Jack Kerouac ( March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) - Joy Kicks Darkness

Have written about Jack Kerouac many times here before, this Beat icon, poet, writer and creator of spontaneous Bop prosity. This  eternal beatnik words   have acted like a gateway drug, that have helped me search for horizons, ways to be free, introducing me to the work of his friends, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder etc etc.
The shaman of the Beat Generation arrived today in 1922 as  Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac to a  French-Canadian family in the factory town of  Lowell, Massachusettsus USA. Variously called the Beat Generations apostle, poet, hero, laureate, saint. Through his own life story he created  a work of fiction .Soared so high, that in the end unfortunately found his own human skin, then found himself out of his depth in bottled delusion, where the burning ship had become his own.
Kerouac learned to speak French at home before he learned English at school. Reportedly he did not learn English until he was six years old . His father Leo Kerouac owned his own print shop, Spotlight Print, in downtown Lowell, and his mother Gabrielle Kerouac, known to her children as Memere, was a homemaker. Kerouac later described the family’s home life: “My father comes home from his printing shop and undoes his tie and removes his1920s vest, and sits himself down at hamburger and boiled potatoes and bread and butter, and with the kiddies and the good wife.”
Jack Kerouac endured a childhood tragedy in the summer of 1926, when his beloved older brother Gerard died of rheumatic fever at the age of 9. Drowning in grief, the Kerouac family embraced their Catholic faith more deeply. Kerouac’s writing is full of vivid memories of attending church as a child: “From the open door of the church warm and golden light swarmed out on the snow. The sound of the organ and singing could be heard.”
 Jack would earn a football scholarship to Columbia University, and planned to work in insurance after finishing school, according to the Beat Museum,http://www.kerouac.com/ which goes into detail about Kerouac’s rise to literary and cultural stardom. But his life only took a more hectic turn once he arrived in New York City, and he quickly clashed with his football coach. Jack dropped out of school, joined the Merchant Marines then joined the Navy. Unused to discipline Jack rebelled by punching his commanding officer. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital. His first diagnosis had been schizophrenia, but that was later changed to ' schizoid personality' with 'angel tendencies' and ' unrealistic self importance' He recieved an honourable discharge for 'indifferent character.'. He later claimed that he acted  crazy to escape the Navy and becoming a full time writer, he did this by landing in New York City and falling in with New York’s literary crowd, meeting Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Around this time, Kerouac took several cross-country road trips with his friend Neal Cassady that would later inspire his seminal work, On the Road.
Kerouac lived a life that symbolized freedom. Kerouac’s great novel On the Road was about the freedom that comes from traveling.  His literary style was modeled after the improvisational free spirit of Jazz music.  After Kerouac first got published and fame came with the popularity of his seminal book, he began to lose the latitude he enjoyed from being an unknown.  Jack Kerouac began to drink more as the world he knew and loved changed dramatically.  His books became accounts of his current despair and recollections of his youth. In his final days, Kerouac isolated himself from much of the counterculture movement he reluctantly started.
On The Road today is considered the Great American Novel. The story recounts Kerouac’s first trips across America between 1947 to 1950.The characters in it  though renamed were also writers who became known as Beat writers. The term Beat is attributed to Jack Kerouac who first used the term and the literary movement became known as the Beat Generation. The term beatnik became a blanket description of everyone associated with drugs, jazz and homosexuality and Jack Kerouac was referred to as the ‘King of the Beat Generation.”  The King of the Beats and much of what that title implied was rejected by Kerouac who said ‘I’m not a beatnik, I’m a Catholic”
The demands placed on Kerouac  at the time required him to make appearances on television and in his book Big Sur  the author recounts his experience on the Steve Allen Show,”the hell with the hot lights of Hollywood ( remembering that awful time one year earlier when I had to rehearse my reading of prose a third time under the hot lights on the Steve Allen Show….one hundred technicians waiting for me to start reading, Steve Allen watching..as he plunks at the piano, I sit there on the dunce’s stool and refuse to read a word or open my mouth,’I don’t have to REHEARSE for God’s sake Steve!’-‘But go ahead, we just wanta get the tome of your voice’….and I sit there sweating not saying a word for a whole minute….finally I say ‘No I can’t do it’ and I go …get drunk)(but surprising everybody  the night of show by doing my job of reading just fine.(Kerouac, Big Sur Pgs.24-25)
Viking Press, his publishers  demanded Kerouac produce a second book so they could build off of the success of On the Road This second book  became known as The Dharma Bums.The story within it  about Jack  and poet Gary Snyder’s search for Zen truths while they studied Buddhism. At the same time as the figurehead of an entire movement, Kerouac became severely alcoholic while he received all of the pangs of his success.
His early years appear mostly dominated by beer, which he would continue to drink, often as a chaser  for the rest of his life. However, through most of Beat history – from the early “libertine circle” days in New York, through the publication of the most important Beat texts and the subsequent “beatnik” fad Kerouac’s drink of choice was red wine, and it is this with which he is most often associated. It was, after all, wine that he drank during the famous 6 Gallery reading, while travelling America, and hiking in the wilderness.
Kerouac was aware of his alcoholism and his experiences which made up the text of Big Sur explain how the man was not coping with his problem.  In the following passage, Kerouac explains alcoholism. “Any drinker knows how the process works: the first day you get drunk is okay, the morning after means a big head…you can kill with a few drinks and a meal, but if you pass up the meal and go on to another night’s drunk, and wake up to keep the toot going, and continue on to the fourth day, there’ll come one day when the drinks wont take effect because you’re chemically overloaded and you’ll have to sleep it off but can’t sleep any more because it was alcohol itself that made you sleep those last five nights, so delirium sets in-Sleeplessness, sweat, trembling, a groaning feeling of weakness where your arms are numb and useless, nightmares (nightmares of death).” (Kerouac, Big Sur pgs 74-75). Big Sur was the last novel that would make up the Legend of Duluoz collection although the author would continue to write about his youth in future works.
