Far right extremist Tommy Robinson, the 36-year-old founder of the anti-immigration, anti-Muslim English Defence League (EDL), whose real name is Stephen
Yaxley-Lennon, who has 11 previous convictions for violence. assault, drug and public order
offenses, mortgage fraud and using another person's passport to travel
to the US has been convicted and jailed for contempt of court over a video he broadcast on social media
which featured defendants in a criminal trial.
Prejudicing a trial is a natural consequence when there is an offence of
contempt of court committed. When an individual interferes with the
court’s constitutional role in the course of justice, they may influence
the jury’s verdict, rendering such a verdict unfair and compromising
the trial as a whole.
Judge Dame Victoria Sharp sentenced him to 19 weeks, less 138 days for time served for a previous offence. A sentence simply not long enough for some. Passing
sentence, she said: "We are in no doubt that the
custody threshold is crossed in this case, in particular having regard
to the common law contempt that the respondent committed."Nothing less than a custodial penalty would properly reflect the gravity of the conduct we have identified."
Dame
Victoria continued: "The respondent (Robinson) cannot be given credit
for pleading guilty. He has lied about a number of matters and sought to
portray himself as the victim of unfairness and oppression."This does not increase his sentence, but it does mean that there can be no reduction for an admission of guilt."In
May 2017 Robinson was given a three-month suspended at
Canterbury Crown Court.
Nick Lowles, chief executive of HOPE not hate, said: “Stephen Lennon
put at risk the trial of men accused of horrendous crimes with his
live streaming antics. He doesn’t care about the victims of grooming, he
only cares about himself. He now faces yet another stint behind bars.
“So far this year, he’s been humiliated at the ballot box, kicked off
social media platforms for hate speech, jailed for contempt, and it’s
only July.”
Robinson had arrived arrogantly late in court with his legal team and arch provocatur Katie Hopkins in tow, wearing a black T-shirt
emblazoned with the words "convicted of journalism", on the front and “Britain = North Korea” on the back, which if it was the case, well he would not have been granted the honour of a trial, he would have simply dissapeared, Ever the opportunist he also wore a badge reading "I
support soldiers A-Z" , that has recently become a rallying call to the far right,.despite the grey areas and the continual injustices that permeate on all sides.
Outside the court Robinsons supporters booed as news of his sentence filtered through, with violent protests erupting as his supporters threw cans at the police while chanting "We love you Tommy". A group the made their way to Parliment's Carriage Gates to continue their protest, blocking thee roads around Parliament Square.
Personally my heart does not bleed for Robinson one bit, a fosterer of hatred and division, who only recently, in much irony, despite his vitriol against refugees and asylum seekers, worried that
jail might not be an experience he enjoys, he hypocritically appealed directly to
Donald Trump to grant him political asylum, whilst continuing to deny safe haven for
others. Robinson and his fellow far-right supporters are aware that a sense of
victimhood is a powerful tool for attracting support and encouraging
collective action. In his biography, Enemy of the State, he actually acknowledges the importance of being seen as the victim "going to gang up on me and that I would come
off as the victim … it was exactly as I wanted it to go”
Robinson and his supporters are adept at playing the victim, time and time again, but as he and his followers continue with their antagonistic discourse, and obvious hatred to other people differing opinions, let this judgement at least be welcomed. I do not though for one moment think it will halter one bit their hateful discourse, who will at end of day, use Robinsons punishment as a torch for their rallying call of hatred and division, that we must continually challenge.
The Nakba or Day of Catastrophe,saw the displacement of
more than 700,000 people following the Israeli War of Independence, and saw the
massacre of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of
Palestinian villages. Against their will, the Nakba divided the Palestinian people between Palestine and diaspora, betwee Gaza and the West Bank, between those who hold a refugee identification card and who don't. Seventy years on, more than 5.5 million
refugees are scattered all over the Middle East and the world, and are still
waiting to exercise their internationally recognized right to return.
Following Comma Press’popular Iraq + 100, which asked Iraqi writers what the
country will look like a century after the 2003 invasion, Palestine +
100 is a new anthology from them posing a question to
contemporary Palestinian writers: what might your home city look like in the year 2048, exactly 100 years
after the Nakba. How might that war reach across a century of repair
and rebirth, and affect the state of the country its politics, its
religion, its language, its culture and how might Palestine have finally
escaped it, and found its own peace, a hundred years down the line? As
well as being an exercise in escaping the politics of the present in a
country which some have called the largest prison in the world , this necessary
anthology is an opportunity to showcase contemporary Arabic writers offering their own spin on science fiction and fantasy.The
stories cover a range of
approaches from SF noir, to nightmarish dystopia, to high-tech farce
these stories use the blank canvas of the future to reimagine the
Palestinian experience today. Along the way, we encounter drone swarms,
digital uprisings, time-bending VR, peace treaties that span parallel
universes, and even a Palestinian superhero, in probably the first
anthology of science fiction from Palestine ever. Featuring stories from a range of writers, including: Talal Abu Shawish,
Liana Badr, Selma Dabbagh, Samir El-Youssef, Anwar Hamed, Mazen Maarouf,
Ahmed Masoud, Nayrouz Qarmout, and Rawan Yaghi.The voices contained within demnd to be heard.
Translated from
the Arabic by Raph Cormack, Mohamed Ghalaieny, Andrew Leber, Thoraya
El-Rayyes, Yasmine Seale and Jonathan Wright.
Winner of a PEN Translates
Award:
.https://www.englishpen.org/translation/pen-translates-autumn-2018-awards-announced/
Comma Press is a not-for-profit publishing initiative dedicated to
promoting new writing, with an emphasis on the short story. It is
committed to a spirit of risk-taking and challenging publishing, free of
the commercial pressures on mainstream houses. In April 2012, Comma
became one of the Arts Council's new National Portfolio Organisations
(NPOs). The collection will not be available until July the 25th. More details below.
Finding no sanctuary in my sleep
Nightmares roaring in my head,
Scenes of desolation and devastation
Certainly no bed of roses.
In war ravaged countries
The rattling call of injustice,
A cauldron of death and despair
No respite or any beds of roses.
Amid the poverty and desperation
Where people grieve for their dead,
The ever flowing tide of human misery
For the children, no beds of roses..
