River poem

( no apologies, another poem for Jane , 9/5/ 60 - 8/1/17)

We sat together by the river teifi
My dear friend and I,
As life floated on by
Onwards  into eternity,
We held hands, consumed by love,
As waters moved  so feely
We had so much in common,
Our laughter rippled
As tidal currents flowed on and on,
We smiled and consoled one another
Trusting the forces of nature,
Gliding and glistening
Our love was real,
Reflections of the past
All belong to this earth,
As time rumbles on
Waters deep hold a common treasury
The future will always, belongs to us all.

Hold HSBC to account.

The first week of July has seen lots of activities for the Stop Arming Israel campaign across the country, coinciding with the third anniversary of the brutal military assault on Gaza. In the summer of 2014, Israel carried out its deadliest ever massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, killing more than 2,300 people. Over 550 of these were children.
HSBC holds shares and provides loans to military and technology that sell weapons and equipment to Israel used in the abuse of Palestinians’ human rights,. HSBC’s complicity in Israel’s militarised oppression includes Elbit shares worth £3.64m and  holds £180m of shares in BAE Systems, a key company involved in manufacturing the F-16 fighter jets used by Israel to attack Palestinians in Gaza. HSBC also holds £102m of shares in Boeing, who have provided Hellfire missiles, F-15 Eagle fighter jets, MK84 2000-lb bombs and Apache helicopters used in Israel’s devastating attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Since the summer of  2012, HSBC has also been involved in syndicates with other banks that have provided loans to arms companies supplying weapons to Israel worth around £19.3 billion.The bank was also involved in providing loans to Caterpillar, whose bulldozers are used to demolish Palestinian homes.
BDS campaigners said HSBC policy appears to state that the bank should not give financial support to the arms trade. Riya Hassan of the Palestinian BDS national committee said: “By investing in and providing loans to the arms companies that help Israel to oppress Palestinians, HSBC is lending its support to Israel’s violations of international law.“HSBC is profiting from the armed violence and repression that lies at the heart of Israel’s system of oppression over the Palestinian people.”

The anti-poverty charity’s senior militarism and security campaigner Ryvka Barnard said: “HSBC holds shares in, and arranges loans to, a number of companies that sell weapons and military technology to Israel, used in the abuse of Palestinians’ human rights, including war crimes.
“If HSBC is serious about a commitment to human rights, its first step must be to immediately end its business relationship with companies that sell weapons to Israel.”

Please keep  calling on HSBC to immediately end all forms of support for arms companies that help Israel to oppress Palestinians and violate international law. People will be taking further action in due course to pressure HSBC to end its complicity with the Israeli arms trade.
We must urge them to end its complicity in Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinian rights.

Do not let  HSBC and Elbit Systems look away from the consequences of their continued dealings with the Israeli military. Arming any country in my opinion in this unethical way, is simply wrong. 

https://secure.waronwant.org/page/11112/action/1?locale=en-GB

Magic

(was not sure whether to share this, but arrived a moment ago, as mood descended,  as it made me feel better I thought id share it.)

I have not forgotten, that out of the darkness
An individual arrived, put a spell on this earth,
A faraway voice nearly seven months gone,
(in my head,  still  keeps an eye on us)
Releases rainbow lakes  into which I dive,
In slow motion her hands outstretched move devotion
Allow my fears to disappear from this troubled world,
In the storms calm descends, her eyes appear illuminating 
Casting  captivating rays in every town and city,
Walking beside us, a little flower of heaven
With compassion on her lips, an inspiration of magic,
Though faraway, still releases  beauty
Putting smiles back on  faces, allowing flowers to bloom  
As stars shine down feel the magic.

Happy 69th Birthday NHS

Nye Bevans legacy came into the world 69 years ago this morning, when he opened Park Hospital in Manchester at a time of rationing and shortages, when we were nearly bankrupt, a jewel  that the war generation left us with, a proud legacy, for us to all to continue to share.For the first-time doctors, nurses, opticians, dentists and pharmacists all worked under one organisation, free at the point of use. A healthcare service which is available to everyone for free is what separates us from the US. It offered for the first time a free healthcare system for all, and has since  played a vital role in caring for all aspects of our nations health. It has been the envy of the world ever since. My own father served it well for nigh on 40 years.Remember we paid for it, so it is owned by us, it is our precious commodity, it must survive, we must tear the vultures hands from it.
It wouldn’t be possible to run a 7-day NHS, caring for millions of people day-in-day-out without the hard work and dedication of its staff. Despite all the adversity that’s thrown at them: poor pay, bursary cuts, hospital parking fines and staff shortages to name a few; they continue to become stronger and relentlessly deliver fantastic healthcare to the nation .Recent tragic events that have taken place in London, Manchester and Grenfell Tower have once again highlighted the strength, professionalism , dedication and bravery of our healthcare staff. It is truly inspiring to see how amazing the staff handled the awful situation and it was a testament to every healthcare worker throughout the UK. They  are a credit to our nation and we couldn’t be more proud.
The NHS  here in Wales employs close to 72,000 staff which makes it Wales’ biggest employer. I can never forget the compassion they gave to my dear departed, the staff always managing to keep her spirits high, never once showing any dereliction of care.Dedicated, compassionate staff  are under increased pressure, leading to low moral. Recent figures have emerged that 2/4s of hospitals have been warned about dangerous staff shortages.
As the Tory's and their rotten hearts seek to dismantle it,  we should not forget Nye's words who said ' It will last as long as their are folk with enough faith to fight for it. We  cannot reach the day again where people make a profit out of our sickness.On its birthday we should also join the call for fair pay for all NHS staff - scrap the cap ,Public sector pay has been capped for too long. This is despite rising inflation and increased living costs. Workers in the UK are on average £1200 worse off a year than in 2008. It's not OK that NHS staff like nurses are resorting to food banks to get by
We are now standing at a precipice: the NHS has been severely damaged by underfunding and privatisation .But remember we paid for it, so it is owned by us, it is our precious commodity, it must survive, we must tear the vultures hands from it.As the Tory's and their rotten hearts seek to dismantle it,  we should not forget Nye's words who said ' It will last as long as their are folk with enough faith to fight for it.' We  cannot reach the day again where people make a profit out of our sickness . The NHS is a shining example of how a caring society can create   good and safe care based on social solidarity., making such a great contribution towards social and health equality.    
Please sign the following  birthday card to Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt a message - It's time to care for the NHS

