Happy Birthday Chelsea Manning ( b; 17/12/87)

 

Happy birthday today to Chelsea Manning as she spends her 29th birthday and seventh year in prison in a row as Christmas fast approahes..
Manning is a trans woman, ex-military analyst, who leaked hundreds of thousands of documents to Wikileaks exposing the truth about US, UK and other governments’ war crimes and corruption in Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Peru, Venezuela who received a 35 year prison sentence in July 2013 for violations of the Espionage Act, after making public, the largest set of classified documents ever leaked.
Chelsea's mother, Susan Fox, was from Haverfordwest and met his American serviceman father while he was stationed at the nearby Cawdor Barracks. Chelsea returned to Wales with his mother, after his parents were divorced and attended the Tasker Millward secondary school in Haverfordwest.
Chelsea needs our support urgently,she has twice tried to commit suicide in prison, the second time after being thrown into solitary confinement for her first suicide attempt.  One of her lawyers, Chase Strangio said: “She has repeatedly been punished for trying to survive and now is being repeatedly punished for trying to die.”
We must send a strong message to the US military and Obama that their torture of Chelsea must stop. We must get her out. Chelsea is part pf a great movement of thousands of whistleblowers who have  revealed abuses and demanded their rights. In the face of everything, Chelsea engages with the world, models accountability, transparency and camaraderie, and imagines a more just future. Even as she is punished when she fights to live or chooses to try to die — Chelsea dares to claim her truth. She does not give up or give in and we are all better for it.From prison Chelsea has written against police killing young people of colour in the US and in support of immigrants and refugess, including queer and trans people.
For the past  6 years , every times she has come under threat , people in many countries have come together and organised vigils and protests.Petitions have reached over 100,000 signatures in a matter of days. Chelsea is now appealing to Obama  "to  commute her sentence to time served." https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/commute-chelsea-mannings-sentence-time-served-1 
A surge of tens of thousands of supporters pushed this WhiteHouse.gov petition for Chelsea over the 100,000 finish line as the December 14th deadline neared. Now, we're waiting for the White House to respond to our petition.  In just over a month, President Obama will leave office turning over the government to a Trump administration. Before he does, he has a chance to free Chelsea, to commute her sentence, and to,in her own words, give her “a first chance to live … life outside the USDB as the person [she] was born to be.”
Read Chelsea's moving statement and the letters of support from Daniel Ellberg, Glen Greenwald, and David Morris here:-
.https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3217536-Chelsea-Manning-Commutation-Application.html

Donations to her legal fund are also needed :- https://www.chelseamanning.org/press/chelsea-manning-defense-fund

And you can write to Chelsea here :-

Chelsea E.Manning 89289
1300 North Warehouse Road
Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas
66027-2304

Her fight is ours, because she has helped us wake up to stand up for our rights and justice.Join me in wishing Chelsea a happy birthday and calling on President Obama to free her.

Amazon the new Scrooge: Can they ever be stopped?

Ia Amazon  the new scrooge? Am only asking after having read the shocking news this week that wage slaves at the mail order monopolist's distribution  centre, workers in Fife,  were seen camping in woods near to the gigantic warehouse who according to the Unite Trade Union were forced to camp there because of distances they had to travel to work and in order to save money on commuting. 
Such a tragic image. After picking and packing useless consumer items, walking up and down the aisles ,slaving for hours at end of day have to face conditions like this." The safety and wellbeng of our permaneny and temporary associates is our number one prority," Amazon said,
The Fife warehouse workers allegedly have to pay £10 per day to take company-arranged buses to work, and receive hourly pay of £7.35 ($9.33), according to an Amazon spokesperson quoted by the Courier, with overtime of £11 ($13.95) an hour. In an eight-hour shift without overtime, that means 17% of their daily wages go to transportation.
Workers are also given only one break of 15 minutes and another of 20 minutes per eight-hour shift and told they had to notify staff when going to the toilet. Amazon said workers wanted the shorter breaks in exchange for shorter shift.Workers have two lunch options though: Bring your own, or buy a meal from one of dozens of vending machines stocked with mediocre microwavable meals like burgers and hot dogs. And good luck heating up the food. The warehouses are  hot stuffy places,where it is also claimed that staff are made to wear digital terminals on their arms which track their movements and there are no regular breaks combined with the  low wages. This follows previous warnings by the GMB Union that Staff at Amazon’s UK operation have developed physical and mental illnesses because of the “regimes” they work under, treating their employees like automatons in a pure thirst for profit driven basis.
Employees are braving sub-zero temperatures to save money on travel costs so they can continue working for the company, which does not pay staff a living wage.

