privilege to be had from its wealth
And virtue  and joy to be won.

Refrain;

The comely fellowship abundant its fate
True proof of its actions for all can be seen,
Marvellous assistance of virtue it gave
In distress, ill health and in pain.

Refrain;

May there be peace and affection in our midst
By sincere endeavour to spread learnings light,
Nurturing sympathy and never to fail
So warm for the good of us all.

Refrain;

In spite of atrocities in ages long past
No foe was successful in destroyng our tonque,
In spite of the killing of Llywellyn our helm
The perfect old language still lives.

Refrain;

A Poem for Yarmouk

Yesterday the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees released photographs of what it called "apocalyptic scenes " of Palestinians queing for food parcels in Syria's refugee camp.
A day earlier, UNRWA chief Flippo Grandi spoke of the shocking conditions he had seen inside the camp, which has been under seige and bombardment for months.
"It's like the appearance of ghosts" he said of the sight of thousands of Palestinians flooding toward an aid distibution point at the camp, when he was in the Syrian capital on Monday.

Poem for Yarmouk

Scenes of unimaginable desolation,
the sounds of devastated cries,
as Palestinians in Syria,
get caught up in a man made catastrophe.
The images that we see, only a hint,
of the suffering, deprivation and loss,
experienced daily by the inhabitants of Yarmouk ,
humanitarian aid blocked, people marooned,
shivering under a helpless sky,
forgetting to tell joy from bitterness,
in darkness, tears fall all around,
as walls of suffering hold there gaze,
while humanity fails to answer the need,
of a people driven to exile to a hostile land,
the smell of jasmine, far from there breath.

What can we do? How to explain?
How many questions can  there be?
as they shout in misery and desperation,
a mother tries to protect her newborn child,
to allow it to be safe from harm,
left out, and allowed to drift,
in this prison camp of stinging shadows,
going nowhere fast, with nowhere to run,
cornered in a hell that they did not choose,
another dark page in the passage of history,
a savage reminder of the sacrements of man.

ACT NOW THIS SIEGE MUST END
Various petitions online.
Here's one:-
http://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/uk_Government_United_Nations_Break_the_siege_of_Yarmouk_Damascus_and_Homs/pv=8

Atos awarded new contract for N.H.S records! The mind truly boggles.

I was jubilant when I heard the news that ATOS the French company that has hounded our sick and disabled citizens to death, acting under Government orders, originally bought over by the old one (New Labour) had decided to withdraw its services as asssessor of people on disability benefits. A company that has declared thousands of people fit for work, and  within 6 weeks  of being declared fit for work, 10,000 people have since died, a dircreditable company with blood on its hands. A company that has made profits from the vulnerable, making nearly £2 billion from there contact awithout having paid a penny in tax.
A company that is simply not fit for purpose, I wrote a poem about rhem last week , and attended a demonstration against them in Carmarthen. Driven to give up there old contract  because of the depths of feeling against them, acting as a lighning rod for hatred and upset.
Now I have heard the almost unbelieavable news   that they will now manage the extraction of patient records from GP surgeries as part of the controversial NHS data-sharing scheme. They will now have access to  our family history, vaccinations, referrals for treatment, diagnoses and information about prescriptions, all our confidential data, D.O.B, postcode, NHS number and genders.
The governments insensitivity in handing over this new contract to this disreputable company is amazing, but knowing there track record I guess it is to be expected. Like ATOS, this Government does not care about the feelings of the people it is supposed to be serving.
The concern is not just from me, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA general practitioners committe, has expressed concern about the widespread confusion theses  plans couldmake. Damaging the trust built up between individuals and famly doctors. He said :-
"Patients visit their GP, they visit us and they entrust us with very personal, confidential information as part of their life-long record in general practice.
At the heart of our concern as GPs is that if patients mistrust or are concerned about the security of their data, or have concerns about how this data will be used, that would actually potentially, irrevocably damage that fabric of trust when a patient walks into their GP surgery.
That may actually have other consequences in the way the NHS rcords data, it may actually result in patient not attending their surgery at all, for fear or what may happen to their records.
Or they might be inhibited in being totally open about some things."
And I got most of the above information from the Torygraph newspaper.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10661359/Atos-awarded-contract-for-NHS-records.html . I do not have any trust in ATOS, let alone any faith in this Tory run government, to hand over this sensitive contract to such an unreliable organisation,they must be having a laugh. If there next step was to hand  over a contract to Count Dracula to manage the blood bank, in days like these, it would not be to surprising.
Tell your doctor that you do not want your records to be handled or shared in this manner.

