Six years after Margaret Thtacher's death Grantham’s most infamous daughter many of us are still unable to forgive her for the devastation she
wrought to our communities, the damage she caused to our industries,
our whole way of life. She fought against the miners, not giving a hoot,
or an inch of compromise, then put her sights on our welfare state,
whilst leaving an entire generation to be thrown on the scrapheap.
Her whole twisted ideology was to try and tear up the post 1945
consensus and privatise our public services, sell of our nationalised
industries, whilst smashing up Trade Union rights, embarking on a
systematic path of of destruction. Carving up the land, shifting the
balance of social economic wealth between the rich and poor, very much
detrimental to the latter.
Being kind, she was just a sower of destruction, not an ounce of
compassion within her, a creator of mass unemployment too, a fosterer of
division with her cruel policies. A liar too, about Hillsborough, who
also bombed retreating ships.While systematically eroding the notion of a
welfare state that cares for people from cradle to grave, Thatcher
boosted the coercive power of the state. This was most obvious in the
Miners’ Strike, during which she characterised the miners as ‘the enemy
within’ and sanctioned massive police brutality against pit communities,
and an approach to Northern Ireland which demonised resistance to the
British imperialist state and bolstered discrimination against
Catholics. She also let Republican prisoners starve to death in northern Ireland’s
jails,
Thatcher left behind a record of cruelty and ruthlessness not only in
Britain but also in such far-flung places as El Salvador, Grenada,
Argentina, South Africa. In these places and more
she unleashed British military power against peoples fighting for
justice and dignity, or she backed the violence of the U.S. government
in doing the same. Thatcher forged a close political and military
alliance with the U.S. under presidents Reagan and Bush Sr, and while she shafting all and sundry she still managed to be friends with
right wing dictators like Pinochet and P.W Botha.
I can never forgive
her. She remains one of the most divisive figures to have emerged, responsible froo creating misery ad suffering to millions, while selling of what belonged to the people.
She is still hated and always will be, despite her pulse stopping, her
awful legacy lives on, in the toxicity that is carried on by Theresa May's rotten tory party, still here spreading the same stinking
doctrine. The scars and pain she caused remain as the rich get richer and the poor, poorer.
The witch might be dead, but the stench of Thatcherism still
unfortunately, fills the air, her dark legacy still daily spread, her political heirs are trying to extend the damage she did in ways she only dreamed of with the same destructive policies impacting on the lives of millions of working class and poor people.It is surely time I think, that we bury her awful
legacy, once and for all.
Hubert Humphrey once said
that “the moral test of government is how that government treats those
who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight
of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the
sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
This beautiful book arrived in the post this morning, which is dedicated to to YPJ volunteer Anna Campbell who was killed during the assault on Afrin by Turkish forces in March last year. It is also in memory of other international volunteers who have been killed fighting alongside the YPG.
In
April 2017, Anna Campbell made the journey to Rojava the Kurdish region of Syria, to join the
Kurdish struggle against fascism. She was inspired by the revolution
because of the politics of direct democracy, feminism and
environmentalism and fought with the YPJ (Women’s Protection Units), Women’s liberation, direct democracy and the environment are central to the Kurdish movement and echoed Anna’s own politics. Eleven months
later in March 2018, she was killed alongside Sara Merdin and Serhilden
by Turkish Forces while defending Afrin, resisting the illegal invasion by the Turkish state which has cost hundreds of innocent lives. Their bodies were never
recovered. Here is a link to a post I wrote at the time of her death. https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2018/03/anna-campbell-death-of-freedom-fighter.html A year later, several hundred people protested and blocked roads Bristol in her memory and in solidarity with the progressive revolution in Rojava, northern Syria.
To commemorate the first year after Anna, Sara and Serhilden’s deaths, IMMORTAL: Mourning, Martyrs & Murals: an anthology, is a powerful collection of
prose, poetry, photos and art that is both a moving tribute to Anna and a
message that speaks to anyone suffering from the grief of losing a
friend or family member too early. Throughout the demo, the chant “Anna is with us. We fight on” rang
through the crowd. And this sentiment is echoed throughout the book. One
of the first pieces in the book states: But we are here because we are determined to
make sure that her legacy is one of taking action. It is not enough to
believe in an ideal. Everyone is responsible for taking action. You have
to build the world you want to live in and fight to defend it.
