World Suicide Prevention Day

Today, most of us are aware, that we are currently in the grips of a mental health crisis. An epidemic. killing indiscriminately, especially the young .One in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year. Every year organisations and communities around the world come together to raise awareness of how we can create a world where fewer people die by suicide. 10 September 2020 marks 17 years of World Suicide Prevention Day. 

This day observes the commitment to remove the social stigma that surrounds discussions on suicide This year it is focusing on the theme of connection and working together to prevent suicide. For people who are feeling vulnerable or distressed, having a strong sense of connection is an important part of suicide prevention. Connection can come in many forms, we can connect with friends and family, have connections through activities, or with nature and the arts.

Being distracted from suicidal thoughts and engaging in activities to take time away from the difficulties can also help to lift the mood for those with suicidal thoughts at whatever level or intensity. For those of us not feeling distressed, being able to make connections with someone we think may be struggling, to give someone the opportunity to share with us how they are feeling, can really help. 

 The most challenging conversations to have are usually the ones we need to have the most. Talking about suicide makes it more real, but choosing silence is not the answer. Approximately eight hundred thousand individuals commit suicide globally each year.. Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy.And we know that suicide is preventable, it’s not inevitable. In 2019, suicide numbers reached a 16 year high in the UK after experiencing a steady downward trend since 2003. With more people both attempting and committing suicide each year, it is more urgent than ever that we keep the conversation open and honest about suicide. 

Suicide is a human issue. When we start to look at it as such, it opens the door for better conversations and the normalisation of treatment in society. Suicide can affect anyone regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic background, gender and age. No-one is immune. 

It is a hard number to swallow, but around 81 per cent of suicidal people tell someone what they are going to do and when they are going to do it. It is time to get honest about suicide prevention. If many who attempt suicide give some clue or warning, then we need to look out for the signs. Statements like "You'll be sorry when I'm gone," "I can't see any way out,"- no matter how casually or jokingly said - may indicate serious suicidal feelings.Too often, suicidal people are left at the mercy of these thoughts; they seek help too late and then need to wait even longer for an appointment.

If you are worried someone is suicidal, it is okay to ask them directly. Research shows that this helps - because it gives them permission to tell you how they feel, and shows that they are not a burden.

Once someone starts to share how they are feeling, it is important to listen. This could mean not offering advice, not trying to identify what they are going through with your own experiences and not trying to solve their problems.

But not being okay is still widely stigmatised. And governments can still make better, more ambitious plans to prevent suicide.We should not  forget that mental illness doesn't discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society - from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers. and within the monopoly-capitalist nations, mental-health disorders are the leading cause of life expectancy decline behind cardiovascular disease and cancer. In the European Union, 27.0 percent of the adult population between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five are said to have experienced mental-health complications.

 Recent estimates by the World Health Organization suggest that more than three hundred million people suffer from depression worldwide. And it is important to note that most of the medications currently available  fail to manage symptoms at all.
Suicide and suicide attempts can have lasting effects on individuals and their social networks and communities. The causes of suicide are many, and it is important to understand the psychological processes that underlie suicidal thoughts, and the factors that can lead to feelings of hopelessness or despair.  

Suicide behaviours are complex, there is no single explanation of why people die by suicide. Social, psychological, and cultural factors can all interact to lead a person to suicidal thoughts or behaviour. For many people, an attempt may occur after a long period of suicidal thoughts or feelings, while in other cases, it may be more impulsive.

 Despite some excellent media guidelines produced by Samaritans and Mind, journalists often still revert to outdated language and stereotypes when reporting suicide. There is a difficult balance between reporting known facts and introducing elements of the story into the public domain which may encourage others to emulate what they have read, as is described in the Werther effect - so called because of the spate of imitational suicides that were said to have taken place after the publication of Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Research carried out across the world over the last five decades shows that when specific methods of suicide are reported – details of types and amounts of pills, for example – it can lead to vulnerable people copying them.

Young people in particular are more influenced by what they see and hear in the media than other age groups and are more susceptible to what is often referred to as suicide contagion.
We should not describe a suicide as ‘easy’, ‘painless’, ‘quick’ or ‘effective’, and we should remember to look at the long-term consequences of suicide attempts, not forgetting the significant life-long pain for those left behind when someone does take their own life.