The Records are cracked but spin with delight

At home still play my old records,
that take me to uncontrolled steeples heights,
punk, jazz and blues, some reggae and soul,
psychedelic adventurers, world music cosmanauts,
celtic flowers spinning with benediction.

Entrapping time, drowning conversation,
in magical perfume, atoms of infinity.
supplicants of memory,
returning me to,
gardens  of youth.

Round and round, paint the sky,
with saluted cadence, discharging smiles,
floods of necessity, time capsules of electricity,
cicada's voice rumbles on,
ringing out loud, doubling horizon,
opening windows of perception,
rhythms endless stream,
resurrecting and carrying.

Transistors of heart's beat,
that feed my faith,
in pastures of endurity,
these tides release my dancing feet,
floating on rivers of delight.

Oceans of sound,  navigate uncharted
                                                 waters,
as the needle gets into the groove,
melding endlessly in gracious flight,
the blossom of chords and notes,
is enough to sustain and warm,
as melodies and songs, explode on
                                              tonque.

Chelsea Manning Statement on Winning Sam Adams Award

Because of her brave decision to blow the whistle on systematc deception and wrongdoing, Chelsea Manning has been awarded the Sam Adams Award ( named after a C.I.A whistleblower in the Vietnam War) for integrity in Intelligence. Edward Snowden also recieved the same award in an award ceremony held last month.Chelsea was awarded the prize in her absentia, as she is currently incarcentaed in Leavenworth prison.
In her statement accepting the award, Chelsea addressed  the unprecedented secrecy that the  U.S government is involved in. She describes how Washington describes whistleblowers as traitors, coupled with the deteroriation of due process guarantees, unveiling  the heart of the U.S's true principles.