                                         Workers sleeping in woods near the warehouse

Have the lessons of a more Dickensian world not been learned. As amazon like to go on about its fairness,  many of us increasingly recognise it as one of the biggest slave drivers of our time .
But in using their services, it makes us all complicit, and in the end only have ourselves to blame. We have helped it amass its enormous power,  and havesimply sat by as it destroys bookshops, our language, in a morality-free zone.Because of the sake of so called convenience, all who use its services , support and help too with their continuing dubious moral practices.
The prices on Amazon’s website may seem amazingly cheap, but these savings come primarily from publishers, who are squeezed for every penny, as Amazon forces them to supply them at rates so low that it leaves authors and publishers out of pocket – particularly damaging smaller publishing houses. Amazon a long running tax avoider's dominance of the market means that publishers have little choice but to comply with their demands.
Amazon are a company on a mission: to completely dominate the online shopping marketplace. Not content with selling books, DVDs, music, DIY tools, electronic equipment and clothes, Amazon have also recently started selling groceries in bulk. But that’s not all - Amazon has also taken on online payment companies such as PayPal with its ‘Amazon Payments’ service, further extending its attempt to control all aspects of online retail. Monopolies are always a dangerous thing – the more power they have, the more they will use it get their own way at the expense of workers rights. To continue its  ruthless intention  to undercut as much as possible, in order to protect its  monopoly, as best as possible..
Can this new scrooge, ever be stopped in its tracks?

Aleppo: The nightmare continues

Yesterday’s deal to evacuate the remaining civilians trapped in East Aleppo has collapsed.
Civilians stayed up all night awaiting evacuation but buses stood and idle and returned empty on Wednesday morning. Iran-backed militias reportedly prevented civilians and opposition fighters from leaving the besieged city. Shelling and airstrikes by pro-regime militias and Russia have resumed.
Journalists are reporting that cluster bombs and vacuum bombs are targeting civilian homes. Medics that had been preparing for hours to get badly injured patients ready for departure are now trapped under heavy fire and are struggling to deal with new casualties.
Terrified residents who had hoped that their nightmare had come to an end are now desperately seeking shelter amid airstrikes. It is still unclear if residents will be allowed to leave and whether the deal will hold. According to Syrian Journalist Zouhir Al Shimale, regime media is reporting that it will resume its attacks until all of Eastern Aleppo is taken.
Unless there is a safe and secure evacuation out of Aleppo, there is a risk that the remaining trapped civilians will be killed or detained. 
This is an emergency. Please do everything in your power to take action for the safe passage of these civilians. Make a call now and demand life saving action.

AUSTRALIA: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 1300 555 135 // Russian Embassy +61 2 6295 9033

CANADA: Department of Foreign Affairs +1 800 267 8376 // Russian Embassy +1 613 235 43 41

FRANCE: Ministry of Foreign Affairs +33 1 43 17 53 53 // Russian Embassy +33 3 8824 2015

GERMANY: Foreign Ministry +49 3018 17 0 // Russian Embassy +49 30 226 51 183

IRELAND: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade + 353 (0) 1 408 2000 // Russian Embassy +353 (0) 1 492 2048

ITALY: Ministry of Foreign Affairs +39 06 36911 // Russian Embassy +39 06 494 1680