It concludes: The fire within her that moved her to go and fight has
now been lit within all of us and while it burns she will live on with
it.
The Following originally published by Freedom News.
Anna’s
loved ones have collaborated on this project as a counter-move to the
pervading media narrative. The book battles with the emotions and
experiences of those trying to move forward through grief in the midst
of media hysteria and political turmoil. It explores the anger, pain,
and guilt faced by those left behind; and scrutinises the meaning of
comradeship, friendship, and family.
Whilst instigated by comrades
of Anna’s, this book includes texts and images relating to Haukur
Hilmarsson. Haukur, an Icelandic revolutionary, was killed in Afrin just
one month before Anna in February 2018. Opening the book out to
contributions relating to Haukur intends to illustrate the connections
beyond family and friendship found through the shared experience of
traumatic bereavement; it’s about mutuality and commonality found in the
threads of everyday struggle.
We will never forget those who struggled until
the last moment to defend people, their land and their ideas
The publication was printed by Calverts Printers Cooperative, meaning
each book is of a high quality and made from ethically sourced
materials. Being a cooperative, the workers are paid a fair wage for
their labour.
Buy IMMORTAL: Mourning, Martyrs & Murals: an anthologyhere.
Preview the project here.
They still need to make a lot of money back to cover their costs, so please support this important book and help keep the fire of Anna Campbell alive, who ignited in us an inspiration for a better world for generations to come. We may be worlds apart, but its our responsibility to keep fighting for human rights. The struggle continues! Support the Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign.
Spent the morning revisiting the work of Arthur Russell inspired me to write the following words.
World of echo
It should not be a crime to be sad
eternities music at least releases a smile,
deep but unbroken, love returns
moving round in everlasting circles,
catching our revolving reflections.
Melancholia always has a place
flickering in the day with grace,
making noises of sustainment
generating light to break the pain,
before escape becomes infinite.
Alpha is past, Omega is future
lovers breeze continues to serenade,
garnered from a myriad of stars
to kiss and awaken sources within,
a world of echo will keep on calling.
Memories of the past, in times of strife
The breath of Nye Bevan bought alive,
The ghost of Dic Penderyn, the hosts of Rebecca
In a pitch black night, fiercely unbroken,
The faithful still gathering that storms cannot fade
History remembered, struggle as hope,
Stitches of time, clothed in rebellious man
Dreams bought alive, surviving clear and true,
In books of precious thought, giving hope in darkness
Ideological treasures for eternity, to set minds free,
Sparks of imagination, withstanding the tests of time
Beams of reason,glowing like tempests on the eternal sea.
Internationally recognised and acclaimed poet Anne Waldman is 74 years young today. A prominent figure in the beat poetry generation. She has been an active member of the 'Outrider' experimental poetry community, a culture she has helped create and nurture for over four decades as writer, editor, teacher, performer, feminist magpie scholar, infrastructure curator, and cultural/ political activist of immense passion. Born in Millville, New Jersey, Waldman only lived in New Jersey very briefly She grew up on Macdougal Street in the heart of Greenwich Village where she still lives, on Beat Poetry and jazz, influences that have strongly persisted in her work, along with the second generation of the New York School. Her practice of Tibetan Buddhism has also deeply influenced her work. The Late Allen Ginsberg, with whom she co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Diembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, called her his 'spiritual wife.' In 1976, Waldman and Ginsberg were featured in Bob Dylan's film, Renaldo and Clara.
They worked on the film while traveling through New England and Canada
with the Rolling Thunder Revue, a concert tour that made impromptu
stops, entertaining enthusiastic crowds with poetry and music. Waldman,
Ginsberg, and Dylan were joined on these caravans by musicians such as
Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Eric Anderson, and Joe Cocker. Waldman reveled
in the experience, and she often thought of recreating the poetry
caravan. Waldman
married Reed Bye in 1980, and their son, Edwin Ambrose Bye was born on
October 21, 1980. The birth of her son proved to be an "inspiring
turning point" for Waldman, and she became interested in and committed
to the survival of the planet. Her child, she said, became her teacher.