Full statement below:-

The founders of America- fresh from a war of Independence from King George III - were particularly fearful of concentrating power. James Madison wrote that " the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
To address these concerns, the founders of America actively took steps when drafting the Constitution and ratifying a Bill of Rights including protections echoing the Libertarianism of John Locke to ensure that no person be " deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
More recently.though, since the rise of the national security apparatus - after a brief hiatus between the fall of the Soviet Union and the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center - the American government has been pursuing an unprecedented amount of secrecy and power consolidation in the Exexcutive branch, under the President and the Cabinet.
When drafting Article III of the American Constitution, the founders were rather leery of accusations of treason, and accorded special protections for those accused of such a capital offense, providing that a person shall be convicted of Treason inless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
For those of you familiar with the American Constitution, you may notice that this provision is under the Article concerning the Judiciary, Article III, and not the Legislative or Executive Articles, I and II respectively. And, historically, when the American government accuses an American of such crime, it has prosecuted them in a federal criminal court.
In a recent Freedom of Information Act case - a seemingly Orwellian "newspeak" name for a statute that actually exempts categories of documents from release to the public - a federal district court judge ruled against the New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union. The Times and the ACLU argued that the documents regarding the practice of "targetted killing" of American citizens, such as the radical Sunni cleric Anwar Nasser al-Aulaqi were in the public's interest and were withheld improperly.
The government first refused to acknowledge the existence of the documents, but later argued that their release could harm national security and were therefore exempt from disclosure. The court however, felt constrained by the law and concluded that the Government had not violated the FOIA by refusing to turn over the documents sought in in the FOIA requests, and could npt be compelled   to explain in detail the reasons why the Governments actions do not violate the Constitution and the laws of the United States.
However, the judge also wrote candidly about her frustration with her sense that the request implicated serious issues about the limits on the power of the Executive Branch under the Constitution and laws of the United States," and that the Presidential Administration had engaged in public discussion of the legality of targeted killing, even of American citizens, but in cryptic and imprecise ways." In other words, it wasn't that she didn't think that the public didn't have a right to know - it was that she didn't feel that she had the "legal" autority to compel disclosure.
This case, like too many others presents a critical problem that can also be seen in several recent case, including my court martial. For instance I was accuissed by the Executive branch, and particularly the Department of Defense, of aiding the enemy- a treasonable offense covered under Article III of the Constitution.
Grante, I received due proces. I received charges, was arraigned before a miltary judge for trial, and eventually acquitted. But the al-Aulaqi case raises a fundamental question: diod the Amercan government, and particularly the same President and Department. have the power to unilaterally determine my guilt of such an offens, and execute me at the will of the pilot of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
Until documents held by the U.S Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel were released after significant political pressure in mid 201, I could not tell you. And, very likely, I do not believe I could speak intelligently of the Administations's policy on "targetted killing" today either.
There is a problem with this level of secrecy, obfuscation, and classification or protective marking, in that they supposedly protect citizens of their nation; yet, it also breeds a unilateralism that the founders feared, and deliberately tried to prevent when drafting the American Constitution. Now, we have a disposition matrix," classified military commissions,and foreign intelligence and surveillance courts-modern star Chamber equivalents.
I am now accepting this award, through my friend, former school peerand former small business partner, Aaron, for the relaese of a video and documents that " sparked a worldwide dialogue about the importance of government accountability for human rights abuses, " it is becoming  increasingly clear to me that the dfangers of withholding documents, legal interpretation, and court jurisprudence from the public that pertain to the right to "life, liberty, and property" of a state's citizen is a fundamental and important to protecting against such human rights abuses.
When the public lacks the ability to access what its government is doing, it ceases to be involved in the governing process. There is a distinct difference between citizens, in which people are entitled to rights and privileges protected by and from the state, and subjects, in which people are placed under the absolute authority and control of the state. In essenc, this is the difference between tyranny and freedom. To echo a maxim from Milton and Foes Friedman: a society that puts secrecy - in the sense of state secrecy - ahead of transparency and accountability will end up neither secure nor free.

Thank you,

CHELSEA E. MANNING

More information on Chelsea here:-

http://www.bradleymanning.org/

The Banker is back!

Bill Nighy returns in the new Robin Hood Tax film. He brings with him Andrew Licoln, Clarence Poesy, Javier Camara and Heike Makatsch, with music provided by Django Django contributing the track 'Default'.
The year is 2024, Europe has had a Robin Hood Tax for ten years and have been using it to fund public services and the fight  against poverty and climate change.
Everyone is delighted  with what it's achieved. Everyone, of course, except .... The Banker.

Add your name to others getting behind the European Robin Hood Tax here.http://www.robinhoodpetition.org

After Atos

 

A companion piece to last weeks post,  Atos is a French multinational IT services and consulting corporation currently undertaken work capability tests on behalf of the government, in their role of managers of  the Department of Work and Pensions Work Capability Assessments scheme. Atos has become  a lightning rod for widespread public anger  over their health test, known as the work capability assessment. The test has been critisised  for being crude and inhumane, amid mounting evidence that  hundreds and thousands of vulnerable people  have been wrongly judged to be fit for work and inelligable for government support. Rottenness lays at it's core.
Please consider joining  the many demonstrations that are taking place against this country tomorrow.
I will be attending the following one in Carmarthen.

https://www.facebook.com/events/416212641845306/

Full list available here

http://www.atoskills.tk/

an old poem of mine updated.


AFTER ATOS

A medical assessment,
that in 30 minutes dismisses
what general practitioners for years believed,
for some of us no human touch,
our claims rejected by remote computers.

In the shadow of these proclamations,
uncertainty lingers,
for the depressed, alienated and the wounded,
cast out into a world of make believe
into a sort of existential deception.