THE NETHERLANDS: Ministry of Foreign Affairs +31 77 465 67 67 // Russian Embassy +31 070 364 64 73

SWEDEN: Ministry for Foreign Affairs +46 8 405 10 00 // Russian Embassy +46 8 13 04 41

UNITED KINGDOM: Foreign and Commonwealth Office +44 20 7008 1500 // Russian Embassy +44 20 7229 6412

UNITED STATES: State Department +1 202 647 9572 // Russian Embassy +1 202 298 5700

   
The following is is a message from Raed Saleh, head of the Syria Civil Defense, published in The Guardian today :-

As a White helmet I ask for one thing: safe passage for those trapped in Aleppo.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/14/white-helmet-aleppo-civilians-safe-passage-city 


The Morning Star newspaper had reported yesterday that acts taking place in Aleppo yesterday as liberation with a headline announcing :- "Final liberation off Aleppo is in sight." These efforts at 'liberation' have now extended to pro-government forces " entering homes in eastern Aleppo and killing those inside, including women and children according to the UN. Its human rights office says it has evidence at least 82 civilians have been shot on the spot, with a spokesman declaring it " a complete meltdown of humanity in Aleppo." While Assad claims to be liberating Aleppo from terrorists, he is, in fact, slaughtering not only armed rebels fighting government forces, but untold numbers of civilians. This a deeply complicated war and in this particular conflict it is hard to throw ones hat with any of the opposing sides, at the end of the day the guilty can be found on all sides. Our newsfeeds are filled with the most horrific stories of death, torture, rape, annilihation and atrocities, the misery in Syria continues. We have to stand with the people of Syria  against the tyrants ,whether from the East or the West.We must support calls for a ceasefire and an immediate stop to bombing and shelling. We should be attempting at reaching a political solution to ending the war, towards alleviating immediate suffering. Further intervention in this war-torn country will only make things worse. The task ahead sadly is not an easy one.
The following statement has been issued by Geert Cappelaere, Unicef's regional director:

" As violence continues to escalate in Aleppo today, thousands of children are suffering in silence, and coming under brutal attack on our watch.It is time for the world to stand up for the children of Aleppo and bring their living nightmare to an end.
According to alarming reports from a doctor in the city, many children, possibly more than 100, unaccompanied or separated from their families, are trapped in a building, under heavy attack in east Aleppo.
We urge all parties to the conflict to allow the safe and immediate evacuation of all children. Unaccompanied and separated children have the right to be registered by a neutral humanitarian organisation and be reunified with their families  wherever they may be. 
Unicef is deeply concerned by reports of extra judicial killings of civilians including children and reminds all parties of their responsibilities under international law.
Unicef calls on all warring parties to immediately reach a truce in Aleppo and allow humanitarian organisations to deliver urgent assistance to families and children in need wherever they are, and without conditions.
Civilians who wish to leave east Aleppo must be allowed to do so in safety and in dignity.
Unicef's team in Aleppo and stands ready to provide assistance, including facilitating the evacuation of children.
The children of Aleppo are our responsibility and must be helped now. There are no more excuses."

 Britain has failed to stand by a vision of an open, tolerant Syria. But,we can give urgent help to those fleeing Aleppo, and those left behind. We can give sanctuary to more refugees and we can properly invest in reconstruction.It is the least we can do.
Right now, people in East Aleppo are posting their final goodbyes online as government forces gain full control of the city. Instead of being given a safe path out, they face being trapped, tortured or executed. We can at least continue to demand the safe  evacuation of  the people trapped there now and that UN monitors are deployed to monitor evacuations and protect people from harm.To try and provide them with the safety, justice and dignity that some seek to steal from them.
I am currently hearing reports that another ceasefire has been brokered and a second attempt to evacuate civilians could take place in Aleppo.Let's hope that this is not another taunt and that those in the Eastern part of Aleppo will be taken to areas not under siege.

Stare not at the stars, nor at the bright moon, cry our for the children, dying in Aleppo's gloom.