Anguished eyes gaze, frail hands reach out
Barren lands flooding with tears overflowing,
Global silence decapacitating hope
as the night calls, no bed of roses.,
While humanity turns away and abandons
Another dawn exudes deaths mephitic odour,
How can we fail to speak out, not be silent
Reach out, cultivate fertile beds of roses,.
An injury to one is an injury to all
A collective thorn of pain and misery,
We can cover our eyes, be indifferent
Or help those in need, offer beds of roses.
From the heartache, filled with cries
We can send messages to the politicians,
The gift of solidarity to those that deserve
And when wars cease, beds of roses will grow.
In the late 19th century Londons' East End was known for it's serious deprivation,,overpopulated by depressing living conditions, sweated industries, poverty and disease.
In 1850 the Quakers William Bryant and Frances May established Bryant & May to sell matches. At first they imported the matches from
Lundstrom’s in Sweden, but as demand outstripped supply, they decided to
produce their own, and set up a factory in Bow, in London,
producing hundreds of millions of matches each day. It was also the
largest employer of women in East London, with a staff of over 2,000
women and girls. Many of the poor, uneducated, and unskilled women they employed had come from Ireland following the potato famine. They lived in abject poverty, in filthy housing unfit for human
habitation and were often subject to prolonged hours of backbreaking
work making matches.
Despite their public reputation as philanthropists and Quakers, the factory owners subjected their wokers to awful conditions, their product was ironically called "safety matches" but they were far from safe for the women who made them. The matchmakers faced a life of hard toil for very little reward, earning a pittance while the company's shareholders recieved dividends of over 29%. Outraged by these exploitive conditions, crusading socialist journalist Annie Besant. having heard a complaint
against Bryant & May at a Fabian Society meeting –
resolved to investigate conditions in the factory for herself.When Besant went to speak to the factory girls in Bow,
she was appalled by what she found. Low pay and long hours were quite ubiquitous, but the Bryant & May
workers were treated without compassion and often endured physical abuse
and extortionate fines as punishment for shoddy work. Matchstick
manufacture came with particular health implications, and Bryant & May
did nothing to alleviate the effects of ‘phossy jaw’, a form of bone
cancer caused by the cheap white phosphorous that they used, causing yellowing of the skin and hair loss. The whole side of the face turned green and then black, discharging foul smelling pus and finally death. Additionally the condition caused jaw and tooth aches and swelling of the gums. The only treatment was the disfiguring cutting away of the affected areas. More expensive red phosphorous carried much lower risks to the women but the company refused to use it.
By 1888,
resentment had been building for some years,in 1882 Mr Bryant, wishing to curry favour
with the then present Prime Minister Mr Gladstone, arranged to have a
statue erected of him in front of St Mary's church. Nothing wrong with
this you might think until you learn that to pay for it he deducted a
certain amount each week from his workers wages. When it was unveiled
the matchgirls demonstrated by throwing stones, but this had little
effect on Bryant & May that was to come six years later
when the women down tools and walked out.
It was Annie Besant’s exposure of the terrible conditions at the
Bryant and May factory, after hearing a speech by Clemantine Black, at a Fabian society meeting on the subject of Female Labour, in which she described the twelve-hour days and the inhumane, as well as dangerous working conditions at the Bryant & May factory that really brought matters to a head. It led to Besant’s
article in her socialist publication The Link on 23rd June 1888 entitled White Slavery in London which pulled no punches, depicting Bryant and
May as a tyrannical employer and calling for ‘a special circle in the
Inferno for those who live on this misery, and suck wealth out of the
starvation of helpless girls’, and went on to describe how the match girls, some as young as
thirteen worked from 6am to 6pm with just two short breaks.
From their meagre wages her readers were told the women had to house,
feed and clothe themselves, the wages were further decreased if they
left a match on the bench and by the cost of paint, brushes and other
equipment they needed to do their work. Then apart from the likelihood
of developing 'phossy jaw' there were there dangers of losing a finger
or even a hand in unguarded machinery. Besant called the factory "a prison-house" describing the match girls as "white wage slaves" and "oppressed"
Management were furious at the workforce
for the revelations, and reacted by attempting to force the workers to sign a statement that they were happy with their working conditions. When a group of women refused to sign, the organisers of this action were sacked and three women whom they suspected of leaking
information were fired. Outraged, 1,400 employees rose up in protest, including
girls as young as 12. on 5th July 1888, 1400 girls and women walked out of the Bryant and
May match factory in Bow, London and the next day some 200 of them
marched from Mile End to Bouverie Street, Annie Besant’s office, to ask
for her support. While Annie wasn’t an advocate of strike action, she
did agree to help them organise a Strike Committee.The firm first tried to force the women to condemn Besant. They refused,
smuggling out a warning note: ‘Dear Lady, they have been trying to get
the poor girls to say it is all lies that has been printed and to sign a
paper…we will not sign…’
They stayed out for two weeks: as there was no
union to provide strike pay, the Match Girls went door to door raising
money in support of their cause, whilst Annie Besant and other members
of the Fabian Society started an emergency fund to distribute to
striking workers. A Strike Committee was formed and rallied support from the Press,
and some MPs. William Stad, the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, Henry Hyde Champion of the Labour Elector and Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army, joined Besant in her campaign for better working conditions in the factory. However, other newspapers such as the Times, blamed Besant and other socialist agitators for the dispute, but in reality it was the brutal conditions that bred militancy within rather than it being imported in from outside. Bryant & May tried to break the strike by threatening to move the
factory to Norway or to import blacklegs from Glasgow. The managing
director, Frederick Bryant, was already using his influence on the
press. His first statement was widely carried. 'His (sic) employees
were liars. Relations with them were very friendly until they had been
duped by socialist outsiders. He paid wages above the level of his
competitors. He did not use fines. Working conditions were
excellent...He would sue Mrs Besant for libel'.
'Mrs Besant' would not be intimidated. The next issue of The Link
invited Bryant to sue. Much better, she asserted, to sue her than to
sack defenceless poor women.She took a group of 50 workers to Parliament.
The women catalogued their grievances before a group of MPs, and,
afterwards, 'outside the House they linked arms and marched three
abreast along the Embankment...' Besant's propagandist style was bold and
effective and she had a fine eye for the importance of organisation.
