The Case for Cultural & Academic Boycott of Israel with intro by Ken Loach

Solidarity with all those marching for Gaza and Palestine today.
Silence is complicity. The chance to be a force for good in the world is there for the taking. I hope more join Ken Loach and others willing to  speak their minds - movement and momentum is everything.

Long March on Newport

In September 2014 (4th and 5th) NATO will bring its summit to Wales. Throughout Wales  opposition grows, peace activists and members from a wide section of our communities are  already spreading an alternative  message across our land, with campaigners starting  of on a 192-mile Long March  On Newport  inspired by the Chartist Uprising.
We have a long proud tradition of standing up for peace, against injustice, this is what I hope the walkers will bring to mind. Ordinary people reflecting a different view, another path. Against militarism and institutions that perpetuate violence on a global scale. As heads  of governments from 60 countries head  to Newport, at Celtic Manor Resort I sincerely hope that the people of Wales, are joined in solidarity from people from all walks of life who  want to see an end to aggression perpetuated by alliances forged with imperialistic agendas, that seem to serve only their own self interests, profiteers of war and poverty, with the added obscene  costs of this summit in these austere times, a clear message of defiance and resistance must be delivered. To demand a world without bosses or bombs.
Marchers  plan to  start from the Eisteddfod in Llanelli today to arrive in Newport on August 29 ,the day  before a planned  demonstration in the city, I hope to make the journey at some later stage too.

More Details here:-

http://notonatowalk.org.uk/

https://network23.org/StopnatoCymru/en/whats-planned/

B.B.C Censorship at Welsh National Eisteddfod

While everyone  is crying for Peace and crying out for Justice and crying out for justice, heard about this worrying incident at the Welsh National Eisteddfod yesterday, a choir called Cor Seingar from Carmarthenshire was wearing pro-Palestinian badges and the BBC told them take the badges off or the BBC would not broadcast their performance.
The BBC has said that this was just a misunderstanding but the choir disagrees, and the choir is taking it further. All they were doing  is wearing badges as a gesture of support and solidarity.http://www.golwg360.com/newyddion/Cymru/158944-bbc-yn-rhwystro-perfformwyr-rhag-dangos-bathodyn-palestina
I'm not sure if I can  trust the Beeb at moment, because  this is the same BBC where Lyse Doucet said that the ceasefire in Gaza means that the Arab fishermen can go back fishing on  the sea normally again. What she or the BBC do not say is that  the Palestinians are not allowed to go out beyond 250 metres off the beaches, and have not been allowed to do this since 2007, because of the illegal blockade thrust upon them. Its all reported as if nothing  was wrong in Gaza prior to 4 weeks ago, and the same  BBC  that uses its news services to spread its messages of jingoism in support of things that only readers of the Daily Mail would want to hear about.

The Ballad of Rivka and Mohammed - Leon Rosselson

Leon Rosselson has written a powerful new song about Gaza. A song from the heart for all of us, which you might like to share.
A song which tells the story of two children in different wars.

We Never Forget

Contribution to letter to Unknown Soldier Project

http://www.1418now.org.uk/letter

We build anniversaries, to remember horror,
as genocide still brings its daily misery,
we should never forget, anybody's senseless slaughter,
all those tragically killed  in patriotic disguise.

The innocent victims, the fallen, the walking wounded,
all those that do not return home, those that mourn,
the many  voices, silenced and stilled,
their names and stories forever  touch and live.

We remember as long as dead names are coughed out,
as time moves on, locomotive  tracks of destruction still created,
as days stretch,  we  do not follow complicity with silence,
remind ourselves  of senses of humanity, left scattered and slain.

We remember too, all those who refuse to fight,
branded cowards, treated like an enemy,
as they battle for a world of peace,
against brutal threads that leave us numb.

With these memories, we continue to share,
spreading the fever  of anger, across many lands,
all loss  is  like a ruined tunnel of light,
a centenary later, we again chant words of peace,
swimming together, desperately under dangerous sky.

HUG A TERRORIST

In a video  meant to draw attention to innocents killed in Gaza violence.Two Canadian schoolgirls, described as Palestinian Syrians  are warmly embraced by Toronto strangers, when they hold up a sign saying ' HUG A TERRORIST'.
As Gaza and Palestinians   resist the  continual terrorist  attack  and brutal emotional and physical abuse, that has resulted in  a toll  of 1000  plus deaths, thousands  injured, nearly  all of them civilians,  and mostly  women and children,  the full destruction of the City, the world is finally experiencing a  rude awakening.
This war on  Gaza has been justified under the pretext of fighting terror, yet children are the main victims.
Only yesterday Israel  shelled  a U.N school in Gaza, killing 16. Where Palestinians had been sheltering after being told to  evacuate their homes. Women and children, killed while sleeping.
Clearly a crime against humanity.
Let me ask you,WHO ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS?