In Big Sur Kerouac concludes the novel with a detailed account of his nervous breakdown. “Masks explode before my eyes when I close them, when I look at the moon it waves, moves, when I look at my hands and feet they creep-Everything is moving, the porch is moving like ooze and mud, the chair trembles under me” (Kerouac Big Sur Pg 200).
During a paranoiac passage, Kerouac explains a premonition of his death.
“But angels are laughing and having a big barn dance in the rocks of the sea…Suddenly as clear as anything I ever saw in my life, I see the Cross…it stays a long time, my heart goes out to it, my whole body fades away to it.(Kerouac Big Sur Pgs.204-205)
After Kerouac’s breakdown on Big Sur in 1960, he returned home to be with his mother in Northport New York.  Kerouac attempted to improve his physical health and continue to work. Big Sur was released in 1962, a chronicle of the time he when he escapes to Big Sur, running from the world, and lost in a sea of depression and alcoholism, while trying to cope with  the pressures of celebrity.The novel earned critical success for its realistic accounts of sickness and madness where he rather poignantly reflects on the deterioration alcohol has caused. With the release of the novel, Kerouac began to move up and down the east coast. Kerouac still lived with his mother Gabrielle and together they relocated from New York to Florida in 1960 and from Florida to Lowell, Massachusetts in October 1962. (Gifford, Lee. Jack’s Book pg. 295)
In the late fifties or early sixties, Kerouac switched from wine  to whiskey,  and was also drinking rum at this point, but whiskey was to remain his drink of choice (and that of his mother) for the rest of his life. In Tristessa he had said that he was drinking “Juarez Bourbon whiskey” and that he mixed it with Canadian Dry, while most biographers and friends have recounted his fondness for Johnny Walker Red. During a trip to France, Kerouac began drinking Cognac, and once told Philip Whalen that “Cognac [is] the only drink in the world, with soda and ice, that won’t actually kill you.”
While a preeminent chronicler of America, Kerouac also spent a significant amount of time in Mexico, where he developed a taste for tequila and his signature drink, the margarita.Kerouac’s margarita is far from the saccharine slushie many would associate it with today. The drink is essentially a derivative of the Sidecar, substitute the cognac for tequila, the lemon juice for lime, keep the triple sec and you have it. Shake well, straining into a cocktail glass.After a few of these you’ll feel as free as Kerouac's  prose.
As the sixties progressed though, Kerouac’s alcoholism removed him as the head of the counter culture movement. Kerouac’s friend and fellow Beat writer Allen Ginsberg became  the figure head of the counter culture movement.
In November of 1966, Jack Kerouac married Stella Sampas in Hyannis, Massachusetts . John Clellon Holmes describes Kerouac’s mood the night he got married. “During their wedding celebration, he called us, and he put Stella on the phone. I had never met Stella-knew about her of course…he was drunk and happy. He sounded great."
Though Kerouac was married, his wife describes his isolation after marriage.  “It was bad for Jack, living in Florida. He had no real friends. In Lowell, Jack was…as isolated as he had been in Florida. Though she (Kerouac’s Mother) was fairly incapacitated by her stroke he was still operating under the stern eye of Memere.”
With Kerouac’s mother sick, the author attempted to continue his writing.  Between March and May of 1967, Kerouac wrote a reworking of the period of his life he covered in The Town and the City called the Vanity of Duloz . In February of 1968, Kerouac was told by his friend Luanne Henderson that Neal Cassady had died in Mexico City.  Henderson spoke of Kerouac’s reaction after hearing of Cassady’s death “Afterward, Jack liked to pretend he didn’t really think Neal was dead, even telling interviewers from The Paris Review that Neal would show up again someday and surprise everyone.”
After resettling in Florida by 1968, Kerouac settled with his wife and together they tried to take care of the author’s ailing mother. Jack wrote very little during his final year and would rarely leave the house. Stuck in a sad exile,this  mystical breath had grown tired, what was once beautiful  had begun to  drift towards bitterness. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Kerouac “was known to consume 17 shots of Johnny Walker Red per hour, washed down with Colt malt liquor.” and because of this his search for inner lamentation was  cut tragically far to short.
Kerouac died on October 21^st 1969 aged 47. The official cause of Kerouac’s death was bleeding esophagel varices caused by cirhosis, the result of a life of heavy drinking, who had at least devoted most of it to the free spirit he cherished.  In his novels the life he lived became a symbol of freedom which resulted in the development of an entire Beat movement. The price for Kerouac’s vision led to his success which in turn resulted in excessive alcoholism.
Jack Kerouac in his eighteen books  and many others under Jack's influence were to me important epiphanies on my own path of self discovery. He taught me about "Spontaneous prose." - writing without revising....... He called this " a spontaneous bop prosody."  which is a bit like a jazz musician taking an improvised solo, and he took it as far as he could go, with  no editing and no pause of breath. Sometimes what is left, has no meaning, a void, but often their is a glimmer, that spells hope, that can become endless, can run off the page, infinite but still accessible.
There are two types of people in this world; those that ‘get’ Kerouac, and those that do not. I am in the first category, of course, so  happy birthday Jack, your impact continues to be felt , your satori breath released , and your legacy today is stronger today than ever ... om  switchin on.... tomorrow's dawns chorus echoes,anesthesising the sky.... sentences littered with wild perception, language as  a spell that  leaves us forever hooked. In human existence our contradictions will abound, freeze framed, on the road to nowhere. Blessed be you in golden eternity.
In his life, he had been part of a culture and people, who burned like meteors. Jack Kerouac was the Beat Generations very own mythologiser, he and his band of brothers helped  redeem a bit of America's soul. His legacy, like that of the Beat Culture, still alive, still relevant, still taking root.
This influential poet and writer who along with his friends, paved a way for a whole host of dreamers searching for risk, some form of adventure. Colouring our worlds with their crazy visions, their minds in revolt, searching for future's possibilities. Hand in hand with rebellion, against the conventions of the times.  I always looked to the writings of Jack Kerouac, not necessarily for answers, but for inspiration, for verve. If you were susceptible to such things, it was hard not to read On The Road or Visions Of Cody for the first time and not be enraptured and changed by its content. And even though Jack Kerouac was flawed  and far from perfect, with his apparent weaknesses by which obviously, many other  people have been similarly affected, I’ve come to terms with the sadness of Kerouac’s story  his books have served as a  kind of window to myself and others and for that, I am ever grateful, as his words live on, for eternity, ever so deep. Joy Kicks Darkness "Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever on the road " - JK