John Lewis Christmas 2016 Fox Hunt Parody : Keep the fox hunting ban

A parody of the heart warming John Lewis Christmas advert 2016 to highlight the importance of keeping the fox hunting ban.
It's a sad fact that up and down the country many foxes have lost their lives due to illegal hunting activities. See the following two links for instance :-
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/man-49-arrested-after-foxes-killed-by-hunt-hounds/story-29971820-detail/story.html
 http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/police-probe-footage-heartbreaking-footage-9395384

Hunting is still going on. We still have a lot to do to protect our wildlife.We need tougher legislation to stop fox hunting completely. Wouldn't  it be nice if the police actually enforced the law but the continuing support for hunting by people in positions of power make that unlikely but well done to the brave Sabs and hunt monitors who stand between the hunters and our wildlife,stopping hunts in the fields, thank you each and every one, those of us who want to live in a civilised 21st century society are grateful for your efforts. What an unsavoury axis the pro-hunt lobby present. Those who consider themselves superior to the rest of society, determined to carry on hunting because these sick proponents actually  enjoy killing and the feeling of power watching a fox being torn apart by a pack of dogs gives them. Then there are the Terrier men and the rest of the slavish lackeys who are just along for beer money and the chance of a bit of violence, often setting their own dogs on the fox if it has managed to go to ground, while toadying to the squirearcy. And most contemptable of all the nouveau riche wanabee gentry, who are no doubt despised by lord and lackey alike.
I  believe that chasing and killing live animals with dogs is barbaric, outdated and has no place in modern Britain. The vast majority of the British public support the Hunting Act (typically 70 - 80 per cent) and the UK has some of the most progressive animal welfare laws in the world. This reflects the public consciousness of compassion towards animals.In 2004 the 'Hunting Act' was put in place to prevent people from hunting wild animals with Hounds. The main 'pest' being Foxes.Recently, rumblings seem to be stirring from certain areas of government that suggest a lift, lighten or watering down of these laws. Andrea Leadsom is one such person responsible for the re-opening of this upper-class wound.

Tell Theresa May keep Fox hunting banned,
please sign following petitions :-

Call on Andrea Leadsom not to hold a vote to repeal the hunting Act 2004

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/161635/signatures/new

https://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-theresa-may-mp-keep-fox-hunting-banned 

 

Counting down the days to Christmas

                                                ( a prison window of consumerism)

It's a wonderful time of the year
for  many  now trapped and living in fear
caught by a malicious system
drowning in debt,facing struggle alone,
benefits cut, holding on as best they can
spending many days with heads in hands,
hearts aching, tears rolling down cheeks
counting down the days to Christmas.

Have you seen the alternative news
that exposes this conscious cruelty?
Government robbing people of self respect
left in sullen days of  abandonment,
people with no heating, sitting around freezing,
listening to reality blues, life in gloom
trying to fight, pick up the pieces
counting down the days to Christmas.

Its difficult to find any hope
or feel the presence of any holy spirit,
in this season when things fall apart
people caught up in war zones,
refugees fleeing for their lives
lovers slowly dying of terminal disease,
refusing to surrender, releasing resistance
counting down the days to  Christmas.

I can't handle another bloody Christmas song
my will is already being pinched and broken,
by adverts spreading the disease of capitalism
tinsel,glitter and fairy lights masking crisis,
at a time of the year many now come to dread
too difficult to contemplate, let alone celebrate;
scrambling our way through the fog
counting down the days to Christmas.

A time for peace,goodwill and generosity
but the world's stage makes this  difficult,
leaving many facing sleepless nights
long drawn out days of thrift,
so try not to forget,the cheated, the old
the poor and the sick, the weak
cast aside, forced to tighten their belts
counting down the days to Christmas.

