35th Anniversary of The Battle of Orgreave

 

Today I remember of one of the 20th Century's most brutal attacks by the state on its own citizens.The Battle of Orgreave,  which took place during the1984 Miners strike,which resulted in an all out military operation by Margeret Thatcher's Conservative cabinet. The miners' strike of 1984-85 was the longest lasting and most bitter industrial dispute of the second half of the 20th century in Britain. It had a huge impact on virtually every subsequent industrial and political development.
On June 18th  1984, 6 to 7,000  striking miners and their supporters gathered  to picket Orgreave  cokeworks  near Rotheram in South Yorkshire. The miners wanted to stop lorry loads of coke leaving for the steelworks. They thought that would help them win their strike, and help protect their pits and their jobs. The police were determined to hold them back. The number of officers was unprecedented. The use of dogs, horses and riot gear in an industrial dispute was almost unheard of. Some of the tactics were learned from the police in Northern Ireland and Hong Kong who had experience dealing with violent disorder.
During the subsequent court case a police manual was uncovered which set out the latest plans to deal with pickets and protests. Police vans and Range Rovers were fitted with armour so they could withstand the stones being thrown by some in the crowd. The miners suspected the whole operation was being run under government control.
Many believe Orgreave was the first example of what became known as “kettling” – the deliberate containment of protesters by large numbers of police officers. It marked a turning point in policing and in the strike. Police directed  pickets to an area of land which left them  hemmed in on three sides.Before this event the miners had been stoically out on strike for about 12 weeks, during which they had  been assaulted on picket lines, with individuals being handcuffed and beaten without  any cause or provocation.
At Orgreave  the miners after being herded together. were savagely attacked by Police cavalry  in full riot gear under the jurisdiction of Thatcher's Government attacking fleeing miners with long swaying batons as Miners ran for safety. 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. It resulted in scenes of ugliness, fear and menace, as  all concepts of Law and order that  the constabulary  were supposed to withhold were abandoned. The police frenzy at Orgreave was consciously designed to batter the NUM into submission.
Far from the liberal ideal of a politically neutral body serving the public the police were used at Orgreave to further the anti-socialist rampage which dominated Thatcher's 1980's. As Michael Mansfield QC wrote :"They wanted to teach the miners a lesson, a big lesson, such as they wouldn't come out in force again."

At the end  the day  95people were arrested, for no crime whatever, with over 39 strikers  being injured, many severely. 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.
The  miners strike lasted until March 1985, during which it politicised a generation of people, sadly however at the end hundreds of mines closed afterwards and many miners faced redundancy. And dizzy with her own success, Thatcher began a policy of deindustrialisation of British industry and further impoverishment of working class and middle-class people.

The  miners  strike of 1984 was one of the longest and most brutal in British labour history. A heroic community fighting for jobs and survival was wholly denigrated and depicted as violent by the majority of the British media, at the time. Orgreave marked a turning point in the policing of public protest. It sent a message to the police that they could employ violence and lies with impunity. It was only a year after Orgreave that the so-called “Battle of the Beanfield” took place, with violent and unprovoked  attacks by the police on New Age travellers, followed by large-scale wrongful arrests. And more recently there have been examples of police “kettling” demonstrators in London for several hours – a kind of pre-emptive imprisonment. With the Government’s Trade Union Act aiming to further restrict picketing,  the right to protest in public is in serious danger.
In 2012, the  Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC), was formed to campaign for a public inquiry into the policing of events at Orgreave following the success of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign and revelations about corruption in South Yorkshire Police. But in October 2016 the Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced that there would be no statutory inquiry or independent review.
In 1991, South Yorkshire police paid £425,000 in compensation to 39 miners who had sued for assault, false arrest and malicious prosecution, but the force still publicly denied any wrongdoing by any officer.In March the Right Rev Dr Peter Wilcox, the bishop of Sheffield, revealed that the Home Office had also declined to support his proposal for an independent panel to consider the Orgreave events.
In advance of the 35 year anniversary , he said: “Questions remain unanswered which are not going away. In the fullness of time, these questions must be addressed thoroughly and openly, so that wrongs can be put right and so that individuals and communities can move on from a deeply unhappy piece of history. I gladly repeat today my call for a formal, public and independent process of inquiry.”
Up to a thousand workers from both Yorkshire and across the country marched to the 35th Battle of Orgreave memorial rally on Saturday.They marched from Orgreave Lane in Sheffield across the bridge and past the farmland in which the state-orchestrated police attack on striking miners took place on on June 18th 1984.
Other victims of injustice marched with them: workers blacklisted in the construction industry, victims of the Grenfell fire disaster represented by the Fire Brigades Union and Shrewsbury 24 campaigners seeking justice over the imprisonment of striking building site workers in the 1970s were there.
Speaker after speaker at the rally expressed determination to continue the Orgreave campaign until truth and justice are achieved. Prior to speeches the Women’s Socialist Choir gave a rendition of their Orgreave song ‘Time for Truth, Time for Justice, Time for Peace,’ to warm applause.
A spokesperson for the Orgreave Justice Campaign then said: ‘Take note, we are not going away! We have been more active than ever in the last year and we had the biggest reception we have ever had at this year’s annual Durham Miners Gala.
‘We also had a guarantee from Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn that a Labour government would hold a workers inquiry into what happened at Orgreave in 1984.
‘So the international solidarity that was built up throughout that strike still prevails today. We’ve spoken at over 100 events and meetings – so don’t forget to keep asking us.
‘And now we know we’ll get an inquiry when we get a Labour government. Jeremy Corbyn told us: “The next Labour government will launch an independent inquiry – because there are so many questions that need to be answered”.
 Today I pay tribute to the miners who led the fight against the Thatcher government to defend jobs and trade unionism. After 35 years it is more important than ever to establish the truth about who was responsible for organising the police rampage on this day. Sadly for the 95 miners who were arrested, their families, comrades and others, injustice at Orgreave remains unresolved. Now is the time to keep demand an independent inquiry into the police brutality that happened on that day from home secretary Sajid Javid. Addressing the past is also a way of confronting the continuing abuses of the present.

