Saturday 18 February 2017

Audre Lorde (18/2/34 - 17/11/ 92) - Litany for Survival / Love Poem


On this date in 1934, Feminist,Poet. Civil rights activist. Anti-war activist. Gay rights activist.poet  Audre Lorde was born  of Caribbean   parents  in Harlem. In her own words, she was: "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet."and was also a factory worker, social worker, X-ray technician, librarian, civil rights activist, communist and more 
Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing the injustices of racism, sexism, and homophobia. Her poetry, and “indeed all of her writing,” according to contributor Joan Martin in Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, “rings with passion, sincerity, perception, and depth of feeling.” Concerned with modern society’s tendency to categorize groups of people, Lorde fought the marginalization of such categories as “lesbian” and “black woman,” thereby empowering her readers to react to the prejudice in their own lives.
Starting to write at an early age, Lorde was first published in Seventeen magazine while in high school.As society progressed with the anti-war, feminist and civil rights movements, Audre moved from themes of love to more political and personal matters. In the 1960s, she graduated from Columbia University and began to participate in the feminist, LGBT+ and civil rights movement of the time, where she contested the class discrimination and racism existing in the feminist movement, which was generally focused around the experiences of white women. 
Lorde identified the wide and varied experiences of women in matters of class, race, age, sex and even health, which is often referred to today as "intersectionality", noting that “there is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives”. She  used her platform as a writer to spread ideas and experiences about the intersecting oppressions faced by many people.  Her poetry developed an angry aura as she became more involved in activism but developed into an emotionally-supportive outlet and connected her to the world of politics with well-known figures like Langston Hughes. Lorde shaped the Black Arts Movment with her powerful writings on  racism, sexism, homophobia and police violence.
Author of the controversial essay "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House." In 1980 she co-founded (with Barbara Smith and Cherrie Moraga) a feminist publishing company called "Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press," the first publisher for women of color in the United States.
After battling with cancer for more than a decade, Lorde died in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, at the age of 58 in 1992 after battling with cancer for more than a decade.She was cremated and her ashes scattered at sea. Throughout her battle, she found inspiration through her struggle as she documented in the 1980 special edition issue of the Cancer Journals. Her story included a feminist analysis of her experience with the disease and mastectomy. Before passing away, Audre changed her name to Gambda Adisa which means “Warrior” or “she who makes her meaning known.” Her writings have become increasingly influential since her death.

" There is no such thing as a single issue struggle because we do not live single issue lives " - Audre Lorde

Poetry is not only a dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.”- Audre Lorde 

Litany for Survival  - Audre Lorde

'For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon the constant edges of decision
crucial and alone
for those of us who cannot indulge
the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going
in the hours between dawns
looking inward and outward
at once before and after
seeking a now that can breed
futures
like bread in our children's mouths
so their dreams will not reflect
the death of ours:

For those of us
who were imprinted with fear
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads
learning to be afraid with our mother's milk
for by this weapon
this illusion of some safety to be found
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us
For all of us
this instant and this triumph
We were never meant to survive.

And when the sun rises we are afraid
it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid

So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive


Audre Lorde - Love Poem

Speak earth and bless me with what is richest
make sky flow honey out of my hips
rigis mountains
spread over a valley
carved out by the mouth of rain.

And I knew when I entered her I was
high wind in her forests hollow
fingers whispering sound
honey flowed
from the split cup
impaled on a lance of tongues
on the tips of her breasts on her navel
and my breath
howling into her entrances
through lungs of pain.

Greedy as herring-gulls
or a child
I swing out over the earth
over and over
again.