http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php/actions/happy-birthday-nhs

The Toxteth Uprising of July 1981

The Toxteth uprising of July 1981 was a civil disturbance in Toxteth, inner city Liverpool which arose in part from long-standing tensions between the local police and the black community. They followed the Brixton riots earlier that year. At the same time there were outbreaks in Birmingham's Handsworth, Chappletown in Leeds, and Manchester’s Moss Side.
Underpinning these outbreaks were the themes of discrimination against black people in an increasingly precarious economy, bitter hostility in the inner cities to the government of Margaret Thatcher and several years of assaults on black and Asian communities by the National Front, which had in turn provoked the formation of the Anti-Nazi League, street-fighting by anti-fascists and, in 1977, the "Battle of Lewisham" in London. The 1976 Notting Hill carnival had ended with running battles between the police and black youths chanting: "Soweto, Soweto", after the uprising there and repressions in apartheid South Africa earlier in the year. Strong cultural currents flowed through the period, including the influence of American ghetto soul music, and arrival of songs by Bob Marley especially, gave young people  living in the inner city a sense of the justice denied them, as well as strength and purpose.

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights
Dont give up the fight!

Most people think
great God will come from the sky
Take away everything
Make everybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You’ll look for yours on earth

.

 2-Tone music from bands such as the Specials and Selecter fused elements of ska, punk rock and reggae also provided much of the soundtrack to these years.  In their songs, British reggae bands like Misty in Roots, Aswad and Steel Pulse linked the tribulations on the streets at home with struggles in Africa and elsewhere.
But the overt reason for the serial disturbances was the ubiquitously appalling treatment of black youths by the police. Harassment, intimidation and wanton arrest were integral to the fabric of young black life, invariably applied by flagrant abuse of the so-called suspected persons, or "sus" law, a section of the 1824 Vagrancy Act that permitted police officers to arrest anyone loitering "with intent to commit an arrestable offence" – which in Britain's ghettoes had come to mean almost anyone between the ages of 13 and 30.
This combined  with the activities  of the Mersyside police force which had, at the time, a poor reputation within the black community for stopping and searching young black men in the area, under these "sus " laws .Perpetually, young men of different races and black citizens were complaining about how the authorities were treating them. Prior to the uprising, there were lots of incidents of harassment, drug planting, people being criminalised for trivial reasons and heavy handed policing.
One of the other root causes was that with the economy in recession. unemployment in Britain was at a 50-year high in 1981, and Toxteth had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.Liverpool 8 had long suffered a range of social, economic  problems, also official figures confirm that out of 22,000 people working for Liverpool City Council at the time of the riots, only 169 were black. It was estimated that unemployment was running at something like 60% in the black community and in areas where blacks had been employed elsewhere in the UK, like public transport, there was hardly a black face to be seen. In Liverpool’s schools, only two governors were black and poor academic performance was endemic.Liverpool's black population was concentrated in Toxteth. Many feeling a sense of abandonment.
This combined  with the activities  of the Mersyside police force which had, at the time, a poor reputation within the black community for stopping and searching young black men in the area, under these "sus " laws .Perpetually, young men of different races and black citizens were complaining about how the authorities were treating them. Prior to the uprising, there were lots of incidents of harassment, drug planting, people being criminalised for trivial reasons and heavy handed policing.
On the evening of Friday July 3rd the police had attempted to arrest a young, black motorcyclist at the junction of Granby and Selbourne Street. An angry crowd had gathered, leading to a fracas during which the motorcyclist escaped but a different black youth, Leroy Cooper whose brother had been acquitted on what the local community regarded as a trumped-up charge in the Crown Court only the day before, was arrested for assault on a police officer.Incensed by what they had witnessed  they started  name-calling, this grew into jostling and within minutes there was a full-scale fracas that saw three police officers hurt..It did not stop there. Police mounted extra patrols in the area and early the following evening, July 4, there was more trouble when they came under attack from a crowd armed with bricks and petrol bombs.
The existing tensions between police and people had already been noticed by respected local magistrate and councillor  Chairman of the Merseyside Police  Committee, Margaret Simey  She worked ceaselessly to hold the police force and its Chief Constable to account for their methods, both before and after the riots.  She once remarked that in the face of such conditions the people of Liverpool 8 would have been ‘apathetic fools’ if they  didn't protest".
It  was the events of Sunday 5 July that launched ‘Toxteth’ (as outsiders commenting on the events always called the area) into the national headlines. Over the days that followed, disturbance erupted into full-scale rioing, with pitched battles between police and youths in which petrol bombs and paving stones were thrown. During the violence milk floats were set on fire and directed at police lines. Rioters were also observed using scaffording poles to charge police lines. The Merseyside Police had issued its officers with long protective shields but these proved inadequate in protecting officers from missile attacks and in particular the effects of petrol bombs. The overwhelming majority of officers were not trained either in using the shields or in public order tactics. The sole offensive tactic available to officers,the baton charge, proved increasingly ineffective in driving back the attacking crowds of rioters. At 02:15 hours on Monday 6 July Merseyside police officers fired between 25-30 CS gas grenades for the first time in the UK outside Northern Ireland. The gas succeeded  in dispersing the protestors but should never have been deployed on crowds of people.
In all, the rioting lasted nine days during which 468 police officers were injured, 500 people were arrested, and at least 70 buildings were damaged so severely by fire that they had to be demolished. Around 100 cars were destroyed, and there was extensive looting of shops.Further serious rioting occurred on 26-28 July when, at the time of the royal wedding of Charles and Diana, a young local disabled man from Wavertree  boy David Moore was killed  a police van dispersing rioters. Police officers were accused of his manslaughter, although they were eventually acquitted. . Such was the scale of the uprising in Toxteth that police reinforcements were drafted in from forces across England including Greater Manchester Police, Lancashire , Cumbria, Birmingham and even Devon to try to control the unrest.