Refugee Week 2019 (17 – 23 June )

Refugee Week takes place every year across the world in the week around World Refugee Day on the 20 June. In the UK, Refugee Week is a nationwide programme of arts, cultural and educational events that celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and encourages a better understanding between communities.
The main focus of World Refugee Week is to educate people about refugees, what brought them here and the challenges they’ve faced. By hearing their stories, we can appreciate who they are and think about how we can work together to make our communities safer and more welcoming for them.
Refugee Week started in 1998 as a direct reaction to hostility in the media and society in general towards refugees and asylum seekers, to try and look  beyond the stereotypical ‘refugee’ label and work  to counter this negative climate, defending the importance of sanctuary and the benefits it can bring to both refugees and host communities. An established part of the UK’s cultural calendar, Refugee Week is now one of the leading national initiatives working to counter this negative climate, defending the importance of sanctuary and the benefits it can bring to both refugees and host communities.
People escaping war and persecution have been welcomed by communities in the UK for hundreds of years, and their stories and contributions are all around us. From the Jewish refugees of the 1930s to people fleeing Vietnam in the 1970s, Kosovans in the 1990s to those arriving today; they are part of who we all are.
The theme  of Refugee Week 2019, is ' You, me and those who came before' an invitation to explore the lives of refugees who exhibit such adaptability, resilience and determination in rebuilding their lives in the UK, and who play (and will go on to play) an important role in shaping our future society,  and those who have welcomed them, throughout the generations and to celebrate the positive contributions refugees make to our society and show support for families forced to flee.
The aims of Refugee Week are:
1. To encourage a diverse range of events to be held throughout the UK, which facilitate positive encounters between refugees and the general public in order to encourage greater understanding and overcome hostility.
2.To showcase the talent and expertise that refugees bring with them to the UK.
To explore new and creative ways of addressing the relevant issues and reach beyond the refugee sector.
3.To provide information which educates and raises awareness of the reality of refugee experiences
The ultimate aim is to create better understanding between different communities and to encourage successful integration, enabling refugees to live in safety and continue making a valuable contribution.
Many refugees and asylum seekers face severe difficulties once they arrive in the UK. Unable to work or support themselves, many struggle for basics such as food and shelter. Some of the key issues they encounter are the possibility of detention, living in destitution and contending with negative stereotypes.Most of those who are granted asylum are given leave to remain for only five years, making it difficult for them to make decisions about their future, including finding work and making definite plans for their life in the UK while it remains unsafe for them to return to the country they escaped from. As fellow humans we have a responsibility to respond to their specific needs in times of crisis. Many of these asylum seekers come to us as a last resort, having exhausted all alternatives, with nowhere else to turn. We should also remember  all those suffering abuse in detention centres and those facing repatriation despite the dangers that they face.
Refugee Week is an umbrella festival, with events held by a wide range of arts, voluntary, faith and refugee community organisations, schools, student groups and more. Past events have included arts festivals, exhibitions, film screenings, theatre and dance performances, concerts, football tournaments and public talks, as well as creative and educational activities in schools.
Through Refugee Week  the aim is  to provide an important opportunity for asylum seekers and refugees to be seen, listened to and valued. We must continue to offer our love , solidarity, tolerance, warm welcome and friendship  to refugees who daily have to struggle, many of whom left feeling traumatised and marginalised. Refugees are ordinary people to whom extraordinary and often very horrible things have happened. Refugee Week is an opportunity to celebrate that.

https://refugeeweek.org.uk

Puma says its devoted to universal equality whilst supportng apartheid !!

Today, June 15, groups in more than 20 countries have been joining the #BoycottPuma International Day of Action. Palestinian sports teams called for a boycott of the German athletic wear manufacturer Puma, over its support for Israel’s illegal land grabs and its decision to become the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA) which includes six teams in settlements built on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank also allowng  IFA to provide equipment, including the kits, for all of Israel’s national football teams. In doing so they replaced Adidas, which had been the sponsor for the preceding 10 years until it ended its relationship with the IFA amid a similar campaign. 
After a petition that has been  signed by over 16,000 human rights supporters from across the world who said that the German brand’s deal with the IFA made in complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people,  the company responded  with the astonishing  claim  of their “devotion to universal equality.” whilst  at same time profiting from oppression.
This month marks 52 years of Israel’s brutal military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Puma is helping to whitewash Israel’s apartheid walls, military checkpoints, segregated Israeli-only roads and ever expanding illegal Israeli settlements that force Palestinian families  off their land and prevent Palestinian athletes from practicing sports.
The IAF has 6 teams playing in illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land. Israeli bombing in Gaza makes sport a dangerous pastime for Palestinians. This bombing has killed Palestinian national footballers and destroyed Palestinian football stadiums in Gaza. Palestinian footballers have seen ther carees destroyed by Israeli oppression, such as Mahmoud Sarsak. Other footballers have been deliberately shot in the legs at Israeli checkpoints, ending their careers.Palestinians have as much right as the Israeli’s to play sport without fear of serious injury and death.
Activists from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) have  today helped to organize protests at 30 locations across the UK with slogans such as “Give Puma the boot” and “#BoycottPuma”.
Palestinians like many peoples and communities across the world, are struggling to attain the fundamental right of equality. Puma should make a sincere effort to support that right rather than exploit it to deflect criticism as it profits from Israel’s apartheid regime. Let's to keep up the pressure as it continues to be involved in violations of international law and human rights.Please sign the pledge to boycott Puma. Companies like Puma cannot claim to support universal equality whilst being the main sponsor of the IFA, which operates on stolen Palestinian land with total impunity," said  James Tuite, campaigns officer at Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Metamorphosis (For Ken)