Waldman and Ambrose Bye perform frequently, and the two have created Fast Speaking Music and have produced multiple albums together. For nearly half a century she has channelled her passions and experiences into poetry, urging us toward civic and political responsibility, long has she been committed to the survival of the planet, working actively for social change, and was arrested in the 1970s with Daniel
Ellsberg & Allen Ginsberg protesting the site of Rocky Flats which
was bringing plutonium onto property 10 miles from Boulder for the
manufacture of “triggers” for nuclear warheads. She has been a vocal proponent for feminist, environmental, and human rights causes;an active participant in Poets Against the War; and she has helped organize protests in New York and Washington, D.C. She is recipient of the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America and is the author of over 40 books of poetry. She is also editor of The Beat Book (Shambhala Publications) and co-editor of The Angel Hair Anthology (Granary Books), Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action (Coffee House) and Beats at Naropa
(Coffee House, 2009), with previously unpublished work by Allen
Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Diane diPrima, Joanne Kyger and William
Burroughs, among others. Her latest book that came out last year was Trickster Feminism an edgy, visionary collection that meditates on gender, existence, passion and activism, uniting feminist history, Buddhist lore, contemporary politics, quantum physics, and more in a text of protest and upheaval. She sees her poetry performances as 'a ritualised event in time'. She is conceptual, visionary, prophetic, and living icon for future generations, carrying on the Beat tradition. Long may she continue to inspire, hold on to her premise of imaginative consciousness, remaining vibrant and unpredictable.Her powerful genuine poetry to be felt. Happy birthday Anne Waldman.
Fossil Fuel - Anne Waldman and Ambrose Bye
The Lie
Art begins with a lie
The seperation is you plus me plus what we make
Look intolightbulb blink, sun's in your eye
I want a rare sky
vantage point free from misconception
Art begins with a lie
Nothing to lose, spontaneous rise
of reflection, paint the picture
of a lightbulb, or eye the sun
How to fuel the world, then die
Distance yourself from artfulness
How? Art begins with a lie
The audience wants to cry
when the actors are real & passionate
Look into footlight, then feed back to eye
You fluctuate in an artful body
You try to imitate the world's glory
Art begins with a lie
That's the story, sharp speck in the eye.
From: Helping the Dreamer:Selected Poems, 1966-1988
Holy 21st Century
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy!
Is the composite world holy? Holy phonemes holy neurons!
Holy the 5 senses! Holy the aggregates of being!
Holy impermanence! Holy the inter-connectedness of all beings!
Karma of atrocities holy and un-holy!
Is 21st century endless continuation of 20th century war holy?
Environmental degradation continuation
Of 20th century environmental degradation holy?
Every Woman’s a holy dakini! Matriot acts holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy!
Body parts blown over the charnel ground holy!
Eyes ears nose hands mouth holy!
Manipulated Bible holy? Koran holy? Anarchist tracts holy? Fatwas holy?
Geneva Convention holy? Holy Contract with America,
come on citizens, is that holy?
Star Wars’ “Rods from Hod” holy? Daisy cutters holy?
Thermobaric version of the Hellfire Missile that can turn corners
and blast into caves holy?
Allen’s Ginsberg’s “Mysterious rivers of tears under the sheets” holy!
Holy Kerouac’s “tender reward!”
Holy Baghdad! Holy Dharamsala! Holy Columbine!
Holy Kabul! Holy Israel/Palestine! Holy Bosnia! Holy Rwanda!
Holy Manahatta Isle! Holy Trade Center! Holy East Timor!
Holy Justice! Holy forgiveness! Holy Truth! Holy Accountability!
Baghram holy? Guantánamo holy? Abu Ghraib unholy!
All hooded torture un-holy! All bodily sadistic harm un-holy!
All the hate un-holy! Big lies unholy! All the rape un-holy!
Unholy! Unholy! Unholy! Unholy! Unholy! Unholy!
Holy rap! Holy hip hop! Holy klezmer! Holy Afro-pop!
Holy jazz! Holy gamelan!
Holy pneumatic drills boring into the depths of Brooklyn!
Holy old slave graves!
False the military recruitment centers
Knocking on tenement doors get a fresh martyr for!
Holy Creeley! Holy Lucia Berlin! Holy Jackson MacLow!
Holy Brakhage! Holy Carl Rakosi! Holy Philip Lamantia!
Holy Steve Lacy, blowing his saxophone in heaven!
Cloning holy? Stem cells holy?
Amphetamine holy? Un-holy the polarized universe!
Holy the unfettered Universe!
Holy Negative Capability! Holy No Ideas But In Things!
Holy Projective Verse! Holy Modal Structures!