A second wave of rioting began on 27 July 1981 and continued into the early hours of 28 July, with police once again being attacked with missiles and a number of cars being set alight. 26 officers were injured. However on this occasion the Merseyside Police responded by driving vans and land rovers at high speed into the crowds quickly dispersing them. This tactic had been developed as a riot control technique in Northern Ireland by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and had been employed with success in quelling the Moss Side riots by the Greater Manchester Police.
The riots, like those around the same time in Brixton, Handsworth, and those in 1980 in Bristol were generally seen as race riots, but there are many reports of similarly frustrated white youths travelling in from other areas of Liverpool to fight alongside Toxteth residents against the police.
One facility looted in the riots was a sports club called the Racquet Club, which was opened in 1877 on Upper Parliament Street, when Toxteth as an upper-middle-class area. When the riot started, the clubhouse included 3 squash courts  and 12  bedrooms e riot, the clubhouse and all of its facilities and records was burnt and destroyed, and it did not reopen until 20 May 1985, in another building.
Dozens of senior citizens were evacuated from the Princess Park Hospital during the riots.
Thatcher sanctimoniously condemned the rioters, denying any link between the uprising and social conditions. Nevertheless, Michael Heseltine, then the darling of the Tory Conference, was rushed to Merseyside as a new Minister for the area.He launched a garden festival site, which is now a wasteland. Millions of pounds were poured into the area but with little or no effect in terms of jobs for native Liverpudlians. In 1981 Liverpool, amongst other cities, was given the “benefit” of an Enterprise Zone. Companies were offered relaxed planning requirements, exemption from rates for non-domestic property, and 100 percent capital allowances for industrial and commercial properties. Liverpool’s Development Officer at this time declared: “With no rates to pay, it is a tremendous bargain”. Those who benefited were mostly “out of town” contractors with their own specialized labor. Patches of green field were laid down throughout the Toxteth area and plenty of trees were planted. Moreover, what was given with the one hand was more than cancelled out with the other.
The subsequent Scarman report , though primarily  directed at the Brixton Riot of 1981 recognised that the riots did represent the result of social problems, such as poverty and deprivation. Acknowledging  "racial disadvantage that is a fact of British life" and concluded that "complex political, social and economic factors" created a "disposition towards violent protest". Lord Gifford, tasked to report on Liverpool, found that racial discrimination had been "uniquely horrific" in the city.
10 people (including three police officers) were injured in a second riot in Toxteth on 1 October 1985, after gangs stormed the district's streets and stoned and burnt cars in response to the arrest of four local black men in connection with a stabbing. The Merseyside police Operational Support Division was deployed into the area to restore order and were later criticised by community leaders and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Derek Warlock for their "over zealous and provocative tactics" which including the drumming of batons on riot shields.
The riots took place whilst The Specials song "Ghost Town" was topping the UK singles chart , the song had been written earlier in response  to  riots in Coventry and was released at a time when unrest had broken out in several parts of London and the rest of England.

The  Specials - Ghost Town

Here are two songs by local bands who  responded to the 'uprising' of 1981 shortly after the event: 

Public Disgrace - Toxteth (1982)

and Cook Da Books' 12" single "Piggy in the Middle Eight", its haunting dub side, "Gone to Black", with reggae producer Dennis Bovell at the controls, including many theme tunes from TV cop series. Both records were issued on Liverpool's Probe Plus label.

Cook Da Books - Piggy in the Middle Eight

Cook Da Books - Gone to Black  ( Dennis Bovell mix )

 

A lot of healing has since gone on in Liverpool 8 , a story of hard work and optimism, people looking ahead, while painfully being aware of the past.We should  remember that uprisings/ Riots do not happen for no reason, they are usually spontaneous responses to a simmering resentment to how people have been treated for a number of years. People with a sense of worthlessness, disenfranchised and dissaffected in times of desperation and social deprivation with nothing left to lose will respond and kick off. 