Friday 17 February 2017

THE CLASH - Julies been working for the drug squad



This great song is based on actual events, that took  place over  forty years ago. On 17th February 1976, Operation Julie was launched  at a meeting in Brecon, involving a number of chief constables and  senior  drug squad officers. It eventually resulted  in the break-up of one of the largest LSD manufacturing operations in the world. And thus started the rather sad  war on drugs, that in my humble opinion can never ever be won.
The subsequent drug raid  in 1977 on an LSD factory in  West Wales  discovered  6 million  tabs and the largest stash of illegal drugs ever found. A force  of over 800 police officers were involved. A total of 120 people were arrested and tablets with a street value of £100 million was found By the time the busts happened , they were allegedly suppling 90 percent of all LSD in Britain and 60 percent of all LSD around the world. though these figures might have exaggerated/ Small villages like Carno, Llandewi Brefi and Tregaron suddenly found themselves under the worlds spotlight.
And incidentally  the production of LSD in the area would not have been successful if it had not had received the tacit approval of the locals. Lyn Ebenezer, author of Operation Julie: The World's greatest LSD Bust, who was working as a freelance journalist in the area at the time, recalled:"Cardiganshire was at the time the counter-cultural capital. The likes of the Rolling Stones, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix had all made pilgrimages to the area , so perhaps its no surprise that it became the centre of LSD production. But we didn't have a clue what was going on with these strange groups who'd moved in.To be honest, if anyone seemed more likely to be drug dealers it was the police acting as hippies, as the actual dealers were all educated professional people who stood their round and blended in really well into the community. The dealers and the police would all be drinking in the pub together, getting  up to all sorts of daft capers, so when the raids finally came we all had one hell of a shock."
 In a mission which sometimes bordered on the comical, undercover police officers, spent most of 1976 in the wilds of Wales disguised as hippies.


Among a series of episodes  that you could not make up, om one occasion they were left listening to Radio Cymru for an entire day, while sheep gnawed through the bugging devices they had planted in the home of Tregaron home of one of the ringleaders Richard Kemp, a chemist and his partner a respected  Doctor called Christine Bott. 
Down the road in Llandewi Brefi another group of male officers garnered unwelcome attention when were suspected of being a gay cult. This necessitated the introduction of female officers, including Sgt Julie Taylor, after whom the operation would eventually take its name, and who was immortalised in the above song by the Clash ' Julies Been Working for the Drug Squad.
Operation Julie ushered in a new era of policing that remains the blueprint for cross-force operations to this day. It also arguably represented the final death throes of the 1960's counterculture, shattering the idealism with which many had once viewed the drugs scene and marked the start of a harsher, more brutal era for the narcotics underworld.
The traditional view of the dealers, who were eventually given on March 1978 lengthy draconian  jail sentences.is that they were idealists on a mission, believing the mind bending drug  could transform human consciousness and  help in changing the world for the better rather than in it for making a fast buck. After all psychedelics are known  for allowing you to think for yourself, and to circumvent violent, institutional and authoritarian power structures, no wonder the powers that be wanted to put a stop to the distribution of them. .
Every time I hear the  song by the Clash now I am also reminded of my dear departed friend Chas who was born in 1977 and was bought up  in  a pub frequented in the history pages of this story in Llandewi Brefi. Supposedly  there is still a  a huge stash of LSD tabs hidden somewhere, it would be far out if it was discovered and redistributed to the masses, I for one have not seen  or tasted any for years,.

The Clash - Julie been working for the drug squad

" it's  lucy in the sky and all kinds of apple pie
she giggles at the screen 'cos it looks so green
there's carpets on the pavements
and feathers in her eye
but sooner or later, her new friends will realise
that Julie's been working for the drug squad

well it seemed  like a dream, too good to be true
stash it in the bank while the tablets grow high
in their millions

and everybodys's high ( hi, man)
but there's  someone looking down
from that mountainside
'cos julies's been working for the drug squad

and it' ten years for  you
nineteen for you
and you can get out in twenty -five
that is if you're still alive

an' there came the night of the greatest ever raid
they arrested every drug that had ever been made
they took eighty-two laws
through eighty-two doors
and they didn't  halt the pull
till the cells were all full
'cos Julie was working for the drug squad

they put him in  a cell, they said you wait here
you've got the time to count all of your hair
you've got fifteen years
a mighty long time
you could have been a physicist
but now your name is on the mailbag list
Julie's been working for the drug squad

gumbo!





