To the sisters ( solidarity forever)

Solidarity means, that together, we must stand,  fighting hand in hand for a more dignified world. Remember on International Women's Day just  the act of  writing or speaking in public for some is a political act. We should all be aware of these conditions, bearing witness, denouncing injustice and patriarchy that can be reasons for division.
Today we remember all those women who have stood up and fought back, for their rights, for equality, for justice, for dignity, for freedom. We remember your strength and remember too that  we are all much stronger in struggle when we are united.
As I write it should be noted that there is still too much gender inequality, discrimination and injustice globally. We must continue to carry  the voices of all who are silenced.

Happy International Womens Day

Solidarity with women of Selma, Ferguson, Kobane, Mexico, Afganistan, Gaza, women of the world, to my sisters nearer home and to all the comrades  who are still fiercely opting to break every chain
solidarity forever.

Heddwch/Peace.

Janet Dube - atom ( a poem to mark International Womens Day)

Tomorrow marks International Womens Day, I have chosen to mark the occasion with this  from the poet Janet Dube  from her  collection Lifeline which was published by Gomer in 2000.
Janet Dube was  born in Fulham, London and now lives in Carmarthenshire, West Wales. She studied at St David's University College , Lampeter, and has worked as a teacher and playworker. She was active in feminism and the anti-war movement.

I am the atom
tiny, invisible, powerless,

Yet from my body
came the word, for I
am the seed  of all that is;

for I was  in the beginning
and without me was not
anything  made that was made;

and I am the sand,
yet more than the sand;

and  I am the stars,
yet more than the stars;

and I am the hungry;
yet more than the hungry;

and  I am the rich,
yet more than  the rich;

and I the healing water
and I the cleansing earth

and I the seed of all that is
am divided against myself;

tiny, invisible powerless
I am divided,
and I am you.

It's the sign of the times. its the time of our lives.

We've got food banks
swastika armbands,
hate in abundance
governments, leaving us angry.

It's  the sign of the times,
it's  the time  of our lives.

We've got corporations causing  unecessary death
carving up the world with austerity and stealth,
as days drift by, rivers of sadness grow
souls get deep, but still manage to flow.

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

We've got polticians demonising the poor
masters of destruction, seeking war,
who cry blue murder if a person hungry
gets caught,shoplifting as a means of survival.

It's the sign of  the times,
it's the time of our lives.

we've got famine in the third world
dirty water and contamination hurled,
refugees being criminalised,
simply for trying to flee for their lives.

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

We've got apartheid walls, we've got wars of attrition
we've got people being daily denied,
cleared from their lands, words and memories stolen
no opportunity to grow, hope daily scattered.

It's the sign of the times
it's the time of our lives.

As big brother gets bigger, participation is left small
with seeds of destruction, a life of suffering and exploitation,
the world at tipping point, on a downward spiral,
we have to reach out find some means of survival.

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

And we've got smart phones and social media
viruses that arrive daily with hidden intent,
webs of confusion, threads of division
branches ragged,  but still enough to cling too,

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

tomorrow delivers a special offer
admission price is free
dreamers will come  overthrow the world,
take the pain away,and try and start again,.

Because it's the time of our lives,
it's the time of our lives.

Diversity & Inclusion – Love Has No Labels ( a message of hope for our times)

At the end of the day are we not all born equal,  we are all meant to love  one another, not judge. The truth is, love conquers all, we should not be so quick to pass judgement,  on people based  on the color of their skin, their age or their physical abilities. The above video, which I think is marvellous is part of  the Love  has no labels campaign which challenges us to open  our eyes to our bias and  prejudice and  work to stop it in ourselves, our friends, our families, and our colleagues and captures the heart of this beautiful message.
I am not perfect, far from it, but I am still learning to try, and love makes our world spin, it makes us strong too. Love is a human experience that can be shared  for all, it sees no borders either, we should allow these feelings to be shared and grow, love after all  passes over all the many perceived boundaries that we  encounter.
It gives me great hope that as I speak this  video is now being shared by many  people across the world,  a virus, that is necessary in today's troubling times. We desperately need to embrace diversity and help end bias, and keep spreading the word.