It is also important to bear in mind that reports of celebrity deaths carry greater risk of encouraging others to take their own lives, due to the increased likelihood of over-identification by vulnerable people. A recent study, which examined news reports covering the suicide of US actor Robin Williams, identified a 10% increase in people taking their own lives in the months following his death. This emphasises the responsibility that we all have when it comes to talking about suicide.

We often read speculation about the cause of suicide, linking a death to a previous event such as the loss of a job, the break-up of a relationship or bullying. It is impossible to say with any certainty why someone takes their own life. As the Samaritans state: ‘there is no simple explanation for why someone chooses to die by suicide, and it is rarely due to one particular factor.’Suicide is often the culmination of a complex set of factors.

 Covid-19 has affected us all in different ways and brought new or increased challenges for many. But there has also been a positive impact of new connections, often with neighbours and within communities. I hope that exploring connection on this World Suicide Prevention Day will help us all think about how we can reach out and offer connection, helping ourselves and others who may be struggling.so we would like to share some helpful tips and information for those who might need it. Together we can work to raise awareness of suicide prevention and how we can create a world where fewer people die by suicide.

 If you are worried someone is suicidal, it is okay to ask them directly. Research shows that this helps - because it gives them permission to tell you how they feel, and shows that they are not a burden. Once someone starts to share how they are feeling, it is important to listen. This could mean not offering advice, not trying to identify what they are going through with your own experiences and not trying to solve their problems.

Let’s all make a habit of checking on each other. Check on your strong friends today. Check on your struggling friends. Don’t be fooled by smiles or tough exteriors. Pain can manifest itself in many ways and have many different faces.  Check on yourself too. If you are struggling, please know that there are resources available. And, know that there is no shame in needing help. The world needs you to stay. The world needs us to help each other find our way back to being okay.

 Here are some useful helplines :-

• Samaritans: 116 123 (free, for everyone, 24/7)

• Somewhere To Turn ( free, online peer support and signposting service)

• CALM: 0800 585858 (free, for men, 5pm-midnight)

• PAPYRUS: 0800 968 4141 (free, for young people, 9am-10pm Mon-Fri, 2pm-10pm at the weekend)