Crying out loud

I've been crying out loud

First thing in the morning

Every flipping evening,

But as a New Day stirs

Spirit is lifting.

I want to make a change

Not just for me

All of us together, forever free,

Releasing spontaneous kisses to the day

Against the torrents of social injustice

For hope and happiness, a lighter rain to fall,

Whatever the weather will keep releasing my poetry

Each sentence will speak for itself

Crying out loud. 

So Long Heathcote Williams ( 15/11/41 - 1/7/17) Radical Poet, political activist and rebel spirit

John Henley Jasper Heathcote Williams  the radical poet, political activist, anarchist visionary, pamphleteer, esteemed playwright, actor and polymathic English genius, he was also an intermittent painter, sculptor and long time conjurer, I have been notfied by text by an old acquaintance that he has sadly died at the age of 75. He had been ill for some time and died yesterday in Oxford.
Heathcote  the son of an Old Bailey barrister, Harold Heathcote Williams, and his wife, Julian (nee Henley), was born in Helsby, Cheshire, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied law but did not take his degree as he was already researching his first book, about the postwar soap-box orators in Hyde Park. In the mid-60s he became a pin-up of the underground press and a talismanic, though always elusive, figure in the counter-culture of the day.After his schooldays at Eton, he hacksawed his surname's double-barrel to become Heathcote Williams, a moniker more in keeping perhaps with his new-found persona. .
His first book, The Speakers, was published in 1964. A portrait of the orators at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, it was  greeted with critical acclaim.He went on to author many polemical poems, written over four decades in a unique documentary style. They included works about the devastation being wrought on the natural environment – Sacred Elephant, Whale Nation,which in 1988 became "the most powerful argument for the newly instigated worldwide ban on whaling  and Falling For a Dolphin – and Autogeddon, a grim and majestic attack on the car. I have posted several here over the  years, his investigative, documentary style of writing a huge influence on me. His muse was fuelled by a witty and beautiful anger.
His last volume of poetry about Trump, American Porn, was published in January.Williams wrote that Trump’s real name - Drumpf - “suggests dumbness, even the passing of wind/ As well as the merciful transience of fame.”
In March Williams held a talk at Blackwell's Bookshop to discuss his latest book, which focused on Home Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit, .The Blond Beast of Brexit: a Study in Depravity  a pamphlet in the radical, Swiftean tradition of pamphleteering a  20,000-word collage of the most maniacal, hypocritical, and cruel things the former mayor has ever said or done.
The many influences on his own writing included  ; Gerard Winstanley, William Blake, Percy  Shelley, Wiliam  Burroughs, Harold Pinter, William Burroughs, George Orwell,  Emma Goldman, Bakunin, Kropotkin, and the world he saw around him.
Heathcote's first full length play, AC/DC, won a hat-trick of prestigious awards. His other plays include The Local Stigmatic, The Immortalist and Hancock's Last Half Hour. More recent works: Badshah Khan: Islamic Peace Warrior (Thin Man Press), a play about Christopher Marlowe, Killing Kit, due to be staged at the Cockpit, and a play about squatting and the homeless.
Williams was a leading activist in the London squatting scene in the 1970s and ran a squatters 'estate agency' called the 'Ruff Tuff Cream Puff'. In 1977 he and a couple of hundred fellow squatters established the 'state' of Frestonia in Notting Hill and declared independence from Britain. Then Shadow Chancellor, Geoffrey Howe wrote to express his support and Williams was appointed UK Ambassador. Frestonia lasted almost a decade and had its own institutions and postage stamps.Before Banksy, Heathcote was spray painting the walls of Buckingham Palace and Notting Hill's low rent district with protest graffiti and social messages.
Williams was  also for a time associate editor of the literary journal Transatlantic Review as well as being one of those responsible for the notorious alternative sex paper Suck. He was a frequent contributor to the London underground paper International Times during the 1970s, to the radical vegetarian magazine Seed and to The Fanatic, issues of which would appear sporadically and provocatively in different formats and various countries of Western Europe. In 1974, he launched his own mimeographed underground newspaper, The Sunday Head. It was published from his home in Notting Hill Gate, London at the time when he was also the impresario for Albion Free State’s Meat Roxy, a series of music, dance and poetry events held in a squatted, redundant bingo hall near the Portobello market.
An anthology of his tracts and manifestos from this period, , was announced by his then publisher but, to the disappointment of his fans, for some reason never actually appeared. A sampling did appear in a bi-lingual, limited edition titled Manifestoes from the Rotterdam-based Cold Turkey Press as well as in the Manchester literary magazine Wordworks in 1975. He also wrote extensively for the radio and  the television
As an actor his  film performances included Prospero in Derek Jarman's version of The Tempest (1979), Wish you Were Here (1987) and Sally Potter's  Orlando (1992).
A very self-effacing man, a romantic at heart,  Heathcote spent much of his time in rural Oxforshire. As a keen naturalist he even discovered a new species of honey-producing wasp on an expedition into the Amazon jungle.
He is survived by  Diana and their two daughters, China and Lily, three grandchildren, Freya, Albie and Wilf; Charlie Gilmour, his son with the novelist Polly Samson; and his younger sister, Prue.
A truly literary original who embodied the outsider rebel spirit. So long Heathcote,  thank you for the inspiration. R.I.P

From  Revolution - Heathcote Williams
 

Nonviolent direct action requires no-one’s permission

And, for dealing with capitalism’s beds of nails –

The spikes that are everywhere to deter rough sleepers –

Cans of concrete mix and the strategy fails.