Banish grief & greed
o compassionate green-skinned savioress of the Mind
HOLY OM TARA HOLY TUTTH TARA HOLY TURE SOHA Anne Waldman - Battery Here she reads her poem "Battery" as part of Dear Poet, the Academy of American Poets educational project for National Poetry Month 2017
Anne Waldman - Reading from Manatee/Humanity
Anne Waldman: Poetry in Performance
Join her here and listen to some of here shamanic and subversive poems at a reading at Eastern Illinois University 2009.
Imam Sis a well known activist in Newport, South Wales . currently living at the Kurdish Community Centre, who has lived in the UK for 14 years after coming to the UK as a
political refugee. He has now exceeded 100 days of hunger strike, aince 17 December 2018, the longest in British history, and is surviving on only vitamin tablets, salty water, and a glass of lemonade a day. Read his article in the Independent http://bit.do/eM8is
" As a Kurd, my commitment to a world of justice, equality and demoracy forced me to leave Turkey and beome a politial refugee in the United Kingdom fifteen years ago. I have been living in Newport, Wales since 2014, where I am actively involved in struggles for coexistane and equality."
Imam Sis on hunger strike since 17 December, 2018
7,000 more Kurds are now on indefinite hunger strike in the prisons of Turkey, in Kurdistan, Europe and North America demanding that Turkey abide by the European Convention of Human Rights ( to which it is a signatory) and allow imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan , access to lawyers and family visits.
Jailed by Turkey since 1999, Ocalan is the recognised leader of the
Kurdish liberation movement. Since 2011, his lawyers have been unable to
met with him.The isolation of Abdullah Ocalan is
contrary to Turkey’s own constitution and to international human rights
law.Solitary confinement is commonly regarded as a form of torture, one that Öcalan has had to endure since his arrest in 1999. Ocalan’s ideas have inspired a major movement for grassroots,
multi-ethnic secular democracy, and the respect in which he is held
makes him key to a peaceful settlement for the Kurds in Turkey – an
ideal for which he has strived repeatedly over the last two decades. Despite his continuing imprisonment he has made the whole world acknowledge the Kurds, with hundreds of thousands of people from various countries around the world speaking about Ocalan’s ideas..
Abdullah Ocalan
Ocalan is in his 20th year of imprisonment by Turkey and is being
denied access to his family and to his lawyers. Ocalan’s importance,
together with the lack of international action, has forced the Kurds to
take the desperate step of mass indefinite hunger strikes. Leyla Guven, a democratically elected member of Turkey’s parliament for the left-wing,
Kurdish-led People’s Democratic party (HDP), launched an indefinite
hunger strike on November 7 from Amed Prison, where she was held jailed
by Turkey’s regime. She has been joined by
over 250 other political prisoners in Turkish jails and also by Kurdish
activists around the world, including 14 at the seat of the European
parliament in Strasbourg.
Leyla Guven
The Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member, regards Isolation as a
torture and a crime against humanity, but they need to act on their
words. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture has yet to meet
their criteria or serve their duties. This all proves that even today,
Kurds are still not only denied their ethnic status, but also counted as
not being worthwhile humans and all fundamental human rights are
denied. The European Court of Human Rights must take action against
Turkey on many counts, and the European Committee for the Prevention of
Torture must fulfil its role and visit Ocalan in prison. At the same
time, the EU and UK must end their friendly engagement with Turkey, and
European countries, including the UK, must stop selling Turkey weapons
that will be used to suppress dissidents and minorities at home and
attack Kurdish areas across the border.
Ask your MP to sign this EDM, https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/52440/hunger-strike-by-leyla-g%C3%BCven-mp;
to raise the issue of Ocalan’s illegal isolation publicly wherever
possible; to demand that the Foreign Minister puts pressure on Turkey to
comply with its obligations to end the isolation of Ocalan and to
restart the peace talks; and to demand that the UK stops selling Turkey
weapons. It is the Foreign Minister, Jeremy Hunt, who is the UK
representative on the Council of Europe, so they should specifically ask
him to get the European institutions to back their words with actions
and make Turkey comply with their own constitution and European human
rights conventions.
The Human Rights of the Kurdish people in all nations they reside,should
be respected and they are also entitled to preserve their language and
cultural heritage which would be possible through autonomy. We should continue to demand that the Turkish government be responsive to prisoners on hunger strike in
Turkey demands.