• Crisis Text Line: text SHOUT to 85258

Teresa Wilms Montt - In the Stillness of Marble

On September 8, 1893 Chilean writer, modernist poet  and anarcha feminist poet Teresa Wilms Montt is born in Viña del Mar, Chile, the second of six daughters of Federico Guillermo Wilms Montt y Brieba and Luz Victoria Montt y Montt, both of whose families were members of the commercial and political elite of Chile during early first years of the 20th century, Teresa Wilms' education was at the hands of a strict governesses, who trained her in all the subjects and duties necessary for a search for a suitable husband.
However, since early childhood, she rebelled against the values and teachings of her class, which did not accommodate her free and creative spirit. A talented pianist, singer and writer of lyrics, skills that she was drawn upon the exhibit at the endless round of social gatherings of her class, it was at one of those events, held in the family mansion in the summer of 1910, where she met the young Gustavo Balmaceda Valdés – a family member of the late president José Manuel Balmaceda, who was  eight years older than her and worked for the internal revenue service.
 Despite opposition from both families – Teresa being only seventeen years old and her parents had refused her permission to wed – she married Gustavo Balmaceda, later giving birth to two daughters. However, her free spirit and intellectual pursuits, which brought her into contact with other men, provoked Balmaceda's jealousy, marital tensions and ultimately its breakdown. Balmaceda's work also took the family to far-flung parts of Chile such as Valdivia and Iquique from 1912 to 1915, and led to periods of prolonged loneliness for Teresa that nevertheless proved very fruitful for her creatively.
 It was during these years she turned to the writing of  intimate diaries and sustained close friendships with a number influential artists and intellectuals, such as the poet Victor Domingo Silva. It was during her stay in Iquique that she was published for the first time under the pseudonym 'Tebac', and it was there that she first encounter feminist and anarchist ideas, inspired by the speech of the Spanish feminist Belén de Zárraga and the Chilean Luis Emilio Recabarren, and her meeting with anarchists and syndicalists.
The discovery in 1915 of her affair with Balmaceda's cousin, Vicente Zañartu Balmaceda, led to the men of the Balmaceda Valdés family deciding to have her confined to the Convento de la Preciosa Sangre which was more of an asylym / prison . There, she continued to keep her diary and, depressed, made her first suicide attempt on March 29, 1916. In June 1916, the Chilean poet and anarchist Vicente Huidobro helped her escape from the convent and together they fled to Buenos Aires where she found freedom, both as a woman and as a writer. She began collaborating on the magazine 'Nosotros' (We) along side the like of fellow poets Gabriela Mistral and Ángel Cruchaga Santa María and joined the circle around writers such as Victoria Ocampo, Jorge Borges, and the feminist-fashionista 'Pele' Pelegrina Pastorino. In 1917 Wilms Montt published her first two books – 'Inquietudes Sentimentales' (Sentimental Concerns), a set of fifty poems that enjoyed overwhelming success among the Argentine capital's intellectual circles, as did her second book, 'Los tres cantos' (The Three Songs), in which she explored eroticism and spirituality.e with the magazine Nosotros, which also published work by Gabriela Mistral and Ángel Cruchaga Santa María.
 In August 1917, her 20-year-old lover Horacio Ramos Mejía, committed suicide in front of Wilms Montt, and she left for New York City to collaborate with the Red Cross during World War I, but, after being accused of being a German spy, she was refused entry and was deported to Spain. There, she joined Madrid's bohemia and intellectual circle, befriending writer such as Joaquín Edwards Bello, Gómez de la Serna, Enrique Gómez Carrillo and Ramón del Valle-Inclán, going on to become the muse of the artist Julio Romero de Torres. In Madrid, which was to become her base from then on, she published a further two works under the pseudonym Teresa de la Cruz, which were widely praised by Spanish literary critics: 'En la Quietud del Mármol' (In the Stillness of Marble; 1918) and 'Anuarí' (1919). The first is an elegy of lyrical tone, composed of 35 fragments, with death as the central motive. Written in the first person, she focused her interest in the mediating role of the love of life. 'Anuarí', meanwhile, was a tribute to her dead lover Ramos Mejía.
During a visit to Buenos Aires, in 1919, she published her fifth book, 'Cuentos para hombres que todavía son niños' (Tales for Men Who Are Still Children), in which she evoked her childhood and some of her later relationships, in stories of great originality and fantasy.
She was a very very beautiful woman and a poet of the highest calibre. Unfortunately, this is news to much of the world Described by fearful right-wing critics as "embodying sexual aberrance and social prophesy", she embraced the anarchist ideas that were sweeping through the industrialised world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and took part in the aggressive anti-capitalist discourse that advocated full social revolution.
She continued to travel through Europe, visiting London and Paris, and it was in the latter in 1920 that she was reunited with his daughters after 5 years of separation, through the efforts of her diplomat father. However, shortly after their departure, she plunged into a deep depression , her soul broken and  became seriously ill and during this crisis she consumed a large dose of Veronal,and after a long period of agony, died on December 24, 1921. She was  only twenty-eight years old ,leaving behind a life full of intense and painful experiences, but also a writer who  lived a tumultuous , rebellious life who refused to conform to societies rules and the expectations  of her time and surroundings and left behind a great body ofwork that deserves to be recognized, but sadly her life is mostly forgotten. in her country and in the world, but at least is remembered in the 2009 film "Teresa: Crucificada por amar" by director Tatiana Gaviola.
In the last pages of her diary, she wrote:"Morir, después de haber sentido todo y no ser nada..." (Dying, having felt everything and being nothing ...)  