I trust the depths of the nights
more than any single politician
even when tangled up in darkness
heart battered like the surface of the moon
among searching scattering conditions
one can often find much clearer ways
running the gauntlet of stars and stones
towards days of respite, certainty and care
from out of the black holes, the universe rings
in the morning we can run through woods
and the plum crammed orchards
our tears and our love  making prisms of hope
under sunflowers meta morphing
rhythms of the pulse awakening
busy like the blow flies
waiting for sunbeams
to warm flutterring wings
moments to sap the bleakness.

Boris Johnson not a clown, but an intolerant dangerous individual.

 

Boris Johnson is the frontrunner in the Conservative Party leadership contest at the moment, but a trail of controversies have followed him. He has a very spotty record and in the past he has been called a "bigot" and "ignorant" by his critics. The former foreign secretary refuses to apologise however for writing that a Muslim woman wearing the veil resembles “a bank robber” and that it is “absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes”. He is now under investigation by his own party, which has received dozens of complaints.
 He has also criticised the police for spending money on historic cases of child sex abuse in comments deemed “disgusting, ignorant” He’s historically used racist language too. In 2002, Johnson wrote in the Telegraph: “It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-wearing picaninnies.” The word “picaninnies” is a racist term used to describe black children.
In the same column he also talked about then prime minister Tony Blair, and wrote: "They say he is shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and their tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down his big white British taxpayer-funded bird." Johnson later apologised for these comments.
While he was editor of The Spectator he was criticised for allowing a number of articles deemed racist by some, to make it on to the website, including one article about racial eugenics that said “orientals” had “larger brains and higher IQ scores” while “blacks are at the other pole.”Andrew Cooper, a Conservative peer and former No 10 director of strategy, tweeted recently that “the rottenness of Boris Johnson goes deeper even than his casual racism & his equally casual courting of fascism”. Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, has demanded an apology for his “gratuitously offensive” remarks. Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, has said he will leave the Conservative party if Johnson becomes its leader.
In less than two minutes on 9 June, Owen Jones did more than the entire media has done in months to expose Boris Johnson. Speaking to Sky News, Jones left no stone unturned when combating the Conservative leadership front-runner:
Jones said:
"One of the… big faults at the moment, in this whole debate, is the lack of scrutiny of Boris Johnson… Why aren’t we asking – does he still think that gay people should be called ‘bum boys’? Does he still think that equal marriage should be compared to… three men marrying a dog? Does he still believe that black people should be called piccaninnies with watermelon smiles? Does he still think that it’s acceptable to compare Muslim women to bank robbers and to letterboxes?
Why should we trust somebody who was sacked twice for dishonesty, once by his newspaper and once by a Conservative leader? Is somebody who once conspired with a criminal friend to beat up a journalist fit for high office? Is somebody who wrote one column supporting Remain and another column supporting Leave, is that somebody who is driven by anything else other than his own career?"
The commentator continued, criticising the corporate media’s failings:
"But we are not having this discussion because all too often… and I speak as somebody who has worked in the British media now for the best part of a decade, Boris Johnson is treated as a bit of a circus… a bit of a laugh, but he is somebody who has peddled racism, he’s serially dishonest, he’s a charlatan. But we’re not having that conversation because again – and it’s worth emphasising this – if you are from a posh background you can more or less get away with anything in this country."
Jones pulled no punches in his critique of Johnson. The corporate media, meanwhile, appears to be treating the man vying to be prime minister as a bit of a joke. This is a rank dereliction of duty.
Johnson's manifesto is to cut taxes for the higher paid and leave the EU without a deal.Two of the most divisive ideas in our society at moment and would simply hit the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us.
Few British politicians evoke such dismay in Europe as Mr Johnson, a man whom many see as the mastermind of Brexit. He told two infamous lies while campaigning for Brexit, the first of which was so braen, he had it emblaoned acrss the side of a bus Johnson toured up and down the nation on this bus covered in lies and claimed that the NHS would be  £350 million better off if voters chose Brexit.https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/23/boris-johnson-will-find-fate-next-week-brexit-bus-lies-9666621/ Now he faces  a private prosecution to hold him to account for his  criminal lying.https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1130972/brexit-news-court-case-battle-bus-NHS-boris-johnson. As if lying about the NHS was ot heinious enough, Johnson perpetuated the racist myth that the Turkish people were foaming at the mouth to comee to the UK by their tens of millions, scaremongering and stoking up fears about "shared boders". 
What we are witnessing is a man who until very recently held one of the great offices of state claiming a jester’s privilege. When he writes or speaks, he does so as an MP and privy counsellor well known for his ambition to become prime minister in the near future. He borrows the  language of King Lear, to play the Fool but for many he is not a bumbling, affable, ruffle haired clown, but a calculating, ruthless, reckless, intolerant, utterly contemptible opportunist, and serial liar.
A product of Eton and Oxford and a member of the notoriously elitist and thuggish Bullingdon Club to boot  and furthermore a very greedy individual who seems more interested in feathering his own nest than furthering the national interest. While Mayor of London he continued to draw a retainer for writing a column for the Daily Telegraph worth £250,000 a year. He compared this amount to chicken feed and justified it on the grounds that his Mayoral salary was too little even though in reality it was way above the national average. In reaction to the backlash at such a flagrant act of brazen greed his media team persuaded him to donate a portion of his Telegraph earnings to charity. Johnson pledged to do this and then never did. Also, towards the end of his tenure as Mayor of London when he was re-elected to the House of Commons he continued to claim both his Mayoral salary/expenses and an MPs salary and expenses too.
After the Grenfell Tower tragedy, footage emerged of him as Mayor telling a politician who challenged the wisdom of his fire serice cuts to "get stuffed"
Johnson  also supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen and refused to block UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia, saying there is no clear evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law by Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen. In September 2016, he was accused of blocking the UN inquiry into Saudi war crimes in Yemen.
He made a joke about "dead bodies" in Libya, insulted people in Myanmar by reciting an "inappropriate" colonialist poem, and wrongly called  imprisoned Brtish-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari- Ratcliffe, a journalist, leading to her jail sentence being prolonged.
Do we really want a dangerous individual like this  as our future Prime Minister. Heaven' forbid it, it would be catastrophic.Johnson or otherwise, the Conservatives have no mandate to simply impose another prime minister on the country. Quite simply I personally  think all the current contenders are as bad as one another but none as rotten as Johnson.We need a general election now.