She addressed the problem of finance. An appeal was launched in The
Link. Every contribution was listed from the pounds of middle class
sympathisers to the pennies of the workers. Large marches and rallies
were organised in Regents Park in the West End as well as Victoria Park
and Mile End Waste in the east.
The strike committee called for support
from the London Trades Council, the most prominent labour organisations of the day,who responded positively, donating £20
to the strike fund and offering to act as mediators between the
strikers and the employer. The London Trades
Council, along with the Strike Committee of eight Match girls, met with the
Bryant & May Directors to put their case. Such was the negative publicity, directed by middle class activist Annie Besant, it overwhelmed the owners of the factory, By 17th July, their demands
were met and terms agreed in principle, the company announced that it was willing to re-employ the dismissed women and bring an end to the fines system, the Strike Committee put the
proposals to the rest of the girls and they enthusiastically approved
and returned to work in triumph. The Quaker reputation as good employers was tarnished by this strike:
whatever the reasons, Bryant and May had not taken the care of their
employees that people expected of Quakers. Disappointingly, though, it wasn’t until 1906 – almost 20 years later – that white phosphorous was made illegal.Partly because of Annie's journalism and mainly because of the remarkable courage of the factory women , the Bryant & May dispute was the first strike by unorganised worker to have garnered widespread publicity, with public sympathy and support being enormous. One of the Matchgirls' most enduring successes was to secure Bryant & May's agreement for them to form a union. The inaugural meeting of the new Union of Women Match Makes took place at Stepney Meeting Hall on 27th July and 12 women were elected and it became the largest female union in the country. Clementina Black from the Women's Trade Union
League gave advice on rules, subscriptions and elections. Annie Besant
was elected the first secretary. With money left over from the strike
fund, plus some money raised from a benefit at the Princess Theatre,
enough money was raised to enable the union to acquire permanent
premises. By the end of the year, the union changed its
rules and name. It became the Matchmakers Union, open to men and women,
and the following year sent its first delegate to the Trade Union
Congress.
The Matchmakers Union ceased to exist in 1903, but this strike in 1888 was unprecedented and changed the character of organised labour, it was a landmark victory in working-class history. A history lesson that should be taught in our schools As such, it was a vital moment for both female empowerment and the increasing momentum of the workers’ cause. The strike had a significance that is difficult to put into words. In its physical scale it was unremarkable for the period, but its significance for the future of the British trade union movement was colossal, since the strike redefined the very nature of trade unionism, and because of its success helped to inspire the formation of unions all over the country, and helped give birth to our modern-day general unions and laid down the foundations of the rights of women workers. A story that has inspired activists ever since, a symbol of what can be achieved when people bond together in solidarity, that has seen plays and musicals being written about the triumph of the Matchwomen, which saw Bryant & May dogged by the notorious association until it stopped trading in 1979.
The match girls’ success gave the working class a new awareness of their
power, and unions sprang up in industries where unskilled workers had
previously remained unorganized, as these new unions sprang up in the years that followed, new leaders of the working class emerged, people like Tom Mann, Will Thorne, John Burns and Ben Tillett and one year after the strike in 1889 it would see a sharp upturn in strikes, most notably the Great Dock Strike involving workers from across the Docklands area,confident that if the match girls could succeed, then so could they.
In 1892, philosopher and social
scientist Friedrich Engels highlighted this new mass movement as the most important sign of the times:
“That immense haunt of human misery [the East End] is no longer the
stagnant pool it was six years ago. It has shaken off its torpid
despair, it has returned to life, and has become the home of what is
called the ‘new unionism’, that is to say, of the organisation of the
great mass of ‘unskilled’ workers. This organisation may to a great
extent adopt the forms of the old unions of ‘skilled’ workers, but it is
essentially different in character. “The old unions preserve the tradition of the times when they were
founded, and look upon the wages system as a once for all established,
final fact, which they can at best modify in the interests of their
members. The new unions were founded at a time when the faith of the
eternity of the wages system was severely shaken; their founders and
promoters were socialists either consciously or by feeling; the masses,
whose adhesion gave them strength, were rough, neglected, looked down
upon by the working class aristocracy; but they had this immense
advantage, that [em]their minds were virgin soil[/em], entirely free
from the inherited ‘respectable’ bourgeois prejudices which hampered the
brains of the better situated ‘old’ unionists. “And thus we see these new unions taking the lead of the
working-class movement generally and more and more taking in tow the
rich and proud ‘old’ unions.” (F Engels, Preface to the English edition of The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1892)
The TUC (Trade Union Congress) commented that the match girls strike is not just of historic interest.
" It is an absolutely critical example of how after decades of low
struggle and disappointment a militant movement can revive. Its genesis
could come from the most unpredictable and apparently unpromising
source." The TUC went on to suggest that todays, call centre personnel, supermarket till staff and other poorly paid workers could use the matchmakers example as a springboard for improving their own working conditions. Women in their defiance, continue to challenge health inequality and
those who seek to oppress and exploit them not only nationally, but also
globally. Women in their droves are standing up for other women, and are no longer willing to accept poor health outcomes as an inevitability of their oppressed lives. Years after the matchmakers strike the flame against injustice is still kept very much alive, burning bright.
Further reading A match to fire the Thames by Ann Stafford. Hodder and Stoughton, 1961.
Matchgirls strike 1888: the struggle against sweated labour in London's East End by Reg Beer. National Museum of Labour History, 1979.
“It Just Went Like Tinder; the Mass Movement and New Unionism in Britain
1889: a Socialist History.” John Charlton, Redwords, 1999.
Striking a Light: The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their Place in History byLouise Raw (2011)Bloomsbury
Nye Bevans legacy came into the world 71 years ago this morning, then Minister of Health in Attlee’s post-war government, when he
opened Park Hospital in Manchester at a time of rationing and
shortages, when we were nearly bankrupt, a jewel that the war
generation left us with, a proud legacy, for us to all to continue to
share.For the first-time doctors, nurses, opticians, dentists and
pharmacists all worked under one organisation. It was a ray of hope in that bleak time, and it remains one today. The creation of the NHS in 1948 was the product of years of hard work
and a motivation from various figures who felt the current healthcare
system was insufficient and needed to be revolutionised..