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2016/12/16/counting-down-the-days-to-christmas-by-dave-rendle/

Llewellyn ap Gruffyd, the last Prince of Wales ( 1232-1282)

 Llewellyn ap Gruffydd couldn’t have known it during his tumultuous life, but he would become known to posterity as Llewellyn the Last. He was the last native born Welshman recognised as the sovereign Prince of Wales, before Wales was finally conquered by Edward the 1st in 1282. I am no fan of titles and now is  little more than an honorific bestowed upon the eldest son of the King or Queen of England, a final insult dreamt up by King Edward to make certain that Wales knew its place in the new order. But in Llewellyn’s day, it was not something that came by birth right, but something he took by force of arms, strategic alliances, and breath-taking diplomacy.
Llewelyn was the second son of Gruffydd and his wife, Senena. Following his father's death, Llewelyn joined forces with his uncle, Dafydd, and effectively became Dafydd's heir as Dafydd had no sons. Llewelyn helped to re-unite North Wales.In 1247 Llywelyn and his brother Owain signed the Treaty of Woodstock with King Henry III. The treaty restricted the brothers' rule to parts of Gwynedd west of the River Conwy, while the remainder of Conwy, the Perfeddwlad, remained under English control.Within two years, however, Llywelyn had gained control of the Perfeddwlad and most of the Pura Wallia, parts of Wales under native Welsh rule. By early 1258 he was using the title Prince of Wales, although the English crown refused to acknowledge him as such.
When Henry was temporarily deposed by Baron Simon de Montfort after the Battle of Lewes in 1264, Llywelyn allied himself to the new ruler. The Treaty of Pipton, signed the following year, set out the terms Llywelyn had desired for several years: formal recognition as Prince of Wales and overlord of the other Welsh rulers.De Montfort died at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and the resulting English power vacuum allowed Llywelyn to consolidate his control of Welsh territory. He was formally recognised as Prince of Wales by Henry III with the signing of the Treaty of Montgomery on 29 September 1267.
De Montfort died at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and the resulting English power vacuum allowed Llywelyn to consolidate his control of Welsh territory. He was formally recognised as Prince of Wales by Henry III with the signing of the Treaty of Montgomery on 29 September 1267. However with the advent of a new English King, Edward I, relations deteriorated as Llewelyn refused to pay homage or make the money payments due under the Treaty of Montgomery. In 1277 Llewelyn was forced to submit to the King and was stripped of his hard won overlordship.Edward embarked on a unprecedented building programme across Wales, including the enormous sastles at Caernarfon, Conway and Harlech , showing of his military strength and acting as signals to the Welsh about the futility of opposing his might.
However in 1282, Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Llewelyn's brother, attacked Hawarden Castle. Llewellyn  was faced with an impossible choice; he was called on to crush the rebellion, instead he joined it, sided with his brother against the English.Now engaged in a bitter struggle with Edward I of England, leading the Welsh resistance to Edward, with an ambition to create a permanent, independent Welsh principality and to keep Wales independent.  Edward continued to send armies into Wales and one consisting of 2000 infantrymen and 200 cavalrymen succeeded in capturing Anglesey. However the routing of this army by Llywelyn on 6th November 1282, boosted Welsh morale and when Edward turned his hand to diplomacy, offering Llywelyn a large estate in England if he would surrender, Llywelyn defiantly  refused, stating that he would not abandon the people whom his ancestors had previously protected.