1984 at 70

 

George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984 was published on 8 June by the socialist  publisher  Victor Gollanz. The book arrived at the birth of the cold war between the Soviet and American blocs, soon after Winston Churchill fixed the phrase ‘the Iron Curtain’ in the language and as a ‘Red Scare’ gripped American society. Orwell’s novel remained one of the most significant and contested cultural products of that era of ideological struggle between capitalism and communism, its influence surviving long beyond the actual year 1984. Translations and many different radio, film and television adaptations across the post-war decades testify to its continuing significance. The novel has since inspired movies, television shows, plays, a ballet, an opera, a David Bowie album, imitations, parodies, sequels.
This month  as it turns 70 years old, this seminal work with its themes of totalitarianism, repressive regimentation of the population, perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and propaganda  are now more relevant than ever in the age we currently live. Orwell's predictions were so spot on that is almost acts an instruction  manual for would be tyrants and many of the themes contained in  this amazing book are compelling and contemporary, foreshadowing the state of our world today, containing remarkable foresight and vision given that it was first published in 1949. Orwell began writing the novel in 1944, and wrote the bulk of it while residing on the Scottish island Jura  in the Inner Hebrides while battling tuberculosis during 1947-1948. Orwell  was recently widowed, his wife having died during a surgical procedure. He was left with his young son, and he was seriously ill with tuberculosis. There was not a known cure for TB in 1947, and physicians typically prescribed fresh air and rest. Orwell was given streptomycin, which was an experimental drug in the US, and after treatment, his TB symptoms disappeared. He raced to finish his novel, and upon publication it became an instant success. Orwell died shortly after of a brain haemorrhage in 1950 at age 46.
1984 has been in publication ever since, and has been translated into multiple languages, and is often heralded as one of the best novels of the 20th century. Still resonating in the times we live today, still worryingly reliable. Commenting on 1984, Orwell wrote, “I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe that something resembling it could arrive.”
 In the week of Donald Trump’s inauguration,  after the president’s adviser Kellyanne Conway used the phrase 'alternative facts,' the novel returned to the best-seller lists. A theatrical adaptation was rushed to Broadway. The vocabulary of Newspeak went viral. An authoritarian president who stood the term fake news on its head, who once said, “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” has given 1984 a whole new life.
Censorship  sadly is  still the norm in this world, and is so extreme that individuals can become "unnpersons" and  removed from society  because their ideas are considered  too dangerous by the establishment. Take for example the likes of Julian Assange and other activists and independent journalists who are punished for continuing to speak out about government corruption. All over the world where tyrannies rule 1984 is banned.
The novel is set in 1984 in Great Britain, known as Airstrip One.The world has suffered through a global atomic war, and there are 3 superpowers called Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. The standard of living is relatively low.The media is run by the government, which is known as Big Brother and the written word is perpetually changed to suit what the government requires. People  are controlled into what to think, how to act and how to live .It uses telescreens, fearmongering, media control and corruption to control the masses.
One of the Party pillars in 1984 is endless war on a global scale. The war, however, is a fabrication accepted and treated as fact. For, unreal as it is, it is not meaningless. World powers become enemies and allies interchangeably simply to keep the masses in perpetual fear, perpetual industry, and perpetual order. War provides outlet for unwanted emotions such as hate, patriotism, and discontent, keeping the structure of society intact and productive without raising the standard of living. The state of perpetual war described by Orwell is also reflected in the wars  that have raged since 1945, across the globe from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen etc etc.
Winston Smith the main protagonist is  an editor employed by the government and is one of many citizens responsible for rewriting history. In 1984, government surveillance is constant and at the forefront. The state knows every move its citizens make, including their habits, whom they talk to, and what they are doing at any given time. Big Brother is watching and running the show. The people are sheep who are herded and controlled. Winston Smith embarks on a clandestine love affair with Julia, a party member, and joins The Brotherhood, an illegal organisation dedicated to the overthrow of Big Brother. He is caught,and taken to Room 101, alongside everyone else who offended had been taken and subjected to torture and brainwashed . He along with everyone ends up loving Big Brother.
