80th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War.

 

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, a moment in time that has come to represent the defining struggle of the age: a clash between not just between the opposing political ideologies of socialism and fascism, but between civilization and barbarism, good and evil.

The fascists launched a coup against the democratically elected Popular Front Government in Madrid on the night of 17th July 1936 inpired mostly by General Franco. Hitler and Mussolini quickly sent aircraft, troops and supplies to the right-wing generals bent on overthrowing Spain's elected government.
But the people rose, millions of people around the world felt passionately that rapidly advancing fascism must be halted in Spain; and more than 35,000 volunteers from dozens of other countries went to help defend the Spanish Republic, forces of red and black fought back united against fascism. In the countryside, peasants took control of the land, redistributing large estates and, in many places, collectivizing the land and setting up communes and a civil war was was waged, the workers immediately set up barricades and within hours the rising had been defeated. Arms were seized and given to workers who were dispatched to other areas to prevent risings. Madrid was also saved because of the heroism and initiative of the workers. Hearing of what had happened in Barcelona they had stormed the main army base in the city. Workers' militias were established. Workplaces were taken over and for ten months after July 1936, the people held power. Taking over the factories and the running of the whole of society. They organised workers’ committees in enterprises and streets. They believed that they had power and fought to defend and extend it.
But in a series of tragic events were sadly defeated aided by the British government who had agreed to a policy of 'non-intervention'  along with the help of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. By April 1939, all of Spain was under fascist control and Franco declared a victory .Solidifying his power with a brutal dictatorship by oppressing and systematically killing any political opposition.Over half a million people were killed in the war, and in the next few years many tens of thousands more were executed, not forgetting all those who died from malnutrition, starvation, and war-engendered disease. General Franco's military regime remained in power until his death in 1975 depriving  Spain of freedom for several decades afterwards, the wound inflicted still resonates.
 About 300 people volunteered from Wales against the tyranny of fascism, with 35 of whom not returning home but the important historical truth is the international flavour of those who volunteered to fight in this brutal war. A great idealistic cause of the first half of the twentieth century, that has been of great interest to me over the years. Two local people from my neck of the woods went to serve Arthur Morris and a Percy Jones. More information here http://irelandscw.com/docs-WelshMorris , I have yet though to see a monument erected to them. Over 40,000 other selfless men and women fought side by side for the ideas of liberty and social justice, solidarity and mutual aid from 53 different nationalities. Rallying to the republican cause.
For many it was not just a war to defeat the fascists it was the beginning of a new society. A revolution in fact, unfortunately revolutions do not succeed when the people are divided. There are many lessons to be learnt from this struggle, a struggle that continues to do this day.
Lets not forget all those who were killed serving with the International Brigades who nobly fought bravely in a spirit of solidarity, and political and moral awareness to try and save us from fascism's threat that still sadly lingers and haunts us  today.The dark shadow cast by the Spanish Civil war, still matters, and the wound inflicted on Spain still within living memory for many has yet to close. We must continue to resist oppressive forces, with our shout of no pasaran.

The poet and political activist John Corford was just 21 years old when he died in Spain in August 1936, I will leave you with these two poems by him written in the teeth of death.

Poem

Heart of the heartless world,
Dear heart, the thought of you
Is the pain at my side,
The shadow that chills my view.
The wind rises in the evening,
Reminds that autumn is near.
I am afraid to lose you,
I am afraid of my fear.
On the last mile to Huesca,
The last fence for our pride,
Think so kindly, dear, that I
Sense you at my side.
And if bad luck should lay my strength
Into the shallow grave,
Remember all the good you can;
Don’t forget my love.

A letter from Aragon

This is a quiet sector of a quiet front.

We buried Ruiz in a new pine coffin,
But the shroud was too small and his washed feet stuck out.
The stink of his corpse came through the clean pine boards
And some of the bearers wrapped handkerchiefs round their faces.
Death was not dignified.
We hacked a ragged grave in the unfriendly earth
And fired a ragged volley over the grave.

You could tell from our listlessness, no one much missed him.

This is a quiet sector of a quiet front.
There is no poison gas and no H. E.

But when they shelled the other end of the village
And the streets were choked with dust
Women came screaming out of the crumbling houses,
Clutched under one arm the naked rump of an infant.
I thought: how ugly fear is.

This is a quiet sector of a quiet front.
Our nerves are steady; we all sleep soundly.

In the clean hospital bed, my eyes were so heavy
Sleep easily blotted out one ugly picture,
A wounded militiaman moaning on a stretcher,
Now out of danger, but still crying for water,
Strong against death, but unprepared for such pain.

This on a quiet front.

But when I shook hands to leave, an Anarchist worker
Said: 'Tell the workers of England
This was a war not of our own making
We did not seek it.
But if ever the Fascists again rule Barcelona
It will be as a heap of ruins with us workers beneath it.'

reprinted from  Penguin Book of Spanish Civil War Verse, edited by Valentine Cunningham (Penguin, 1980)

Benjamin Zephaniah (b;15/4/58) - The British

 
Some positivity today, here is one of my favourite poets Benjamin Zephaniah's passisonate, defense of the strength of Britain's multicultural cohesion. It reminds us that anyone with a fixed idea of what Britain is, is actually anti-British. Britain has always been multicultural, right back to settlers in medieval times. I will add that the world is a melting pot blended with various attributes, qualitities and culture, the following recipe simply explores the diversity and richness that we all share.

