Human Rights Explained

This incredible 2-minute animation by http://www.rightsinfo.org  will tell you everything you need to know about your human rights and why they matter.

I have the right

I have the right to my own opinions
to state what I believe to be the truth,
I believe in freedom of thought
I believe in freedom of speech,
I have the right to be free from bondage
to be free from chains and mental slavery,
to choose what I want to be, where I need to go
because this is my right to be free.
I have the right to speak out
this is my choice, this is my conscience,
this is my right to freedom of expression
this right allows me to speak out against oppression,
this right allows me to stand against trangression, 
                                           aggression, exploitation
this right acknowledges that all born equal and free,
everyone a unique individualistic form 
that all have a right to life and liberty,
with dignity and pride, with the security of protection
that allows us to cry, to love and laugh,
remember that when justice is forgotten 
alternative paths trample down opposition,  
decency and justice, respect, and all that has been given
so  keep on fighting for human rights with no inhibition
remember actions speak louder than words
and what unites us is greater than what seperates

Reality check!

If this  individual was carrying a knife,why did they need  10 men to shoot her?
If Jerusalem was united, why does it's mayor call only on Jews to carry guns to protect themselves?
What should Palestinians carry? Potatoes?
If Israel feels unsafe among Palestinians, why build colonial settlements on stolen Palestinian 
land?
11,000 Palestinians have been  forced out of East Jerusalem by deliberate Israeli policy.,
Are new checkpoints and concrete blocks at the entrance of neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, not acts of provocation?  
How many innocent lives have been effected by tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition? 
Should we not be alarmed about Israel's  policy of extrajudicial killing aimed solely at Palestinians?
Why is the collective punishment reserved  exclusively for family members of Palestinian, but never against those in settlements?
800,000 illegal israeli settlers use more water than the entire Palestinian population of 3 million.
Israel has demolished 15,000 Palestinian homes.
70.7% of the entire forest area in the West Bank has been destroyed to build settlements.
100% of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law.
Why are families not allowed to rebuild destroyed homes?
As Israeli aggression against Palestinians continues  the need for solidarity intensifies too.
Does my empathy for victims, not simply make me human?
Can their ever be peace when their is occupation?

A New World in our hearts ( a poem)

We are building a new world in our hearts
red and black flags united against the system,
with courage to demand nothing for us alone
but everything for everyone else,
following a map towards tomorrow
developing our own journeys,
both individually and collectively
as we travel, exiting dark pathways.

We don't want to rule others
and we will not be ruled,
we have no masters, our thoughts are free
we have removed the chains that bind us,
demanding the impossible 
disintegrating capitalism,
creating the world we want

with messages of power.

They try to reject us
degrade us, belittle us,
shame us and ignore us
because together we are strong,
but in unity we are fearless
as we eradicate their consensus,

with revival of revolutionary spirit
we grow wiser, move beyond obedience.

At the moment, our insides ache
filled with emotions of love and rage,
the daily delusionary shackles of greed
living only now to feed our need,
among widening circles that reach
                              out across the world,
believing in hope, not the detritus

fill our pockets with resistance,
keep on building  new worlds in our hearts.

United Nations to look at UK's deadly disability cuts.

The UK has become the first country in the world to be placed under investigation by the United Nations for violating the human rights of people with disabilities amid fears that thousands may have died as a consequence of controversial welfare reforms and austerity driven cuts to benefits and care budgets.
They are expected  to arrive  in the country within days to begin gathering their evidence. Figures  released by the DWP ( the Department for work and persecution) in August 2015 revealed  that 2,380 people died between  2011 and 2014 shortly after having their benefits stopped. A further 7,200 people also died after having their benefits reduced and being dumped  in groups to apparently help them prepare for a return to work. Leaving many without the means for daily living and the means to survive.
This at a time when austerity has no moral legitimacy or indeed any other kind of basis for validity.The Tory's using the most vulnerable  people in society for  political and ideological gain, leading to suicides, hardship and much suffering.The work and capability assessments have been notorious for providing unreliable assessments of peoples fitness to work and failing to treat disabled people with respect.  Disability rights campaigners have long argued that disabled peoples quality of life has declined immensely under welfare reform and government cuts to services.
We currently have a right wing authoritarian government running amok, and destroying peoples lives, they must be challenged and be reminded of our basic human principles. We are all equally  precious, each life has equal  worth. But the Tory's want to tear these notions apart, surely a society that is not founded on these basic principles of decency, dignity and mutual respect is not worth tuppence.  
As I remember the Governments victims I hope this investigation will lead to the government being held for account and that Ian Duncan Smith finally apologises for what has taken place under his administration. 
Time for the persecution to stop.

                                Disabled protestors and activists on the streets of Manchester 
                                at the time of the Tory party conference

Respite

In the evening
I try to resist,
the strain of life
I have become world weary,
tired of the daily news
and the hard truths,
that leave me overwrought.