Operation Julie UK - LSD and the Brotherhood



Thursday 16 February 2017

Radiohead Don't Play Apartheid Israel


Radiohead are a band I have long admired,because of their awesome inspiring music along with their  social conscience,I have all their records and a poster in spare bedroom,their third album, “OK Computer” (1997), elevated the band to almost godlike status among my peers, and since then their work has been marked by an experimental streak and intelligence of spirit that  has set them apart from the mainstream, and  they have long been recognised as  being consistently among the most vociferous proponents for a variety of causes. Radiohead’s lead vocalist, Thom Yorke, maybe best known for his environmentalist work, but is also a very strong supporter of human rights and anti-war causes. He has been involved in Amnesty International causes as well as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
So I was shocked and disturbed and extremely disappointed  recently to have discovered that they  have reportedly signed on to give a performance this summer in Israel. The show will come at Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv on July 19 and may have some political spin, as many bands have boycotted playing in Israel in protest of the country’s occupation of Palestinian land. I would have expected more from as astute progressive politically aware band.
I have recently discovered though that Radiohead have long had a strong connection with Israel, the first place where their iconic single Creep became a hit was Israel, and their first gig abroad was in the Roxanne club in Tel Aviv.Guitarist  Johnny Greenwood is also  married to celebrated Israeli artist named Sharona Katan and he recently released ‘Junun’, a collaborative album with Israeli composer/singer Shye Ben Tzur and he also has a house in Nahariya .
What I'd like to say to say to Radiohead is that  that we need to be breaking down walls, not propping them up. Israel has a long history of marginalisation persecution, imprisonment and assassination of indigenous Palestinian artists. While they plan to play on an Israeli stage, Palestinian artists languish in Israel's prisons, where they are subjected to systemic abuse and torture.Art is not separate from politics, even when basically each artist who has broken the cultural picket line to appear in Israel has made this claim. Look at any oppressive regime in human history and you see that art has always been part of each regime's public out loudly and clearly about Israel's disgusting treatment of Palestinians,
One activist group called Artists For Palestine UK  has already called on fans to boycott the show:
"Tel Aviv's hipster vibe is a bubble on the surface of a very deep security state that drove out half the indigenous Palestinian population in 1948 and has no intention of letting their descendants back in," they wrote. "If you go to Tel Aviv, your presence will be used by the Israeli authorities to reassure their citizens that all's right with the world and nobody really cares that the Palestinians are suffering… Please don't go." 
For more than 70 years now Israel has been ethnically cleansing Palestine. with the denial of basic rights to millions of human beings combined with illegal land theft. In the eyes of international law.Apartheid is defined as "a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. Or segregation on grounds other than race. Israel both segregates and discriminates by law on the basis of religion. It is therefor by definition an "apartheid state". So playing in Israel  would be akin to playing Sun City in the days of apartheid South Africa. I really hope that Radiohead respect the call for boycott and like other respected artists do not cross the Palestinian picket line. Many others after pressure from fans have been forced to have a change of heart.
In the meantime please consider signing the following petition by Jewish Voices for Peace, Radiohead Don't Play Apartheid Israel , it might make them to reconsider and come out of this with a bit of integrity.

https://www.change.org/p/radiohead-don-t-play-apartheid-israel

Here are two further links that might be of interest :-

https://www.facebook.com/Radiohead.Stand.Up.To.Apartheid/

https://www.facebook.com/Radiohead.Fans.Dont.Play.Israel?__mref=message_bubble  

Tuesday 14 February 2017

Love cries


Screaming sky releases steaming tears
as old memories return to caress,
I am lost under the  heavy weight of absence
nostalgic for a beautiful scent,
a power that moves me greatly
I continue to crave  her presence,
a kindness that I can no longer touch
but keeps calling me through dreams,
offering protection and so much hope
somewhere else now, I guess,
but returns though to touch me deeply
to hold me and  comfort my tired old soul

A Love Song #ShowTheLove

.