In Vain - Jack Kerouac

The stars in the sky
In vain
The tragedy of Hamlet
In vain
The key in the lock
In vain
The sleeping mother
In vain
The lamp in the corner
In vain
The lamp in the corner unlit
In vain
Abraham Lincoln
In vain
The Aztec empire
In vain
The writing hand: in vain
(The shoetrees in the shoes
In vain
The windowshade string upon
the hand bible
In vain—
The glitter of the greenglass
ashtray
In vain
The bear in the woods
In vain
The Life of Buddha
In vain)

Wherever You Are Remember Fukushima

 

On March 11, 2011, at 2.46 pm Japan Time, a 9.0 magitude earthquake struck the Tohoku region of Honshsho Japan. It was the strongest tremor to hit the country and one of the strongest in the history of the world. The tremors lasted six minutes. Some 20 minutes after the earthquake hit, a  assive massie tsunami swept across coastal towns from the northern island of Hokkaido to the southern island of Okinawa, destroying more than 400,000 buildings and homes, and killing 15,891people.
A nuclear disaster compounded the horror when tsunami waves reached the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, with power out,the emergency cooling generators weren’t functional, and explosions began in the reactor containment buildings; this in turn caused nuclear material to leak out of the plant. causing the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. In addition too those already lost more than 3,700 people  mostly from Fukushima, died from illness or suicide in the aftermath of the tragedy.

ad more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-japan-tsunami-nuclear-tragedy-years.html#jCp

In addition, more than 3,700 people—most of them from Fukushima—died from illness or suicide linked to the aftermath of the tragedy, according to government data

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-japan-tsunami-nuclear-tragedy-years.html#jCp

Unsurprisingly, critics of nuclear power  seized upon the accident to argue that because nature is unpredictable, nuclear power is simply too risky. Following the nuclear meltdown, Japan's entire stable of nuclear reactors were gradually switched off. But almost half a decade on, Japan is considering whether it should recommence its pursuit of nuclear energy - especially given its continued struggle to decommission the Fukushima reactors that are still inundated by contaminated water. 

Nuclear reactor facilities, which need a reliable source of water for cooling purposes, are usually located near the ocean or alongside a large lake or river.That's a somewhat fraught positioning from the lens of climate science, particularly since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report from 2007 found that ocean levels are rising roughly 1.2 inches each decade, with some scientists predicting that water levels could rise by as much as a meter by the end of the century.

That may not sound like much, with most nuclear power plants a full 20 to 30 feet above sea level, but each additional inch of water increases the risk of flooding and heightens storm surges, two of the more significant threats of a warmer planet.

The potential risks of tsunamis to nuclear power plants are well understood and a set of international standards has been developed to mitigate those risks. Yet, despite Japan’s history of tsunamis, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japan’s nuclear regulator, did not apply those standards. It failed to review studies of tsunami risks performed by the plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power, known as Tepco. It also failed to ensure the development of tsunami-modeling tools compliant with international standards.

Tepco was also negligent. It knew of geological evidence that the region surrounding the plant had been periodically flooded about once every thousand years. In 2008, it performed computer simulations suggesting that a repeat of the devastating earthquake of 869 would lead to a tsunami that would inundate the plant. Yet it did not adequately follow up on either of these leads.

Many people still do not trust Tokyo Electric because of its bungled response to the disaster..Around 12,000 people who fled their homes for fear of radiation have  since filed dozens of lawsuits against the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the stricken nuclear plant. And  eight years later, radioactive water is continuing to flow into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled No ,1 plant, while thee radiation levels at the crippled plant are now at unimaginable levels. 

As memorial services for the thousands killed in the Great East Japan Earthquake are held across Japan  despite the billions poured into reconstruction efforts by the Japanese government, scars on the landscape remain visible and the tragedy continues to wreak misery for many,  more than 50,000 people  still remain displaced, living in shelters, and the country is spending more on power eight years after the disaster.

Roughly one in two Japanese voters think the reconstruction of the disaster-hit area "is not making progress" despite the rebuilding of infrastructure such as railways and houses for people who lost their homes in the disaster.According to the poll, 72.9 percent of voters think the Japanese government should halt its policy of exporting nuclear technology, compared to 14.7 percent who support the policy.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-japan-tsunami-nuclear-tragedy-years.html#jCp

Today outside the Japanese Embassy, 101 Piccadilly, London W11 17:30 – 19:30 there will be  silence and prayer, poetry, speeches, songs https://www.facebook.com/events/1212004702282409/
And on Saturday there will be a march on Parliament  outside Japanese Embassy, 101 Piccadilly, London W1 12:00 for start at 12:30 Fancy dress/bright colours welcome – especially yellow! follpwed by a rally  at Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament 14:00 – approx 16:00
Where there will be a one-minutes silence  in remembrance of the victims of the continuing Fukushima disaster plus all victims of nuclear power generation  https://www.facebook.com/events/355574691936367/

Tibetan Uprising Day

After Chinas newly established communist government  took over Tibet in 1949- 50, in an invasion of unprovoked aggression a treaty was imposed on the Tibetan  government acknowledging  sovereignty over Tibet  but recognising the Tibetan governments autonomy with respect to Tibets internal affairs. But as the Chinese consolidated their control, they repeatedly violated the treaty, nut since it was signed under duress anyway  the agreement was already in  violation of international law. In open resistance and with simmering resentment growing it led to the first major popular uprising against Chinses rule.
On 10 March - in Lhasa in 1959, the Dalai Lama was supposed to attend a dance troupe performance, but he was told he could not bring his bodyguards.Fearing his abduction to Beijing soon thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Norbulinka summer palace of their spiritual leader, in order to protect him from being taken away by the Chinese army. From Tibet then aged 23 he reached the safety of India having escaped on foot disguised as a soldier in a 15- day journey over the Himalayan mountains, traveling by night and hiding by day. where he has maintained a government-in-exile in the foothills of the Himalayas ever since. 
Tibetan rebels launched an attack on March 19, but Chinese troops captured the city on March 25.The uprising was vastly outnumbered and met with extreme force, and brutal suppression, some 87,000 Tibetans were killed, and some 100,000 fled as refugees.resulting in the beginning of increasingly harsh  Chinese rule over Tibet.
The Chinese government dissolved the Tibetan  government headed by the Dalai Lama on March 28, 1959, and the Panchen Lama assumed control of the Tibetan government on April , 1959. The Malayan government condemned the Chinese governments use of military force against the Tibetans on March 20, 1959, and Prime Minister Nehru of India expressed support for the Tibetan rebels on March 30, 1959.
Prior to its invasion, Tibet had a theocratic government of which the Dalai Lama was the supreme religious and temporal head. The Chinese media routinely try to illustrate a narrative of oppression  being commonplace in Tibet  before their invasion and painting the Dalai Lama  as a terrorist and dangerous seperatist to justify their occupation, stating they freed the prople of Tibet from "misery" and " slavery" under a feudal serfdom controlled by the Dalai Lama and his followers to try and distract us from the human rights abuses that China committed.Though it was no Shangri-La like paradise not only are their contradictions in this false narrative of serfdom and oppression that China likes to portray, most scholars have soundly rejected it and are moving away from this idea.
Tibetans since the invasion were treated as second-class citizens in their own country. They are routinely kicked out of their homes and sent to townships so the government can ‘develop’ occupied spaces '. Over 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed and those that have survived are not being used by monks, but ironically, are used as spiritual attractions for – mostly Chinese – tourists while they tighten Tibetans’ religious freedom. Areas that were once spiritual spots and pure nature are used as nuclear waste sites. Worst of all, Tibetans do not have freedom of speech, religion or movement. Many passports have been recalled and the borders are closed, trapping Tibetans in the country as their culture and land diminishes.Chines replaced Tibetan as the official language, Despite official pronouncements, there has been no practical change in this policy. Secondary school children are taught all classes in Chinese. Athough English is a requirement for most university courses, Tibetan school children cannot learn English unless they forfeit stdy of their own language. In addition the Dalai Lama says 1.2 million people  have been  killed under Chinese rule, though China disputes this. 