Take some Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.

Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.

Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Sudanese.

Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians
And Pakistanis,
Combine with some Guyanese
And turn up the heat.

Sprinkle some fresh Indians, Malaysians, Bosnians,
Iraqis and Bangladeshis together with some
Afghans, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese
And Palestinians
Then add to the melting pot.

Leave the ingredients to simmer.
As they mix and blend allow their languages to flourish
Binding them together with English.
Allow time to be cool.

Add some unity, understanding, and respect for the future,
Serve with justice
And enjoy.

Note: All the ingredients are equally important. Treating one ingredient better than another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste.

Warning: An unequal spread of justice will damage the people and
cause pain. Give justice and equality to all.

This sticker sticks fascists!

This sticker sticks fascists!
The world is currently experiencing an escalation in racism and xenophobia with an increase in a wave of hate crime and racial abuse following the EU referendum. Violence and intimidation and calls of 'go home' directed against minorities, racist graffiti daubed on community centres, we must condemn all those that try to stoke up division in our society, prevent bigotry from spreading and becoming the new norm.
It is our duty to reaffirm that everyone is welcome in our communities, apart from rascists and fascists of course.We should offer genuine solidarity with victims of any racist incident that occurs – and feel bold enough to intervene when they happen.We must seek to challenge and defeat the politics of hate within our local communities , building continuing resiliance and resistance to the politics of hate and fear, The fascists may spread fear and division but we can counter them with unity and hope, spreading a vision of peaceful co-existence and intercultural respect.
The destructiveness of fascism – and racism more generally – is not limited to its principal enemies. Far from affording privileges to large swathes of society as some suggest, the oppression of marginalised groups hurts us all.We have the abilities to stand united against our common enemy, to show refugees that they are welcome, and to show the fascists that we are not afraid. Beyond support for their toxic ideas, fascists also have a long history of physically attacking people and communities.
Solidarity against fascism is not an altruistic option; it’s a rational necessity. With our resolve and determination we can beat fascism. We cannot allow sieg heiling Nazi scum any space, and we will not sit back  and watch their racist, hateful attacks on refugees and migrants. Now is the time to get involved, get active and get organised to take the fascists off our streets.
 Take a look at these stickers hot off the ‪#‎stickittothetories‬ presses – printed for Aberystwyth Anti – Fascists. They’ll soon be on their way to be stuck all over the genteel, and soon to be fascist free, seaside town of Aberystwyth and its Hinterland(!) in mid Wales.

Oh yes- there are hundreds more of them too.
If you have a problem with fascists where you live, then get some of our bespoke stickers, especially printed with your town/city /whatever name – and along with other anti-fascist activities – you too can become a fascist free zone.  http://stickittothetories.org.uk/p…/anti-fascists-your-town/ 

Some words of caution after Nice attack

Terrible, tragic news from yesterday after monstrous killing of 84 innocent people on Bastille day a symbol of freedom and liberty in what was an undeniable act of terrorism. This latest retaliatory, reactionary manifestation of hate in Nice coming eight months after the Islamist militant shootings and suicide bombings in Paris that killed 130 people.
Each atrocity has been used to expand police and intelligence powers. Following the Paris attacks, the Hollande government instituted an unprecedented “state of emergency,” providing authorities with the power to ban demonstrations and detain suspects without charge. Over recent months, millions of French workers and students have defied the laws, engaging in mass demonstrations and strikes against the Socialist Party’s regressive  labour legislation.
The latest attack comes amid mounting social tensions and escalating French participation in US-led military operations in the Middle East, like the US, the French government has actively backed Islamist groups in a bid to topple the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.However, Washington viewed Islamic State’s advance into Iraq during 2014 as a threat to the US-backed government and its dominance of Iraqi oil and resources. The US and its allies, including France, have waged an air war on the Islamic State, while continuing to back other Islamist forces within Syria. 
The French government immediately announces an extension on the clampdown on civil liberties and further military action in Syria and Iraq. Francois Hollande gave no explanation as to how these might prevent a further atrocity. Because he has no evidence that they will. On the contrary.
Moreover, although it is not known at this time whether the attacker was aided in any way by a group based in Iraq or Syria, Hollande has already vowed to employ yet more violence in those devastated countries.  Again we are watching a Western leader adopt the same failed policies of the past while expecting those policies to yield different results. This is the definition of insanity.
Clearly religiously driven terrorism is a phenomenon that our ideals of democracy, openness and free trade find it difficult to come to grips with short of resorting to elements of the police state. But if we allow the horrendous acts of a few to fundamentally change our society for the worse then the terrorists will have achieved one of their principal goals - so clamping down on hysterical demands to either 'hit back' or 'shut our borders' must be seen for what they are: expressions of panic and grief. These must be resisted, and those who express them need to be given time to engage their brains. Only by firmly carrying on with our way of life and working to counter the bigoted mindsets can we  prevail. It will  never be an easy task. Our Governments attempts to try and neutralise the threat is going to be a difficult one, but they must try to do so without curtailing civil liberties too much or allowing the public to become fundamentally divided. Otherwise those who carry out these attacks in the name of whatever twisted ideology have won and the swamp that terrorism breeds in will grow.. 
I cannot help feeling great sadness for the world that we live in right now and feel lucky that I am not in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In the meantime we must continue to stand together in this difficult time and show our solidarity with the victims and their families and all those innocents who fell victimised by several decades of US led, UK, NATO illegal, immoral invasions, occupation, mass destruction, unwinnable wars part of the military industrial complex for corporate profit alone, combined with, western aggression in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, etc where the seeds of this awful nightmare have been sown. We must not lose our shared humanity