Time is precious, but we can and we must continue to # ShowTheLove for all that we want to protect. Please take a minute to watch this stunning film from The Climate Coalition.
This is a love song like you've never heard before. Watch, and share. Sharing a short film may not feel like much, but this small act makes a huge difference. together we can protect the life we love from climate change.
A unique collaboration with Ridley Scott Associates, our powerful short film features a specially written poem by award winning writer Anthony Anaxagorou and is brought to life by Charles Dance, Miranda Richardson, David Gyasi and Jason Isaacs. With a specially produced soundtrack by Elbow, including choral arrangement by Phil Mitchell and vocals from the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir.
With love in our hearts lets hope we all start to appreciate this planet of ours and its beautiful nature.

Monday 13 February 2017

Well done Ken Loach


Big ups Ken Loach. BAFTA award for outstanding British film. True Hero. Fantastic acceptance speech! It needs to be watched again and again ...big respect to him. His film that has  helped expose our Governments conscious state sponsored cruelty and absolute betrayal of people in need.
Scooping the prize, the veteran filmmaker criticised the “callous brutality” of the current Government and its attitude towards “the most vulnerable and the poorest people.” Not done there, Loach also brought up the government’s approach to the Syrian crisis, claiming the Tories’ disgraceful cruelty” now “extends to keeping out refugee children”.
Drawing hearty applause from the crowd, Loach also talked about the power of film - “they can entertain, they can terrify, they can take us to worlds of the imagination, they can make us laugh, and they can tell us about the world we live in” – and then issued a stern warning that worse times are to come: “in that world it’s getting darker, as we know, and in the struggle that’s coming between the rich and the powerful, the wealth and the privilege, and the big corporations, and the politicians who speak to them.”
Ironically Ken Loach's speech and Bafta win for I, Daniel Blake were completely ignored by BBC News, despite the programme following the ceremony in the schedule.The BBC is a disgrace ,a propaganda machine for the Establishment that we suckers,  are still forced to pay for.
While the eyes of the world are on Donald Trump we should not forget  that  the Conservatives, under the direction of Theresa May  carry on with their ideolological destruction of our society , and simply carry on regardless, with their mission of punishing the poor and those most vulnerable, we need to continue to stand up like  Ken  Loach and loudly say enough is enough.

Sunday 12 February 2017

EXHIBITION ON SCREEN I, Claude Monet



From award-winning director Phil Grabsky comes this fresh new look at arguably the world’s favourite artist – through his own words.Whose life and work I have long admired.
This new film tells his moving story, crafted from over 2,500 letters and featuring his most loved works of art,narrated by Henry Goodman, I, Claude Monet reveals  a  new insight into the man who not only painted the picture that gave birth to impressionism but who was perhaps the most influential and successful painter of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Claude Monet  (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise.
After his devoted companion  and first wife Camille Doncieux  died  he went to live with Ernest and Alice Hoschede and their six children. He grew closer to Alice, and the two eventually became romantically involved. Ernest spent much of his time in Paris, and he and Alice never divorced. Monet and Alice moved with their respective children in 1883 to Giverny, a place that would serve as a source of great inspiration for the artist and prove to be his final home. After Ernest's death, Monet and Alice married in 1892.
In 1911, Monet became depressed again  after after the death yet again  of  another beloved  companion  in this case Alice. Then in 1912, he developed cataracts in his right eye. This crushing news  led to a bout of depression, and thoughts of suicide  tell me about it, that kept him from painting  but ,Monet  found at least solace in his garden and purpose in his work and managed to at least  somehow to overcome his grief. Over the next decade, Monet worked on an unprecedented scale creating canvases roughly six and a half feet high and 14 feet wide. In 1916, he built a new studio to house the epic images of his water lilies, and, in 1918, to honor the Armistice of the First World War, he promised the paintings as a gift to the nation. He painted more than 40 panels for his Grandes Decorations, and, in the spring of 1925, he selected 22 of them to be installed in two oval rooms in Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris. He imagined the effect as being surrounded by the natural beauty of his  water garden soothing the nerves and calming the spirit.
Claude Monet died of  cancer on December 3, 1926, at the age of 86. He left instructions for a simple funeral, and the only tribute on his coffin was a sheaf of wheat. He had created his own legacy in painting the "restful sight of those still waters" that preserved the experience of his long and productive life, spent pursuing the fleeting impressions of nature through the testament of his brush.
Monet left a vast body of work to be admired and cherished.
Discover who Claude Monet really was, in this in this revealing new biography  that is in cinemas across the UK  from February 21st.