Born in 1948 to a post-war Britain amidst the rubble of war,and a skeptical medical profession,
the NHS has had its ups and downs over the years. However, its role and
importance as a symbol of our Britishness and intense pride in being
able to provide universal care, free at the point of delivery, has
remained throughout, out of the belief that healthcare should be available to all,
regardless of wealth,with health and care as priorities – not profit, .these ideals remains one of the NHS’s core
principles.
Aneurin
Bevan, Minister of Health, on the first day of the National Health
Service, 5 July 1948 at Park Hospital, Davyhulme, near Manchester.
These ideas can be traced back to the early 1900s with the Minority
Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law in 1909. The report was
headed by the socialist Beatrice Webb who argued that a new system was
needed to replace the antiquated ideas of the Poor Law which was still
in existence from the times of the workhouses in the Victorian era.
Those who were involved in the report believed it was a narrow-minded
approach from those in charge to expect those in poverty to be entirely
accountable for themselves. Despite the strong arguments provided in
the report, it still proved unsuccessful and many ideas were disregarded
by the new Liberal government.
Nevertheless, more and more people were beginning to speak out and be
proactive, including Dr Benjamin Moore, a Liverpool physician who had
great foresight and a pioneering vision of the future in healthcare.
His ideas were written in “The Dawn of the Health Age” and he was
probably one of the first to use the phrase ‘National Health Service’.
His ideas led him to create the State Medical Service Association which
held its first meeting in 1912. It would be another thirty years before
his ideas would feature in the Beveridge Plan for the NHS.
Before the creation of the NHS or anything like it, when someone
found themselves needing a doctor or to use medical facilities, patients
were generally expected to pay for those treatments. In some cases
local authorities ran hospitals for the local ratepayers, an approach
originating with the Poor Law. By 1929 the Local Government Act amounted
to local authorities running services which provided medical treatment
for everyone. On 1st April 1930 the London County Council then took
over responsibility for around 140 hospitals, medical schools and other
institutions after the abolition of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. By
the time the Second World War broke out, the London Council was running
the largest public service of its kind for healthcare.
Today, we have a lot to thank the NHS for; from the
introduction of polio and diphtheria vaccinations to all under 15-year
olds to the success of smoking cessation services and cancer screening
services, the NHS has been instrumental in many of the medical
achievements the UK has seen over the last 71 years.a shinig example of what
separates us from the US. It offered for the first time a free
healthcare system for all, and has since played a vital role in caring
for all aspects of our nations health. It has been the envy of the world
ever since. My own father served it well for nigh on 40 years.Remember
we paid for it, so it is owned by us, it is our precious commodity, it
must survive, we must tear the vultures hands from it.
It wouldn’t be possible to run a 7-day NHS, caring for millions of
people day-in-day-out without the hard work and dedication of its staff.
Despite all the adversity that’s thrown at them: poor pay, bursary
cuts, hospital parking fines and staff shortages to name a few; they
continue to become stronger and relentlessly deliver fantastic
healthcare to the nation .Recent tragic events that have taken place in
London, Manchester and Grenfell Tower have once again highlighted the
strength, professionalism , dedication and bravery of our healthcare
staff. It is truly inspiring to see how amazing the staff handled the
awful situation and it was a testament to every healthcare worker
throughout the UK. They are a credit to our nation and we couldn’t be
more proud.
The NHS here in Wales employs close to 72,000 staff which makes it
Wales’ biggest employer. I can never forget the compassion they gave to
my dear departed, the staff always managing to keep her spirits high,
never once showing any dereliction of care.Dedicated, compassionate
staff are under increased pressure, leading to low moral. Recent
figures have emerged that 2/4s of hospitals have been warned about
dangerous staff shortages.
As the Tory's and their rotten hearts seek to dismantle it, we should
not forget Nye's words who said ' It will last as long as their are folk
with enough faith to fight for it. We cannot reach the day again where
people make a profit out of our sickness.On its birthday we should also
join the call for fair pay for all NHS staff - scrap the cap ,Public
sector pay has been capped for too long. This is despite rising
inflation and increased living costs. Workers in the UK are on average
£1200 worse off a year than in 2008. It's not OK that NHS staff like
nurses are resorting to food banks to get by
We are now standing at a precipice: the NHS has been severely damaged by
underfunding and privatisation .But remember we paid for it, so it is
owned by us, it is our precious commodity, it must survive, we must tear
the vultures hands from it. Recently Jeremy**** the Tory party wannabee had the gall to suggest he'd saed the NHS when he was health secretary.Mr **** said he’d “fought to improve
patient safety and deliver the cash boost that will secure our NHS for
the future” before he was moved to his current role as Foreign
Secretary. Lets nor forget that NHS campaigners and professionals who were heavily
critical of Mr **** when he was in charge of healthcare. Junior doctors were involved a four year dispute with him over pay and conditions, which included unprecedented walkouts. As the Tory's and their rotten hearts seek
to dismantle our beloved NHS we should not forget Nye's words who said ' It will
last as long as their are folk with enough faith to fight for it.' We
cannot reach the day again where people make a profit out of our
sickness . The NHS is a shining example of how a caring society can
create good and safe care based on social solidarity., making such a
great contribution towards social and health equality. A beacon to the world. And the greatest example of Socialism in action
and the basic decency and fairness of our labour movement.
Thank you to all of those who have worked and who are still working
tirelessly to provide the best care to over 64 million people in the UK.
The last 72 years wouldn’t have been possible without them. It is currently tthough in real danger, under attack from those that want to privatise it, run it down and fragment it now more than ever and we can't allow this to happen.With American putocrats turning their eyes on the NHS,it's more important than ever to that we continue to defend it with all we've got. It is not now or any day for sale. Today, and everyday, we must keep fighting to protect this most special
institution and the people working within it.
Franz Kafka - " Don't bend, don't water it down, don't try to make it logical, don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly. "
Franz Kafka one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, was a Jewish Czech writer, born in Praque on this day July 3, 1883.who died at the age of 40, in 1924, of TB largely unpublished and unknown, but not after having written some of the most extraordinary works of all time. After his death with the posthumous publication of his novels, letters and diaries he rose to international fame as a literary genius, one of the founding fathers of magic realism and the modern novel.