Dada Manifesto: Zurich July 14,1916 - Hugo Ball

                                                            Hugo Ball

Dadaism was an art movement founded by Hugo Ball in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland hundred years ago this year that became an international art movement. They had one rule which was to never follow any known rules. It arose because they were against the culture and values of the early 20th century which it was believed had caused and supported the carnage of the First World War in 1914-18. On the following link
http://arthistoryunstuffed.com/tag/dada-manifesto/ Dr Jeane Willett explains how Dada was a reaction to the "psychological  catastrophe" that was Word War 1 and a reaction to the futility of war.They saw the unremitting slaughter as the undeniable proof that the nationalist authorities on both sides had failed society and that the system was corrupt. United in their protest against the war and in their opposition to the establishment, 'they banded together under the battle cry of DADA!!!!'
The Dadaist's aimed to destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art to replace the old. Dada's weapons of choice in their war with the establishment were confrontation and provocation.Art in revolt., anti-establishment, provocative that refused to be categorised into any ideological group, crazy, wild and free. They attacked traditional artistic values with irrational attitudes and provoked conservative complacency with outrageous statements and actions. They also launched a full scale assault on the art world which they saw as part of the system. It was considered equally culpable and consequently had to be toppled. Dada questioned the value of all art and whether its existence was simply an indulgence of the bourgeoisie.It was an “anti-movement movement dedicated to anti-art,” with deliberately nonsensical tactics and a Nihilistic message, i.e. that life is essentially meaningless.
The great paradox of Dada is that they claimed to be anti-art,  but even their most negative attacks on the establishment resulted in positive artworks that opened a door to future developments in 20th century art. The effect of Dada was to create a climate in which art was alive to the moment and not paralysed by the traditions and restrictions of established values.It lay the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of antiart to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism.
 ' Dada signifies nothing,’ declared one of Dada’s main players, Tristan Tzara.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/tristan-tzara-441896-251263-radical.html
‘Not even the Dadaists know what Dada is,’ concurred one of his key collaborators, Johannes Baader.
The word itself was enigmatic: a word picked randomly  from a French-German dictionary, in French meant hobby horse, in German it means ‘good-by,’ Get off my back,’ ‘Be seeing you sometime.’” Dada meant all of this, and nothing at all.

During World War 1 many Anarchists, revolutionaries, pacifists,artists,writers and intellectuals who were opposed to the war sought refuge from conscription in neutral Switzerland. Zurich was a melting pot for these exiles and reviled the political and cultural norms of the time. For them, the bloodshed of World War One didn’t just mark a futile loss of human life, it confirmed other forms of expiry – the failure of the entire project of Western philosophy, the death of the human “spirit”, and the inadequacy of language, which had been abused for politically corrupt ends and defiled by jingoism.
Born 1886 in Pirmasens, the writer Hugo Ball who was the inspiration for the classic Talking Heads song I Zimbra   with his poem "Gadji beri bimba studied German literature, philosophy, and history at the universities of Munich and Heidelberg (1906-1907). In 1910, he moved to Berlin in order to become an actor and collaborated with Max Reinhardt and worked as a director and stage manager for various theater companies in Berlin, Plauen, and Munich. He also started writing, contributing to the expressionist journals Die Neue Kunst and Die Aktion, both of which, in style and in content, anticipated the format of later Dada journals At the beginning of the First World War he tried joining the army as a volunteer, but was denied enlistment for medical issues. After witnessing the invasion of Belgium, he was disillusioned saying: "The war is founded on a glaring mistake, men have been confused with machines". Considered a traitor in his country, he crossed the frontier with the cabaret performer and poet Emmy Hennings,  and settled in Zurich. Here, Ball continued his interest in anarchism, and in Mikhail Bakunin in particular; he also worked on the book of Bakunin translations, which never got published. Although interested in anarchist philosophy, he nonetheless rejected it for its militant aspects, and viewed it as only a means to his personal goal of enlightenment.It was in Zurich on February 5th, 1916 that he and his partner opened the 'Cabaret Voltaire', a rendezvous for the more radical element of the avant-garde. This venue was a cross between a night club and an arts centre where artists would exhibit their work to a explosive mixture of experimental music, poetry, readings and dance and political theater. — poetry shorn of intelligible words, where melodies and statements in which the message was cannibalized by the absurdity of the language. His intentions regarding the Caberet Voltaire are defined in the following words " It is necessary to clarify the intentions of this cabaret. It is its aim to remind the world that there are people of independent minds - beyond war and nationalism - who live for different ideals." (from the contribution entitled "Lorsque je fondis le Cabaret Voltaire" ["Why I founded the Cabaret Voltaire"], in the publication "Cabaret Voltaire," Zürich, 1916).
The Dadaists were in there own way  the very first performance artists, who besides sound poems also invented the simultaneous poem (whereby verses are read out in different languages and at different speeds at the same time) and were the precursors of modernn-day slam poetry.
Among the original contributors to the 'Cabaret Voltaire' were Jean (Hans) Arp, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco and Richard Huelsenbeck. Although the Dadaists were united in their ideals, they had no unifying style. Between 1917-1920 the Dada group attracted many different types of artists including Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Johannes Baader, Francis Picabia, Georg Grosz, John Heartfield, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Andre Breton,  Kurt Schwitters, and Hans Richter.
At the first public Dada-Soirée, at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, a hundred years ago today on July 14, 1916, Hugo Ball read aloud his  Dada manifesto and summed up his absurdist nature: ‘How does one achieve eternal bliss? By saying Dada.  — and recited several of his sound poems, including "Karawane," reënacted below consisting of nonsensical words.The meaning however resides in its meaninglessness, reflecting the chief principle behind Dadaism.