Teresa Wilms Montt - In the Stillness of Marble 

And when the sun spills out diamonds upon the world,
then I breathe in all the flowers, I see you in all the trees,

and I possess you tumbling, intoxicated with love,
on the lawns of fragrant grass.
And when the moon gives its humble blessing to men,
I see you gigantic, silhouetted by the sharp edges of a
lightning bolt; I see you enormous, confused with the immortal, scattering your indulgence over the world, soothing the desperation of so many suffering castaways;
I breathe you in the atmosphere, I imagine you in the mystery,
I extract you from nothingness.
It seems to me that the world was only made to help me evoke you,
and the sun to serve me as a lantern over the rugged path.

Redressing The Manipulation

Shadow boxing in a daily wasteland
Ruled by conglomerates and monopolies,
That steal and feed on our dreams
Wllfully with ideological mission.
Murdoch's laughable beacons of free press
Destroying wisdom, mocking aloud,
Relentless  manipulators of truth
Scapegoating minorities, and refugees,
Spreading toxic words of poison
About those fleeing poverty and war,

Keeping the public enslaved, on a diet of lies
Propelling deceptive  propaganda,,
Five billionaires own 80 % of the UK press
To serve their own right wing agendas,
Try to keep society divided
Fooling credulous victims of bias,
Slinging smears and mud on anyone
Who dare challenge the chicanery,
Others demand a revision of values
Wake up and choose to light a fuse,
As paradigm shifts perception
Rejecting now what they fear,
Time to overthrow the media oligarchs
Among rustling, leaves of change,
Creating a culture that feeds on empathy
Freedom triumphs and democracy awakens,

Sabra Hummus Alert

Sabra صابِرة is the Arabic word for patience, forbearance. It's also a Palestinian name for the prickly pear cactus that was used as hedgeing round village homes and gardens, as well as food in hard times.The name was adopted in Hebrew by early Jewish settlers in the land that became Israel, in 1948.It then became sobriquet for those hardy frontiersmen themselves - some content to co-exist with Arab neigbours, some more predatory.
 One of the oldest known prepared foods in human history, hummus is claimed by multiple Middle Eastern nationalities.For Israelis, Lebanese, Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Palestinians, Turks and Iraqis, hummus is a culinary icon and a staple of their diet. Hummus has also become a global food commodity, manufactured and sold everywhere. The Sabra Hummus that can be found on the shelves of Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury's etc was founded in 1986 by Zohar Norman and Yehuda Pearl[9] as Sabra-Blue & White Foods.The company is now owned jointly between PepsiCo and the Strauss Group, a multinational corporation and Israel’s largest food and beverage company.
While it may taste good, I personally love hummus, the Strauss Group materially supports and sends care packages to the Golani Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, a fact that was once stated on the company’s website  but has since been removed due to pressure from pro-Palestine groups. Even by the abysmal human rights standards of the IDF, the Golani Brigade is particularly brutal: since its inception, the Brigade has carried out countless human rights violations against Palestinians — particularly in Hebron and in the siege on Gaza (Operation Cast Lead) from 2008-2009 — including arbitrary murders, assaults, detentions, home invasions, and arrests of children.Their members have been known to use horrific imagery on t-shirts, such as a pregnant Palestinian woman in a sniper's cross-hairs, with the slogan “one shot, two kills”. 
Furthermore, the Brigade’s role as an occupying force violates international law: Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and its 1967 annexation of East Jerusalem are all illegal according to the United Nations.
Simply put, when you buy Sabra hummus you are supporting war and oppression. For many Palestinians, the Occupation is a painful and constant reality, in light of this the campaign to boycott Sabra  is situated within a broader international movement to hold Israel accountable for human rights abuses and abolish its “three-tiered system of oppression: colonialism, occupation, and apartheid.” In 2005, Palestinian civil society called for the boycott of, divestment from, and sanctions of Israeli state institutions as a nonviolent strategy to pressure Israel to comply with international law and universal principles of human rights. Modeled after the successful South African anti-apartheid campaigns of the last century, the BDS movement aims to highlight the immoral and illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and to stigmatize the many human rights violations that continue to be an everyday reality for many Palestinians. Since 2005, dozens of companies, university student governments, workers’ unions, churches, and other organizations have publicly joined the BDS campaign by changing their institutional policy and practice to adhere to its goals, and to encourage  boycotting products such as Sabra hummus and raise awareness of other companies like this that are complicit in Israel's continued human rights violations in Palestine. Boycotting brands is one of the easiest ways to convince retailers across the world to stop selling products from companies profiting from Israeli occupation.. A full list of what to boycott  can be found here.
The connection between Sabra hummus and human rights abuses is not weak ; is is as plain as day. Support the boycott of Sabra hummus. There are other cheaper, more ethical alternatives. The movement worked with anti-apartheid South Africa it can work again today.