The international community has since reacted with shock to the events that have ocurred in Tibet. The question of Tibet was raised at the U.N General Assembly between 199 and 1967. Three resolutions have been passed by the General Assembly condemning China's iolations of human rights in Tibet andcallung uponChina to resect their rightsincluding their right toself determination.
The following website www.tibetuprising.org  is a useful one to view a timeline of Tibetan resistance over the decades. Large scale protests across Tibet took place in the 1980s and in 2008, as Beijing prepared to host the Olympic Games. China's  response left 227 dead, over 1,000 injured and 6,810 in prison.  Some have since been released.  Some are still behind bars.  Some didn’t live to tell the tale. A few not only survived until release but then evaded surveillance and managed to escape into exile.Some 150 Tibetans, young and old, monks and nuns, have self immolated aince 2009 calling for the freedom of Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.– Tibetans light themselves on fire as an individual form of non-violent protest against oppression. It is regretable  too that the Chinese authorities have placed a ban on foreign travellers from entering Tibet during the 60th anniversary period, restrictions on access to Tibet are not new since  Tibet is almost entrely closed to foreign  hournalists, diplomats and UN experts, thus adding to its isolation from the outside world.
Recent evidence shows that there has been a significant increase of Tibetan political  prisoners since the protests, and torture has become more widespread than ever. In 2015, Tibet Watch put the testimony of seven torture survivors in front of the UN. Voices that China tried to silence now told tales of barbaric cruelty and incredible bravery.  They told of the unbreakable spirit of Tibetan resistance.Please see the following link for more details www.tibetwatch.org/blood-on-the-snows

Whilst Tibetans are preparing to pay tribute to the courage of generations both past and present, China is preparing to befuddle the UN Human Rights Council in response to last Novembers Universal Periodic Review. As previously, China has rejected most of the Tibet-related recommendations, including basic requests for UN officials to visit, calling them “inconsistent with China’s national conditions, contradictory with Chinese laws, politically biased or untruthful.” Bizarrely, China claims to have "already implemented" a recommendation to restart dialogue on Tibet, when in fact there has been no acknowledged formal contact with the Dalai Lama's representatives since 2010. 
At the moment the citizens  of Tibet do not have anything that resembles any form of basic human rights. Children and adults can dissapear at any time. To practice their religion means they will face prison, torture and death. The people are prevented from displaying their banned flag, or in joining mass protests, but Tibetans still assert their desire for freedom in the face of severe repression.
Today this struggle  is being carried forward by a generation of Tibetans whose parents and even grandparents do not remember a life free of Chinese rule. Tibetans’ spiritual leader has pleaded with the Chinese government to make Tibet truly autonomous so people can have freedom of speech, religion, and movement. The Tibetan people should be allowed to retain their right to protest and allow their struggle and dscontent with China and its illegal occupation and continued mistreatment of Tibetans to be recognised.Even though the plight of the Tibetans does not seem to garner the media attention it once recieved todays anniversary still marks  years of oppression and exploitation.The fact remains that China still occupies Tibet in much  the same way that Western empires of the nineteenth and twentieth century occcupied large parts of Africa and Asia. Chinas claims to have ' liberated 'Tibet rings hollow,and the continuing Tibetan resistance represents a legitimate important call for self-determination.
As Tibetans  and their supporters look back over the 60  long  years since their first uprising,let's remember the bravery and determined spirit of those  who fought and gave their lives, and we recommit to securing the promise of human rights and religious freedom for the people of Tibet and support their ongoing  struggle, not forgetting the thousands upon thousands of arrests, dissapearances, cases of torture, arbitrary detention and forced political indoctrination, and  recommit to securing the promise of human rights and religious freedom for the people of Tibet and support their ongoing  struggle. .

The Socialist Roots of International Women's Day

On March 8, International Women’s Day, around the world women organize rallies, marches and gatherings of all kinds to assert their claim as women to a say and control over all the affairs of society. Their struggle to affirm their collective rights is part and parcel of the fight to defend the rights of all.Today I celebrate International Women's Day with the recognition that it's not simply one day a year, but  it is every day that women take the lead in protecting our communities, and our rights.   

I also do not forget the radical history of the day itself. Ever since women fought for the right to vote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the essence of their fight has been political. They have put forward their claims on society as a matter of right, facing all kinds of state-inspired discrimination and violence against them and state-sanctioned attempts to relegate them to second, third and fourth grade citizenship based on brutal identity politics and exploitation. Women, however, speak in their own name and refuse to accept any limitations on their right to decide all matters which affect their lives. Their courage and determination in the front ranks of the struggle for a society which recognizes everyone as equal members of the body politic with equal rights and duties inspires everyone to also fight for the rights of all. 

 In 1909 the Socialist Party of America organized a New York City march commemorating a garment workers’ strike the previous year when hundreds of women workers in the New York needle trades demonstrated in Rutgers Square in Manhattan’s Lower East Side to form their own union and to demand the right to vote. This historic demonstration took place on March 8^th. It led, in the following year to the ‘uprising’ of 30,000 women shirtwaist makers which resulted in the first permanent trade unions for women workers in the USA. The famous slogan bread and roses made its debut at this protest . The Socialist Party of America declared National Woman's Day, to be celebrated on February calling for better pay and working conditions as well as the right to vote. 

It was at the second annual meeting of the International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910, that Clara Zetkin, a prominent Marxist activist from Germany’s Social Democratic Party, proposed the following motion at the Copenhagen Conference of the Second International: “The Socialist women of all countries will hold each year a Women’s Day, whose foremost purpose it must be to aid the attainment of women’s suffrage. This demand must be handled in conjunction with the entire women’s question according to Socialist precepts. The Women’s Day must have an international character and is to be prepared carefully.” The conference agreed.  

During the First World War, she along with Karl Liebnecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and other International SPD politicians, had rejected the party's policy of Burgfrieden , which was a call to refrain from strikes during the war. Among other anti-war activities she also organised an international socialist womens anti-war conference in Berlin, 1915. She however was not just an organiser, but also a great writer and thinker. That still remains an inspiration today. 