So skip pass the headlines
throw newspapers in the bin,
turn of the T.V, uncork a bottle of wine
open back door, to let moonshine in,
allow my thoughts to step outside
to stop them from being consumed 
                             from deep within.

I roll myself a cigarette
peppered with magic herbs,
go outside where the air is clear
find myself alone again,
but with hope, peace and love
my spirit sparkles in the night.

I notice, the changes in the sky,
clouds sweetly rolling on by,
inhaling  deep aromatic smoke into lung,
on the stereo indoors, the release of singing tongues,
my arms and legs, a little drunk, sway and dance
this is my truth, my night vision stance. 

I am an outsider, looking far out
an observer in the shadows of time,
my mind is scattered and in fragments
dispersing in thousands of pieces,
until the morning turns, comes round again
and news arrives of people standing up screaming,
the modern world turning once more in abyss
I give up my journey and rejoin the fight.

Palestinian lives do not seem to matter to the BBC

                       
                         14 Palestinians killed in 2 days and  above is how the BBC report it.

Currently the British government is carrying  out the biggest attack on our movement yet. But I will continue to stand by the BDS campaign as I always have.
I will not condone the disproportionate reporting of the BBC either or the brutal murder of Palestinian citizens by Israels IDF. Everyday Israel forces shoot Palestinians often with video evidence of them breaking international laws, and the BBC news covers the situation always with the amount of Israeli deaths. Anyone who does not look behind the reports would draw the opinion that the Palestinians were at fault entirely.
Palestinian deaths are mentioned as a passing comment.  It seems that the life of a Palestinian simply has no value. The illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel merely presented as  a 'conflict' or even a 'war.' In the coverage of the situation the BBC often fails to convey the reality of the situation. The result is we are often presented with a completely false picture, that there are two sides fighting each other, but one presented as victims and the other side to be disproportianately to be blamed.
Today alone Israel has injured 66 Palestinians with live ammunition  during confrontations with Israeli army in Ramallah, Nablus and Tulkrum,  are they trying to provoke another intifada, it seems so,http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=29536.  Also accrding to Keneth Roth of Human rights watch ' indiscriminate or deliberate firing on observers and demonstrators who pose no imminent threat violates the international standards that bind Israeli security forces :-https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/10/11/israel/palestine-human-rights-watch-investigator-shot
We should be angry and speak out when the BBC and David Cameron remain silent, to the never ending brutal murder of children and the people  of Palestine.
So I will continue to support the representatives of Palestinians civil society,  call for broad boycotts and implement  divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era, until a form of justice is served, that forces to comply with international law,  respect fundamental human rights and thus end its occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people. There will sadly be no peace until the occupation ends.

You can make a complaint to the BBC here if you wish :-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

Assata Shakur ( b:- 16/7/1947) - " Love is a contraband in hell."

Shakur was a  civil rights activist and member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, an underground nationalist-Marxist organisation of the 1970's, and also an accomplished poet - she was convicted of killing a New Jersey State Trooper. Many believe she was innocent. 
Described by Angela Davis as ' a compassionate human being with an unwavering commitment to justice.'
She escaped from prison in 1979,and fled to Cuba, where since 1984 she has been granted political asylum. She has remained a political refugee ever since.

"Love is a contraband in hell"

Love is a contraband in Hell,
cause love is acid
that eats away away bars. But you, me, and tomorrow
hold hands and make vows
that struggle will multiply.
The hacksaw  has two blades.
We are pregnant with freedom.
We are a conspiracy.
It is our duty to fight for freedom
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Fascist Oswald Mosley gets knocked down.

 

Sir Oswald Mosley is perhaps Britain’s most notorious fascist. A member of the ruling classes by birth, Mosley lived a privileged life and used his charisma and oratory skills to court some of the biggest names in 1930s Europe and to develop a devoted following for his right-wing, authoritarian beliefs.

Aged just 21 and with little experience or higher education, Mosley decided to go into politics, running as the Conservative candidate for Harrow in the 1918 general election. He was elected with little opposition and became the youngest member of the House of Commons to take his seat.

Immense self-confidence and eloquence quickly established him as a force to be reckoned with in the Commons. He opposed Conservative policy in Ireland and successfully ran as an Independent MP in 1922 and 1923.

 In 1924, Mosley switched alliances once again, joining the Labour Party and campaigning hard against

Neville Chamberlain in the seat of Birmingham Ladywood, losing by only 77 votes. He was eventually returned to parliament by a by-election in 1926 as the MP for Smethwick. Following Labour’s win in 1929, Mosley was appointed as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster by Ramsay MacDonald. Disillusioned by Labour, who he viewed as too slow to adapt, Mosley founded his own political party: the New Party. Initially, it gained a good deal of support from cross-spectrum figures, but as the Depression took hold in 1931, it became increasingly radical and authoritarian, quickly losing the burgeoning support it had.