Vi Subversa ( Frances Sokolov Sanson;b; 20/6/34) - Song: Persons Unknown

Born of East European Jewish parents. Spending two years in Israel in the late 1950's, before returning to the UK. Artist, poet, performer, visionary. Lyric  writer, singer and front person for seminal band the Poison Girls, the first anarchist feminist rock band, which between  1977 and 1989 was a potent force in the international peace movement playing hundreds of gigs in the UK, Europe, Scandivania and the USA. A truly amazing, inspiring individual. Here's to all the persons unknown.

This is a message to persons unknown
persons in hiding / persons  unknown
survival in silence isn't good enough no more
keeping your mouth  shut / head in the sand
terrorists and  saboteurs / each  and every one of us
hiding in shadows / persons unknown

hey there mr average/ you don't exist/ you never did
hiding in shadows / persons unknown
habits of hiding soon will be the death  of us
dying in secret from poisons unknown

this is a message to persons unknown
strangers and passers-by / persons unknown
turning a blind eye / hope  to go unrecognised
keeping your secrets / persons unknown

housewifes and prostitutes / plumbers  in boiler suits
truents in coffee bars / you think  you're alone
big men on building sites/ sick men in dressing gowns
agents in motor cars who  never go home

women in factories / one parent families
women in purdah / persons  unknown
wild girls and criminals / rotting in prison cells
patients in corridors / persons unknown

statistics on balance sheets / numbered and rubber-stamped
blind and invisible / you're  lost in your homes
liggers and  layabouts / lovers on roundabouts
wake  up in the morning with persons unknown

accountants in nylon shirts / feminists in floral skirts
nurses for when it hurts / persons unknown
astronauts and celibates / deejays and hypocrites
Liars and lunatics / persons unknown

hopefully  on football pools / teachers in  empty schools
kids into heroin / not yet fully grown
typists and usherettes / black men who can't forget
the lonely who long for persons unknown

closet idealists /  bald-headed realists
rastas and bikers / the voice on the phone
pimps and economists / royalty and communists
rioters and pacifists /persons unknown

visionaries  with coloured hair / leather boys who just don't care
garter girls with time to spare / persons unknown
judges with prejudice / dissidents and anarchists
policemen deal dirty tricks to persons unknown

strikers and pickets / collectors of tickets
radical architects / the queen on her throne
soldiers in uniform / sailors and stevedores
 beggars and bankers / perjurors and men of law

football crowd hooligans / bunkin' of scool again
workers down tools again / united's at home'!
smokers with heart disease / cleaners of lavatories
the old with their memories /persons unknown

flesh and blood are who we are / flesh and  blood are what we are
flesh and blood are who we are / our cover is blown
flesh and blood are who we are / our cover is blown
flesh and blood are who we are / flesh and blood are who we are
flesh and blood are who we are / our cover is  blown

 

Poison Girls - Persons Unknown

 

The Real NATO Agenda

On 4-5th September NATO meets at the Celtic Manor in Newport South Wales. Supposedly meeting to strengthen partnerships and forge alliances around issues of national security and protection of vital resources, this video  reveals for the first  time  the Real NATO Agenda.
Wales  could see its  biggest protests in a generation as  world leaders  meet  planning  their war on the world.
War is the enemy of the poor. At this years  summit the US will be pressuring Western Powers to increase their already huge military budgets at a time when poverty and inequality are soaring. The worlds 85 richest  people have as much as  poorest 3.5 billion.
Money into war is money out of our communities. In the UK, 500,000 people had to resort to food banks last year.
None of the cuts would be necessary if the sums Britain spends  on its military and armanents were invested in social need instead of the war machine.
This autumn the powerful will make their voices heard at the NATO summit. We must make sure  that the voice of the millions  around the world who need peace and justice  is also heard.

Some useful links:-

http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

http://www.cnduk.org/

http://www.no-to-nato.org/

http://www.nonatonewport.org/

The protests have already started. Yesterday there was a successful event in Cardiff, where protestors  managed to disrupt army recruiters, managing to close down  the "Career Centre" for 2 hours. Onwards to NATO.

The message on the banner translates as :-

' WHEN THE WEALTHY WAGE WAR, IT'S THE POOR WHO DIE.'

Arhundati Roy (24/11/61) - 'Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars."

' Colourful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not  powerful  enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped  only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to  load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people  boycott the economic  outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe."

Reprinted from :- Public Power in  the Age of Consent.

The Tories can they sink any lower?

Yes they definitely can...first we have the news that the Tories pocketed £160,000 from a mate of Putins - and that  over 400 Russian  oligarchs have been given visas for a million squid a go. This after Camerons sanctimonious  rant about sanctions over the Malaysian airline atrocity. It turns out that amongst the hundreds of fat defence contracts signed with Russia,  was one for  anti-aircraft components. We sold Putin anti-aircraft componements! ( Remember it was the tories  who also flogged   some camouflage gear to A CERTAIN  S. Hussein just in time for the first Gulf War, which left our own soldiers short, forced to  buy their own gear. But then I would expect nothing less than the Tories. To see the full extent of Cameron's hypocricy, as he mumbles and makes calls for sanctions, see how he still receives backhanders and his governments  continuing complicity  in Israels brutal assult on Gaza.