It is important that the international community stands in support of theKurdish hunger strikers and their campaign for rights, equality and an end to Turkish repression.The ending of the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan is necessary not only for
a resolution to the ‘Kurdish Question,’ for peace in the Middle-East,
but for the whole world. For solutions to large challenges that we will
all face this century, Abdullah Öcalan’s safety and ideas are of
critical importance.
Your voice will make a difference.Please sign the following change.org petition calling on the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to visit Ocalan,
Thousands of Palestinians have been rallying at the Gaza-Israel border today to mark the first anniversary of the weekly 'Great March of Return'
protests, facing off against Israeli forces massed across the
perimeter.
The protests call for the lifting of a security blockade imposed by
Israel and Egypt, and for Palestinians to have the right to return to
land from which their families fled or were forced to flee during
Israel’s founding in 1948.
The Gaza Health Ministry said two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli
forces near the border fence, during clashes that began on Friday. About 200 Gazans have been killed by Israeli troops since the protests
started, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.
Gaza's Health Ministry said Saturday ten people have sustained
injuries from live fire coming from Israeli troops, who also fired tear
gas as dozens of protesters approached the fence.
The territory's Hamas rulers are trying to restrain the rallies.The
militant group hopes a calmer demonstration would allow for the
implementation an Egyptian-brokered agreement with Israel to ease the
economic blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007. But warnings to stay far back from the heavily fortified fence were not being heeded by all."We will move towards the borders even if we die," said Yusef Ziyada,
21, his face painted in the colours of the Palestinian flag.
"We are not leaving. We are returning to our land."
March 30 also marks “Land Day”, that Palestinians worldwide have commemorated Land Day since 1976, when Israeli security forces shot dead six Arab citizens of Israel killed by Israeli security forces during
demonstrations over government land confiscations in northern Israel in
1976.
The main Land Day march in Israel is planned for Saturday afternoon in
the northern city of Sakhnin, with additional marches and demonstrations
expected across the country, as well as in the West Bank and Gaza.
More than 2 million Palestinians are packed into the Gaza Strip, a
narrow coastal enclave where poverty and unemployment rates are high. The blockade is cited by humanitarian agencies as a key reason for impoverishment in Gaza. Lat year alone , about 200 Palestinians, including children, journalists, and the disabled, were killed at the border, most by Israeli live ammunition; 23,000 have been injured.
Israel’s use of lethal force has drawn censure from the United Nations
and rights groups. U.N. investigators said last week that Israeli forces
may be guilty of war crimes for using excessive force.
The protests mark nearly twelve years of a blockade that has made Gaza into what is often called the world's largest open air prison. They also come to invoke UN Resolution 194 their right to return in peace to their homes, from which they were expelled in 1948, when Israel was created.
The Palestinians have no choice but to protest, their spirit not broken, despite their suffering they continue to carry on undaunted. Lets continue to gie them the solidarity and respect they deserve.
Incredible dancers in the UK perform Dabke, the dance of Palestinian
resistance, in solidarity with the Palestinians on the frontline of the
Great Return March.
In the face of Israel's military attacks funded by complicit companies
like HSBC, the Palestinian people continue to resist and fight for their
fundamental rights.
Tell HSBC to end its complicity in Israeli war crimes: https://bit.ly/2GQnrtB
And take to the streets this Saturday in solidarity with the Palestinian
people, one year since the start of the Great Return March: https://bit.ly/2TYR2rJ
On March 30, 2018 evoking memories of the South African apartheid
regime’s massacre of peaceful protesters in Sharpeville in 1960,
Israel’s military committed a new massacre
against Palestinian civilians as they were peacefully commemorating
Palestinian Land Day, calling for an end to Israel’s brutal blockade of
Gaza and asserting the UN-stipulated right of return for Palestinian
refugees.
The Israeli military killed
at least 17 and injuring 1,400. Almost half of these were children.
While Israel routinely carries out mass killings of Palestinian
civilians in the Gaza strip, the massacre nonetheless stands out as a
particularly flagrant attack on non-violent demonstrators with no
conceivable pretext.
Last month, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) published a damning indictment of Israeli forces' conduct in suppressing the protests. According to the COI, Israeli soldiers have been
deliberately shooting civilians, killing and maiming protesters -
including children, as well as journalists and medics. The COI's findings were welcomed by human rights groups who last year
unsuccessfully challenged the army's rules of engagement and its
shooting policy in Israel's Supreme Court.
