James Kier Hardie (15/8/1856 -26/9/15) - Man of the people.

I remember today James Kier Hardie, on the 100th anniversary of his death. This giant of the socialist movement, who rose from coalminer to become the first Labour Party leader, and one of the greatest evangelists for the ideas of socialism.
His life was deep-rooted in the hard lot of the poor, for whom he fought so sturdily  and from whom he never turned away. He was born Agust 15, 1856, in a single room cottage near Newarthill, in the heart of the Lanarkshire coalfield, and was the eldest of a family of seven sons and two daughters.
He would derive from his mum, many  of his good qualities. She was a woman of marked individuality and strength of character, nothing could daunt her, or dampen her convictions.
At the age of ten, he went to work in a local mine, where through self-education he would learn the lessons of solidarity and comradeship. This would help him as he used his voice to speak of a world where woman and man were born equal. Denouncing the rich, the politicians and the establishment, all exploiters, and would see him calling for the destruction of the capitalist system. He was one of the greatest agitators of his day. ( who reminds me of another bearded teetotaller, another frugal person with their diet and advocate of passion currently spreading his message, Mr Jeremy Corbyn)
He was to help found the Independent Labour Party in 1893, and was one of the first 2 Labour M.Ps elected to the UK Parliament. He was to mark himself out as  a radical both by his dress - he wore a tweed suit and a cloth cap, whilst  most other members of Parliament wore more formal dress - and the subjects that he advocated - the nationalisation of the coalmines, for the unemployed, womens rights, republicanism and free education. Stuff that still echoes strongly today . 
For over twenty years he tirelessly addressed meeting after meeting, nearly every day and night, travelling long distances, ,to be known for his powerful oratory negating meals, and continuing to carry on  spreading ideas with comrades long into the night. Never to forget his working class roots,  these people he completely understood,  he realised their plight, never deserting them, with his untarnished devotion and faith in their cause.
his first constituency was in West Ham (London, 1892 ) and then Merthyr Tydfil, here in Wales. He would spend  the rest of his life devoted to the causes he believed in, publicy defending general strikes, syndicalism and militancy. He was one of the first  people also to call for equality between the races of South Africa, and because he was a lifelong pacifist and humanist, this led him to believe that the interests of the working classes were inseperable from peace,and when the First World War  broke out in 1914, he was to oppose it, and was to go on to address countless anti-war demonstrations up and down the country and to support conscientious objectors.
Sadly his dreams of peace were not realised , and after a series of strokes he died in Glasgow on 21 September 1915, a true man of the people, no richer when he died than when he began his political career having never surrendered his primary beliefs. Long may his deeds and words be respected.

  

Shaker Aamer to be released

Just returned home from Carmarthen, visiting partner in hospital, a bit of an ordeal, but nothing in comparison to the one the  man pictured above. has had to endure. So fantastic to hear the  news that Shaker Aamer the last British resident of Guantanamo Bay is to be returned to the UK according to the UK Government. Wondrous, had been thinking of his case only this morning, and members of my local Amnesty international will be jubilant, I know those who have personally campaigned and battled for this day.
The earliest date that Mr Aamer could be released to the UK is 25 October. Yes it is good news, but sadly has arrived 13 years too late, does not account for the terrible ordeals he has been through and the absolute travesty of justice that has been reaped upon him. May he get the help and treatment he deserves for all the trauma inflicted, and allow his story to be told without any whitewash.
Lets hope he can be with his family and friends as soon as possible and not forget more than 100 other detainees who will be left behind in Guantanamo Bay. So as we celebrate time now  for Guantanamo to be closed once and for all..

Song for Shaker - Four Feathers

This roots reggae song by the band Four Feathers  featuring the journalist Andy Worthington is now available as a download, 25% of sales going to Shaker Aamer's family.
It calls for Shaker's release from Guantanamo and his return to his family here in the UK. It starts and ends with Shaker's voice. Shaker Aamer,a charismatic figure  was born in Saudi Arabia, and has four children with his British wife. He has been twice  approved for release from Guantanamo. The first time was in 2007 under George W Bush then in 2010 by Barak Obama. Even David Cameron has personally asked Obama for his safe return to the UK. 
Now 45 he has spent nearly 13 years behind cars, detained without charge - apparently indefinitely, in these years Shaker, who is said to be riddled with arthritis and other medical problems, has claimed to have been tortured, and  in addition to his own torture has witnessed the torture of others.
He is still contained because certain  people are more afraid of what he might say upon his release than the continuing injustice of his case.
No more excuses time to bring  Shaker Aamer  home now.