 

Outside Foxtons, the upmarket Estate Agents,

There are rows of spikes to deter sleepers

So squatters delight in taking over Foxtons’ properties

To proclaim triumphantly, ‘Finders Keepers’.

In the nineteenth century the Rebecca rioters

Objected to tollgates “confining the rabble”.

They distracted the constables standing guard with a play

While they turned the tollgates into rubble.

 

Likewise the Luddites sneaked under the radar,

Disguising themselves in female dress,

They then took hammers to the mechanical looms

That were sacrificing them to ‘progress.’

  

In 1871 the Paris Commune declared Paris

To be the site of a “permanent festival”.

With their autonomous liberated city still haunted by the guillotine

This was considered more preferable.

 

In 1968 the revolutionary festival spirit broke out once more,

Enhanced by the Situationists’ declaration

That it was the revolution’s job to serve poetry

Not the job of poetry to serve the revolution.

And now interconnected activists

Tuned to a global brain

Can operate horizontally, without leaders,

To derail the hierarchical train

 

That drives a system dominated by oligarchs –

The corporate oligarchs of the one per cent –

Whose wealth spawns the tent-cities of the homeless

And who rule with no one’s consent.

   

And where property prices guarantee that the poor

Find themselves economically cleansed;

Where the disabled are deliberately disconnected

And the animal kingdom’s condemned.

 

The idea of revolution is essentially poetic,

Coming out of the soul like a rocket,

From something within that’s barbaric and wild –

To make the most exciting thing on the planet.

 

Like poetry, revolution gives you permission

To live on a higher level

And its reward is the sensation of challenging

The world, the flesh and the devil.

Stop Wars - Heathcote Williams

War’s devastation lets landscapes go to ruin. Air is defiled by dust and rank adrenalin. Stop Wars by Heathcote Williams. Narration & video by Alan Cox.

Source: International Times

All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.”
– John Steinbeck
.
One in eight babies is born in a war zone,
Its consciousness seized by toxic shock.
First made aware of life by an act of love
The flow of love, due to war, is blocked.

A mother’s milk dries up through anxiety.
Farmland fought over leads to famine.
War’s devastation lets landscapes go to ruin.
Air is defiled by dust and rank adrenalin.

With no haven in war’s psychotic maelstroms,
People are shot at random to see them fall.
It’s forbidden to kill yet war issues permission
Like an evil clown grinning, ‘Death’s a ball!’

War has been obsolete for thousands of years,
Yet the irrational still promote the deadly addiction
For state bullyboys with their territorial imperatives,
Spurning co-operation for low-minded competition.

‘Give me that. You can’t play with that. That’s mine.
‘I won’t be your friend if you don’t do what I want.’
Such playground motives lurk beneath realpolitik
As warmongers pretend self-interest’s irrelevant.

With serpentine hypocrisy they’re ‘humanitarians’
And it’s due to their ‘humanitarian’ instincts
That they vaporize babies with Brimstone missiles,
And that their enemies are swatted like insects.

Both Blue and Red Tories and the Yellow Lib Dems
Believe murder’s permissible in a ‘just war’.
They lack the moral imagination with which to see
It’s unjustified to bury human beings in gore.

In the words of Sun Tzu, “the supreme act of war
“Is to subdue the enemy without fighting” –
Since most wars end with each side’s negotiating
War itself may be substituted for talking.

And just as it’s a contradiction to have a civil war,
Since war is essentially uncivil,
The notion of a just war is equally specious
For war hands over justice to the devil.

Anarchy - 'NAMELESS WILDNESS' by Heathcote Williams.  

Some earlier posts :-

The Citizen's Arrest of War Criminal Tony Blair - Heathcote Williams

Royal Babylon by Heathcote Williams (rough cut)

An Iraqi child asks Tony Blair and George Bush: Are you happy now? - Heathcote Williams

IHow the ISIS theatre of murder was born - Heathcote Williams


International Times Archives:-

http://internationaltimes.it/author/heathcote/

Austerity Protest,Not one more Day: Thousands rally in London against the Tories.

Was pleased to have travelled up to London yesterday from West Wales, with local activists from Pembrokeshire People's Assembly against Austerity.
It was my first time out of Wales for 3 years after the loss of a dear one, so acted also as an inner cathartic symbol of release. We mere moved and angered as  our coach past the remnants of Grenfell Tower, I sensed a collective sense of shame at the tragedy and injustice of the situation.
We joined an estimated 100,000 people from across the country  in a protest that saw us gathering at Broadcast House and  marching through Regent's Street and Trafalgar Square  on to Parliament Square. in a wave of unity and diversity against Tory policies of austerity, cuts and privatisation and to remember the victims of Grenfell Tower, and demanding an end to the Conservative Government.
As  opposed to previous demonstrations I felt a real sense of hope, but so much more needed to be done to end the gross inequalities that run rife through our country at the present time. The most peaceful demonstration I have attended in the capital for a while, on a very hot day, with a carnival like atmosphere,  though visible was a real sense of anger at the Tories, there were reports of sit down protests but seemed to miss them. Felt personally their was a possible need for more rage,  The march's organisers, an anti-austerity campaign group The People’s Assembly, said they “need to make sure” the opposition to Theresa May’s Government is felt.