Land Day has been commemorated by Palestinians every year since 30 March 1976,
when Israeli military forces killed six Palestinian youth in mass
peaceful protests in the Galilee against Israel’s large scale policy of
confiscating their ancestral land to create exclusionary Jewish-only
colonial settlements.
The Palestinians call for Israeli authorities to lift their 11 year
illegal blockade on Gaza and allow Paletinian refugees to return to
their villages and towns has still not been met.These demands are supported by
international law as well as nearly every country in the world – with
the marked exception of Canada, the USA, and Israel. In addition, the
organizers of the march, which was supported by a wide cross-section of
Palestinian political organizations, repeatedly insisted upon the
non-violent nature of the march – claims supported by the observations of human rights workers
People of conscience across the world must continue to pressure international banks and investment funds, like HSBC to end their complicity in Israel’s human rights violations, support and show solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, and demand that Palestinians’
fundamental rights to exist, resist , freedom , justice and return are respected.
If you're not around London, take action in your communities.Full list of events across the country here.
Pop music legend and avant-garde icon, 60's pop crooner, visionary Scott Walker has died at the age of 76. The news was announced by his label, 4AD on Monday morning. “For half a century, the
genius of the man born Noel Scott Engel has enriched the lives of
thousands”, reads a statement posted to the label’s website. “He has produced works that dare to explore human vulnerability and the godless darkness encircling it.” The cause of death it seems was cancer.
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke yesterday said the “kind, gentle outsider” would be much missed.
The poet Ian McMillan described his “unforgettable” voice as being like “a cathedral lit by a sunset”.
Walker was best-known for his work with blue-eyed soul trio The Walker
Brothers in the 1960s, but it was his late-career trilogy of challenging
art-rock albums that defined his reputation as one of avant-garde
music's most electrifying auteurs.
Walker was born Noel Scott Engel in Ohio on Jan. 9, 1943 and rose to fame in the United Kingdom as part of The Walker Brothers.Who were pretty much the '60s equivalent of a boy band, and for a while were bigger than The Beatles. (The group's members were unrelated, and none were born
with the name Walker.) With the help of Scott Walker's booming baritone,
the act topped the British charts
with covers of "Make It Easy On Yourself" (1965) and "The Sun Ain't
Gonna Shine (Anymore)" originally recorded by Frankie Valli.(1966), but the trio never achieved the
superstardom in the United States that they enjoyed overseas.
Hating the pace and hollowness of pop-star life, so much
that he called time on the band at their peak, having tried to escape it
all by using drugs, holing himself up in a monastery and attempting
suicide.
Scott said: “It was a very bad period. I thought everyone was trying to destroy my life. I had this idea that the press were people who misquoted me, fans
were the ones who would not stop ringing my phone, smashing my door and
making me move flats.”
Scott relied on Valium and sleeping pills to cope with his paranoia.
He dabbled with cocaine and tried marijuana but abandoned it because it
hurt his throat.
In August 1966 he tried to kill himself, but was saved when the
obsessive fans outside his apartment that he had been so desperate to
escape alerted the authorities. He later reflected: “Pressure wasn’t the
only reason.“Nobody has the right reasons. I don’t remember a thing.”
Later that year he escaped to Quarr Abbey, on the Isle of Wight. He
intended to spend ten days taking part in Gregorian chanting. But even a
monastery provided no escape.
He said: “We had obsessive fans and they discovered the monastery and they were ringing the bell the whole time.“We were plagued, and eventually I had to leave.”
The Walker Brothers split in 1967 but Scott went on to sell millions of
records as a solo act, even though the BBC banned his first single,
Jackie, for its references to drugs and “phoney virgins”.
Scott went solo releasing the first of four eponymously titled
solo albums: Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3 and Scott 4 — the latter released under his birth name.These records are rightly considered today to be masterpieces, that turned him ino a different sort of star—a cult icon revered by people
who crave lyrics of profound literacy and powerful, complicated
emotions, as he took on
darker and more experimental tones as Scott’s interests in Jacques
Brel, European art and cinema, formative drone music, Gregorian chanting
and themes of death, decadence and European culture and history grew.