 It’s almost impossible to talk about propaganda, surveillance, authoritarian politics, or perversions of truth without dropping a reference to 1984. Today across the world there are a lock-up concentration camp style jails where unconvicted, ostensibly innocent individuals are held and openly abused. Electronic surveillance in 2019 is a common and accepted government practice: cell phone listening, cameras on corners and traffic lights, and electronic toll payment system tracking are all everyday occurrences. By using our credit cards, shopping rewards cards, and even our driver's licenses, data are collected on all of us and sold and used daily, each of us daily profiled. Orwell’s book was supposed to be a warning, not a guidebook on how to create a surveillance state. It really is remarkable how the many tools that were used to suppress in 1984  are now part of our everyday lives.
Newspeak is the fictional language spoken in 1984. It is a controlled and abbreviated version of English.  Also  known as “doublespeak!”. As George himself said " Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.. "  Politicians continue to  use language to deceive and manipulate, through concealment or misrepresentation of the truth, desperately and deliberately using euphemistic or ambiguous language as they have been doing ad infinitum. One of the objectives of Newspeak is also to decrease self-expression. With the  popularity of texting, it would be fair to say that there are similarities. And today we are so busy Facebooking, tweeting, etc,  the following line  from one of the characters that works for Big Brother.  “The people will not revolt. They will not look up from their screens long enough to notice what’s happening.” is  still amazingly uncanny. Orwell may not have had a crystal ball, but  he did have was an understanding of the human condition and its weakness. And today it’s almost impossible to talk about propaganda, surveillance, authoritarian politics, or perversions of truth without dropping a reference to 1984.
Orwell began writing the novel in 1944, and wrote the bulk of it while residing on the Scottish island Jura while battling tuberculosis during 1947-1948. Orwell  was recently widowed, his wife having died during a surgical procedure. He was left with his young son, and he was seriously ill with tuberculosis. There was not a known cure for TB in 1947, and physicians typically prescribed fresh air and rest. Orwell was given streptomycin, which was an experimental drug in the US, and after treatment, his TB symptoms disappeared. He raced to finish his novel, and upon publication it became an instant success. Orwell died shortly after of a brain haemorrhage in 1950 at age 46.
1984 has been in publication ever since, has been translated into multiple languages, and is often heralded as one of the best novels of the 20th century. Still resonating in the times we live today, still worryingly reliable. Commenting on 1984, Orwell wrote, “I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe that something resembling it could arrive.”
 In the week of Donald Trump’s inauguration,  after the president’s adviser Kellyanne Conway used the phrase 'alternative facts,' the novel returned to the best-seller lists. A theatrical adaptation was rushed to Broadway. The vocabulary of Newspeak went viral. An authoritarian president who stood the term fake news on its head, who once said, “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” has given 1984 a whole new life.
 In some cases, what is happening in the world today is more draconian and invasive than anything Orwell conceived. The corruption of language described in 1984 is widespread in the media today, with "Newspeak" terms such as democratic, socialist, fascist, war criminal, freedom fighter, racist and many other expressions being used in a deliberately deceptive, propagandistic way to whip up mass hysteria or simply to ensure that people can never achieve even an approximation of the truth.
We are today all living in a massive prison and George Orwell predicted it. The ability of Big Brother government to observe our every activity is increasing week by week and soon each and every car journey we make, every financial transaction we undertake, everywhere we go will be fed into a computer and if there is a slight variance from what they decide is the norm then we will be taken in and questioned. Give the wrong answers and you could well end up in room like 101, or Belmarsh Jail, Guantanamo Bay etc. We should continue to be on guard, raise alarms, be objective, keep questioning and hold our individual Governments to account.
 As  free speech today is still under attack and the Trump administration preparess new charges against Julian Assange for exposing US war crimes and the French government is prosecuting journalists for reporting on France’s support for the Saudi war in Yemen, and Chelsea Manning remains locked-up for refusing to inform on Assange, 1984 can still serve as a handbook for our difficult times. Citizens today should support bona fide civil liberties groups and actively oppose government measures restricting basic freedoms. Freedom of speech is a basic civil liberty and people should fight to retain it. They should defy group pressure, think for themselves and speak out. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.We should continue to be on guard, raise alarms, be objective, keep questioning and hold our individual Governments to account.In 2003 a docudrama was released by the BBC, detailing the life and works of George Orwell. The documentary contains footage from his deathbed, and his final words are certainly chilling. You can here them in the following video. We can't say that we were never warned.

“We  are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone. But how far away that future may be, there is no knowing. It might be a thousand years. At present nothing is possible except to extend the area of sanity little by little. We cannot act collectively.
We can only spread our knowledge outwards from individual to individual, generation after generation. In the face of the Thought Police there is no other way.”    

- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty- Four

Happy birthday Nikki Giovanni (b:-7/6/43) - Radical poet

Happy 76th birthday to Nikki Giovanni . Poet. writer, activist. Queer icon, Civil rights activist, Educator, Promoter of the Black Power movement.. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee.
In all of her work, she challenges the racial and status quo,providing a poetry guided by a political aesthetic, still dreaming radical dreams of a society more equal for all.
As an African American woman, Nikki Giovanni has written many revolutionary poems reflecting on the culture and heritage of her race. Spending much of her youth growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, Giovanni’s childhood has greatly influenced her writing. Nikki Giovanni, (Yolande Cornelia Giovanni is her given name) was born June 7, 1943 in Knoxville Tennessee. As a child, she attended an Episcopal school, and when it came time for her to start college, she enrolled at Fisk University. As a freshman, Giovanni was a very rebellious student, ignoring many of the school’s social rules. This attitude led her to suspension from the university before her first year was even completed. However, in 1964 she returned to Fisk, and her writing career began.
Attitude and reality and honesty are all encompassed into the work of this fine artist. Speaking for all those that struggle, and who love fiercely, who  places an emphasis on the power of the individual to effect change in his or herself, as well as in others. She reminds me that words are our weapons, that we should not be afraid to use.
Nikki Giovanni doesn't think of writing as a profession. "I barely think of it as a career," she once said .  "I think of it as who you are.”To Giovanni, writing comes as naturally as breathing.  It has certainly defined her and given her  a strong voice. A survivor of  cancer, she battles on, sharing her light with the world. Happy birthday to her, blessed be. 

Choices

If i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do

It's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do

If i can't have
what i want . . . then
my job is to want
what i've got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more to want

Since i can't go
where i need
to go . . . then i must . . . go
where the signs point
through always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral

When i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal

I know
but that's why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry .

A Library (for Kelli Martin)

a Library Is:
a place to be free
to be in space
to be in cave times
to be a cook
to be a crook
to be in love
to be unhappy
to be quick and smart
to be contained and cautious
to surf the rainbow
to sail the dreams
to be blue
to be jazz
to be wonderful
to be you
a place to be
yeah… to be

Love is 
 
Some people forget that love is
tucking you in and kissing you
“Good night”
no matter how young or old you are

Some people don’t remember that
love is
listening and laughing and asking
questions
no matter what your age

Few recognize that love is
commitment, responsibility
no fun at all
unless
Love is
You and me

Revolutionary Dreams

I used to dream militant dreams
of taking over america to show
these white folks
how it should be done
I used to dream radical dreams
of blowing everyone away
with my perceptive powers
of correct analysis
I even used to think I’d be the one
to stop the riot and
negotiate the peace
then I awoke and dug
that if I dreamed natural
dreams of being a natural
woman doing what a woman
does when she’s natural
I would have a revolution.
  

30 years after Tiananmen Square Massacre

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds if not thousands of unarmed peaceful pro-democracy protesters in Beijing and the arrest of tens of thousands of demonstrators in cities across China.
The Tiananmen Massacre was precipitated by the peaceful gatherings of students, workers, and others in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and other Chinese cities in April 1989, driven  by the hope for a better future, they were simply  calling for freedom of the press and for some government accountability, and the imminent problems of corruption, and began the largest political protest in the history of Communist China. The government responded to the intensifying protests in late May 1989 by declaring martial law.Overnight on 3 to 4 June, the government sent tens of thousands of armed troops and hundreds of armoured military vehicles into the city centre to enforce martial law and forcibly clear the streets of demonstrators. The government wanted to 'restore order' in the capital.
As they approached the demonstrations, troops opened fire on crowds of protesters and onlookers. They gave no warning before they started shooting.A night of bloodshed on  June 3rd resulted  with over 2,000 of protestors being killed.As the troops kept firing into the crowds, some of those running away were shot in the back. Others were crushed to death by military vehicles. Brave, innocent, the Chinese government has never accepted responsibility for the massacre or held any officials legally accountable for the killings. despite individual souls, shotdown and massacred triggering shock and outrage across the world.

Tank Man



The Tiananmen protests were immortalised in Western media on 5 June through the image of a lone man in a white shirt carrying shopping bags, facing an imposing column of military tanks sent by the government to disperse protesters. The man is known simply as Tank Man: his identity has never been confirmed.
Tank Man would not let the military vehicles pass. He succeeded. Eventually, he was pulled out of the way of danger by onlookers. But the image of unarmed man versus tank quickly came to symbolise the struggle of the Tiananmen protesters - peaceful protest met with military might.
'It demonstrates one man's extraordinary courage, standing up in front of a row of tanks, being prepared to sacrifice his own life for the sake of social justice' Stuart Franklin, Tank Man photographer
Stuart Franklin took the Tank Man photograph. In the short film below he talks about how he came to capture what would become one of the most iconic images of the twentieth century.