Llywelyn was then deceived into attending a meeting with Edmund Mortimer at Aberedw, who  claimed that he wished give homage to Llywelyn. In Llywelyn's absence, the English army advanced on the Welsh position at Orewin Bridge.The full force of the English  army now crossed and engaged the leaderless Welsh army.As the Welsh turned to confront the archers they left the bridge undefended. The English seized the moment to attack. Mounted soldiers charged across Orewin Bridge, causing the leaderless and disorganised Welsh army to flee. Upon hearing the noise of the battle, Llywelyn realised that he had been tricked and immediately headed back with his entourage to assume command yet was ambushed and overwhelmed. Llywelyn lay mortally wounded and asked for a priest, but was recognized, and was instantly killed and his head cut off and sent to Edward at Rhuddlan, who then took it to London, put on it an ivory crown and placed it on the gate of the Tower of London, where it stayed for 15 years.
The death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd marked the end of an independent Wales. Resistance continued for a while under Dafydd, but by June of the following year, he too had been captured and executed, with his head displayed next to that of Llywelyn.The beheading of Llywelyn, the imprisonment of his family, the melting down of the crown jewels and the destruction of the royal mausoleums, and the symbolic display of their decapitated  heads would all have been designed to oppress the Welsh people, the end result being that Edward's conquest of Wales being complete.
Llewellyn dominated Wales for more than 40 years, and was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called "the Great", the other being his ancestor Rhodri the Great. The first person to give Llywelyn the title "the Great" seems to have been his near-contemporary, the English chronicler Matthew Paris.
 Llewellyn was  the last  prince of an united independent ,Wales until that is  Owain Glyndŵr rebel  prince came along to leave  his mark in the 14th century .with his fight against English oppression , his fight that nearly won Welsh independence and his threshold plan for a Welsh Parliament, an independent church and university which would turn him into a potent symbol of Welsh nationalism in the 20th Century.This is  another story from the pages of our history.
There is much uncertainty as to Llywelyn's final resting place, with the Cistercian Abbey at Abbeycwmhir the site suggested by most historians,it is known that he killed in battle not far from Llanfair in Buellt now known as Builth Wells.

Memorial stone to Llewellyn the last at Cilmeri
 

World Human Rights Day

Today marks Human Rights Day,it is observed every year on 10 December to commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, the Assembly passed resolution 423 (V), inviting all States and interested organizations to observe 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.
This year, Human Rights Day calls on everyone to stand up for someone's rights! Disrespect for basic human rights continues to be wide-spread in all parts of the globe. Extremist movements subject people to horrific violence. Messages of intolerance and hatred prey on our fears. Humane values are under attack.Today we must  take a stand for others who are oppressed by their societies or regimes, or have in some way had their rights taken from them.
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights," Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads. "They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
We must reaffirm our common humanity. Wherever we are, we can make a real difference. In the street, in school, at work, in public transport; in the voting booth, on social media.
The time for this is now. “We the peoples” can take a stand for rights. And together, we can take a stand for more humanity.
World Human Rights Day reminds us that there is much to be done  and around to world to protect those who cannot voice or respond to perpetrated discrimination and violence caused by governments, vigilantes, and individual actors. In many instances, those who seek to divide people for subjective means and for totalitarian reasons do so around the globe without fear of retribution. Violence, or the threat of violence, perpetrated because of differences in a host of physical and demographic contrasts and dissimilarities is a blight on our collective humanity now and a danger for our human future.
Recenly after displaying a  rare display of lucidity Boris Johnson, British Foreign Secretary was severely reprimanded for his remarks that Saudi Arabia is involved in a proxy war in the Middle East. His statements broke on of the cardinal rules of British foreign policy, do not critisice a hideous dictatorship if it is allied with Britain.The UK government is only to well aware of the fact that Saudi Arabia has provided financial support to Isis and other terrorist groups in Syria and elsewehere in a proxy war in the Middle East. His statement broke one of the cardinal rules of British foreign policy, do not critisise a hideous dictatorship if is allied with Britain.So it continues to support the Saudi dictatorship, one of the greatest violaters of human rights in the world. This serves to expose the British establishment's extreme cynicism and hypocrisy. In the name of human  rights we must continue to challenge this shameful narrative.
For millions of people, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still just a dream. December 10th is a symbolic date that reminds us of that fact, but we must keep this commitment 365 days a year. In all the EU's external actions every day must be Human Rights Day, as every person in the world is entitled to the full and indivisible range of human rights every day of his or her life.Global human rights are not selective in their value or meaning, nor are they limited to a day or time of year.

Human Rights Day

Yoko Ono makes plea for gun control on anniversary of John Lennon's murder.