  
Hugo Ball - Karawane

.

’
Hugo stayed active in Dada movement for another six months, but the manifesto created conflict with his friends, notably Tristan Tzara because he was at odds over Tzara's ambition to make Dada into an international movement with a systematic doctrine Some of Hugo Bell' other best known works include the poem collection 7 schizophrene Sonette, the drama Die Nase des Michelangelo, a memoir of the Zurich period Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary, and a biography of Hermann Hesse, entitled Hermann Hesse. Sein Leben und sein Werk (1927). Hugo would retire to Ticino, where he completely devoted himself to mystical Catholicism.He died in 14 September 1927.d in' Abbondio, Switzerland, 14 September 1927.
After the war, the face of Dada began to change. Many of the Dadaists who were exiles in Zurich began to drift back to their home countries and found that life was quite different there. As they relocated to Berlin, Cologne, Hanover and some as far as New York, Dada developed an international reputation but each of these venues had its own distinctive style inspired by the artists who settled there.In post-war Berlin, Dada became less anti-art and adopted a more political stance. Reality bit hard as the war-weary population struggled to survive the effects of economic meltdown.  There was social and political disorder as Left fought Right for control of the government.  In this climate the irreverent posturing of Zurich Dada would have been totally inappropriate, so Dada in Berlin emerged with a harder hitting punch.Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, John Heartfield and George Grosz were the main artists who developed the strident political satire of Berlin Dada.
Dada would ultmately self destruct,the internal squabbling brought Dada to an abrupt end. And even though it would not last it still endures, it has become a state of mind. In their subversiveness and experimentation, the Dadaists were forging modes of working and forms of art that would either anticipate or directly influence the shape of much art to come and.the heart of dada still to be found in its poetry and provocations, its polemics and experiments with chance.... maybe the time for Dada is right now?

Dada Manifesto ( 1916, Hugo Ball)
read at the first public by Dada soiree, Zurich, July 14, 1916.

" Dada is a new tendency in art. One can tell this from the fact that until now nobody knew anything about it, and tomorrow everyone in Zurich will be talking about it. Dada comes from the dictionary. it is terribly simple. In French it means "hobby horse." In German it means "good-by," "Get off my back," "Be seeing you sometime." In Romanian: "Yes, indeed, you are right, that's it. But of course, yes, definitely, right." And so forth.
An international word. Just a word, and the word a movement. Very easy to understand. Quite terribly simple. To make of it an artistic tendency must mean that one is anticipating complications. Dada psychology, dada Germany cum indigestion and fog paroxysm, dada literature, dada bourgeoisie, and yourselves, honored poets, who are always writing with words but never writing the word itself, who are always writing around the actual point. Dada world war without end, dada revolution without beginning, dada, you friends and also-poets, esteemed sirs, manufacturers, and evangelists. Dada Tzara, dada Huelsenbeck, dada m'dada, dada m'dada dada mhm, dada dere dada, dada Hue, dada Tza.
How does one achieve eternal bliss? By saying dada. How does one become famous? By saying dada. With a noble gesture and delicate propriety. Till one goes crazy. Till one loses consciousness. How can one get rid of everything that smack of journalism, worms, everything nice and right, blinkered, moralistic, europeanized, enervated? By saying dada. Dada is the world soul, dada is the pawnshop. Dada is the world's best lily-milk soap. Dada Mr. Rubiner, dada Mr. Korrodi. Dada Mr. Anastasius Lilienstein.
In plain language: the hospitality of the Swiss is something to be profoundly appreciated. And in questions of aesthetics the key is quality.
I shall be reading poems that are meant to dispense with conventional language, no less, and to have done with it. Dada Johann Fuschgang Goethe, Dada Stendhal. Dada Dalai Lama, Buddha, Bible and Nietzsche. Dada m'dada. Dada mhm dada da. It's a question of connections, and of loosening them up a bit to start with. I don't want words that other people have invented. All the words are other people's inventions. I want my own stuff, my own rhythm, and vowels and consonants too, matching the rhythm and all my own. If this pulsation in seven yards long, I want words for it that are seven yards long. Mr. Schulz's words are only two and a half centimetres long.
It will serve to show how articulated language comes into being. I let the vowels fool around. I let the vowels quite simply occur, as a cat miaows... Words emerge, shoulders of words, legs, arms, hands of words. Au, oi, uh. One shouldn't let too many words out. A line of poetry is a chance to get rid of all the filth that clings to this accursed language, as if put there by stockbrokers' hands, hands worn smooth by coins. I want the word where it ends and begins. Dada is the heart of words.
Each thing has its word, but the word has become a thing by itself. Why shouldn't I find it? Why can't a tree be called Pluplusch, and Pluplubasch when it has been raining? The word, the word, the word outside your domain, your stuffiness, this laughable impotence, your stupendous smugness, outside all the parrotry of your self-evident limitedness. The word, gentlemen, is a public concern of the first importance."