By 1969’s ‘Scott 4’, his first entirely
self-penned album and released under his birth name, he was playing
chess with Death himself on the Bergman inspired ‘The Seventh Seal’ and
dedicating a track to the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Though he was popular enough to be granted his own TV show Scott by
this point, the album was a commercial disappointment, but is now
considered his masterstroke, cited as a major influence on David Bowie , Radiohead, Nick Cabe among others.
Failing to chart 'Scott 4' sent Scott spiralling into booze and depression. On the
orders of his record company he returned to making more commercial
records but became more disillusioned with the music industry.
He said: “I was acting in bad faith for many years during that time. I
was trying to hang on. I should have stopped. I should have said, ‘OK,
forget it’ and walked away. “I started going downhill, imbibing a little too much of everything.“I think I did temporarily go crazy, because I don’t remember the period at all very well.”
A loner, Scott insisted he was not a recluse, but a solitary type,
saying: “I like people but sometimes I can’t wait to get away and be on
my own again.”
In the late Seventies The Walker Brothers reformed and put out three more albums. But it was not long before Scott disappeared into obscurity again
after apparently becoming enraged by an out-of-tune trumpet while
performing with his band on a cabaret tour in Birmingham. He never sang
live again.
He released several albums, written by others, which failed to chart
and which he described as “middle-of-the-road dross”. Much of the next
few years was “sat in pubs watching guys play darts”.
Walker returned to other
writers' songs for an eight-year stretch, resulting in four forgettable
cover albums. But in 1978, Walker penned four of the songs on the
regrouped Walker Brothers' final album, Night Flights, a noisy,
avant take on the disco sound of the day. One of his credits on the
album, an eerie track called "The Electrician," distinctly foreshadowed
where Walker would wander on future recordings.
It was another
eight years before Walker emerged again,interest in Walker’s output was renewed thanks to the Julian Cope-curated compilation Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker, released in 1981. Three years later, Walker returned with Climate of the Hunter, an avant-garde collection of fragmented and trance-like compositions lacking either titles or easily identifiable melodies.Though the album was again a commercial dud, Climate of the Hunter set the stage for Walker’s immense talents to be fully appreciated.
This album featured an assortment of studio musicians who — according to Walker in the documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man— recorded
their parts without knowing the melodies, to ensure that there was "no
chance of everyone swinging together." Unlike most of Walker's
recordings from the previous 15 years, Hunter was critically acclaimed.
It would 11 more years before Walker completed his metamorphosis from
pop crooner to avant-garde godfather. That would come on 1995's Tilt,
a work of art that features bleak, atmospheric orchestrations, with touches of minimalist experimental music and industrial music. Tying it all together
was Walker's inimitable voice, which he pushed to awkward, operatic
heights. Tilt was a harrowing listen, but its uncompromising singularity attracted experimental music fans of all types.
Again, it would be 11 years before Walker would release new music when 2006's The Drift was released on 4AD, Walker again sent shockwaves through the avant-garde community. While Tilt was, in part, adored for its misdirection, The Drift was celebrated
for its execution. As the second part of Walker's late-career trilogy,
it took his ornate orchestration to new depths; every second of its
nearly 70-minute runtime felt intentional and intricate.
Scott, who never listened to his own records, explained that he
“needed an undercurrent of violence and that came into my head” and
added: “There’s darkness in everything I do.”
Even Scott believed his penultimate album, 2012’s Bish Bosch, was not one to listen to for hours on end. “No! No! You’ll end up dead if you do that,” he told one reviewer.
Walker then surprised many fans with Soused, a collaboration with experimental doom-metal droners Sunn O))), in 2014. Consisting of five songs, each circa ten minutes in length. Each
consisting of Walker’s abstract, Beckett-like incantations. Each
consisting of sweeping monolithic guitar drones. Truly incredible channeling stuff,peerlessly deep and complex .
In his final years he produced Pulp’s final album, We Love Life, in
2001, was celebrated with a Proms concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall
in 2017 and, last year, composed the score for the Brady
Corbet-directed film Vox Lux, a musical drama
starring Natalie Portman.
Much of his time, though, was spent out of the public gaze with
long-term partner Beverly or doting on his granddaughter Emmi-Lee. He lived in Chiswick, West London, until his death.
He said: “I’m an outsider, for sure. That suits me fine. Solitude is like a drug for me. I crave it.” Speaking to The Guardian in 2018,
Walker predicted that even his most far-afield work would eventually
find an appreciative audience. "I'll be six feet under — but they will."