 

On 8th December 1980, John Lennon was shot four times in the back by crazed fan Mark Chapman who had asked the former Beatle for his autograph only hours before laying in wait and killing him.He was just 40 when he died.I was 13 back then, and I'm now 9 years older than John Lennon was allowed to live. Such a tragic and heartbreaking waste of a good and talented man.
The death of Lennon still reverberates as a defining moment for a generation and for the music world.A man who helped define rock and roll, a leader of the peace movement, an icon of the Baby Boom generation, his murder inspired shock and mourning, and for many marked the end of an era.
Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison and was last denied parole in August 2014.
"I am sorry for causing that type of pain," Chapman told the parole board then. "I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory." Chapman can try again for parole next year.

In a message posted on her website, Imagine Peace, and on Facebook, Ono posted a plea to “bring back America, the green land of Peace,” along with an image of Lennon’s blood-stained eyeglasses.

“Dear Friends,” she wrote. “Every day, 91 Americans are killed with guns. We are turning this beautiful country into a War Zone. Together, let’s bring back America, the green land of Peace. The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 36 years, our son Sean and I still miss him.”
The photo also stated that more than 1,200,000 people were killed by guns since Lennon’s death in 1980.

Since 1968 — the year the Beatles released the White Album — the sad fact is that more Americans have been killed by gun violence than all the US wars in history combined.It their stupid right to bare arms, until that changes nothing will change and stupid Americans will keep on killing each other. 
R.I.P John Lennon  

John Lennon - Imagine

Stop the break-up and privatisation of Network Rail

Conservative Transport Minister Chris Grayling  has unveiled plans for a fully privatised railway line, with track and trains operated by the same company. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/dec/06/new-fully-privatised-rail-line-chris-grayling-plans-oxford-cambridge
Network Rail is a government owned company responsible for maintaining and repairing our rail lines, it was set up after private company Railtrack ballsed it up when they had the contract to do it. Now the UK government is going to privatise it again. The Government hopes this shift of control will incentivise train companies to carry out repairs more quickly and possibly bring in cheaper fares.
The reason for setting up Network rail in the first place was  private companies failed to look after tracks, and were more interested in boosting their  profit than training or safety. This led to  fatal crashes :- Southall (1997) 7 people dead, Ladbroke Grove (1999) 31 people dead, Hatfield (2000) 4 people dead, Potters Bar (2002) 7 people dead. Chris Grayling has obviously forgotten all the lives lost when our railway maintenance was last left to a profit-making company. When will they ever learn!! Grayling  absolutely does not give a fraction of a shit. He's left the prison service in utter chaos with vast private unbreakable contracts everywhere,and he'll do it here too.
 The private companies running the trains are behind on the maintenance of the trains and carriages (who remembers all that footage of how crowded the carriages are these days from earlier this year?), so they will neglect the tracks too! So long as they seek a profit there will be less incentive to repair (not more) and nothing will be done until they are at breaking point. The idea it will reduce ticket prices is insane; ticket prices have risen at a much steeper rate under privatisation and have actually very recently had yet another rise (with no improvement in service.)
We should not forget though that it is the Tory mindset to sell off the family silver to the highest bidder , the rail , Royal Mail , British aerospace , cable n wireless , Britoil , British gas , British steel , British airways , Rolls Royce , water and electricity went the same way . Thatcher sold off council housing stock under the right to buy , most are now owned by private landlords who charge 3-4 times the rent of council rents . Profits were supposed to be ploughed back into building social housing but this never happened and guess what , we have a massive housing shortage, asset stripping of the NHS the list is endless. Some of the train operating companies are now foreign owned , profits help subsidise their own countries rail fares whilst Joe Public  pays the most expensive train fares (by a long way) in Europe .
I for one am not convinced by privatisation of assets.No public service, and railways are a very important public service should ever be in private hands. Decades of evidence show that applying business principles to public services simply doesn't work. It increases prices, decreases choice and drastically lowers quality of service. All the railways need to be nationalised, it should be kept in the hands of the people.For safety's sake, Stop the break-up and privatisation of Network Rail! Please sign the following petition :-

 http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/networkrail

As G4S, ends most of its illegal business with Israel because of Global BDS Campaign: Time to keep up the Pressure..

