Happy Birthday N.H.S

The N.H.S turns 66 today - happy birthday  and lets make sure it is not the last. This is our N.H.S. Everyone rich or poor, woman or child can use it. or any part of it. There are no charges except for a few special items.We love it, we pay for it, and we will certainly fight for it. We must not allow the Tories to dismantle it, and strongly say no to any attempt at privatisation. There is still plenty of money to go round, it's just the case of it being in the wrong hands.
It has endured  so long in our hearts and minds because of its  founder, the late great Nye Bevan  who said ' Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence, for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune, the cost of which should be shared by the community'
So while I'm at it, I will raise a glass to Nye Bevan's honour too, here's to the next 66 years.

The British National Health Service 1948

The night is long faced.

The night is long faced
accustomed as it is to misfortune
every night the Palestinian
under occupation, since 1948
tries to sleep in its shadow.

It's people killed everyday
children left as  orphans,
daily it is hit, in the face
and in the guts,
again and again
until this process
starts to feel normal.

This is the taste of occupation
people learning  to live  in fear everyday,
knowing that any minute, their front door
could be kicked down, trying to stay human,
trying desperately to stay sane
knowing that  their children, mothers and fathers,
may never return home again.

The  children are seen as terrorists,
for simply using slingshots against tanks
and fierce looking  men with machine guns
the media  likes to portray them as perpetrators
its people as the enemy,
while turning the bully 
into a victim. 

In the mornings, seeds of bitterness spread
as grim days stretch out this peoples agony,
and the longing for their liberation
and though Palestine does not exist on the map
it exists  in the hearts of millions around the world.

Like the night, they have learnt
that with warm buds of thirst,
freedom is existence, and survival is resistance 
and that  one day, from the rivers to the sea ,
with hope on their sides, they will be free.

Glenda Jackson's speech about Iain Duncan Smith and the DWP

Glenda Jackson 30 June 2014

Every word the truth. Why can't Millibland be more like this. Perhaps he has no real life experience, does not  know lots of vulnerable people, or those daily under the receiving end of  the Conservatives bullying approach.
We need more people like Glenda Jackson, voices of truth speaking against  smiling tyrants of the oppressed in this country, whilst so called representatives twidding with their mobile phones, collect their cash, show no real interest at all, showing us that they have no bloody compassion at all.

Be Careful of drunken words

           
                                                                 (Thanks Kim)

Be careful of  drunken words  that are let loose
in particular after drinking large quantities of wine
they will create and reel in havoc
as they tear themselves into pieces
leave a trial of distraction
coming and going in haze of hesitation.

Be careful of drunken words
that cannot walk in straight lines
words  that break through taboos
words if breathalysed could be charged
and then imprisoned
words  that may never be found again
because they have been put in solitary confinement.

Be careful of drunken words
let loose with abandonment
wide eyed and legless
sprawled on the pavement outside
staggering without pause
staining the paths of conformity
refusing to be silent.

Be careful of drunken words
in the streets hawking messages of sorrow,
weeping, keeping faith with blurred sensitivity
rippling with defiance, straining to be heard
spitting against the gates, frightening the sober
                                                 voices away.
be careful of drunken words.

Armed Forces Day 2014

Today  28 June 2014, marks Armed Forces Day,  staged annually for the past  5 years  to pay tribute to UK Armed Forces personnel, past and present. Today 100 years after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the start of the Great war, and 70 years  from the D-Day Landings, this years event  comes with an even bigger  shadow.
In this age is  there really cause  in celebrating conflict, in an event of militaristic might, should we not be raising awareness of the destructiveness of war, and spend more time promoting peace .Why not call the day reconciliation day.
Recently the event has been criticised by Wrexham Peace and Justice Group, who were 'horrified'  to find a picture  of a toddler dressed in military uniform, being used to  advertise the event. They said ' We  strongly object to the targeting of children by the military' also saying ' we contend that it is irresponsible and unacceptable for Wrexham Council  to be presenting the militarised warfare  in the content of family entertainment.'
War is  not family entertainment, but the first casualty of war is truth. Today we should remember too people  like Chelsea Manning  who had the  courage to tell us the truth about war, and its collateral damage.
We should   remember the Great War, remember it not as a 'war to end all war' or a 'victory for democractic', but as a military disaster and a human  catastrophe. We should use this day to remember that war is driven by big powers and their vested interests around the globe, and remember the billions killed in war, the innocents across the globe,  left maimed and wounded,  mark the courage of those involved, but  acknowledge  the absolute  devastation and misery caused,and the harsh realities of actual life in the military, far from the rosy pictures painted. The brutal reality, is  that  for many, having been used by the military are  left  with mental health issues, and simply abandoned
To move forward  we should support  all those  traumatised and displaced by war, and seek ways to avoid conflict, and ways to promote international cooperation instead,focus on some positive steps to promote harmony in a badly trouble world, say no to the military complex that profits out of misery, pointing out the  horrible consequences of war.

Happy Birthday Emma Goldman (27/6/1869 - 14/5/40)

'IF I CAN'T DANCE, I DON'T WANT TO BE PART OF THE REVOLUTION.'