More details on his case here :-

http://westandwithshaker.org/ 

Link to earlier post  which includes poem  for Shaker penned by me.:-

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/raise-your-voice-for-shaker-aamer.html

Happy birthday John Coltrane ( 23/09/26 -17/7/67) - FOR TRANE (Breathing upon)

" My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my knowledge, my being. When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups. I want to speak to their souls " - - John Coltrane

Remembering the great John Coltrane who was born on this day in 1926. One of the most influential musicians in the history of jazz, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes and was at the forefront of the free jazz movement.  His style encompassed the modal jazz first explored with Miles Davis, the complex chord structures of his own compositions, and ultimately the extremes of timbre, dynamics, and register associated with free jazz. Coltrane’s total mastery of the tenor and soprano saxophones, the rich harmonic density of his compositions, and his clear projection of emotion enabled him to reconcile technical virtuosity with an often spiritual profundity  who bought  new innovations to a constantly innovative musical form. Born today on the autumn equinox. The quality of his music still  continues to inspire me,  reminding me that the root of the word inspiration is ' Breathing upon.'  Happy birthday John Coltrane.

FOR TRANE ( Breathing upon )

Gone now, but in the shadows of time, his music remains, still gathering attention, saving us from high above, poet of the infinite,seeker, priest, his timbre still flying high,  through time and space, releasing a music that testifies to life's force, that recognises the power and spirit of our breath, strong enough still, to give back the power that renews, a sustenance of tenderness, fills days of anxiety, anticipation and separation, with eternal rhythms of presence, knocking on doors, from one border to the next, a moving force of affirmation, releasing a love supreme that forever sings, from his  impulse spirit soars, as stars blaze across the sky.

Blessed be, John Coltrane 

John Coltrane - Equinox

Love Supreme - John Coltrane

(one of my favourite LP's)

I didn't have sexual relations with that pig - David Cameron

It has been alleged that while Jeremy Corbyn was protesting against apartheid in South Africa, David Cameron was smoking dope,  burning money in front of down and outs, smashing up restaurants and having sexual relations with a severed pigs head. According to a new book by Tony Donor Lord Ashcroft.
Even if it proves to be untrue it does present us a golden opportunity to take the piss out of this sanctimonious Tory. One has to have a laugh from time to time. Have not heard calls for the hide of the author, or signs that he will sue. One thing is for sure, he ***** the poor everyday.


First Cameron ****** a pig,but I did not speak out, because I am not a pig,
then Cameron******  the unemployed, but I did not speak out because I was not unemployed,
then Cameron ***** the NHS, and I did not speak out because I am not sick,
then Cameron ***** the Trade Unions, and I did not speak out,because I am not a member,
then Cameron came and ***** me but there was no one left to speak for me.


Cassette Boy vs David Cameron - Getting' piggy with it.

Gratitude

( a poem for the Autumn Equinox)

As summer fades, and autumn returns,
time to pause, reflect,
give thanks to loved ones,
family and friends,
to bless and be blessed.

As leaves turn gold,
and apples fall to ground,
follow paths of passion,
release gentle laughter,
overcome obstacles,
within and outside.

Gratitude and love,
are such beautiful seeds,
stitching the horizon,
regenerating the light of tomorrow,
spreading hope and love,
that never surrenders. 

Support the Love Bank 5

This week dedicated activists  were sentenced to 10 weeks imprisonment. Their crime?
Daring to provide a sanctuary for damaged and vulnerable people in our society, after occupying an unoccupied former Bank of England building, and use it to set up a support center to shelter and feed  the city of Liverpool's homeless, also providing help for people on benefits, a clothes bank and a library. 
This is not justice. This is a system abusing the power handed to it.War has been declared on Homeless activists
The real criminals are those in power who allow people to die on our streets  and children to go hungry.

Free the Love Bank 5.
Please send messages of support to the above addresses.

https://www.facebook.com/loveactivistsmerseyside

Mikhail Bakunin (18/5/1814 - 1/7/1876) - State and Government

Though welcoming Jeremy Corbyn's victory last Sunday and recognising his passion and peoples  genuine hunger for change here in the UK. and how clearly people can be mobilised and really hoping that these forces can continue to be garnered against the evils of capitalism, exploitation and austerity, igniting the struggle that I feel that is needed in the coming days and months ahead. I truly feel that a new better society cannot be forged if the capitalist state is still in place.
I might be naive but believe that the Labour Party is still a party political machine, that is l used as an instrument to prop up the state, one that I am not particularly fond of,  tied in with the usual bureaucracy and compromises that bind it together, so I really do have mixed feelings.
Anyway here is a pertinent and still convincing message from the past from Russian Revolutionary Anarchist and founder of collectivist anarchism Mikhail Bakunin.