 

More good news following hearing yesterday that the Dakota pipe line had been stopped. Security company and long time boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS target G4S has sold, but not all, of its business with Israel, where it was extensively involved in Israel's notorious prisons and provided services to Israel's checkpoints, settlements, and apartheid wall, among others. in Israel within the next two years, but has denied that it is because of a years-long boycott campaign.
G4S made the announcement when it released its end-of-year results last Wednesday, saying that it is selling its interests in Israel as part of a wider assets sale to increase profits. It also said that it would suspend some other controversial projects, such as US youth-justice centres, in a bid to boost profits after shares fell 12 percent in part due to growing costs of providing contract housing for destitute asylum seekers.
This tremendous news comes after years of BDS campaigning worldwide targeting G4S at every level, causing the company which reportedly employs 8,000 people in Israel with a turnover of $143mn, enormous reputational damage and costing it many millions in lost contracts.
Mahmoud Nawajaa, a spokesman for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, said that BDS had undoubtedly pressed G4S into closing shop in Israel. “As at the height of the international boycott of apartheid South Africa, BDS pressure is making some of the world’s biggest corporations realise that profiting from Israeli apartheid and colonialism is bad for business,” he said.
“Investment fund managers are increasingly recognising that their fiduciary responsibility obliges them to divest from Israeli banks and companies that are implicated in Israel’s serious human rights violations such as G4S and HP because of the high risk entailed. We are starting to see a domino effect."
The campaign has resulted in  G4S losing clients  including private businesses, universities, trade unions, and UN bodies, with the Bill Gates Foundation divesting a stake worth $170m from the company following protests. The domination of G4S’ annual general meetings over several years by protests against the company’s involvement in Israeli prisons was undoubtedly a contributing factor in the company’s announcement.
Representatives of Palestinian civil society launched BDS in 2005, calling upon “international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South African in the apartheid era,including embargoes and sanctions against Israel.
As we celebrate we must still keep targetting G4S because despite the the sale of its subsidiary, G4S will  still remain directly complicit in Israel's violations of Palestinian rights through Policity, the flagship national police training centre it co-owns, and the settlement-profiteer Shikun & Binui group. given its ongoing role in Israeli police training and settlement construction in Palestine; guarding the Dakota Access pipeline construction; aiding ICE and Homeland Security with immigrant deportations; running youth detention facilities and providing prison technology as part of the U.S. prison industrial complex; and other repression worldwide, as outlined on the intersectional g4sfacts.org website released by the US Campaign and partners earlier this year
It is validation though that BDS does actually work.It follows other successes.Veolia, a French corporation, came under the spotlight because of their involvement in the development of a tram system connecting West Jerusalem to Israel’s illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.
This was met by a seven year campaign to persuade public bodies not to renew their transport or waste management contracts which, cost Veolia more than $20 billion. In September 2015, Veolia sold off all of its businesses in Israel.
Even an Israeli company, Sodastream, moved its factory out of one of Israel’s most notorious illegal settlements, after an advertisement for their product featuring the actor Scarlett Johansson led Oxfam to part company with her as their ‘ambassador’.Other companies based in settlements live in fear of publicity. One company promised a human rights organisation to move their factory in order to avoid being mentioned in a report on companies operating in illegal settlements.
Well done to to activists around the globe who have been a part of the BDS campaign illustrating the tremendous ability of grassroots organizing to make an impact on multinational corporations, sending out the strong message that profiting from apartheid is not so profitable after all. We must continue to hold G4S and other corporations accountable for their ongoing abuses. Maybe occupation profiteer  Hewlett -Packard  could be the next win if we continue to keep the pressure up. .And if Israel wants the ongoing BDS Campaign to end,it must stop its occupation of Palestinian land and end its human rights abuses in compliance with international law and  recognize the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and  respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their land as stipulated in UN resolution 194.