 
In the aftermath long prison sentences were given out, one  of which was for 17 years for  simply throwing paint at a portrait of Mao Zedong. We should take a minute and think about those sacrifices and all those who died,  so that their actions  have not been in vain. Sadly brutal suppression and censorship has continued to this day, that  condemns the Chinese nation and its people to a future without freedom.
Today many activists are still being  ruthlessly persecuted by the Chinese Authorities, and the climate of free expression remains stifling,  with scores of writers still being silenced, also many social media sites are still banned, and three decades later, China, under President Xi Jinping, is undergoing the worst crackdown on human rights since the Tiananmen massacre. Hopes that China would gradually liberalize politically as it opened up economically have been dashed.
The  Chinese regime to this day  continues to bury the truth of what happened in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Tiananmen remains one of the most censored issues in an internet and social media environment that has become increasingly restrictive  since Xi Jinping became president in 2012.Young Chinese below the age of 35 today either know nothing about it or believe that it was the protesters who were the criminals. A regime that sent tanks and guns to slaughter its people now seeks to hide the evidence, threaten its critics, eliminate alternative ideas and impose absolute control. Seeking to suppress every form of freedom, with Pro-democracy activists being jailed, and in every corner of China's territory, from Xinjiang to Hong Kong, that  has also seen critics abroad being intimidated, threatened and, in the worst cases, kidnapped.The Chinese government has never accepted responsibility for the massacre or held any officials legally accountable for the killings. It has been unwilling to conduct an investigation into the events or release data on those who were killed, injured, forcibly disappeared, or imprisoned.
For those who participated or observed the events of 1989, however, the search for truth goes on. Memories have not faded. Indeed, as the Tiananmen Mothers — a group set up by the mothers of some of the student leaders — said in a statement translated by Human Rights in China: "The hard facts of the massacre are etched into history. No one can erase it; no power, however mighty, can alter it; and no words or tongues, however clever, can deny it."
The Chinese government should acknowledge and take responsibility for the massacre of pro-democracy protesters in June 1989, Human Rights Watch said recently. Authorities should immediately release activists held for commemorating the occasion, and cease censoring discussions of the bloody crackdown.
"Twenty-nine years after the Tiananmen Massacre, President Xi Jinping's 'China dream' means getting the world to forget about it. But suppressing the truth has only fueled demands for justice and accountability," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. "The only way to remove this stain on China is to own up to it."
The Chinese government continues to this day to deny wrongdoing in the brutal suppression of the protests. Authorities covered up the killings, failed to bring to justice the perpetrators, and persecuted victims and survivors' family members. Under President Xi Jinping, the government has further retreated from the democratic ideals the protesters advocated and is aggressively tightening ideological control, attacking civil society groups, and imprisoning rights activists. In March 2018, Xi eliminated term limits for the presidency, spelling an ominous future for the direction of the country.
As in the past, Chinese authorities are quashing efforts to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown:
Since late May, Beijing police have put a group of activists, including He Depu, Zha Jianguo and Xu Yonghai, under house arrest.
Activist Hu Jia said police informed him that between June 1-5 he would be taken to Qinhuangdao, 300 kilometers away from his home in Beijing.
In Shandong province in mid-May, authorities detained activists Li Hongwei and Yu Xinyong, accusing them of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Li and Yu were detained for two days last year for commemorating the massacre.
In June 2017, Beijing police detained activist Li Xiaoling after she posted photos online of her standing at Tiananmen Square and holding a sign that read "June 4th Marching to the Light." Li was later charged with "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Li's lawyers alleged that Li has been tortured in custody and denied adequate medical treatment for glaucoma.
Activists Chen Bing, Fu Hailu, Luo Fuyu, and Zhang Junyong, detained since May 2016 for producing and selling a liquor named "Eight Liquor Six Four" – a homophone for "89.6.4," the numerical date of the massacre – are still awaiting trial. The four have been charged with "inciting subversion of state power."
Sichuan-based activist Chen Yunfei, convicted of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" in March 2017, is serving a four-year sentence for organizing a memorial service for victims of the massacre.
While the last individual known to have been imprisoned for his involvement in the 1989 pro-democracy protests was released in 2016, many other participants have been re-incarcerated for their continuing pro-democracy work. Activists Liu Xianbin and Chen Wei are serving 10-year and nine-year sentences respectively on inciting subversion charges, while Guo Feixiong is serving a six-year sentence for protesting press censorship. Huang Qi, detained since November 2015 for "illegally leaking state secrets abroad," is awaiting trial. Huang suffers from several health conditions for which he has not been given adequate treatment.
Other prominent participants in the Tiananmen protests have passed away in the past year. In July 2017, public intellectual and Nobel Peace Prize Laurate Liu Xiaobo, a leader in the protests who was jailed for 21 months for his role supporting the students, died from complications of liver cancer in a hospital in Liaoning province while being guarded by state security. His wife Liu Xia remains under house arrest. Dissident writer Yang Tianshui, who participated in democracy protests in Nanjing at the time, died in November 2017, three months after being released on medical parole for a brain tumor. Prior to his release, Yang was serving a 12-year sentence for "inciting subversion of state power."Today sadly  the persecution  of the Uyghurs, Falun Gong and Tibetan Buddhists combined with the repression of Christianity contnues with an estimated one million or more incarcerated in prison camps.
"Chinese leaders travel the world touting their ideas for 'win-win' human rights diplomacy and a 'community of common destiny,'" Richardson said. "But until they account for past and present human rights abuses, those pledges are just empty propaganda promoting impunity for grave crimes."
The nongovernmental organization Tiananmen Mothers, consisting mostly of family members of those killed, has established the details of 202 people who were killed during the suppression of the movement in Beijing and other cities. Last year, more members of the Tiananmen Mothers have passed away without seeing justice, including geologist Xu Jue and music professor Wang Fandi. Xu's 20-year-old son Wu Xiaongdong and Wang's 19-year-old son Wang Nan were killed by troops.
Human Rights Watch urges the Chinese government to mark the 30th anniversary of the  Tiananmen massacre, by addressing the human rights violations pertaining to the event. Specifically, the government should:
Respect the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and cease the harassment and arbitrary detention of individuals who challenge the official account of June 4;
Meet with and apologize to members of the Tiananmen Mothers, publish the names of all who died, and appropriately compensate the families of the victims;
Permit an independent public inquiry into June 4, and promptly release its findings and conclusions to the public;
Allow the unimpeded return of Chinese citizens, exiled due to their connections to the events of 1989; and investigate all government and military officials who planned or ordered the unlawful use of lethal force against peaceful demonstrators, and appropriately prosecute them.
The spirit of the Tiananmen movement continues to burn in the hearts of veterans of 1989 and younger generations of activists who fight for a more just China. President Xi Jinping should acknowledge, even in the face of extraordinary persecution, that demands for accountability and human rights remain strong.We must continue to support all those that fight  against state  oppression and censorship and never forget the tragic  legacy of Tinanamen Square that continues to haunt us.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/05/31/china-answer-tiananmen-massacre-calls-justice