Friday 10 February 2017

"What I saw, What I heard..." - Mark Williams MP reflecting on his visit to Israel and the reality of life for Palestinian Communities


 
"What I saw, What I heard..." is the title of an evening with Mark Williams MP on

Friday, 17th February at 7.30. - 9.30pm
in
Small World Theatre, Cardigan, 

when he will be reflecting on his recent visit as part of a Parliamentary delegation to the West Bank in Israel.

He met with the British Consul, the UN and many NGOs and unofficial organisations, saw illegal (under international law) Israeli settlements and the separation barrier ("the Wall") and the impact of forced evictions on Palestinian communities. He visited a refugee camp, and saw trials of Palestinian minors at the Military Court in Ofer. 

His visit made him look at things differently...

Kate Sherringer of West Wales Friends of Palestine (WWFP) who also visited recently and saw the kindergarten canopy in Rummanah paid for by WWFP will also say a few words. So PLEASE go along and spread the word - the evening is open to everyone, and there will be refreshments and time for discussion. 

The evening is being hosted by Cardigan and North Pembs. Amnesty International Group.

Thursday 9 February 2017

Brendan Behan ( 9/2/23 -20/3/64) - Irish Rebel heart

 

Brendan Francis Behan  was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both English and Irish. who was born on  the Second of February 1923 who became one of the most successful Irish dramatists of the 20th century and remains a firm literary favourite of mine. 
 He also happened to be a committed Irish Republican. He was born in inner city Dublin into an educated working class family. At the age of thirteen, he left school to become a house painter, like his father Stephen Behan, who had been active in the Irish War of Independence,who  read classic literature to the children at bedtime from diverse sources such as Zola, Galsworthy and Maupassant; while his mother Kathleen took them on literary tours of the city.This meant he was steeped in literature and patriotic ballads from a young age.
If Brendan Behan’s interest in literature came from his father, then his political beliefs were injected by his mother. She remained politically active all her life, and was a personal friend of the famed Irish republican Michael Collins, hero of Ireland’s 1919-1921 war of independence against Britain,who was assassinated. Brendan Behan wrote the following wonderful lament to Collins: “The Laughing Boy,” at the age of thirteen.
 
The laughing boy - Brendan Behan 


T'was on an August morning, all in the dawning hours,
I went to take the warming air, all in the Mouth of Flowers,
And there I saw a maiden, and mournful was her cry,
'Ah what will mend my broken heart, I've lost my Laughing Boy.
So strong, so wild, and brave he was, I'll mourn his loss too sore,
When thinking that I'll hear the laugh or springing step no more.
Ah, curse the times and sad the loss my heart to crucify,
That an Irish son with a rebel gun shot down my Laughing Boy.
Oh had he died by Pearse's side or in the GPO,
Killed by an English bullet from the rifle of the foe,
Or forcibly fed with Ashe lay dead in the dungeons of Mountjoy,
I'd have cried with pride for the way he died, my own dear Laughing Boy.
My princely love, can ageless love do more than tell to you,
Go raibh mile maith agat for all you tried to do,
For all you did, and would have done, my enemies to destroy,
I'll mourn your name and praise your fame, forever, my Laughing Boy.'
 