Climate Not Trident

As a weapons system designed for the Cold War, the case for Trident is non-existent in 2020.
Nuclear weapons are wrong – strategically, morally and financially. Yet, despite peoples long-standing opposition to their obscene presence, MPs inside the House of Commons decided the UK will renew its nuclear deterrent system writing a blank cheque to base another generation of nuclear weapons in Scotland’s waters.
But CND believe Britain should not possess a weapon whose only purpose is to threaten the whole of humanity. Each warhead has 8 times the explosive power of the bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. That bomb alone vaporised human flesh within a half mile radius and fatally burned thousands miles from the epicentre.of mass destruction. Instead of the billions of pounds squandered the cost could be better spent on infrastructure, education, combating climate change and helping fund the NHS without threatening the lives of othersBritain, let's not forget is a signatory to the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty, and gas made an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of its nuclear arsenal, but the decision to replace Trrident would run counter to our Treaty commitments, cost billions of pounds, escalate, rather than secure, Britain's real security.
As MPs return to parliament tomorrow. Let's make sure that the first thing they have think about is the existential threats of nuclear weapons and climate change.
Write to your MP to raise concerns about the existential threats of climate change and nuclear war
Nuclear annihilation and climate catastrophe are the two biggest threats to human existence. This has been confirmed by the atomic scientists that maintain the Doomsday Clock: this year its hands were set at 100 seconds to midnight.
Britain should be a world-leader in tackling climate change, but also in the disarming of nuclear weapons, urgent action is needed, as the risk of disaster has never been greater.  Urgent action is needed but our government continues to prioritise war and weapons over the future of our planet.
Write to your MP to raise concerns about the existential threats of climate change and nuclear war.
Urge your MP to put pressure on the government to step up the response to the climate emergency, to stop Trident replacement and to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Use the following tool to write to your MP now

https://cnd.eaction.org.uk/ClimateNotTridentLobby/search

The Captain Swing Riots"

The Captain Swing riots occurred in England during 1830-31  following years of war, high taxes and low wages, farm labourers, especially in the south and east of England, finally snapped These farm labourers had faced progressive impoverishment and unemployment over the previous fifty years due to the widespread introduction of the threshing machine and the policy of enclosing fields, Labourers were often desperate for food and resorted to poaching to try and feed their families with the result that there was a dramatic increase in the crime rate, Various other matters bought matters to a head in 1830, first the Census showed that the population was increasing,  secondly the threshing machine produced widespread loss of employment during the winter months, and at the same time the harvest was poor and  there was persistently bad weather.

No longer were thousands of men needed to tend the crops, a few would suffice. The anger of the rioters was directed at three targets that were seen as the prime source of their misery: the Tithe system, the Poor Law guardians, and the rich tenant farmers who had been progressively lowering wages while introducing agricultural machinery With fewer jobs, lower wages and no prospects of things improving for these workers the threshing machine was the final straw, the object that was to place them on the brink of starvation. The Swing Rioters smashed the threshing machines and threatened farmers who had them.was due to modern threshing machines being introduced into agriculture, the result of which was low wages paid by farmers  which led to the starvation of farm workers where many died as a result of not earning money to buy food for themselves and their families. 

Between 1770 and 1830 ,in the Enclosure Acts of rural England no less than a million acres (24,000 km2) of common land were enclosed by rich landowners depriving the common people of ancient rights to use common ground.For centuries this common land had been used by the poor of the countryside to graze their animals and grow their own produce. This land was now divided up among the large local landowners, leaving the landless farm workers dependent upon working for their richer neighbours for a cash wage. 