Fierce Calm ( For Ieshia)

A demonstrator protesting the death of Alton Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Baton Rougue, Louisiana, US July 2016, Copyright, Jonathan Bachman, Reuters. 
Woman who was captured in above iconic photo has been revealed as 28- year old Ieshia Evans, a licensed practical nurse and mother to a five-year-old son, who was attending her first protest on Saturday.We must stand in solidarity with the #Black Lives Matter movement in the US and their struggle against deeply grained institutional racial prejudice.

Fierce Calm ( For Ieshia)

After violence had rained down on communities,
and storms had spread across country,
fierce calm boldly entered the lion's den,
stood firmly in elegant defiance,
silently posed on cracked asphalt,
summer dress billowing in the breeze,
as a phalanx of riot police surged,
and tempest's blew, was not phased,
continued brave stance,in peaceful composure,
didn't say anything, didn't resist,
with determined dignified power,
looked over the next horizon,
and never once looked back,
frozen in time, a vessel of justice,
freedoms flower releasing hopefulness,
amplifying pathways of change.

Whatever happened to democracy?

The MPs and Lords of both major parties are currently effectively in the process of launching a coup against the electorate.
All the Brexiters leaders have, gone, disappeared, done a runner. And what a shambolic mess our country is in now, we are left picking up the pieces, and Farage, Gove, Grayling, Duncan Smith and co ,who led us off a cliff, then legged it, they should all join Blair , in prison for lying to the country.
Andrea Leadsom now abandoning her bid to become Tory leader, another leading Brexiter jumping ship, she claimed abuse, but perhaps a case of her lies not holding up to scrutiny allowing Theresa May to become next Prime Minister uncontested - not chosen by the public, or even by members of the Conservative Party. Our Prime Minister will have been effectively selected after a chaotic process of elimination by Tory MPs alone. 
A pantomine to distract us from Brexit, Tax Avoidance, Trident, Chilcot, MP's expenses, Private Deals, Austerity and all their other little scams. Don't believe the BS.
Labour meanwhile who are meant to be fighting off the Tories, at a time when Tories are in crisis instead are stabbing their leader in the back, and are going against the whole membership, basically giving the Tories a golden ticket for them to throw more austerity onto us.172 MPs in defiance of the 250,000 members who voted for that leader. These are dispiriting and retrograde actions, but they are also the desperate and chaotic actions of weak reactionaries who have seen their political assumptions destabilised by the the mass participation of a new rank and file in the British Labour Party joining becaue they recognie the need for a more fairer society. Backstabbing Angela Eagle is currently flapping around launching what may be an equally uncontested bid to become Labour leader. Party rules that were not designed to cover the eventuality of a challenge to an incumbent leader may be abused to bar the elected leader from standing. Eagle wants to 'save' the Labour Party... from the democratic will of the party membership. A huge distraction at the moment, when the Tory' currently regrouping. Lets hope that the huge mandate  given to Jeremy by Labour party members is respected through the upholding of his right to automatically appear on the ballot.
And we now have an unelected prime minister,Theresa May, this reluctant remainer, Queen of the snoopers charter, a clone of Margaret Thatcher for God's sake, after a career of opposing legislation that guarantees equality and human rights. well known for her scarily authoritarian, anti-democratic and anti-free speech views, who not only supported scrapping the Human Rights Act and leaving the European Convention on Human Rights - both of which have protected and promoted human rights in the UK and internationally - but has also backed the introduction of employment tribunal fees (making it costly and difficult for people to take rogue employers to court if they face discrimination), and she has done little to reform the appalling way our asylum system treats people fleeing persecution and one of May’s very first acts in the role of Home Secretary: in 2010, she ensured that public bodies no longer had to actively try to reduce inequality. Who will she carry on doing the bidding for? It wont be for the marginalised or the voiceless, slim chance. Unfair and cruel austerity policies will continue, our public services will carry on being plundered for private profit, combined with the cruel targeting of the mot vulnerable in society, the sick, the unemployed and the disabled. The Tory dream of dismantling the welfare state, privatising healthcare and turning all educational institutions into academies will continue to be implemented, as well as a more ardent neoliberal stance toward big business. Good news for corporations, bad news for the rest.  
Cameron called an unnecessary referendum simply to mollify the right wing of the Tory Party, the result of which has divided the country as never before and which might result in the break up of the UK. Never before, except perhaps in 1930s Germany, has a country been so badly served by a government. We need a general election as soon as possible now because we can't have a PM elected by the small amount of people in the Tory party (in fact even they didn't vote for her; she won by default!), we need one elected by the electorate. Whatever happened to democracy? We seem to be screwed in all directions. 

New politics, let's be having it

Having already suffered an almost total wipe-out in Scotland, the Labour Party seems to be entering a very dangerous period in its history. The rebels in the PLP don't seem to realise that they are isolated between the leadership, the members and the unions. If a leadership contest is announced tomorrow and, through some procedural machinations, Corbyn is kept off of the ballot paper, the PLP will have pushed the nuclear button, and will transform this crisis into an extinction level event for the Labour Party.
However I watched this interview this morning and in one of his best interviews, Jeremy Corbyn answered questions from Andrew Marr about the forthcoming UK Labour leadership contest with Angela Eagle,the Chilcot report, Tony Blair, and Trident and as much as Andrew Marr probed, JC was ready with answers that showed clearly had had thought deeply about things and was not prepared to denigrate people who disagreed with him. If this is the new politics, then let's be having it..
Imagine what could be achieved if every member of the Parliamentary Labour Party spoke as confident and eloquently as their democratically elected leader and united to attack the tories and got on with the job of  pointing out  our societies ills and inequalities that hurts so many ordinary people, the road to a better society could be achieved.