By the early Thirties, Oswald Mosley’s ruthless pursuit of personal power had incurred the distrust of his parliamentary colleagues, and so his chances of leading a British political party, any party, had gone. But this vain,man had no intention of being side-lined. He had been watching two men take different and successful routes to power: Hitler in Germany, and Mussolini in Italy. Mosley noticed too that, like Germany and Italy, Britain was suffering widespread discontent due to high unemployment, with its attendant hopelessness and starvation-level poverty. The situation therefore looked very exploitable, and Mosley decided to make the leap.

Mosley visited both Hitler and Mussolini, who received him well, and when he returned to England in 1933 he founded the British Union of Fascists (BUF). He modelled his movement on that of Nazi Germany and, like Hitler, selected the scapegoat upon whom the disenchanted and workless could vent their spleen. Thus, anti-Semitism became the main thrust of Mosley’s manifesto. Emulating Goebbels, the successful Nazi propaganda minister, Mosley threw in large visible doses of patriotism by holding mass rallies coloured by seas of Union Jacks and fascist flags.

Mosley built his movement into a sizeable, brutal force whose provocative parades and meetings in Jewish areas created constant disturbances and kept the police at full stretch. He also gathered support from certain wealthy industrialists and sections of the national press. The BUF also established provincial branches and, while they had no chance of achieving success by normal parliamentary process, they were Mosley’s last hope. 

On this day in 1937, he was due to speak on some vacant land by Queen's Drive, Walton, Liverpool .with the aim of  preaching his vile  fascist beliefs but instead of what he was expecting, was greeted by a crowd of more than 800, many of them hostile, and vehemently anti-fascist. Just moments after getting up on a van,and giving a fascist salute, before he could even utter a word. he was met by a volley of bricks and stones, with hundreds of missiles thrown. The streets of Liverpool clearly  did not want to give him  a warm  welcome and he was hit by a stone on the temple and knocked unconscious. His minions fleed and scarpered, and Mosley was to spend a week recovering from concussion at Walton hospital.

 

Liverpool  had an honoured tradition in the fight against fascism. Around 130 local men, among them the late  Trade Union leader Jack Jones, had joined the International Brigades in Spain, in their fight against the fascist  forces of  General Franco.

Liverpool was not the only place in the 1930's  where the local working class would not tolerate fascism, Moseley's fascists were  also attacked by workers anti-fascists, communists and others in Devon, Manchester, Newcastle, London, Stockton and elsewhere.

From 1937 onwards the appeal of the fascist blackshirts thankfully waned and Mosley''s British Union of Fascists (BUF) were disbanded and proscribed by the British Government snd the scumbag that was Mosely  was eventually detained in prison  in 1940, for the duration of the war.

After the war Mosely formed new fascist groups  but again they faced stiff opposition and were again chased of the streets by ant-fascists.

But we should always be on our guard, and when they try to gather, as they still do, trying to spread their filth on our streets. We will meet them with resistance and force, and continue to knock the fascists down.

They shall never pass.Nazi scum never given a welcome. No pasaron.

Anti-fascist mural from the 1930's

Tunnels of Life

( In memory of Liz, writer, who people are saying goodbye today R.I.P )

Walking side by side
the comfort of friendship and companionship,
passes through our waking breaths
releasing the gift of laughter and kindness,
love and comradeship, sharing possibilities
the spark of imagination, dreams, magic and joy.

As tears are now shed
words arrive to pick people up,
whispering and soothing our cry's
carried on the tips of leaves, and trees,
to remember all the happy times
that life still has much in store.

Above us shine the constellations of the universe
near to the shining bright moon aglow,
when stars sail across the sky
weaving among shifting patterns of time,
peace in the sky, blooming in eternity
souls flying high, on journeys return.

A singular voice, is carried now
on embers of autumnal gold,
taking wing like a bird
a voice of vision, never to be forgotten,
in time we will continue to talk
read her stories, share her tales
we will be able to bring her back at will.

Lost ( a poem for National Poetry Day)

( poem for National Poetry Day, written in 10 minutes, Llyfrgell Aberteifi/Cardigan... 14.51

Poetry lives
in order to be free, 
precious and unguarded
but sadly is often not noticed,
as people walk on by
not even looking,
so simply ignored.

Like a big issue seller
wearing an invisibility cloak,
words written in life's  frenzy
in times emotion,can be rejected,
left behind, stuck on a page
lonely and lost.

Sometimes clumsy
after  sipping too many wines,
just takes a chance
thinking about yesterday
and the days to come,
words escape to express feeling
contained within.

Searching for meaning
waiting to be set free,
with shaking fingertips
imperfect thoughts,
half formed released,
because there is
no other way.

As the winds outside
continue to blow,
words unregulated
arrive random and unexplained,
the sound of a heart beating
a lonely cry.

Mind continues to explore
the silence that has no room to contain,
wandering full  of love and spirit,
will continue to spread
a wild virus of precious intent.
making it all up as I think,
refusing to be abandoned.