He is now considered the most influential profoundly misunderstood writers of our time. Often reduced to abstract philosophical despair, his writing was also often a scathing critique of capitalist society and bureaucracy informed by his contact with radical political groups . His most famous works are two unfinished novels, The Trial and The Castle and the short story The Metamorphosis,(Die Verwandlung) an eerie tale of a man who finds himelf changed into a giant insect. This shocking and beautifully told novella is widely acclaimed for its greatness.Written before the holocaust, a literary sighting of the terror that we can create and the beasts we can so easily become. His family was of German culture but as they belonged to the ghetto, they were excluded from realtionships with the German minority in Praque.Tragedy shaped the Kafka home. Franz’s
two younger brothers, George and Heinrich, died in infancy by the time
Kafka was 6, leaving the boy the only son in a family that included
three daughters (all of whom would later die in Nazi death camps or a
Polish ghetto).
Kafka had a difficult relationship with
both of his parents. His mother, Julie, was a devoted homemaker who
lacked the intellectual depth to understand her son’s dreams to become a
writer. Kafka’s father, Hermann, had a forceful personality that often
overwhelmed the Kafka home. He was a success in business, making his
living retailing men’s and women’s clothes. His father ruled the family with great authority, who has been described as a huge ill-tempered domestic tyrant, who on many
occasions directed his anger towards his son and was disrespectful
towards his escape into literature. This led to Franz becoming an extremely sensitive adult, with a delicate personality.
He finished secondary school and entered the Deutsche
Karl-Ferdinands-Universität in 1901, studying first chemistry and then
law .While in his first year of university, Kafka became friends with Max Brod.
They remained friends for Kafka's entire life. Brod encouraged Kafka's
love of reading, and introduced him to some of the influences on his
later work, including Dostoyevsky, Goethe, and Gogol.
In 1906,
Kafka earned his Doctor of Law degree and began his professional career.
Though he wanted to be writing, Kafka worked foran insurance agency, fpr 14 years, the Worker’s Accident Institute of Bohemia from 30 August 1908 to his early retirement on 1 July 1922, in a relatively undemanding job that left him time to write. Kafka had tried to join the military to fight in World War
I, but he was denied due to his poor health.
He was not an ordinary person, it is generally agreed that Kafka suffered from clinical depression and
social anxiety throughout his entire life, and also suffered from
migraines, insomnia, constipation, boils, and other ailments, all
usually brought on by excessive stresses and strains, he was different, living in a state of anxious solitude, which resulted in him turning into a tormented genius. "I need solitude for my writing " the author said, but "not like a hermit - that wouldn't be enough but like a dead man." His writings stem from his battle with tuberculosis, complicated by
neurosis and psychosomatic disorders associated with organic disease. On all accounts Kafka seemed to be a well established and elegant figure,
respected and liked by his circle of associates, he tried to keep
private just how nervous he felt, and only revealed this to his
director (at the Worker’s Accident Institute of Bohemia) when he had to ask for an extended leave with pay.
His complicated love life did not make his life any easier for him, despite
his complications, he was a bit of a ladies man. But his personal life
raged with
complications. His inhibitions and insecurities plagued his
relationships. Twice he was engaged to marry his girlfriend, Felice
Bauer, before the two finally went their separate ways in 1917. A political radical who was an admirer of the anarchist Peter Kropotkin, and was drawn into the world of the libertarian socialism movement. Kafka’s opposition to established society became apparent when, as an
adolescent, he declared himself a socialist as well as an atheist.
Throughout his adult life he expressed qualified sympathies for the
socialists, he attended meetings of Czech anarchists (before World War I).
Even then he was essentially passive and politically unengaged. As a
Jew, Kafka was isolated from the German community in Prague, but, as a
modern intellectual, he was also alienated from his own Jewish heritage.
He was sympathetic to Czech political and cultural aspirations
but his identification with German culture kept even these sympathies
subdued. Thus, social isolation and rootlessness contributed to Kafka’s
lifelong personal unhappiness.
Kafkas strange stories, appeal to me a lot, earning their own adjective, Kafkaesque, to describe an aspect of social reality and political science that tends to be overlooked. With his libertarian sensibility, Kafka succeeded in capturing the oppressive and absurd nature of the bureaucratic nightmare, the opacity, the impenetrable and incomprehensive character of the rules of the state hierarchy as they are seen from below and outside, which destroys the mind and body and numbs the soul. Despite his perverse search of guilt to expiate ,he did not surrender. In front of the omnipresence of evil and falsity he took refuge in words as an antidote to despair. Kafka’s heroes search for truth in a world of alienation, irrationality
and injustice. They submit and endure and try to explain the
inexplicable.
Kafka later would fall in love with Dora
Dymant (Diamant), who shared his Jewish roots and a preference for
socialism. Amidst Kafka’s increasingly dire health, the two fell in love
and lived together in Berlin. Their relationship largely centered on
Kafka’s illnesses. For many years, even before he contracted
tuberculosis, Kafka had not been well. Constantly strained and stressed,
he suffered from migraines, boils, depression, anxiety and insomnia. He died in Kierling, Austria, on June 3, 1924. He was buried beside his parents in Prague’s New Jewish Cemetery in Olsanske.
Plagued by self-doubt, Kafka burned a huge amount of his writing, it's estimated that he burned more than 90% of what he wrote
and, aware that his fragile health was failing, he asked his best
friend Max Brod, who was to be his literary executor, to destroy any
unfinished manuscripts on his death, unread. Fortunately for the world, Brod published it instead. The Trial, written in 1914, was published in 1925. It tells
the bizarre story of a man named Josef K., who works at a bank. He is
arrested on his 30th birthday but he is never told what for. He is
released and told to wait for his trial. It drags on for two years and
Josef never knows what he is charged with. On his 32nd birthday, two men
show up at him home and take him away. They stab him in the heart and
he dies. The Castle, which Kafka started in 1922, was
unfinished when the author died in 1924. It was published by Max Brod
after Kafka's death. It tells the story of a man named only K. who comes
to a village. The village is ruled by a castle beside it, though no one
is completely sure what the castle does. K.'s right to be in the
village is questioned and then revoked when K. is about to die.