Ten years of siege in Gaza : End the Blockade

For the last ten years the densely populated Israeli occupied Gaza strip has been  besieged  by Israel, by land, sea and air, 1.8 millions, the vast majority of whom are refugees, are effectively trapped in an area of land, just 40 kilometres long and 9.5kilometres wide.
Two years ago last week the world witnessed Israel's brutal military attack on Palestinians in Gaza in which more than 2,300 Palestinians were killed including 300 children and 100,000 people were displaced after Israel deliberately attacked entire civilian areas in Gaza and inflicted as much human suffering as it could. The explosives that were dropped on Gaza continue to claim lives.The UN and human rights organisations have documented Israel's war crimes during the massacre.  Amnesty International has denounced  the lack of accountability for crimes committed during the assault on the Gaza strip in 2014, in a new briefing  the global human rights group says the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for violations is " indefensible"https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2015/07/justice-victims-war-crimes-gaza-conflict/ 
The siege continues and has almost entirely prevented meaningful reconstruction since the 2014 attack and only a slight improvement in the humanitarian situation has occurred, the Gaza strip remains a disaster area, people are living in tents or caravans that cannot protect them from the heat in the summer, or from the very cold weather in the winter time. The longer Israel maintain its siege of the world's largest open-air prison, the more the international community adapts and accepts Israel's deliberate reduction of Gaza into an uninhabitable prison camp which the Palestinian confined within has to daily endure. The blockade has caused grinding poverty resulting in more than two-thirds of Gazan families being dependent on aid. 
Due to fuel shortages and damaged or destroyed electrical infrastructure, there are power shortages for up to 16 hours per day in most areas of Gaza. 70 percent of households in Gaza receive running water for only 6 to 8 hours once every two to four days. Over 90 percent of the water extracted from the Gaza aquifer is unsafe for human consumption, while needed filtration equipment cannot be imported to Gaza. Nearly 90 million liters of untreated or partially treated sewage is dumped into the sea off Gaza every day, while equipment needed to build new or maintain existing treatment facilities are banned from entering Gaza. As a result of the blockade the economy, education, medical care, agricultural and fishing industries have worsened, in some cases in near-collapse.
Gaza's wealth is largely unreachable as a direct result of Israel's occupation and blockade. Most agricultural land is located in places declared closed  military area ("no go" zones or has been destroyed during military attacks. Access to traditional fishing grounds is restricted by the Israeli Navy. Development of their natural gas reserves is forbidden by the Israeli government. All of this  while the movement of people into and out of Gaza is seveely restricted and both the import of goods and the export of products fom Gaza is strictly limited.
Israel though is not only oppressing Palestinians - it is also exporting its ruthless model of militarized repression to the world. As this Links that Kill fact sheet sets out, Israel is only able to do this because of the massive weapons trade and miltary coperation, including research, it maintains with countries across the world. Over the period 2009-2018, the US is providing military aid to Israel worth $30 bn. EU arms exports to Israel during 2014 alone were worth over $1bn. Money used to maintain oppression. If the world cares  about Gaza's plight, the blockade must not be allowed to continue, it amounts to collective punishment illegal  under the Fourth Geneva Convention. As the occupying power, Israel has obligations to the people  of Gaza, under international law. In the fall, world leaders are meeting to discuss next steps on Gaza. This or chance to take action to ensure Gaza is completely rebuilt and that people are treated with dignity. The blockade must end.

We must continue to support the Palestinian people's non violent struggle for freedom, justice and equality, we can do this  by supporting their call for BDS ( Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) we can make a difference, and please consider signing the two following petitions, cheers.


World leaders lift the Gaza blockade :-

.https://secure.avaaz.org/en/gaza_blockade_aida/?avQoLab

Gaza:End the Siege :-
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/campaigns/gaza/

Marnetz Wood: In Parenthesis by David Jones, Artist, Soldier, Poet, ( 1/11/1895 -28/10/74)