We witnessed Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn rounding on the Tories for uniting with hardline Northern Irish party the DUP and for the “hypocrisy” of praising emergency services in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower blaze. He said the Government’s refusal to lift the cap on pay rises for public sector workers was “absolutely unbelievable”.
A labour amendment to the Queen Speech to end cuts to emergency services and the 1 per cent pay cap were defeated in the Commons on Wednesday evening.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/the-politics-of-cruelty.html
In front of a mass of people chanting  "Oh Jeremy Corbyn" the Labour leader said: "I say to any public sector workers in Northern Ireland or anywhere else - don't have any illusions in these people, when they started the austerity programme they meant it and they meant it to carry on.
they started the austerity programme they meant it and they meant it to carry on.
"And carry on with a growing gap between the richest and poorest in our society, with a growing impoverishment of those at the bottom, a growing under-funding of local government, health, education and all the other things that we all need in a civilised society."
He added: “The utter hypocrisy of Government ministers and others who queued up in the chamber over there in the House of Commons to heap praise on the emergency services, the following day to cut their wages by refusing to lift the pay cap," he said.
"The hypocrisy is absolutely unbelievable."
John McDonnell also spoke to the crowds and vowed to support the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. At least 80 people are believed to have been killed when a huge blaze broke out at the high-rise tower block on Wednesday, June 14, with the number undoubtedly rising as more details emerge.
.Mr McDonnell said: "To the victims of Grenfell Tower we pledge now, we will stand with you and your families all the way through.
"Grenfell Tower symbolised for many everything that's gone wrong in this country since austerity was imposed upon us."

There was also a minute’s silence for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and a minute’s applause for the emergency services.
I do not believe that Jeremy Corbyn is the messiah like some I witnessed, but believe he as at least drawn people together, that I have not  seen before. We must continue to keep ranking up the pressure on this rabid and out of control Tory Government, currently only hanging on by a thread, propped up the equally obnoxious DUP. We should remember that Austerity actually kills. This is just the beginning. We must keep resisting.

Having set off from my home at 4.30 in the morning, did not get through front door until about 12.30 p.m, tired and exhausted but  glad to have met friends old and new, who provided much strength, will continue to keep on fighting back with others.

Jeremy Corbyn Full Speech At the #ToriesOut Protest Rally in London 1st July 2017  

The Politics of Cruelty

I  currently find it utterly disgusting that the Tories voted against Labour's amendments to stop cuts to police, firefighters, and nurses  and to end the pay cap on hard working  public sector workers.
Labour had proposed an amendment to the Queen's Speech to "end the public sector pay cap and give the emergency and public services a fair pay rise".MPs voted 323-309, a majority of just 14, against. Labour's bid to end the 1% public sector pay cap was the first Commons vote since the general election.
The Tories do this and say there is "no magic money tree", yet the Tories still managed to bung the DUP  over £2 Billion, in a desperate attempt to cling on to power, whilst also managing to give the Queen an 8% pay rise. And repeatedly have taken pay rise after pay rise for themselves, they simply have no shame. I cannot believe their sheer arrogance! Torys actually cheered after blocking Labour's amendment.
Public sector workers have had their pay frozen for two years thanks to Tory austerity. a pay freeze that has seen nurses, firefighters smd other workers subject yo a 14 per cent pay cut over the last seven years. It looks like the it's business as usual as the Tory's inflict their  cruel policies of austerity as they have done previously.Not one Tory had the decency to rebel and  to vote for Labour's amendment - and all 10 DUP MPs voted  with their Tory paymasters against it.
Theresa May is a hypocrite who only  last week  'thanked' the firefighters who worked throughout the night  trying to save people from the Grenfell Tower fire yet yesterday she and her cronies cut firefighters pay,  

Nurses are currently using bloody food banks; to feed their families despite working 12 hour shifts  with such dedication , that we all rely on, and yet they get pay cuts while the Queen sits in her castle and gets an 8% pay rise and the DUP who have done nothing for us get £2 Billion. It's wrong, and many  people are increasingly feeling much justified anger.
It just  proves they don't care about the public or have even learnt from the election let alone listen as Theresa May had promised they now would, and after all their hollow words from them about "our heroic emergency services" and about "learning lessons and having to listen to the public" they jump straight back to being what many of us know they have always been and what they always will be. It shows us the true nature of the Government we have now been left with.  May and the Tories must go.
I will leave you with the words of Nye Bevan to express what I and many millions are currently feeling :-

And here is list of all the M.P's who voted against the amendment, who voted to continue the wage repression of our emergency service workers,  shame on them all :-