Dawn's Respite

After a night of endless agitation
A day that had become draining
The first sunrays come creeping
Glinting through my window
Life's breath stirring senses
Among testemants of existance
I chant declarations of  resolution
While millions  pray in lamentable discomfort
And ripples of power exude depravity
The morning light and its trilling melodies,
At least captures dreaming thought
As days remains uncertain, unwritten
Regenerative energies  rekindle
Removing the gags of suppression
Allowing voices to speak  truth
Spurring the spirit to unsurpassed horizons
Unblemished like the taste of freedom
As we navigate to desinations unknown
New dawn's can enrich, keep our hopes alive
In the dapple of an eye, not defeated yet.

Wales: Liberation Magazine, Voice of Welsh Socialist Republicans

 

The Welsh Socialist Republican Movement was formed in 1979-80, but was short-lived. After its collapse, some leading members joined the Communist Party, while others returned to Plaid Cymru, however, its core survived and continued to publish Y Faner Goch (The Red Flag) and then transformed themselves into Cymru Goch (Red Wales) in the late 1980s. Cymru Goch survived another 20 years, continuing the publication of Y Faner Goch until 2003 and establishing the Red Poets' Society, an annual poetry magazine that is active today.
In March 2012  saw the formation of Yr Afionyddwch Mawr to advance the struggle in Wales for Socialism and Independence. Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr is the Welsh Socialist Republican Movement in the 21st century, rooted in the tradition of William Thompson and James Connolly in Ireland and John Maclean in Scotland.
They do not see themselves as  reformist socialists but revolutionary socialists and take their name from Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr / The Great Unrest in Wales, just before the First World War, when class consciousness was high and when national consciousness underwent a revival.
Today, Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr stands for the rebirth and resurgence of Welsh Independence and revolutionary Socialism. They  use the image of the White Eagle of Snowdon, which they believe is a symbol of Welsh resistance to imperialism. That rune is a representation of that eagle, and it is also known by its Welsh name Yr Eryr Wen. Other symbols tied to the movement include the Red Pitchfork, which  they use as a symbol of their rural land campaigns, and the Scotch Cattle, which they use to show  their commitment to class struggle in Wales. Here is link to their webpage :-
 https://greatunrest2012.blogspot.com
They also happen to have a magazine too that helps promote their ideas further.It first appeared in March 2013 and is called Liberation Magazine – Voice of Welsh Socialist Republicanism, that aims to address the question of strategy and tactics for Welsh Liberation. Issue 4 is out now.
It's editorial read's as follows.


"Daring Ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game"

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The reason for Liberation Magazine is that we take the view you cannot win a game where the rules are made by your opponent.

In the case of Wales, the British state determines the rules and Welsh people are supposed to play the Welsh assembly game according to its rules.

It is arrogant imperial intellectual and practical colonialism where very important decisions on Welsh life are taken in London and not Wales.

The Welsh are closely seen as unfit to govern their own country.

Liberation Magazine unashamedly stands for a Welsh Socialist Republic an idea that has been maturing in Wales for over a century.

The Labour Party and Plaid Cymru in Wales have never really embraced the idea of Welsh Socialist Republic.

Sometimes Plaid Cymru flirts with the idea but  quickly backtracks under pressure.

Monarchism has not only inected the Labour Party but also sections of Plaid Cymru.

We launched Liberation Magazine because we want a journal where the Welsh, the Socialist and Republican cases can be argued and discussed. ELSH the lasty


A new strategy and new tactics needs to be developed for the social and national liberation of Wales in the 21st Century if Wales is to arrest its current trajectory of economic and social decline.

Liberation Magazine is about ideas, the precursor of events and the inspirer of people.

"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people".

Eleanor Rossevelt 


Within it's pages you can find interesting, thought provoking articles on a variety of themes and issues as far ranging as Tryweryn, Welsh Water, Welsh Land ,Public Banking, International Solidarity. Kurdish Welsh Solidarity, Catalan Independence , Venezuela, First World War Liberal Home Rule , and an account of Welsh soldiers executed in the First World War, to the real meaning of the October Russian Revolution, among other things.
I though non-aligned to any political party do however  support the ideas of an Independent Socialist Republican Wales, that is rooted in real autonomy and radical ideas. As the struggle against the capitalist, reactionary and undemocratic forces that act against Wales and her interests continues, the pages of Liberation at least gives power to the oppressed, with its combination of international solidarity and a historical narrative that still has much relevance in the struggles that we live with today.To obtain copies of this magazine please contact: nickglais@yahoo.co.uk