Because of her anti-war opinions, she was arrested several times, during the war and in 1916 was taken into 'protective custody'.She also held the view that still holds much resonance today, that the source of women's oppression was in capitalism, and that any form of liberation, could only be served with the self-emancipation of the working class. 

IWD, consequently, was celebrated for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. Women in these countries demanded the right to vote, to hold public office and the right to work. Russian women began celebrating IWD in 1913,  and on IWD 1914, across Europe there were marches against the impeding imperialist war and for a women's right to vote. 

In 1917 in Russia, International Women’s Day acquired great significance , it was the flashpoint for the Russian Revolution. On March 8^th  women workers in Petrograd held a mass strike and demonstration demanding Peace and Bread in protest at the deaths of more than 2 million Russian soldiers in the war. The strike movement spread from factory to factory and effectively became an insurrection. After the Russian Revolution, in 1922, in honour of the women’s role  in 1917, Lenin declared that March 8^th should be designated officially as women’s day in the Soviet Union. From there, it was primarily celebrated in communist countries such as China. But on the heels of the U.S civil rights movement in the 1960s, as women fought sex discrimination in the 1960s and ’70s, the United Nations declared 1975 as International Women’s Year. In 1977 the U.N. officially marked IWD by inviting member countries to celebrate women’s rights and world peace on March 8. It has since been celebrated in more than 100 countries, and has been made an official holiday in more than 25. Ever since, International Women’s Day celebrations have been held on March 8 in countries across the globe — serving as an annual reminder of the revolutionary potential of working women. Over the years though, these celebrations have drifted far away from the day's political roots. 

Is a sad fact that for many women in the present day, little if anything has improved, since all those years ago when women initially marched. Many women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men. This day then is also an appropriate occasion to remember the too many gaps hindering, sometimes in a brutal and cruel manner, the process towards the full recognition and protection of women’s rights as universal human rights.  In times of war, women as well as children are those that have to bear the major brunt of the abuses and human rights violations committed, in conflict zones across the globe.Wars and famine also means that tens of millions of women are on the move and homeless as refugees. Across the world, they suffer sexual exploitation, rape, violence and murder from people they know as well from strangers.Many ordinary women still struggling to put food on the table.

We must continue to stand in  unity and solidarity on March the 8th  with all  all those internationally who are still fighting sexism and the inequality, exploitation and hardship that is still rife under the combination of  capitalism and patriarchy and  keep celebrating the social, political and other achievements of women, who continue to try and promote gender equality and political justice, who still try to make this world of ours a better place for everyone.

( This post dedicated to all my sisters whose every day is steeped in struggle )

HSBC Stop Arming Israel

HSBC is a major shareholder in companies selling weapons and military technology to Israel and also provides those companies with the loans they need to operate. There is clear evidence that these companies are contributing to human rights violations against Palestinians and to Israel’s illegal occupation.
In a move though cheered by BDS (Boycott, Diestment Sanctions) supporters, the London-based international financial giant bank  said it will divest from Israeli defense contractor Elbit. followng  immense pressure following 24,000 petitioners emailing the bank while monthly protests were held outside more than 40 branches.
The mammoth effort involved co-ordination between War on Want, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (Caat).
But the campaign continues HSBC are continuing all of their operations, including banking, in Israel, and have stated that they reject boycotts of Israel  so now we must ask the they must cut ties with ALL companies that proft from the violent repession of the Palestinian people. The bank is still a major shareholder in companies supplying weapons to Israel, including Caterpillar Inc., which sells bulldozers to the Israeli military. These bulldozers are used to destroy Palestinian homes and infrastructure.  Other equipment provided by Caterpillar is used to construct apartheid walls and build illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.
We can’t allow banks on our high streets to continue lending support to Israel’s militarised repression of Palestinians. Together, we can break the chain of complicity. It isn’t just Israel that acts with impunity. Banks, ministers and even councils are accustomed to doing what they please regardless of what we think. Every occasion when we force them to stop and listen through people power is a win for our democractic values.
Take action https://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/HSBC-End-your-complicity?fbclid=IwAR1iGbKA4bzJWr85aSeU4221hBxG99r-hKEY6qzQXiVYMUoYJ6bR0C-RmJY

Remembering The Great Miners' Strike of 1984 - 1985

The first few weeks of March  will be a time of deep reflection for hundreds of thousands of people across the UK  and here in Wales who will recall what they were doing when the 1984/85 coal miners’ strike began and ended. On this day, the UK Miners’ Strike of 1984-85 ended in  defeat for Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers when miners reluctantly and bitterly voted to return to work, after just two days short of a year on strike in what was Britain’s longest and largest industrial dispute.In what was a  turning point for the working class in Britain, after an iconic but bitter strike that came to define the decade.
The National Coal Board’s (NCB) announcement in March, 1984, of the imminent closure of Cortonwood colliery, Yorkshire, and Polmaise colliery, Scotland, together with 20 other planned pit closures and the loss of 20,000 jobs led to a swift response from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).NUM national president, Arthur Scargill said the plan would lead to 80,000 job losses. Scargill's prediction proved to be  was correct

Yorkshire and Scottish miners came out on strike, swiftly followed by Durham and Kent. On March 8, , Arthur Scargill, announced that the strikes were official under Rule 41 of the union’s constitution and called on the other NUM Area coalfields to support the action.
Support in Wales was initially confused with the Executive Committee (EC) of the South Wales National Union of Mineworkers (SWNUM) recommending strike action during their conference of March 9, and local NUM lodges in South Wales voting 18 to 13 to stay in while respecting any picket lines, by 12th March, half of Britain’s 187,000 miners had downed tools becoming one of the most inspiring but bitter class struggles in British history.
But Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – riding high from her victory in the Falklands – had secretly and cynically prepared for battle by stockpiling two years’ worth of coal before announcing the closures. And she was hellbent on defeating “the enemy within” by any means necessary, even if it meant turning the full force of the state against its own people. For the first time in a postwar national strike, British police were openly used as a political weapon.Paramilitary riot police placed mining communities under total siege. A scab workforce was organised to break the strike, and billions were spent to keep the power stations running without coal. The full weight of the courts was used to sequestrate the funds of the miners' union and break its resolve. Civil liberties were forgotten as miners were beaten and arrested even when standing still. Agent provocateurs and spies were deployed. State benefits were withheld in order to starve the miners back to work. And the media was used to  churn out a Niagara of lies against the miners.What had begun as an industrial dispute degenerated into a clash of ideologies and civil class war.
For twelve months, the miners and their families held out against  unprecedented onslaughts and unimaginable hardships in order to save jobs and preserve communities.The South Wales miners alone would prove to be obdurate, solid and immovable throughout the long year of hardship and deprivation. Their heroism, determination and courage alongside striking miners across the UK  astonished the world, and would charge and inspire the political consciousness of hundreds of thousands of people, as it did for me, aged 16 and a half at the start of the strike as  they demonstrated their unconquerable will to fight.