These persistent doubts create teardrops,
shattering lifes, half mended,
out of sight no apologies,
under their judgement, miracles created,
in and out through a one way system,
designed to  make us fail.

We are people not statistics,
not here to serve profits cause,
in unvanquishable number,            *
our spirits and determination remain,
as we remember those lost and killed,
in conditions still dignified with rage.

This trial of illusion,
leads to ill-starred nights,
boxed in corners of despair,
the sustenance of welfare and understanding,
recieved and now stolen,
this malicousness  simply has to stop.

This company profits from immoral agendas,
on behalf of a government, victims paying now ,
for the crimes of the bankers, who have bled us dry,
we are the voiceless but we are not yet invisible,
this process simply not fit for purpose,
Atos's acronym perfect,because they do not give a toss.

* (Thanks to Shelley)

Some good people

http://calumslist.org/

http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/

From Cardigan to Palestine

Friendship bracelets made by local children have been delivered to Palestine, to show awareness and solidarity.
My local Amnesty International Group recently ran a stall at the Cardigan River and Food Festival to make friendship bracelets for Palestinian  children.
Our group has  been focussing its support  on the two villages of Humsa and Haddiya, where inhabitants are at a constant risk of being forcibly evicted from their homes by the Israeli army and forced out of the area. They are also subject  to daily restrictions on their movements, and are harrassed  by settlers.
Humsa and Hadidya are hamlets in the Jordan Valley in Area C which makes up 60% of the West Bank in the Occupied Palestinan Territories. According to  the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs, 565 structures were demolished in Area C in 2013. More than 800 people  have lost their homes.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlements nearby Hadidya boast guest houses extensive agricultural land and red-roofed villas. with highly  developed, highly  profitable agrigultural, tourist and other businesses.  The Israeli army forces residents of Hadidya and Humsa to live in very difficult conditions. As well as being forbidden from building  permanent structures, they are not allowed to connect to electricity or water grids or dig new walls.
Palestinian residents are not even allowed to use the roads in the immediate area as these are exclusively for the Israeli settlers living in nearby sttlements such as Ro'i, Benqa'ot and Hemdat.
Under international law, the Israeli settlements in the Occupied  Palestinian   Territories are illegal and demolition  of Palestinian  property is prohibited unless absolutely necessary for military operations.
But in Haddidya and Humsa, the Israeli authorities are  determined to bulldoze through their homes, and international law.
The community in Haddiya is  paying exorbiant prices  for small quantities of water in mobile tankers brought in from several kilometres away for domestic use and for their livestock while Israeli settlers living nearby benefit from an abundant water supply.
At our local event in an act of solidarity more than 100 bracelets  made by children who attending the local food festival  were packed up  and given to an Eucemical Observer who was going to the Occupied  Territories.
According to an Amnesty spokesperson, the children were surpised and happy to be given bracelets that had been made for them by children here in West Wales.
Meanwhile Israel continues to bulldoze its way through International law. We should keep up the pressure  on Israel as long as it continues to violate the rights of Palestinian Communities like these.

Will the flowers of Gaza break Israel's siege this Valentine's Day?

Valentine's Day is almost upon us and for supermarkets and florists that means a massive  increase in the sale  of flowers. But how may romantic couples consider where the flowers we exchange are grown?
Farmers in Gaza have long been encouraged by Israeli export companies to focus their production  on high risk 'cash crops' such as flowers and strawberries, and the arrival  of carnations from Rafah to European markets for Christmas or Valentines' day is often cheered on by the Israeli Government  who uses it as a PR exercise to show how it 'facilitates' Palestinian exports.
Growing carnations for Valentine has long been a love's labor lost for Palestinian farmers in Gaza thanks to Israel's export restrictions. The blockade and restrictions have prevented Palestinian farmers from shipping their stock to Europe  forValentine's day in recent years, causing huge losses as exporters ended up either dumping truckloads of flower or feeding them to their sheep.
However, unsurprisingly , this is not the full story.

More here:-

http://palsolidarity.org/2014/02/will-the-flowers-of-gaza-break-israels-siege-this-valentines-day/