           
                                David Jones as a young private

During the First Battle of the Somme, one of the most brutal battles of the First World War, the 38th (Welsh) Division was given the job of attacking Mametz Wood on 7th July 1916 a 100 years ago today, but were forced to retreat because of the intensity of German machine gun fire from the wood.
They were ordered to regroup and attack for a second time on the 10th July and succeeded in reaching the wood. By the 12th July the Germans and their machine guns had been cleared out of the woods but the Welsh Division had lost more than 4,000 men. Whole Welsh communities reeled from losing their young men in this slaughter and it came to symbolise the futility of war.
The poet-artist David Jones, a Londoner of Welsh extraction the son of a Welsh father and an English-Italian mother who had trained as an artist in Camberwell School of Art, Jones joined the newly formed London Welsh Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in January 1915 and, after a prolonged period of training, much hampered by a lack of equipment, finally embarked for France the following December. After a period in and out of the Line in the La Bassee sector, Jones marched south for the Somme in the summer of 1916 serving as a private. Here, he took part in the attack on Mametz Wood on the 10th/11th July, was wounded in the thigh and was subsequently returned to England to convalesce. On his eventual return to the Line, his unit had been moved to the Ypres salient. Jones would have taken part in the initial stages of the prolonged Passchendale offensive, had he not been held back as part of the battalion’s reserve ‘nucleus’.It would have a profound effect on him  because of it's scarring effect. In all Jones spent 117 weeks at the front,longer than any other war poet and in his adult life he suffered severe bouts of depression, nervous breakdowns  and inactivity which could be traced back to his war years in what today would be considered post traumatic stress. In World War 1 the enemy became the war itself in dehumanised form.
His epic prose poem ‘In Parenthesis’ is virtually unique in First World War literature, evoking the horrors, carnage, camaraderie and heroism of the ordinary soldier, his hopes and fears, laughter and tears. The poem covers the progress of a unit from December 1915 to the Somme offensive in July 1916.  At it's most basic level it is a fictionalised account mirroring his own service as a foot-soldier in the First World War. In Parenthesis though graphic in its depiction of the horrors of war, of the mindlessness of much of the violence resulting from nationalistic pride, it also manages to speaks with an aesthetic voice and wonders if some beauty can be found even in the very instruments of human destruction. Jones is skeptical that this will be possible but sees the attempt as part of his responsibility as a poet in the twentieth century, an age that now must live with “increasingly exacting mechanical devices; some fascinating and compelling, others sinister in the extreme. Jones’s poem speaks with a profoundly humanistic voice, transcending the grotesque suddenness of individual deaths in battle and finding in history a common thread connecting all soldiers to the nobility of being a man or a woman.He focuses on the lives of bottom ranking soldiers, adding a dimension to his heroic epic that both elevates the lowly and critiques the lofty.  In Parenthesis deals with powers that tap into the life force itself, the incomprehensible energies that bring humans into existence and dispatch them just as quickly. The poem might be said to be basically religious,using the war as a metaphor for life itself—to Jones, each is a parenthesis.Throughout the prose poem he applies religious terminology and symbolism to his characters, and makes frequent references to religious rituals, holy days and biblical allusions.He also  has numerous allusions  to what we’d consider of  as medieval romances: Malory’s Morte d’Arthur is often referred to, as is the Welsh poetry of the Mabinogion and Y Gododdin.
His poem suggests that war helps people become more aware of that larger parenthetical condition called life, a condition ultimately as sudden and individually. Despite what he has witnessed throughout he remains alert to the flashes of humanity that light up the wasteland of war. Complex in organization, rich in vocabulary, In Parenthesis demonstrates the rich intricacies of Jones’s work.
In it's climax, Part 7 the protagonist John Ball along with his unit attacks Mametz Wood. As he goes forward, he watches as most of his fellows around him being ripped apart, but Ball somehow makes it through unscathed until that evening. When ordered to take part in a subsequent, follow-up attack, Ball is knocked down, hit in the legs by machine-gun fire, and is greviously wounded begins his long crawl back to some place of safety - as Jones himself did. Along the way he discards most of his equipment (except for his gas mask, which he thinks might come in handy). However, his rifle has special meaning: as any soldier knows, a warrior and his weapon are one: it defines who he is, lose it and he loses his identity. As he retreats, Ball carries on a conversation with himself: should he leave the rifle? He hears the voices of his drill instructors driving home the importance of care of arms, the individuality of each soldier's weapon, the intimacy that he should share with it. . 

The assault on Mametz Wood took three days and the British forces succeeded in pushing back the enemy lines — but at huge cost. Jones's battalion alone lost a third of its men, killed or wounded. 

The poem watches them as they fall. A private who married his sweetheart when last on leave is pierced through by a razor of shrapnel. One man, even as he bleeds to death, still fumbles with the wretched straps of his uniform, trying to loosen the choking buckle of his tin hat. Not far from his prone body lies the severed head of a private grinning "like the Cheshire cat". It was images like this, grotesque, absurd and brutal, that would haunt Jones for decades.

The poem ends with Mametz Wood, but for Jones the war went on.On his eventual return to the Line, his unit had been moved to the Ypres salient. Jones would have taken part in the initial stages of the prolonged Passchendale offensive, and so the routine of sandbags and shelling continued.  In mid-February 1918, Jones came down with trench fever and was evacuated to a base hospital with a 105-degree temperature. There he came closer to death than he ever had in the field. He would not return to the front. Nor would he recover from those three years. Though he never called it shell shock, Jones was diminished and unmanned by all that he had seen. Jones was evacuated and saw out the rest of the war in Ireland. He never saw action again and was released from the army in the January of 1919, aged 23.

After the war Jones would have a conversion to Roman Catholicism and joined a small community of Catholic artists headed by craftsman Eric Gill, first at Ditchling, East Sussex then resettling at  Capel-y-ffin, near Hay-on-Wye among the Black Mountains in Wales, where he began to develop a unique concept of art and the function of the artist. The monastery where he stayed I have been fortunate to visit after numerous visits to the area where Jones took comfort from the singularity of the place as his weakened lungs drew in the mountain air. While resident at the monastery there he painted and illustrated prolifically and later reflected that the landscape had allowed deeper understanding of his Welsh identity.