Miners on picket lines were brutalised and attacked by baton-wielding police in full riot gear. For me at the time this was to be a year of great awakenings, seeing their fight, I started to see connections with other peoples struggles. The plight of the poor and unemployed, Nicuragua and Apartheid South Africa, people being daily attacked by Margaret Thatchers rabid Government. I decided  to take sides with with those who decided to take on the right wing policies of Thatchers government.
The rights and wrongs of whether the miners should have had a national ballot has been widely discussed, but like many others at the time I believed that once the miners were out, it was our duty to support and work for them. Within weeks of the strike starting 80%  of miners supported the strike, standing against what they saw as the unjustifiable attacks on their right to existence and resistance.

Later at Orgreave it became apparent, of the true intentions of Thatchers government, with the full collusion of the police ,it was noticed that they had no intention of finding reconciliation or settlement to this industrial dispute. The sole intention was an ideological one, to mortally wound the National Union of Mineworkers, to defeat it with military force and with naked violence ,by any means necessary.
As the miners  attempted to blockade the Orgreave coking plant. The police showed the lengths they would go to break the strike with violent attacks, mass arrests and deliberate but fortunately unsuccessful attempts to fabricate evidence and frame miners. The insult was added to by the BBC reversing footage of miners defending themselves from police attacks to try and make out that the police were attacked first. 
It was one of the most brutal attacks by the state on its own citizens of the last 20th Century.It saw the police  going berserk under state orders, repeatedly  attacking  individuals  wherever they sought refuge,  as they fled into a nearby Wheatfield and into the community of Orgreave, where the police  carried on their pursuit through the streets. A scene of ugliness, fear and menace, as  all concepts of Law and order that  the constabulary  were supposed to withhold abandoned all its basic principles.
 At the end  the day  over 100 people were arrested, for no crime whatever, with many  more being injured along with  the Miners leader Arthur Scargill. Following Orgreave, the police  conducted a deliberate  and co-ordinated  attempt to frame arrested miners  for one of the most serious events  on the statute book - the offence of Riot. No police officer has ever been prosecuted or even disciplined for their role in the terrible events that occurred.Campaigners have long been calling for a public inquiry into the horrendous events that occurred on 18 June 1984, simply asking for an apology to the victims who suffered in this bloody confrontation. More details here .https://otjc.org.uk/

Despite increasing hardships the miners fought on with determination and bravery. During the course of the strike over 6,000 were arrested, with over 20,000 miners being injured in acts of state violence.
Throughout the strike I would witness, how the right wing media  was used  to vilify and undermine. The media being used to lie, and used as a political weapon to crush the miners resiliance, the media  also enabling to misrepresent, and divide the movement, churning out a Niagra of lies against the miners .The propoganda part of Thatchers assault, was being pushed out  everyday. At her so called enemy within.
Psychological  pressure was  also used, with the police encouraged to wave wads of cash at pickets, designed to undermine and demoralise, the use of scabs increased, bussing them through picket lines in a determined effort to break the will of the striking miners.

Throughout the country, groups emerged, either as individuals or part of miners support groups, raising money and awareness, standing in solidarity. Disparate groups found common ground,  from the Unemployed, the Peace Movement, students, other Trade Unions, all standing firmly behind the miners in their great struggle. The women from the mining communities in particular acted as bulmarks of strength, organising welfare and support, collecting food and money and giving much needed moral energy. Lesbian and Gay support groups also  played a vital role and consequently the NUM led the pride demonstration in London  in 1985.The chant of the miners’ support groups was: “The miners united will never be defeated”. It was an energising time, new friends were made, the camerardie that emerged was simply amazing.
Sadly eventually some miners started drifting back there will broken, and the increasing hardsgips they faced, but it should be noted  that 63% of the miners stayed out  to the bitter end.

Sadly despite the strikers being pitted against the full force of the ruling class, they were  betrayed by the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party’s refusal to mobilise support, especially  their spineless leader  Welsh 'windbag' and class traitor Neil Kinnock, who refused to attend picket lines or events supporting the miners, in effect helping Thatchers dirty war of attrition. In fairness the Party rank and file were with the miners. Labour Party activists, premises and equipment were involved in the miners' strike to a degree probably not seen in any dispute since the 1920s. The National Executive Committee backed the miners and called for a levy to support them. Conference condemned police violence and defied Kinnock's request to condemn pickets' violence.
But what most people saw, courtesy of TV, was the public weaseling of Kinnock, Hattersley and others. We should not underestimate the role played by this in dampening the spirits of the labour movement.

On 3^rd March 1985, an NUM delegate conference narrowly voted to end the strike. The miners marched back to work together, brokenhearted but their heads held high in defiance. Thatcher was graceless in victory. “There is no such thing as society,” she infamously declared. Her neo-liberal blueprint would result not only in the selling off and selling out of the coal industry, but also the decimation of Britain’s manufacturing industry, the subjugation of all trade unions, and the doubling of unemployment and inflation.
Though the heroic struggle ended in defeat, the proud and dignified nature of the return to work, like the Maerdy miners  of South Wales who marched back to work behind colliery bands and banners who thus robbed Thatcher of the "total" victory she and her class sought. Nevertheless, the Tory government subsequently closed over 100 pits and more than 100,000 were made redundant. The pit closure programme was carried through remorselessly. It tore the guts out of the industry and out of the mining communities. The mining industry was decimated.
The strike  may have been defeated but years later I remember the courage and sacrifice made during this bitter struggle and the spirit   of revolt they unleashed, and those who remained defiant to  the end, and acknowledge the miners who were arrested and locked up on trumped up charges.The communities that never fully recovered from the financial blow of the strike. Those who fought for the survival of a humane society here in Wales and across Britain, and a vile government who used the powers of the state in almost all its entirety to defeat the miners and to teach the whole working class a lesson.
Miners and their families will remember those miners and their strike supporters who will have passed away since, and in particular those who were killed either by reckless lorry drivers at picket lines at the time or from the “death by malice” of someone hurling a brick at a striking miner, as was the case with David Jones outside Thorseby Colliery in the Nottingham coalfield and Joe Green who was killed on the picket line.
Passions remain unwaned, and I feel the miners strike has left us with a legacy that we should be proud of, of a people and community standing together in solidarity in the face of adversity. The fighting spirit of the miners lives on , It has left behind a tradition of courageous struggle, which can  still be seen among us today with people fighting for their lives and what they believe in, today as then  solidarity is needed  more than ever, as we continue our own for jobs, social justice and welfare. in our opposition to the current Tory Government, who are carrying on where Thatcher left off.