Find out more about this wonderful campaign here:-

http://lovehasnolabels.com/

30th Anniversary of Miners Strike marked by benefit compilation

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the return to work of the striking miners of 1984/85 who had remained  out in protest against the  closure of the pits. A benefit compilation has been released  featuring  a stellar cast of  some of the most influential  left wing British musicians of the past 30 years. Superb!
The album produced in association with Philosophy football  features artists like Billy Bragg, Sleaford Mods, New Model Army, Chumbawumba, TV Smith, Attilla the Stockbroker and many more singing songs of resistance and protest, passionate, angry  traditional and modern.


The Orgreave Truth and Justice cd, is available for £9.99 with all profits going to  the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.
You can order this essential collection  by visiting the following  link.
It is only £9.99 with all profits  going to the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.


http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=1200

The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign includes ex miners, Trade Unionists, and activists  and others who are determined to get justice for miners who were  victims  of police and cover ups at Orgreave in June 1984.
Orgreave  was a massive injustice, where hundreds of police  under the orders of Margaret Thatcher carrying riot shields, targeted unarmed miners with truncheons, inflicting serious injury. Miners were kicked  and punched  in a savage attack of police brutality.
We should never forget the miners bitter heroic struggle, nor the fact that not one single  police officer has been disciplined, let alone prosecuted, serving as a reminder of one of the biggest miscarriages of the 1980's. We remember too how Thatcher unleashed a class war destroing peoples ways of live, that paved the way of the political climate and mess we have today.
Today many are still waiting for justice. Seeking it for all miners victimised by the police at Orgreave. We remember too how the power of the state is still used against its people.


Here is  a link to the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign


http://otjc.org.uk/

No to Maximus / WCA

In work - out of work  -  these lot have it covered. Their one aim  to take  away your entitlements and leave you penniless.


Currently a controversial American company  is taking over the contract  to assess the fitness of benefit claimants to work,  having replaced the French firm Atos, who quit the contract last March. They will be used by the government again to help cut  benefits of sick and disabled people, who have already been disproportionately targeted. Two million people have had their benefits sanctioned since 2013, this is the Governments true agenda, hand in hand with companies like Maximus are hitting the poor the hardest.
The Work Capability assessment has proved  to be a very expensive disaster in both financial and human terms.  A growing  number of suicides have been directly  linked to this stressful procedure, whilst medical  staff and claimants themselves  have warned  of the desperate consequences  for those  left with no money at all by the system.
People who  cannot work, for various reasons  should be supported, it is unnecessary to pay millions and millions of pounds to  private companies like Atos and Maximus. Are our own G.Ps not to be trusted.
Today disabled activist groups  and supporters will across  the country vigorously  protest against  these heartless work  tests.
It should also be noted  that Maximus  are also involved in helping to privatise the N.H.S, running the  fit for work occupational  health service  designed to bully and harass.
I personally am in a support group, my crime, I periodically suffer from depression and anxiety but it looks like Maximus has been given a green light to  diminish  people  like me.
Maximus like Atos  before them alongside the Work Capability Assessments must be stopped in their tracks, they are  profiteers of the sick and vulnerable and because of them combined with Tory policies people are suffering. People before profit should be the maxim.
Maximus another ruthless company doing the governments dirty work.


Here are details of the call out by DPAC ; Disabled People against cuts


Please support them, after they have finished with us they will start on the rest.


http://dpac.uk.net/2015/01/disabled-claimants-welcome-to-maximus-march-2nd-everywhere/

The Welsh Language - Alan Llwyd (b;1948 -) Happy St David's Day/Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus.

From the pen of literary critic and most prolific Welsh language poets of our time. Happy St David's day/ Dydd Dewi hapus. At the end of the day we are all different,  but fy iaith, still standing despite it all.  All the best  Heddwch/peace

Stand above the abyss, and shout into the cleft:
she's the thunder in the silence, the noise in the cold emptiness;
although fugitives grope for their splintered ropes on the cliff,
she's the one who prevents our fall into the great muteness.