Sadly a lot of his work still chimes with the world today as the world again descends into fear and madness. Many years after his death his works act like guidebooks to the very dark feelings most of us know only to well ,
concerned with powerlessness, self-disgust and anxiety. This literary
genius turned the stuff of nightmares however, into redemptive, consoling art. Kafka taught us, truth always ends as it begins, in the
inexplicable, can any hope for a better future exist? It is this sense
of despair and pessimism , and in his letters,
Kafka writes of listening to “the frightened voices from within”, as it
is these fears that form a path to truth. Everybody should read some Kafka.
Pro-Palestinian activists have for the second day occupied the roof of Israel owned
Elbit Ferranti arms factories in Oldham, in solidarity and in a peaceful protest of UK complicity in Israel’s human rights violations. vowing to stay up there “as long
as it takes” to impose a two-way arms embargo between the UK and Israel
so that “no more death can be inflicted on the Palestinian people”.
The activists from Manchester Palestine Action and the International
Solidarity Movement, scaled the roof of the four storey building at 5 am
yesterday morning, carrying banners with them that they draped from the roof
edge of the five storey buildingn front of the building which read “UK Stop Arming Israel” and "Israel is killing protestors eery week," They were joined by placard- and
banner-carrying activists at the front gates of the factory who chanted:
“brick by brick, wall by wall, Israeli apartheid is going to fall”.
The campaigners acted in commemoration of the five-year anniversary of Operation Protective Edge
(OPE). Israel attacked Gaza in July 2014 and killed over 2,200
Palestinians, primarily civilians; Israeli forces suffered 73
casualties, primarily soldiers.
The group say that over the last five
years the UK has raised their arms sales to Israel and are calling for
an arms embargo and the closure of all Elbit factories in the UK. A
group of activists also entered the new, hi-tech, Discovery Industrial
Park in Sandwich,Kent and headed towards Elbit’s, purpose-built Instro Precision
factory, spraying painted slogans. They blockaded both of the gates to the factory and scaled a
shipping container ,forcing the factory to close.
Elbit Systems is the largest privately owned Israeli arms manufacturer
and is one of the largest exporter of drones in the world, bought the formerly British-owned Ferranti Technologies for £15 million in 2007. Elbit unmanned aircraft systems (aka drones) have been used extensively against Palestinians.
Elbit produces 85% of all drones
(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAV) used by the Israeli army, including the
Hermes 450 and 900 drones which Israeli forces can equip with two air
to ground missiles, or targeting systems to mark a target for other
aircraft to attack.
Amnesty International reported
in 2009 that Israeli drones were identified as taking part in attacks
that killed Palestinian civilians in Gaza. A confidential Israeli
military police report leaked
to The Intercept showed how the Israeli operators of a Hermes 450 were
responsible for killing four Palestinian children, cousins aged 10-11,
playing on a beach during Operation Protective Edge. They killed one
child with the first missile fired, and then fired a second missile to
kill the remaining three.
The company prides itself in testing their products "in the field" This testing amounts to the targeted killings of Palestinians, including many children, and to the extensie destruction of civil infrastructure in Gaza. A company also sordidly famous for providing cluster munitions banned by international law, and white phosphorus shells, both used against Palestinian civilian populations - a use also condemned by international law. Comments made by members of
the Israeli military industrial complex lend weight to this claim. A
brigadier general in the Israeli Army said at a convention on border
control technology in Texas, “We have learned lots from Gaza,” he said.
“It’s a great laboratory.”
Avner Benzaken, head of the Israeli army’s technology and logistics
division, explaining the benefits of the occupation of Palestinian land,
was reported as saying in Der Spiegel:
“If I develop a product and want to test it in the field, I only have
to go five or 10 kilometres from my base and I can look and see what is
happening with the equipment… I get feedback, so it makes the
development process faster and much more efficient.”
After the 2014 OPE assault on Gaza, the term “combat-proven” was reported
as being added to a military vehicle jointly manufactured by Elbit.
During the first month of OPE in Gaza, Elbit’s shares increased by 6.1%.
There are many reports of the crashing of Elbit’s Skylark UAV during intelligence gathering operations in Gaza. The anxiety-inducing buzzing of Israeli military UAVs has become a permanent soundtrack to the lives of Palestinians in Gaza. The company has been one of the main providers of the electronic detection fence system to the Apartheid Wall in the occupied West Bank. Elbit, in cooperation with the Israeli military, developed a tunnel detection system installed as part of the matrix of technologies used to keep around 2 million Palestinians besieged in the open air prison that is the Gaza Strip.
Elbit Systems bought Israeli Military Industries (IMI) in 2018 for $495 million,
which makes them the owner of the sole supplier of small-calibre
ammunition to the Israeli army. Over the past year and a half, Israeli
snipers have killed over 180 Palestinian protesters in the Great Return
March in Gaza, including press, medics, disabled people and 57 children, yet the UK has approved some £14 million worth of arms
sales during this period, according to the group.Israel’s military might, maintained by its arms trade with foreign
governments like the UK, is a key factor in sustaining a much larger
system of injustice and perpetual violence against the Palestinian
people. That’s why justice campaigners here in the UK are increasing
energy in their work to end the UK’s complicity in Israel’s abuse of
Palestinian rights.
In 2017 the Campaign Against Arms Trade reported that the UK issued £221
million worth of arms licenses to defence companies exporting to Israel
which makes Israel the eighth largest UK arms market, a huge increase on the previous year’s figure of
£86m, itself a substantial rise on the £20m worth of arms licensed in
2015. In total, over the past five years, Israel has bought more than
£350m worth of UK military hardware. The licences include categories of
arms used in Israel’s attacks, such as sniper rifles, grenade launchers,
surveillance drones and other equipment. While UK export controls are
meant to prohibit the export of items that can be used in violation of
human rights abroad, the UK Government insists it is confident that
exports to Israel are not, while simultaneously claiming that it doesn’t
track items after they’ve been sold. While a range of human rights
organisations, the UN and even the International Criminal Court have
expressed concern, the UK Government is digging in its heels and
refusing to conduct any due diligence. As part of the wider Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign,
Palestine solidarity activists have called for the UK to end its
extensive collaboration with the Israeli weapons industry and to
institute a two-way arms embargo, at the same time, a range of human rights
organisations, the UN and even the International Criminal Court have
expressed concern, the UK Government unsurprisingly, the government has
refused to listen, instead has not only taken no action, but has also made no effort to make Israel accountable for its increasing crimes and has thus been complicit in profitng off not only the desruction and death of innocent lives, but the intentional field testng of weaapons designed to terrify an entire populace.It’s not surprising then that campaigners are stepping up their
efforts to stop ‘business as usual’ for the UK-Israel arms trade and
they’re targeting different points in the chain of complicity.