Happy Birthday Emma Goldman, tireless agitator and speaker. In 1910 alone, she gave 120 talks  in 27 cities in 25 states  in the United States to 25,000 people Jailed  in 1917, and described by authorities as 'one  of the most dangerous women in America,' she was deported  to Russia in 1919,  campaigned  against the Bolsheviks in the 1920's, subsequently joined the Spanish  Revolution 1936 -39, backing the Spanish anarchists, as they tried to restructure society with one hand, while battling fascist, Stalinist threats  lined up against them on the other.
Today Emma Goldman  is warmly remembered for the anarcho-feminist, anti-militarist, and internationalist contributions she made  to the social revolutionary struggles in life.
Incidentally the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies, was founded  on this day June 27th 1905. So cheers and solidarity to them too.

Two earlier posts about Emma Goldman

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/emma-goldman-2761869-14540-anarchism.html

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/emma-goldman-2761869-14540-if-i-cant.html

Rebekhah Brooks - I am Innocent

Of course you are dear. You who sniggered all  the way through the trial, knowing  to bloody full well that you would get away with it! Typical British Justice,... Money buys your freedom.
As for the government, who trust them anymore, have they  themselves not  been involved  in shady dealings,  including phone hacking. I kid you not.
All of the  above tainted, it all reeks  of the establishment protecting one of  their own. Brooks will continue to pop round to Daves,  share some lunch, he cannot distance from her at the end of the day, because   she knows where the other bodies are buried.
As well as these two involvement in this scandal,  we  are left with  the legacy of the police's  own implication. Bribes taken, a web of corruption, at the end of the day , the people are not satisfied. Public anger will increase for a long time to come.

Rebekah Brooks admits to paying Police.

Cameron Defending Coulson,

The above is a link to  Dave  praising Andy Coulson  The only reason that Cameron wants to distance  himself now is that Coulson has got caught. Cameron is nothing but an unelected toffy nosed hypocrite.
We should not forget  how Dave has deliberately himself  mislead the people, not just a few times, but it seems like ad infinitum. Time and again he is caught out but we don't hear any apologies from his lips for his actions. How the hell is he  our Prime minister anyway, no one voted for him. He sure has a lot to apologise for, he will be known like  Blair  before him as an exceedingly dishonest politician. Constantly  lying and using disinformation on the N.H.S, his list of broken policies longer than his arm, going back on dozens of pledges, but then, this is what one comes to expect from a Tory.
His art of scheming manipulation he really has got down to a fine art. As for Rebecca Brooks being found not guilty,  oh it's such a farce, who was her barrister, yes Cameron's brother,  seems she still has so many friends in high places.
At the end of the day, it's all still  rotten  at the top, the tory's will carry on hating the poor, as the media  tries to distract us with some trivia, their lies will continue.

Something surely has to change!

The Collective Punishment of the Palestinian People must end.

On Thursday the 12th of this month, three settler youth disappeared while hitchhiking in the Hebron area of the West Bank. No Palestinian group or organisation has taken responsibility for their dissapearance. An unfortunate situation for the three missing individuals.
Since this incident Israels' response has been disproportionate, to say the least, with over 370 Palestinians having  been arrested since last Thursday. All over  the West Bank, in villages, towns and cities, Palestinian homes and offices have been raided, people  being held under siege, with many  being injured, with subsequently being  left for dead.
The Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 33, states  that : "No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not  personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or  terrorism are prohibited.Pillage is prohibited.Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited."
At the time of  this posting, six Palestinians have been killed  in the massive military operations that have been  launched, and attempts  to cast the rising number  of unarmed Palestinian casualties as 'self defence' starts to ring hollow. As  former Israeli soldiers   have testified as recently as 2014, that their units used tactics known as 'Provocation and Reaction,' which has been described  as "the act of entering a village, making a lot of noise, waiting for their stones to be thrown at you, and then you arrest them saying : There, they're throwing stones!!!"
At the moment the Israelis  are using  three missing boys  as pawns in their political game, using  them, as they continue to oppress and to avoid avenues of peace. it is not that we have not witnessed  previously, time after time, that Israels' leaders  need no excuse  to  find reasons to continue their collective campaign of terror against the Palestinians. Their road to peace, seems to be displacing people, 750,000 of them, and continuing  to violate  UN resolutions and human rights, to try to disrupt the recently formed unity government. Yet in the world Israel is feeling  the heat too, as people see it as an apartheid state, and  join the many  successful  boycotts and campaign for disinvestment on Israeli products. In the last week we have seen Presbyterians voting to divest holdings in 3 companies supplying Israel with equipment being used in the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
At the end of the day, this collective Punishment of the Palestinian people must stop. Israel I am sure is obligated to carry out its serach for the missing boys, but it should also  be constantly be reminded of  obligations to International humanitarian law and International Human law and the respect to life of the Palestinians, that minimises damage and injury and protects and preserves human rights.

Lesley Boulton Orgreave

(See Saturday's post for piece about 30th Anniversary of Battle Of Orgreave).

Lesley Boulton talks about the iconic photo taken by John Harris at Orgreave  during the miners strike of 1984