After the Napoleonic wars in 1815 grain prices plummeted. Many farm workers were thrown out of work and at home they faced poverty and the prospect of the workhouse. Farmers would pay their workers as little as possible, knowing that the parish fund would top up wages. Echoes of working tax credits of today. 

Another burden was the tithe demanded by the Church of England of a 10th of the harvest to pay the parson a generous wage and the Swing movement demanded a large reduction in these taxes. In parliament Lord Carnarvon had said that ‘The English labourer was reduced to a plight more abject than that of any race in Europe’ Generally the lot of an agricultural labourer was a pretty miserable one.

Social tensions  increased and the labourers naturally rose up, demanding a minimum wage, the end of rural unemployment, tithe and rent reductions. and an end to the threshing machine which destroyed their winter employment. They reinforced their demands with rick-burning, the destruction of the threshing machines and cattle-maiming among other things. The major landowners were concerned for their own farms and due to their influence were able to get military assistance in putting down the riots.

In many places hay ricks were set alight, in some places the protests took on non-violent forms such as church boycotts and walk outs. In Wroughton in Wiltshire the protest amounted to people smoking pipes in the cemetery as a means of getting their point across. 

As well as the attacks on the threshing machines the protesters reinforced their demands with wage and tithe riots and by the destruction of objects of their oppression, such as workhouses and agricultural tithe barns During these riots many threshing machines were either dismantled or destroyed entirely. 

On the night of August 28 in 1830 in Kent, England a threshing machine was destroyed by angry labourers - the start of the Swing rebellion. Typically a farmer would receive an anonymous note  often signed by "Captain Swing", with the intention of creating fear, telling him that unless he destroyed his threshing machine then his barns, haystacks and house would be burned down, and if they did not cave in, mobs would attack the farms, set them a flame and smash the machines., as a reprisal for the injustices  that were felt. 

One letter read, "We don't want to do any mischief, but we want that poor children when they go to bed should have a belly full of taties instead of crying with half a belly full." Another warned: "This is to acquaint you that if your threshing machines are not destroyed by you directly, we shall commence our labors. Signed on behalf of the whole. Swing." Scrawled warnings such as "Revenge for thee is on the wing, from thy determined Captain Swing" suggested an organization that was not really there. Captain Swing did not exist, but he came to represent the moral fury of the crowds of impoverished, determined laborers. 

Attacks concentrated on prosperous farmers who could afford threshing machines, which were expensive and frequently broke down. Farmers with less land who could not afford the machines probably were not unhappy to see attacks on their wealthier neighbors. In some places, the smashing of threshing machines were just part of a movement that included arson threats (a potent arm of the poorest of the poor) aimed at increasing wages. The movement generated its own momentum and in some places paper mills were attacked also.  

 By the third week of October, over one hundred threshing machines had been destroyed in East Kent. There was no centralised organising committee but such was the deep seated feeling of oppression that as news of the troubles spread, there was no shortage of local volunteers to lead or "Captain" his fellow workers. Night after night fires started by roving mobs lit up the countryside. For many farmers, danger and destruction was a matter of when, not if. Understandably,  farmers were frightened by the initial wave of attacks and generally gave in to the demands of the rioting farm workers.This only made the rioters bolder.

                                                              Captain Swing Cartoon
                                                        Image Source British Museum

 Farm workers now started confronting farmers asking for higher wages and other improvements to their conditions. Rectors were told to lower tithes by armed gangs. Often their demands were met.

There are many stories of confrontations from all over the county. One at Halnaker near Chichester ended peacefully when the Duke of Richmond told the mob that they should return home and talk later. Another such confrontation in Lancing ended up less happily with the local landowner taking a severe beating.

The riots continued sporadically until 1831 when those arrested were sent or trial. The recriminations were savage and harsh, In Hampshire,  the Duke of Wellington established a special commission to deal with rioters and they imposed very severe punishments in order to make an example of the offenders. 

 On the 18th December the commission met in Great Hall and of the 300 prisoners, 95 were formally sentenced to death (ultimately 6 had the sentence confirmed although 4 were reprieved and only two men were ultimately executed), 68 rioters were sent to prison and a further 69 were  transported. Public opinion was shocked by severity of these sentences, transportation could be for up to 14 years and many of the men never returned to England. In 1835 Lord John Russell pardoned most of the rioters although by then it was too late for many of them.