There are many reports of the crashing of Elbit’s Skylark UAV during
intelligence gathering operations in Gaza. The anxiety-inducing buzzing
of Israeli military UAVs has become a permanent soundtrack to the lives
of Palestinians in Gaza.
The company has been one of the main providers of the electronic
detection fence system to the Apartheid Wall in the occupied West Bank.
Elbit, in cooperation with the Israeli military, developed a tunnel
detection system installed as part of the matrix of technologies used to
keep around 2 million Palestinians besieged in the open air prison that is the Gaza Strip. The company prides itself in testing their products "in the field" This testing amounts to the targeted killings of Palestinians, including many children, and to the extensie destruction of civil infrastructure in Gaza.
Elbit Systems has four subsidiaries in the UK; UAV Engines, Instro
Precision, Ferranti Technologies and Elite KL. All have faced protests
and in recent years. The Elbit-owned UAV Engines factory in Shenstone, Staffordshire, has
been repeatedly targeted by activists, including protests, roof top
occupations, and blockades at its gates, and was closed for
nearly three days when it was similarly occupied in 2014 because it profits directly from the continual surveillance, control and violent repression of the Palestinian people.
The end of 2018 at least seemed to have marked a new turning point for the
unscrupulous investments of banking and financial companies in the arms
manufacturer Elbit Systems being excluded from pension and investment funds around
the world over the company’s involvement in supplying surveillance
systems and other technology to Israel’s Separation Wall and settlements
in the West Bank. Elbit has also supplied surveillance technology for
use along the US-Mexico’s border. In December 2018, following a campaign by a coalition of British NGOs
against its investments, HSBC decided to divest from Elbit Systems due
to its involvement in the production and commercialization of cluster
munitions.
The recent action against Elbit has seen local residents rallying round in support with lots of interest from local school students, who can see the roof from their school , with some of the neighbouring residents coming out to respect the
minute's silence that was held last night at the
gate of the factory - together with those on the roof. See pictures and a short video n https://twitter.com/ManPalestine (you
can look at twitter
feed whether or not you have a twitter account. ) or on facebook https://www.facebook.com/ManchesterPalestineAction/
As a key company in the Israeli arms industry, the presence of Elbit’s
factories in the UK should not go unchallenged. By targeting the
factories, campaigners are protesting the
normalisation of militarism both in the UK and in Palestine. The
Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions is clear that a
suspension of ‘business as usual’ with Israel is necessary to achieve
justice for Palestine, and campaigners are answering this call. Those who profiteer from suffering, violence and human rights violations like Elbit ,acting immoraly and in contravention of international law, should not be allowed to continue with business as usual. It is simply deplorable that Elbit can still operate their four factories in the UK, where they manufacture their weapons with such impunity. and enables the Israeli military to maintain its brutal oppression ad occupation of the Palestinians.
Solidarity and respect with the roof top activists, and to those that endorse the call of Palestinian civil society to impose a two-way military embargo on Israel and to all those that continue to support the legitimate fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.
I did not know, that love hung on a clock That told, the minutes and the years, The metal arms, forever going forwards on its face To live in the palaces of the mind, Where love comes to bury itself Offering ticking, twinkling emotion Moving its force into cells Where hearts are captured, Precious like times shifting pathways The seconds moving one by one, As we whirl and twirl in own free will Sharing the gift of magical moments, I truly believe that we should all be struck By cupids loving well aimed arrows, Not by hatred, fear or division But by steady pulses of harmony, Arriving swiftly on the breeze Releasing the scent of passion, Capturing and soothing longing Comforting, keeping us safe from harm.
"Lets not fool ourselves into believing that Israel is engaging in sincere negotiations on equal footing with the Palestinians. There is no balance of power. Israel is demanding that Palestinians surrender their rights. When Palestinians refuse to do so. They are accused of rejecting peace."
- Sutaya Dadoo
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) campaigns for
justice for the Palestinians and advocates for their civil, political
and human rights, in accordance with international law.
Palestine: An issue for us all.
PSC represents people in Britain from all faiths and political
parties, who have come together to work for peace and justice for the
Palestinian people. They are opposed to all forms of racism, including
anti-Jewish prejudice and Islamophobia.
PSC was established to campaign:
for the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people
for the right of return of the Palestinian people
for the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli state from the occupied territories
against the oppression and dispossession suffered by the Palestinian people
in support of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle to achieve these rights
to promote Palestinian civil society in the interests of democratic rights and social justice
to oppose Israel's occupation and its aggression against neighbouring states
in opposition to racism, including anti-Jewish prejudice and
Islamophobia, and the apartheid and Zionist nature of the Israeli state
I am pleased to announce that a new branch is being launched in Aberystwyth today, please come and join us. The launch event will take place in Arad Goch in Bath Street from 1 p.m. To initiate the new group, Betty Huunter, Honorary President of PSC, will talk about the plight og children who find themselves on the frontline of Israeli military actions n Palestine, The soundtrack to the eent will be provided by Cor Gobaith, who will sing songs of hope for peace and justice in the region. The event will conclude with the inagural AGM of the Ceredigion branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Acampaigner for many years Betty Hunter said "The Palestine Solidarity Campaign works for peace, equality and justice, ad against racism, occupation and colonisattion. We are dedicated to securing human righrs for Palestinian people hostage in their own land . and world leaders do nothing. We must boycott Israeli goods. We must call for sanctions against Israel. It is us the people, who can change history."
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the New York City police department carried out a raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular Gay Bar in the Greenwich Village .The move was a clear condemnation by law enforcement officials of the city's underground gay population Yes it was a dive bar, but even that characterisation was optimistic, since it couldn't get a ligour license. It's drinks were bootlegged and heavily watered down. The contents of no bottle ever matched its label. There were no fire exits and there was no running water. But in that Greenwich Village Tavern, there was music, there was dancing, and there was freedom. It was a place of sanctuary, and one of the only places for New York's gay community to socialise and truly be themselves.