State and Government

" I have no hesitation in saying that the State is an evil, albeit a historically necessary evil,  as necessary in the past as its utter extinction will sooner or later prove to be, as necessary as were men's primitive brutishness and theological meanderings. Historically, in every land it was born of the marriage of violence, rapine and pillage - in short, of war and conquest - with the gods successively invented by nations' theological fantasies.  From its inception, it has been and remains to this day a divine sanction upon brute force and triumphant iniquity.
Revolt against the state is a much easier undertaking because there is in the very nature of the State something that is an incitement to revolt. The State is authority, force, the display of and fascination with force. It does not wheedle and does not seek converts: and every time it dabbles in these,  it does so with very bad grace: for persuasion is not in its nature which is rather to impose and compel. To what lengths it goes to conceal its nature as the lawful trespasser against men's wills,  as the standing negation  of their freedom. Even when it serves the good, it does it disservice and spoils it, precisely because it commands good, and any command provokes and inspires freedom to righteous  revolt: and because the good, once it is commanded becomes from the vantage point of true morality, human ( though not, of course, divine morality, and in terms of human respect and liberty, the bad.
Exploitation and government, the first affording the means whereby to govern, and representing the pre-requisite as well as the object of all government, which, in turn, guarantees and legalises the power to exploit, are the two indivisible terms of all that goes by the name of politics. Since the beginning of history, they have indeed constituted the stuff of the life of States, theocratic, monarchial, aristocratic and even democratic. Previously and up until the great Revolution at the end of the 18th century, the intimacy between them has been disguised by the fictions of religion, loyalty and chivalry: but ever since  the rough hand of  the bourgeoisie tore away all the veils, which had in any case become fairly transparent, and ever since its blast of revolution scattered all the empty concrete under cover of which Church and State, theocracy, monarchy and aristocracy had for so long managed, undisturbed, to perpetrate their historical vileness; ever since the bourgeoisie, wearying of being the anvil, took its turn at being the hammer; ever since it ushered in the modern State - in short, that necessary connection has turned into a revealed truth, indeed, an incontrovertible truth as far as everyone is concerned.
Exploitation is the visible body and government the soul of the  bourgeois rule. And as we have seen, the one and the other in such intimacy, are, in theoretical as well as practical terms, the necessary and faithful representative of metaphysical idealism, the inescapable consequence of that bourgeois doctrine that looks outside of social solidarity for the morality of the individual. That teaching results in exploitative government by a tiny number of the fortunate or elect, in exploitative  slavery for the greater number, and for all and sundry, in negation of all morality and all liberty."

Reprinted from :-

No Gods, No Masters; An anthology of Anarchism - Daniel Guerin,

AK Press 2005

Time for something new

This is how our government respects war veterans - it abandons  them to a life on the streets. No wonder some people refuse to sing in praise of Queen and Country. A generation of brave men and women fought fascism so that people could live in a society witm to have forgotten this. There are may people in this land who as  republicans and non-believers  it would  be totally insincere to sing the national anthem God Save the Queen. Surely in the twenty first centurys why would anyone want to cow-tow to an outdated concept like this. It is such a breath of fresh air to see some people resisting the consensus, we need to embrace this wind of changeThe increasing societal compulsion to do as we are told , should be resisted at all costs. For republicans and atheists and anyone with good taste God Save the Queen is an awful song set to a funereal dirge.No one should be forced to sing it. Surely a national anthem is one that unites, not divides and should be about country maybe, but surely no need for God or Queens.  Do we not live in a country unlike somewhere like North Korea where individual  beliefs are allowed not to be expressed.
Time to scrap the privy council too while where at it, and the demeaning tradition of kneeling before the Queen,it is time for change. There is nothing disgraceful I believe in any of the above, but there is something extremely disturbing about living in a country where the rise of poverty and austerity goes unchecked.Now that is something that should be daily challenged.

https://republic.org.uk/

Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen

 

A Nations Hero :- An Ode to Owain Glyn Dwr ( 1354- 1416)

Not a lot of people know this but September 16th marks Dydd Owain Glyn Dwr/Owain Glyn Dwr,Welsh/Cymry natonal hero, known in English as Owen Glendower in honor of the uprising that began on this day, that sparked his stand against the English crown. The following is a poem in his honor

Hail Owain, a nation's hero
heir to Cadwalder the blessed
for years he wandered among his brethren
resurrected the feeling of pride and love of country
defender of the common people, never to be betrayed
hatched and fed our fledgling dreams 
to this day his inspiration fires.
He saw the people of his land
writhing under, tyranny and misrule
until one fair day in September 1400
Glyndwr attacked the town of Ruthin,
raised his standard high, left it in flames
took possession of the lands of Lord Grey

the slumbering Welsh dragon awoke to breathe it's fire.

Welshmen hastened from all parts of the country to join him
and in short time he had a huge rebel army under his command,
over the coming years, great victories were heralded
churches followed towns into flames,
the castles of Abergavenny and Crickhowel,
Caerphilly and other castles fell,
and the Bishops palace at Llandaff raised.

panic and fear  gripped  the Englshman's heart

Henry IV sent his army to Owain's home at Sycarth
and in revenge burned it  down to the ground,
but this saw Owain's  army cutting of their supplies
and saw them scuttling back to England in rapid haste.

At Machynlleth he created a Welsh Parliament

and here was crowned Prince of Wales,
he gallantly told the Parliament gathered
of his plans to build and create great Universities,
and promised to restore the old laws of Howell the Good
King Henry though managed to stop him in his tracks
And in 1405  took mighty vengeance,
saw many Welsh rebels brutally slain
for Owain, sadly came defeat after defeat,
but faithful friends clung to him to the end
until he simply disappeared  became a myth and legend.
To this day his resting place remains unknown
Centuries have passed, but his name forever honored
by us Cymry, because he was the peoples champion,
his ideals continue to inspire his beloved nation
still haunted by his lightning vision, fight for freedom  
yonder his light shines on all who believe in his cause
hoping  one  day will rise again  to liberate his people.