Behan's uncle Peadar Kearney wrote the Irish national anthem A Soldier’s Song. His brother, Dominic Behan, was also a renowned songwriter most famous for the song The Patriot Game, while another sibling, Brian Behan, was a prominent radical political activist and public speaker, actor, author and playwright. ’.
 In 1937, the family moved to a new local authority housing scheme in Crumlin, Dublin. Here he became a member of Fianna Eireann, the youth wing of the IRA at the age of 14 and published his first poems and prose in the organization's magazine Fianna: the Voice of Young Ireland.He eventually joined the IRA at sixteen
In 1939 he was arrested in Liverpool with a suitcase full of explosives after an unauthorised mission to blow up the docks. He was sentenced to three years in Borstal Prison (Kent) and did not return to Ireland until 1941. In 1942, he was tried for the attempted murder of two gardai while at a commemoration ceremony for Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish Republicanism and sentenced to fourteen years in prison. He was sent to Mountjoy Prison and later to the Curragh Internment Camp. He was released in 1946 as part of a general amnesty of republican prisoners.  His prison experiences were central to his future writing career. He wrote about these years in his autobiographical novel 'Borstal Boy'. and “Confessions of an Irish Rebel.”  Aside from a short prison sentence that he received in 1947 for his part in trying to break a fellow republican out from a Manchester jail, he effectively left the IRA, though he remained great friends with the future Chief-Of-Staff Cathal Goulding.
While in Mountjoy Prison he wrote his first play, The Landlady, and also began to write short stories and other prose. Some of this work was published in The Bell, the leading Irish literary magazine of the time. He also learned Irish in prison and, after his release in 1946, he spent some time in the Gaeltacht areas of Galway and Kerry, where he started writing poetry in Irish. By the early 1950s he was earning a living as a writer for radio and newspapers and had gained a reputation as something of a character on the streets and in literary circles in Dublin known for his sharp wit and his gift as a raconteur.
His major breakthrough came in 1954 when his play The Quare Fellow, which was based on his experiences in jail, Set in an Irish prison in the 1950s on the day before and the morning of an execution, The Quare Fellow uses music, wit and a keen observation of human behaviour to explore the question of capital punishment. the play ran for six months in the Pike Theatre, Dublin. This was followed by a run at the Theatre Royal, Stafford East, in a production by Joan Littlewood, before moving to the West End, before a trumph on Broadway bought  international fame to the author. In 1957, his Irish language play, An Giall (The Hostage) opened in the Damer Theatre and his autobiographical novel, The Borstal Boy, was published. He was now established as one of the leading Irish writers of his generation.
He found fame difficult to deal with however. He had long been a heavy drinker (describing himself, on one occasion, as "a drinker with a writing problem",) and became known for his drinking as much as for his undoubted literary talents ,this combination resulted in a series of notoriously drunken public appearances, both on stage and television. Behan got notorious publicity after appearing drunk on Malcolm Muggeridge’s Panorama programme on the BBC in 1956. Most of what he said was incoherent, other than a crude remarking about needing “to take a leak
.Behan was obviously drunk too when he went on Edward R Morrow’s television show Small World on November 8, 1959. He was yanked off the show at the halfway point. He tended to attract attention anywhere he went. On arriving in Spain, he was asked what he would most like to see in the country. “Franco’s funeral,” he replied. Making a spectacle added to his notoriety, because it was what people had come to expect.  “One drink is too many for me,” Behan once lamented, “and a thousand not enough.” and "I only drink on two occasions-when I’m thirsty and when I’m not .
He was diagnosed with diabetes in the 1960's and his favourite drink of sherry and champagne certainly did not aid him, his health consequently suffered terribly, with diabetic comas and seizures occurring with frightening regularity aggravated by his alcoholism. He found it difficult to write. When the Guinness company commissioned him to write a slogan for them, he sat around for months, drank all the free beer they sent him, and came up with the slogan 'Guinness makes you drunk'.While his faculties may have dimmed a little, and towards the end became the caricature of the drunken Irishman, publicans flinging him out of their premises, his intellect,wit and passion always managed to shine through.and he remained an Irish Republican and a socialist.
He died in the Meath Hospital, Dublin 1964  aged  only 41, his last words were ' Thank you Sister, and may all your sons be bishops'. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery where he received a Republican funeral.The IRA, which Behan had once invited to 'shoot him in absentia', accorded him an honour guard, although they waited until the officials from the State funeral had left before firing the traditional farewell salute over his grave. En route to the graveyard, thousands lined the streets.
His wife the painter Beatrice french-Salkeld, his most stabilising influence gave birth to their only child, a daughter, later the same year. His gravestone features the inscription 'Breándan Ó Beacháin File Fiáin Fearúil Feadánach' which roughly translates as 'Brendan Behan, wild, manly poet and piper'.
His legacy remains one of tolerance and respect for the humanity in others, and of caring and concern for the plight of those who are victims of history, not its makers. As he once said, 'I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer'  and 'They took away our land, our language and our religion, but they could never harness our tongues.'
.His wit and humor still shines through in the books that he wrote and his stories about the human condition still engage and fortunately the oeuvre Behan managed to produce will be around for years to come. Cheers Brendan Behan.