Pror to 1962, same sex relationships were a felony in every state, making it illegal for people of the same sex to show affection towards one another, dance with each other or even just be together. often punished by lengthy prison sentences. Same-sex loving men and women met in secret, fearing the long-term consequences of exposure. Gender nonconforming indiiduals and cross-dressers might find themselves shunned to the fringes of society. Early efforts at LGBTQ activism had smoldered for years before Stonewall. There had been riots in other gay spaces before. And there had certainly been plenty of police raids at the Stonewall in the past. But the anger that erupted on this day when police attempted to arrest patrons of the Stonewall Inn, sparked a uprising that galvanised the LGBTQ civil rights movement as we know it today.
It was a raid like so many others, but this time after some patrons and local residents witnessed police barging into the bar, slaming people against the walls, calling them derogatory names, and then taking money from their wallets. When police finally let patrons oout of the bar and ordered them to disperse they refused, and after an officer struck a prisoner on the head, they spontaneously fought back against years of oppression by hurling rocks and bottles at the police, anything in fact within arm's reach.A number of people even wrestled a parking meter from the ground and tried to use it as a battering ram. The police, fearing for their safety, locked themseles inside the Stonewall Inn as the angry mob outside grew into the thousands. Some were attempting to set the property on fire.Following media coverage of the event, thouusands protested and clashed with riot police over the next six days,.Reinforcements were eventually able to get the crowd under control, well for one night at least. But people had discovered a power that they were not even aware they had, releasing a sense of pride and liberation.
Shouts of 'gay power' and 'we shall overcome' could be heard down the street as support spread.It was a watershed for the worldwide gay rights movement, because it was the first time LGBT people had forcibly resisted the police. On Saturday, the windows of the Stonewall were boarded up and painted with gueer liberation slogans like 'We are Open,' 'Support Gay Power- C'mon in girls.' Hostile press coverage was also pinned to the boards, That night the crowd of protestors returned and were led in 'gay power; cheers by a group of gay cheerleaders. There was sustained handholding, kissing, and posing which had appeared only fleetingly on the street before.
Soon the crowd got restless "Let's go down the street and see what's happening girls," someone yelled. They did and were confronted by the Tactical Patrol Force, (originally set up to stop anti-ietnam war protests) Howeer, the TPF failed to break up the crowd, who in defiance sprayed them with rocks and other projectiles. The third day of rioting fell five days after the raid on the Stonewall Inn. On that day 1,000 people congregated at the bar and again took the cops on in the streets.
Once the riots had subsided, protestors were filled with motivation to organise for their rights, th aftermath saw an explosion in gay movement organisation, pride and political activism. A year after the riots, residents began marching on Christopher Street and Sixth Avenue. The date, June 28 was dubbed Christopher Street Liberation Day. Thousands of people marched the street while thousands of other people lined up alongside them to protest the treatment of the LGBT community at the hands of the law. With Stonewall, the spirit of 60's rebellion spread to LGBT people in New York and beyond, who found themseles liberated and part of a community, sparking a new sense of urgency about demanding tolerance for persecuted communities.Inspired by New Yor's example, actiists in other cities including Los Angeles, San Fracisco, Boston and Chicago, organised gay pride celebrations that same year. The Stonewall uprising changed the state of play, and sent out a clear message that eough was enough and that it was time fir the harassent and discrimination to end.
It is important to recognise the fact the gay rights movement did not begin at Stonewall, there were gay activists and calls for "gay power"well before tht early morning of June 28, 1969. What was different about Stonewall was that gay actiists around the country ad the world were prepared to commemorate it publicly. It was not the first rebellion, but it was the first to be called "the first" and that act of naming mattered, the uprising did mark a turning point, igniting a new atmosphere of militant gay liberation. Radical groups like the libertarian left wing Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Gay Actiists Alliance (GAA), were formed in New York and beyond who sought links with the Black Panthers, the Womens Liberation movement and anti-war organisations. Similar organisations were soon creaed around the world including Canada, France, Brtain, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealandin, becoming a lasting force that would carry on for the next half-century and beyond.
The Stonewall Inn made headlines again in 2015, when its story came to the silver screen, but critics at the time said that Stonewall depicted brave, cisgender white males as the unsung heroes of the moement, but in reality it was trans women of color, homeless queer people, sex workers, gay bi and pansexual people who were the riots heart and soul.
The resisters who stood up to the police on this day could hardly have imagined that within 50 years, the United States and other Western countries would go from criminalising homosexuality to guranteering the equal right of same sex couples to marry. Despite the gains made since and why we celebrate Pride in June, ( beyond the sequins and the glitter, it remains a protest, not just an excuse to party) half a century on from the Stonewall Riots, the global LGBT community still faces significent problems.
It was only as recently as 2017 that the UK Government finally issued a posthumous pardon to all gay or bi men who were convicted under pernicious sexual offences laws in the last century which enabled police to criminalise people for being gay or bi. In many South Asian and Middle Eastern, in fact around 70 counties homosesxuality is still illegal and in around 70 countries ,as far as the law goes punishable by death.Anti-gay bullying is still prevalent in schools and workplaces and ati LGBT sentiment is still being combatted across the world, Sadly there is still to much stigma attached for being who we are. But for many that fight has its roots in those dramatic riots in Greenwich all those years ago.
The LGBT movement is still a work in progress, so any single acronym is just a working title. Many other groups could be added to the acronym, including queer, intersex, and loving people of all kinds who just don't fit in the conventional pink and blue boxes of gender. This movement is a rainbow coalition of communities.The struggle will continue as long as governments do not fully respect and protect the "inherant dignity" and "egual and inalienable rights of all members of the human family" , as the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so eloquently pronounces, regardless of their gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.
When we remember the Stonewall Rebellion, we should aso commit to common memory, think of the many rebels who thought they might be alone but found common ground in movements of popular resistance.We still have so mucch further to go in the fight for equality. With on going solidarity with other oppressed people across the world, with rage and love we can firmly find our pride. The legacy of Stonewall remains as important as ever.