                                          Capel-Y-Ffin , 1926-27- David Jones

Jones never married, never had children. He lived a monkish existence in a series of guest rooms and bedsits, which he referred to as his "dug-outs". His prints, paintings and poems brought a small income but financially he relied on his parents and then on the generosity of friends and patrons. To the end of his life the clatter of a tea-tray or a foggy day would rend his nerves. Each July the horrors of the Somme and Mametz Wood would return, triggering debilitating insomnia. It is more than likely he was still suffering from shellshock, which today we would call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which leaves many ex soldiers with nightmares, flashbacks and feelings of dissociation or intense anxiety, afflicted by an inner wound from which they never recovered. David Jones remembers breaking down : '‘all gone to pieces and not pulling himself together not making the best of things’and was himself unable in fact to write In Parethesis until many years later. Many soldiers like Jones were not able to settle back into their home life afterwards or make sense of their experiences. Some people carrying this mental ‘shrapnel’ in their minds committed suicide. 

If In Parenthesis was an attempt to exorcise these demons, it failed. The completion of the poem in 1932 brought a shattering nervous breakdown. It took five years for Jones to summon the courage to have it published. T.S. Eliot, who oversaw its publication by Faber, called it "a work of genius". He would retire to Harrow and devoted himself mainly to calligraphic inscriptions in the Welsh language and continued painting until his death in May 1974, a few months after he had been made a Companion of Honour. Often overlooked nowadays, I would urge people to discover this book it, it remains a work of great vision,it remains forever a profoundly moving piece of work. A masterpiece of First World War poetry and literature that we should not forget.  

                                             sketch by David Jones

From In Parenthesis, part 7
   
And to Private Ball it came as if a rigid beam of great weight
flailed about his calves, caught from behind by ballista-baulk
let fly or aft-beam slewed to clout gunnel-walker
below below below.
When golden vanities make about,
you've got no legs to stand on.
He thought it disproportionate in its violence considering
the fragility of us.
The warm fluid percolates between his toes and his left boot
fills, as when you tread in a puddle--he crawled away in the
opposite direction.
It's difficult with the weight of the rifle.
Leave it--under the oak.
Leave it for a salvage-bloke
let it lie bruised for a monument
dispense the authenticated fragments to the faithful.
It's the thunder-besom for us
it's the bright bough borne
it's the tensioned yew for a Genoese jammed arbalest and a
scarlet square for a mounted mareschal, it's that county-mob
back to back. Majuba mountain and Mons Cherubim and
spreaded mats for Sydney Street East, and come to Bisley
for a Silver Dish. It's R.SM. O'Grady says, it's the soldier's
best friend if you care for the working parts and let us be 'av-
ing those springs released smartly in Company billets on wet
forenoons and clickerty-click and one up the spout and you
men must really cultivate the habit of treating this weapon with
the very greatest care and there should be a healthy rivalry
among you--it should be a matter of very proper pride and
Marry it man! Marry it!
Cherish her, she's your very own.
Coax it man coax it--it's delicately and ingeniously made
--it's an instrument of precision--it costs us tax-payers,
money-I want you men to remember that.
Fondle it like a granny--talk to it--consider it as you would
a friendöand when you ground these arms she's not a rooky's
gas-pipe for greenhorns to tarnish.
You've known her hot and cold.
You would choose her from among many.
You know her by her bias, and by her exact error at 300, and
by the deep scar at the small, by the fair flaw in the grain,
above the lower sling-swivel--
but leave it under the oak.
Slung so, it swings its full weight, With you going blindly on
all paws, it slews its whole length, to hang at your bowed neck
like the Mariner's white oblation.
You drag past the four bright stones at the turn of Wood
Support.
It is not to be broken on the brown stone under the gracious
tree.
It is not to be hidden under your failing body.
Slung so, it troubles your painful crawling like a fugitive's
irons.

At the gate of the wood you try a last adjustment, but slung
so, it's an impediment, it's of detriment to your hopes, you
had best be rid of it--the sagging webbing and all and what's
left of your two fifty--but it were wise to hold on to your
mask.
You're clumsy in your feebleness, you implicate your tin-hat
rim with the slack sling of it.
Let it lie for the dews to rust it, or ought you to decently
cover the working parts.
Its dark barrel, where you leave it under the oak, reflects
the solemn star that rises urgently from Cliff Trench.
It's a beautiful doll for us
it's the Last Reputable Arm.
But leave it--under the oak.
Leave it for a Cook's tourist to the Devastated Areas and crawl
as far as you can and wait for the bearers.

 
From In Parethesis, David Jones:  London: Faber & Faber. 1937 part 7, pp. 183-86.

                                                    Picture of David Jones in later life 

                                                Animals going to the Ark - David Jones

The Greatest Poem of World War 1: David Jones's In Parenthesis

Poet Owen Sheers will be tracing the story of David Jones poem  tracing its inspiration from  the English military parade ground to the carnage of the Somme, on a programe on BBC 2 Wales this, Saturday July 10th at  from 9.00 pm to 10.30 pm.

This will be followed at 10.30 by  In Parenthesis: The making of the Opera


 Further reading :-

 Tate Gallery, David Jones (1981)

 David Jones: Vision and Memory - Ariane Banks and Paul Hills, Lind Humphries 2015

 David Jones: The Maker unmade, Jonathan Miles and Derek Shiel, Seren, 1995.

David Jones also makes a cameo in the poet and writer Owen Sheers book; Resistance, and Owen Sheers himself  wrote a poem called Mametz Wood a link I enclose here  :-
 http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/gcse/owen-sheers/mametz-wood

Link to Poetry Foundation article on David Jones, that explores his life in more detail :-

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/david-jones