Test Department and the South Wales Miners Striking Choir - Comrades in Arms

Ghost of Yesterday

Ambling down the path of irrevocable memories
Nostalgias breath pervades my lungs,
Seismic segments of time fermenting and erupting
Intoxicatingly redolent of a turbulent storm,
My effervecent dream flat and fizzed out
Bubbles burst and evaporated,
Leaving my yearning taste buds dry and shrivelled
Bittersweet emptiness and a jaded palate.

The torturous syncopated rhythm of yesteryears melodies
Blast out their discordant notes in my ripened golden years,
The bells of bygone days ring out evocations of a decadent past
Every chime churns out an echo of a shattered dream,
Each jarring vibration plunges into my embittered soul
As spiralling silhouettes dance in unison,
Acerbic assailants from the springtide of my life
Seemingly oblivious to my former fragile naive spirit.

Britain Is Broken - We can't Afford The Tories - Mass Rally.

When Theresa May was gifted the role of Prime Minister from a disgraced and departing David Cameron, she stood outside Downing Street and delivered the following message:
“I would like to pay tribute to David Cameron for the leadership he has shown our part and our country… We need to unite our country and we need a strong new positive vision for the future of our country.  A vision of a country that works not for the privileged few but that works for every one of us. And that’s how together we will build a better Britain.”
What we’ve seen, however, is quite the opposite. Rising rents and prices. Falling wages in real terms. Unprecedented levels of homelessness and child poverty. The return of Victorian illnesses caused by malnutrition. Crippling household and personal debt directly attributable to austerity policies.
Despite Theresa May's announcement  that austerity is over, the realities for millions of people is quite the opposite. The Government shows no sign of stopping austerity. Every section of society is at breaking point  from our underfunded NHS, schools without supplies, councils unable to provide even basic services, and millions on poverty wages unable to provide for their families.
The government has repeatedly stated that they are committed to building a country that works for everyone, but the truth of the matter is they simply could not give a damn, as they continue to show their complete and utter contempt for the poor, the disabled and the vulnerable. At the same time the gap between the very rich  and the rest is wider  in Britain than in any other large country in Europe, and  society is the most unequal it has been since shortly after the First World War.
We cannot let this go on. As the Tories actions continue to be marked by incompetance and farce, it is time for all of them to go as soon as possible for the greater good of all. Theresa May and co should not be left to cause even more irreplaceable harm to our country.
As a result of all of this on 2 March, the People’s Assembly Against Austerity has organised a mass rally in Haverfordwest called: Britain Is Broken – We can’t Afford The Tories. This is the latest in a UK-wide ‘tour’ to highlight the devastating effects of Tory austerity.which they say is now cutting deep into every layer of society.
Goodwick based Jim Scott, of Pembrokeshire People’s Assembly, one of the main organisers of the rally, says :"Tory austerity has been an utter disaster. It has always been an ideological and economically illiterate policy. After nearly a decade of savage cuts to every layer of society, working-class people are suffering under the heavy weight of austerity while the wealth of a privileged few has tripled."
Because, as Scott continued: " The Tories are engaged in a shameless and cynical agenda; transferring wealth from the public purse into the pockets of the super rich. The Tories are literally picking the bones of our society and it is time for them to go. We need a general election now! Here in Pembrokeshire there is no way that Crabb will not survive at the ballot box, it's time for him and Hart to go too"
Ahead of the rally, the People’s Assembly has been touring around Pembrokeshire, Wales, with ‘Sanctioned Steve’. Steve is “the Tory’s skeleton in the closet”.

So far, Sanctioned Steve has visited the Job Centre to ask them why they were fulfilling sanctioning targets over people's welfare and causing soo many people to suffer. The Tories brutal sanctioning regime has forced thousands to go without any form of income for 100 days or longer in some cases. Creating homelessness, poverty and destitution. Universal Credit roll out is making this problem even worse.
The local PATCH  charity food bank to show his solidarity with the victims of Tory austerity in Pembrokeshire who have been forced to collect a total of 3,500 'five-day' food parcels in the last year alone.
Steve also wonders how his Tory MP Stephen Crabb has the audacity to pose for photos at the foodbank but keeps voting for austerity every chance he gets.
He’ll also visit Welsh Citizens Advice Bureaux, to question them about £51m the DWP “gave them to run a benefits support service and ask them if they can really run an impartial service while taking backhanders from the Tories! Steve isn't so sure! Also a  trip to Crabb's Office (to ask him why he always votes for cuts) 
You can follow Sanctioned Steve’s tour on Facebook.
Preseli Pembrokeshire has been Conservative since MP Stephen Crabb was first elected to parliament in 2005. In 2015, he held the seat with a majority of almost 5,000. By 2017, that majority had crashed to just 314. As a crowdfunder to raise money for the rally says, the former DWP secretary “is universally disliked”.
Pembrokeshire People’s Assembly has “campaigned tirelessly” for six years “to highlight” the impact of austerity “and cuts” which Crabb has voted for. In 2017 huge crowds gathered for a similar event to #UnSeatCrabb. Just "one last push" is needed to remove him from his seat in any future General Election.

Scott concludes: "Tory austerity has failed… [It] has been a shameless transference of wealth from the public purse into the pockets of the super rich. It’s as simple as that. The Tories are picking the bones of our society and it is time for them to go." 