Brendan Behan sings his brother Dominic's song ; The Auld Triangle
 


Wednesday 8 February 2017

Peter Kropotkin (9/12/1843-8/2/21) - On Mutual Aid


On 8 Feb 1921 Peter Kropotkin, the Russian anarchist prince,and famous proponent of anarchist-communism, died of pneumonia in Russia. He took part in revolutionary groups in four countries and was one of a handful of prominent theoreticians of liberty over the last two centuries.
His viewpoint is firmly rooted  in the anarcho-Communist camp and can be summarised briefly in classical terms  "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.'
Most of his thinking on the nature of society was formed when he was observing the behaviour of animals in Siberia. While assigned to a Siberian regiment of the Russian military, Kropotkin did innovative and original work on geography and geologyand stages of animal behaviour. His experiences in Siberia also led him away from a confidence in the ability of the state to do anything useful for people.
His experiences also laid  the foundations of Mutual Aid  probably his most famous work, which was also written as a specific responce to Thomas Henry Huxley's The Struggle for Existence in Human Society , from 1888.
What follows is a wonderful passage from Kropotkin's seminal work which remains as relevant today as to when it was originally written :-

" It is not love to my neighbour - whom I often do not know at all - which induces me to seize a pail of water and rush towards his house when I see it on fire, it is a far wider, even though more vague feeling or instinct of human solidarity and sociability which moves me . . . . It is not love, and not even sympathy which induces a herd of ruminants or of horses to form a ring in order to resist an attack of wolve; not love which induces wolves to form a pack for hunting; not love which induces kittens or lambs to play, or a dozen of species of young birds to spend their day together in autumn. It is a feeling infinitely wider than love or personal sympathy - an instict that has been slowly developed among animals and men in the course of an extremely long evolution, and which has taught animals and men alike the foce they can borrow from the practice of mutual aid and support, and the joys they can find in  social life . . . .
  Love, sympathy and self-sacrifice certainly play an immense part in the progressive development of our moral feelings. But it is not Love  and not even sympathy upon which Society is based in mankind. It is the  conscience - be it only at the stage of an instict - of human solidarity. It is the unconscious recognition of . . . the close dependency of every one's happiness upon the happiness of all; and of the sense of justice, or equity, which brings the individual to consider the rights of every other individual an equal to his own."

Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, 1902
,,