Nigel Adams (Conservative - Selby and Ainsty)
Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Heidi Allen (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Edward Argar (Conservative - Charnwood)
Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Richard Bacon (Conservative - South Norfolk)
Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Stephen Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Guto Bebb (Conservative - Aberconwy)
Henry Bellingham (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Richard Benyon (Conservative - Newbury)
Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Crispin Blunt (Conservative - Reigate)
Nick Boles (Conservative - Grantham and Stamford)
Peter Bone (Conservative - Wellingborough)
Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Andrew C Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Karen Bradley (Conservative - Staffordshire Moorlands)
Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Jack Brereton (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Andrew Bridgen (Conservative - North West Leicestershire)
Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
James Brokenshire (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Conor Burns (Conservative - Bournemouth West)
Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)
James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Jo Churchill (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Colin Clark (Conservative - Gordon)
Greg Clark (Conservative - Tunbridge Wells)
Kenneth Clarke (Conservative - Rushcliffe)
Simon Clarke (Conservative - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Stephen Crabb (Conservative - Preseli Pembrokeshire)
Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Chris Davies (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
David T. C. Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Glyn Davies (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Mims Davies (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Leo Docherty (Conservative - Aldershot)
Julia Dockerill (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Nadine Dorries (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Oliver Dowden (Conservative - Hertsmere)
Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative - Thurrock)
Richard Drax (Conservative - South Dorset)
James Duddridge (Conservative - Rochford and Southend East)
David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Alan Duncan (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Michael Ellis (Conservative - Northampton North)
Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Charlie Elphicke (Conservative - Dover)
George Eustice (Conservative - Camborne and Redruth)
Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Michael Fallon (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Suella Fernandes (Conservative - Fareham)
Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
The liar Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
The disgraced Liam Fox (Conservative - North Somerset)
Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Lucy Frazer (Conservative - South East Cambridgeshire)
George Freeman (Conservative - Mid Norfolk)
Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Marcus Fysh (Conservative - Yeovil)
Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
David Gauke (Conservative - South West Hertfordshire)
Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Nick Gibb (Conservative - Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Zac Goldsmith (Conservative - Richmond Park)
Robert Goodwill (Conservative - Scarborough and Whitby)
Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Damian Green (Conservative - Ashford)
Justine Greening (Conservative - Putney)
Dominic Grieve (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Sam Gyimah (Conservative - East Surrey)
Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Philip Hammond (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Greg Hands (Conservative - Chelsea and Fulham)
Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Richard Harrington (Conservative - Watford)
Rebecca Harris (Conservative - Castle Point)
Trudy Harrison (Conservative - Copeland)
Simon Hart (Conservative - Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)
John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
James Heappey (Conservative - Wells)
Chris Heaton-Harris (Conservative - Daventry)
Peter Heaton-Jones (Conservative - North Devon)
Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Nick Herbert (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
George Hollingbery (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Adam Holloway (Conservative - Gravesham)
John Howell (Conservative - Henley)
Nigel Huddleston (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Nick Hurd (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Margot James (Conservative - Stourbridge)
Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)
Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Boris "£350 million" Johnson (Conservative - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Joseph Johnson (Conservative - Orpington)
Andrew Jones (Conservative - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Marcus Jones (Conservative - Nuneaton)
Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Gillian Keegan (Conservative - Chichester)
Seema Kennedy (Conservative - South Ribble)
Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Julian Knight (Conservative - Solihull)
Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)
John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Mark Lancaster (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Phillip Lee (Conservative - Bracknell)
Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Oliver Letwin (Conservative - West Dorset)
Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
David Lidington (Conservative - Aylesbury)
Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)
Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Alan Mak (Conservative - Havant)
Kit Malthouse (Conservative - North West Hampshire)
Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Paul Masterton (Conservative - East Renfrewshire)
Theresa May (Conservative - Maidenhead)
Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Patrick McLoughlin (Conservative - Derbyshire Dales)
Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Mark Menzies (Conservative - Fylde)
Johnny Mercer (Conservative - Plymouth, Moor View)
Huw Merriman (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Maria Miller (Conservative - Basingstoke)
Amanda Milling (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Anne Milton (Conservative - Guildford)
Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Penny Mordaunt (Conservative - Portsmouth North)
Nicky Morgan (Conservative - Loughborough)
Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
James Morris (Conservative - Halesowen and Rowley Regis)
Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Jesse Norman (Conservative - Hereford and South Herefordshire)
Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Guy Opperman (Conservative - Hexham)
Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Owen Paterson (Conservative - North Shropshire)
Mark Pawsey (Conservative - Rugby)
Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Claire Perry (Conservative - Devizes)
Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Christopher Pincher (Conservative - Tamworth)
Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Victoria Prentis (Conservative - Banbury)
Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)
John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Mary Robinson (Conservative - Cheadle)
Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
Amber Rudd (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
David Rutley (Conservative - Macclesfield)
Antoinette Sandbach (Conservative - Eddisbury)
Paul Scully (Conservative - Sutton and Cheam)
Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Alok Sharma (Conservative - Reading West)
Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Keith Simpson (Conservative - Broadland)
Chris Skidmore (Conservative - Kingswood)
Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Nicholas Soames (Conservative - Mid Sussex)
Anna Soubry (Conservative - Broxtowe)
Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Mark Spencer (Conservative - Sherwood)
Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Bob Stewart (Conservative - Beckenham)
Iain Stewart (Conservative - Milton Keynes South)
Rory Stewart (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Rishi Sunak (Conservative - Richmond (Yorks))
Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Hugo Swire (Conservative - East Devon)
Robert Syms (Conservative - Poole)
Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Ross Thomson (Conservative - Aberdeen South)
Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Michael Tomlinson (Conservative - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
David Tredinnick (Conservative - Bosworth)
Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Elizabeth Truss (Conservative - South West Norfolk)
Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Edward Vaizey (Conservative - Wantage)
Shailesh Vara (Conservative - North West Cambridgeshire)
Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Ben Wallace (Conservative - Wyre and Preston North)
David Warburton (Conservative - Somerton and Frome)
Matt Warman (Conservative - Boston and Skegness)
Giles Watling (Conservative - Clacton)
Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Gavin Williamson (Conservative - South Staffordshire)
Sarah Wollaston (Conservative - Totnes)
Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Mr William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)
Jeremy Wright (Conservative - Kenilworth and Southam)
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative - Stratford-on-Avon)
Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Nigel Dodds (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast North)
Jeffrey M. Donaldson (Democratic Unionist Party - Lagan Valley)
Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)