The rally is due to assemble at 2pm on 2 March in Castle Square, Haverfordwest. Speakers will include former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood , Mark Serwotka, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Nicola Field , one of the original LGSM activists as featured in the film Pride. There will also be speeches from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) and Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter, Stand.Up to Racism and others.The lineup is subject to change deending on circumstances.
The main theme of the day will be the damaging effects of Universal Credit and poverty in Britain. Organisers also believe that the Conservatives have used racism and division as a smokescreen for cutting services and cutting back the state. Nimisha Trivedi from Stand Up to Racism Wales who will be speaking at the rally said; "Racism was invented to justify slavery. Today it is used to take our attention away from the people who have given us austerity. To fight austerity we need to fight racism and to fight racism we need to fight austerity. Let’s turn out in big numbers. Unite and fight."
 Philippa Thomson; Labour Party Candidate for Preseli Pembrokeshire will be speaking on the platform and said; " I hope people from across Pembrokeshire will come and support the rally. It's unbelievable in this day and age that so many people in our country are living in poverty, including people in work. Here in Pembrokeshire our local charities are doing an amazing job to help struggling families, but what would really help would be for the Tory Government to stop their failed Universal Credit roll-out "
Ellen Clifford from Disabled People Against Cuts, has sent the following statement : "
"Austerity and so-called welfare reform have disproportionately impacted on the most disadvantaged members of society including disabled people. In 2016 the United Nations concluded that the threshold of evidence for grave and systematic violations of disabled people's rights due to welfare reform had been met. This is not an accident but the product of a deliberate ideological agenda to reshape the welfare state, and to punish and demonise those who are reliant on out of work and disability benefits. There is overwhelming evidence of the direct harm caused by removing essential support through benefit assessments that are not fit for purpose and the cruel and perverse conditionality and sanctions regime. The roll out of Universal Credit threatens yet more misery and destitution of an as yet unseen scale. We need to end this now which is why DPAC supports the Britain is Broken initiative and we encourage all those that can to get involved."
 UNISON Pembrokeshire County Branch will also be officially supporting the rally and encouraging their members to turn out in large numbers, other local union branches are expected to follow. Pembrokeshire Green Party; also supporting have donated £200 towards the costs of the day.
 A comedy gig, Stand Up Against Racism and Austerity, will take place in the evening in the Merlin Theatre at 6pm. Mark Serwotka will host the evening which will feature stand up comedy from the brilliant and hilarious Wil Hodgson & local comedian poet Clare Ferguson-Walker as well as Trevor J Williams and Liam Schewitz from South Wales. There will also be music from Pat Bollard the well known busking band who gained fame with their song 'Millionaires'. Union of Love - Street Performance group - will also be bringing street performance to the theatre with a moving performance on poverty in Britain.Tickets for the gig may be purchased here

As Tory austerity continues to destroy people's lives I stand  with the Britain is broken rally and I hope to see you there. The Tories are causing suffering on an unimaginable scale. Please will you support this important event, help us take down the Tories in Pembrokeshire and make West Wales a Tory free zone! Together in unity we can be a powerful movement against austerity, for the many not the few.

Yves Rocher Act beautiful, stop union-busting

French cosmetic and skin care giant Yves Rocher who makes a whopping 2 billion Euros a year  has come under fire after132 workers at its Turkish subsidiary Kozan Kosmetik  in the Turkish industrial district of Gebze, near İstanbul, mostly women ,got so sick and tired of the appalling conditions -- they joined a union.The management then fired them.Yves Rocher’s built its brand on women’s empowerment. But it’s walking all over one of the most fundamental rights of its female workforce,   despite the Fact that the Right to unionise is recognised both by the Turkish Constitution and the Internationally Recognised Conventions of the International Labour Organisation. .
The sacked employees  mainly female workers have  been picketing the factory for almost 300 days since May 15  with  bosses erecting barbed wire fencing to prevent them from speaking to other workers.
Yves Rocher bought a 51 per cent stake in Flormar in 2012, in a deal worth estimated at $150 million (£116m). Flormar is the number one make-up brand in Turkey with a 21 per cent market share. Its goods are exported to around 60 countries, with global sales worth around $100m (£77m) per year.
However, the workers at the Flormar factory complain of low pay and poor safety conditions, with bosses demanding that they work extra hours for no more than the minimum wage.
The company went to court to challenge a union certificate issued by the Ministry of Labour, exploiting loopholes in the law to block union recognition.
Flormar bosses started targeting workers for their trade union activities in April, when they sacked 14 members of Petrol-Is.
By mid-May, a total of 132 union members had been dismissed. Many have been campaigning under the slogan “Act beautiful, stop union-busting,” subverting the motto of Yves Rocher, which has tried to distance itself from responsibility for the dispute.
  soL HD has shot  the following  documentary video, “Beauty is resisting”, with English and French subtitles, dedicated to the struggle of the resisting workers.

As the video shows, the Flormar workers, were fired one by one, including many of them who had worked for the company day and night for 14 years, simply for seeking  their labour rights.
Social media users from Turkey and around the globe have since started to share soL News’ video to show their solidarity with the resisting workers.The video sharing has turned into a mass social media campaign with those supporting  them popularizing the video with hashtags such as #ActBeautiful (in Flormar-in Turkey) and #STOPUnionBusting. Social media users criticizing French Yves Rocher and its Turkish trademark Flormar for their anti-labour and anti-trade union practices  that they have imposed upon the workers
.One worker employed as a subcontractor, who did not wish to be named, explained: “They asked about my partner’s job and if I had taken part in May Day protests or was a member of a political party.
“They said being in a union was a big problem for them and told us that, if we spoke to those resisting, we would be sacked.”
Pinar Koca, who was sacked the day after she joined the union, said: “We are defending not only our own rights but also the rights of our friends in the factory.”
She called on women to “boycott cosmetic products by Flormar and Yves Rocher and support our action.”
Sacked Flomrar worker Elif Ulsu remains confident of victory, saying: “We will not give up. I believe women are going to win at Flormar.”
If one company gets away with firing workers in Turkey for joining a union, what’s to stop other big employers doing the same thing?
If people can't join  a union, they have no way to stand up for themselves  and demand wages that will feed their families, safe workplaces, time off when they’re sick and freedom from management bullying.
Yves Rocher’s makeup and skincare products target women. They even sponsor awards for women leaders around the world. Well, the many women who worked at this factory aren’t asking for an award -- they just want their jobs back, and a guarantee they can stand up for themselves by working together in a union.
Now SumOfUs, the large international campaigning group, has taken up the Yves Rocher case as a priority campaign. Thousands of supporters daily are signing the online SumOfUs petition calling for Yves Rocher to stop the union busting in Turkey.
Support the workers and join the campaign.

 TO: Yves Rocher 

Demand that your Turkish subsidiary reinstates union members illegally fired and respects its workers rights.

https://actions.sumofus.org/a/yves-rocher-stop-union-busting-in-turkey 

Woken

 

Awoken again with mind ablaze
Tangential thoughts flooding my brain
Lost in times deep seated memories
Scrapped Poetry snippets strewn across the floor
Proscrastination fuels my aversion to tidying up
Time now to walk through sunshine
Reflections of wonder, surfacing embrace
Within the minds eye
Opportunities present themselves
Lessons to be taught again
Time to go for papers, rizlas
Follow some straight lines
Allow the darkness to recede
Find some glimmer to share
Reflections of inner hunger
In the garden look for serenity
Beyond the fractures, the deep blue hue
States of karmic energy
Awakening again
Fractal dreams igniting
Passions thirst liberating
Springs eternal kiss releasing
Guiding obsessions emanating
Forever lost in fierce permanence.