An absolute Musical genius, enigmatic, existential and intellectual. From teen idol to avantgarde recluse , no one quite had a career like him. The music world currently mourns this uniquely challenging artist, whose seismic influence on popular culture will long be felt. So long Scott Walker.Rest in Peace.
The Sun Ain't Gnna Shine Anymore - Walker Brothers
The International Committee of Solidarity in Defence of Lula and Democracy in Brazil ( Portugese: Comitê Internacional de Solidariedade a Lula e à Democracia no Brasil), also known as the Free Lula Movement (Portuguese: Movimento Lula Livre), is a political and social movement composed of several Brazilian entities that advocates the release of the ex- Brazilian President Lula from prison. Lula has long proved a divisive figure , but the summary imprisonment has sounded the alarm
for many people – even those who might not agree with his politics –
about a danger to the fabric of Brazil’s democracy. How did a rising
global power with a vibrant democracy plummet into a political abyss?
Luís Inácio Lula da Silva was the
most influential trade union leader in Brazil in the 1970s, and the most
important leader of the ‘new unions’ emerging under the military
dictatorship. These combative unions were centred in the consumer goods
industries, state-owned enterprises and the civil service. Between the late 1970s and early
1980s, Lula led some of the largest and most influential workers’
strikes in Brazilian history. He was also the leading founder of the
Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) in the early 1980s, spending several years
as party president. But, despite media hype at the time, Lula was never
a ‘socialist’ of any description. He was always a social democrat, and a
negotiator: he is impressively good at reaching agreement across
economic and political divides, and this quality was essential in his
political trajectory.
He built the largest
party of the masses in the country, he ran and lost three presidential
elections, and he challenged the discrimination, the powerful upper
class and the media, to become, in October 2002, the first worker
elected president of Brazil. In eight years in office, he proved it was
possible to change the destiny of the country.
Lula was favourite to win Brazil's 2018 presidential election but was barred from
running by the country’s top electoral court, due to a controversial
corruption conviction, which people say was just a means of keeping
him from returning to power.in a move condemned by the UN Human Rights Committee. This was the outcome of an unprecedented judicial persecution already lasting four years: the most egregious case of lawfare
in the world today. The affair is thought to have contributed to the
sudden death of Lula’s wife Marisa. His bank accounts, savings and
pensions have been blocked, rendering him destitute. Yet, no allegation
has been proven, and this ruling comes courtesy of a judge overtly
aligned with a right-wing party and with close contacts with the US
Department of Justice, who also played the roles of prosecutor and jury
The result was the election of Jair Bolsonaro, an ultra-militaristic,
right-wing, religious extremist who has pledged to continue imposing
neoliberal economic policies that impact Brazil’s working class and poor
while encouraging hatred and violence against LGBTQI people, Black
people, poor, social movements and dissidents in general.Threatening civil liberties, the rights of minorities and Brazil’s fragile
democracy. These dark forces are preventing Brazil from being a truly
democratic country.
On January 24, 2018, an appeals court in Porto Alegre, Brazil
confirmed a previous ruling against Lula of the Workers’ Party,
sentencing him to over 12 years in jail.
On April 4, the Supreme Court rejected the habeas corpus presented by Lula’s defense.
The habeas corpus would have permitted Lula to remain free while he
appealed his criminal conviction. The following day, Sérgio Moro, the
federal judge heading the Lava Jato investigation and the soon-to-be
Minister of Justice in the Bolsonaro presidency, gave Lula until 5 p.m.
of the next day to present himself to the Federal Police of Curitiba, a
city in the south of Brazil, to begin his sentence. The declaration of the judge caused an uproar both within Brazil and internationally. Major international media organizations denounced the decision as a sign of the decay of Brazilian democracy.
For many he is considered to be a political prisoner whose continuing detention tarnishes Brazilian democracy. Persecuted
and imprisoned by the Brazilian elite he remains a symbol for progressive forces in Brazil. He is backed by the Brazilian
trade union movement he used to lead and the Workers’ Party he helped to
found.His supporters also include numerous MPs, cultural figures, alongside foreign leftist leaders, such as Michelle Bachelet from Chile and François Hollande from France, as well as the Bolivian leader Evo Morales and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
Please help this important campaign by adding your name here: https://brazilsolidarity.eaction.online/freeLula