She's the rain that refreshes the earth, the ruby's sheen,
the harvest breeze,rolling in the corn and the wheat;
the precious sapphire,  the emerald in the grass that is green,
the restless rustling of barley, and bright gleam of light.

She protects from the mute edge, the fort that keeps  enemies at bay,
and above the gaping abyss, she is our tether;
she keeps our dignity; our home against all disarray,
the knot that unites; she gathers her people together.

should the link shatter and break, what would be amiss?
Knot  by knot the rope now opens above the abyss.

trans. the author

Reprinted from ; A Book of Wales, an anthology;
selected by Meic Stephens;
JM Dent, 1987

Time to Change/Amser i Newid

On St David's day/ Dydd Gwyl Dewi a hopefully eye opening film about Wales's share of global inequalities/ Ffilm fydd gobeithio yn agorad llygad fewn i shar Cymru o anghydraddoldebau byd-eang

Banksy leaves his mark on Gaza!

The anonymous but eminent British artist known as Banksy  has again taken aim at Israel's policies regarding the Palestinians, and the daily injustices that they face. Sneaking into the Gaza strip and filming the devastation in the wake  of last summers IDF Operation Protective Edge. The two minute video is entitled "Make this the year you discover a new destination". Showing us what the mainstream media do not want us  to know or see. Depicting for us the lives of the ordinary Palestinian . The destruction that he witnesses was the result of the 50 day conflict which saw 539 Palestinian children dead, and close to 3,000 injured. In total more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed according to United Nations figures.l
Utilising the  language of a low budget tourist video, with the footage of the Palestinians quarantined within. A brilliant charged combination  of art and politics in a place  now devoid of beauty.
And we should remember that today and tomorrow, children like the ones portrayed in the video, will continue to  play amid the rubble and destroyed  building, and that resistance is existence, that existence is resistance.

Dear David Cameron

Last week I talked about Margaret Thatcher's legacy, now I turn on her heir. With  his slicked back hair, Mr Cameron always seems to be willing  to  pose for a photo. Always with his friends keen to castigate  poor people on benefits, with their 'culture of entitlement ' jibe, a man who  stands next to the likes  of Malcolm Rifkind and his ilk, people who  seem to think they are entitled to more as they try to defend themselves after recent  'cash for access scandal.
David Cameron sure keeps delivering, giving us pain, pain and pain, he does not seem to want to give us any hope.
So David Cameron, is this your vision,  to scapegoat the poorest and the most vulnerable  in our land.  Your Big Society initiative, is largely seen as a failure, those at the bottom are clearly  bearing the brunt of austerity. People living daily in fuel and food poverty, the escalating costs  of lifes' basics, please  don't get me started on our beloved N.H.S. Remember  the state provision that we paid for, you have demolished purely for ideological  reasons. You and your party clearly believe  that society should be founded on inequality - that the poor deserve poverty, whilst the wealthy deserve incentives. I am sorry to dissapoint you, but the people are growing tired, and will not  tolerate your hands of unfairness anymore.
We have noticed  that you are nothing  but a slave-owning descendent who has never worked a single day  of your life. With your inherited wealth and all the vestiges of privilege that has been bestowed on you, it is clear that you do not have much  understanding of the real world.
Oh and delivering speeches that threaten to throw teenagers  out onto the freezing streets, it does however reveal something heartless, a person devoid of compassion. Your ideas  reek of arrogance, toxic, the whiff of inequality stalks your foul breath, as you keep cosying up to your friends and crony's the super rich.
As your friends dodge   and fail to answer questions on their tax avoiding  millionaire friends, your party has decided to stigmatise benefit claimants who are deemed  overweight with the threat of punitive sanctions. Picking on the vulnerable again, is your way of life, your creed.
So out of touch you are verging on the ridiculous, cheap and nasty is your cloth. We have not got time  to go,  but I sincerely hope you are soon kicked out of No 10, as well as your rabble of right wing wreckers. Yes I hope we do without you, as support  for anti-austerity policies grow, it is time to create an economy that works for everone, based on fairness,  not just for the privileged few and those nesting at the top. So Mr Cameron I believe your time is up,  it is time  that you and the rest of  your nasty party are kicked out of power.


( oh and remember)