Six Bells Colliery Disaster, 28th June 1960

On 28th June 1960, at approximately 10.45, a huge  underground explosion suddenly blasted through the confined roadways of  the West District of the Old Coal Seam at Six Bells Colliery (then known as Arreal Griffin) at Aberbeeg, near Abertillery killing 45 men.

On the date of the explosion, 1,213 men were employed underground and 239 on the surface. A 24-hour, three-shift regime operated, apart from Sundays, producing 1,800 tons of saleable coal each week.  

Six Bells village is on the southern end of Abertillery town and at the centre of an area that, to the date of this incident, contained a greater concentration of collieries than anywhere else in South Wales.

As the colliery hooter sounded and word of the explosion spread, crowds gathered quickly, as they had at every disaster since mining began. Wives, parents, children waited desperately for news.  Some kept vigil without break for more than twelve hours.
While rescuers tunnelled through tons of fallen rock more than a thousand feet beneath them, people supported one another as best they could: they wept together, prayed together. The Salvation Army poured cups of tea, and ministers of various denominations led a service in Bethany, where many of the men still underground had been in Sunday School as children.
Soon they would be back again , but only because the schoolroom behind the chapel had now been turned into an overflow mortuary. 
Of the 48 men at work in ‘W’ district of the Old Coal Seam, 45 were killed in the explosion, the worst post-war colliery disaster in British coal mining history.The tragedy, which a Public Inquiry  later found was caused after a falling rock was thought to have caused an ignition of firedamp, a combustible gas associated with bituminous coal.The Public Inquiry also stated that “lethal concentrations of carbon monoxide gas were present which suggested the men lost consciousness rapidly and death occurred within minutes”. 

Families, friends and the whole Valleys community were left in shock as the extent of the major mining disaster was slowly revealed throughout the day. Revealing the terrible cost of coal.

Mining at Six Bells continued after the disaster. before eventually closing in 1988. by which time it had merged with nearby Marine Colliery in Cwm.

On the 50th anniversary of the disaster in 2010, a giant  steel sculpture of a miner standing over 20 m tall, named "Guardian of the Valleys" was unveiled by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. Designed by Llangrannog based sculptor Sebastien Boyesen, this beautiful moving  memorial is made from thousands of steel ribbons. Around the plinth are inscribed the names of all the men who died in the disaster. in tribute to those who lost their lives. It is regarded as a Welsh answer to Anthony Gormley's  Angel of the North. It  also serves as a sober reminder of  human losses in the entire South Wales Coalfield.

Names of the Victims

Ivor James Baiton aged 48, cutterman. 

Daniel James Bancroft aged 46, collier on panzer.

Robert Charles Brown aged 35, roof control officer.

Frank Cooper aged 44, supplies man.

Joseph Corbett aged 50, haulier.

Thomas George Crandon aged 46, repairer.

Walter Thomas Davies aged 34, borer.

Royden James Edwards aged 27, repairer.

Percy Gordon Elsey aged 52, repairer.

Albert John Evans aged 34, packer.

Leonard Keith Frampton aged 29, collier.

Albert Gardner aged 59, assistant cutterman.

George Goldspink aged 37, repairer.

Clive Alan Griffiths aged 18, prop checker.

Vernon Alexander Griffiths aged 33, deputy.

Earnest Victor Harding aged 51, deputy.

Idris Jones aged 57, packer.

John Percival Jones aged 56, repairer.

Joseph John King aged 56, packer.

Dennis Edmund Lane, aged 19, wireman.

George Henry Luffman aged 55, general worker.

Telford Cecil Mapp aged 42, general worker.

Herbert Amos Mayberry aged 55, dumper.

William John Morden aged 52, engine driver.

Sidney Moore aged 54, repairer.

Colin Malcolm Donald Morgan aged 26, repairer.

Colin Reginald Morgan aged 22, assistant repairer.

Ray Martin Morgan aged 44, repairer.

Islwyn Morris aged 44, deputy.

Anthony Verdun Partridge aged 20, assistant borer. 

William Henry Partridge age 45, borer.

Trevor Paul aged 25, assistant repairer.

Wilfred Alfred Charles Phipps aged 60, cutterman.

Albert George Pinkett aged 45, collier.

Frederick Rees aged 37, fitter.

Mansel Reynolds aged 21, measurer.

William Glyn Reynolds aged 21, assistant repairer.

Wilfred Hughes Thomas aged 57, repairer.

Arthur Waters aged 37, general worker.

Phillip John Watkins aged 53, engine driver.

Wilfred Weston aged 47, water infuser on panzer.

Frederick White aged 58, under-manager.

William Burdon Whittingham aged 55, assistant repairer.

Richard John Williams aged 51, general worker.

John Woosnam aged 24, fitter.

Sic Bells Colliery Memorial, Abertillery, South Wales