 While there was never any evidence of an organised attempt to overthrow the government, the Captain Swing Riots were  the first large-scale demonstration of agricultural labourers' strength, an expression of their fear and anger by the poorest people in the land.who saw their meagre way of life threatened by new technology. Agitation continued, especially after the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. There were no agricultural trade unions because jobs and therefore homes were at stake.Some of the landowners were  actually sympathetic to the plight of the poor, and raised wages or  offered more employment but in general nothing changed until the advent of prosperity in the mid 1850's when manufacturing started to provide employment and draw the population away from rural areas.

The 'Swing' riots did influence the passing of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act,  but wages and conditions did not improve overall or a long time to come. But the Captain Swing Riots served to encourage a wider demand for political reform culminating in a huge step forward for democracy in Britain with the advent of the Representation of the People Act 1832. This act increased the electorate from about 500,000 to 813,000 by allowing almost one in five adult males to vote  but still no women. Demonised at the time as thugs and enemies to progress the Captain Swing protestors had justifiable grievances and were in fact only protesting for a fairer and more prosperous Britain.

"Oh Captain Swing, 

he'll come in the night 

To set all your buildings and crops alight 

And smash your machines with all his might 

That dastardly Captain Swing!"

Further reading :- 

Captain Swing - Eric Hobsbawn , 1969

Pictured: one of the letters

Captain Swing - Robb Johnson, live Tolpuddle, 2010

If you tolerate this your children will be next - Manic Street Preachers

 

Madrid. The ‘Military’ Practice of the Rebels. If you tolerate this your children will be next. The dead body of a young girl, with numbered labels for identification, against the background of a clouded sky across which aeroplanes fly in formation. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1122

The Manic Street Preachers released If  You  Tolerate  This Your Children Will Be Next from their massive selling fifth album ‘This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours’ on this day in 1998 which  managed to reach No 1.The Song is a beautiful and meaningful one  about the Spanish Civil War and the Welshmen who joined the International Brigades to Spain in the 1930s to fight against General Francisco Franco's fascist forces: roughly 200  welshmen went to join the fight, with 33 losing their lives.
All four members of the original band were born and raised in Blackwood, a Rhymney Valley community in South Wales. The 1984-5 miners’ strike had marked their childhood. The cover design for the CD featured a group photograph of the Welsh fighters, members of the ‘volunteers for liberty’, taken before the battle of Ebro in July 1938.

 Welsh Volunteers of the XV International Brigade before the Ebro offensive, 1938 – photo from the South Wales Coalfield Collection at Swansea University

The song lyrics include not only a repeat of the words on the poster in the chorus but also quote the remark allegedly made by one of the Welsh volunteers Tom Thomas from, Bedllinog when asked if he wanted to fight in Spain: ‘If I can shoot rabbits then I can shoot Fascists.’( as quoted in Miners Against Fascism by Hywel Francis, )  and refers to the young idealists who swapped shooting rabbits in  the country side for shooting fascists in the battlefields of Spain.
Another line "I've walked Las Ramblas but not with real intent" brings to mind the account of Georgee Orwell's  first hand account of the war "Homage to Catalonia! and of fighting on the Ramnblas.
The response in Wales was largely provided by the South Wales Miners' Federation and the Communist Party and eventually supported by a broad coalition including the Labour Party, Liberals, some Welsh writers, academics and teachers.
One of the first to recognise the growing threat of fascism was Labour MP Aneurin Bevan who, as early as 1933, formed an anti-fascist workers militia - the Tredegar Workers' Freedom Group.
The 200-or-so Welsh men who volunteered to fight in Spain represented the largest regional industrial grouping within the British Battalion of the International Brigades; only one Welshman fought for the fascist forces led by General Franco.
They were Communist or Labour in sympathy, largely from the central valleys of the Rhondda, Cynon and Taff although there were also volunteers from the north Wales coalfield, the coastal towns of the south and rural areas.
Some became famous in later life as trade union leaders, notably Will Paynter and Tom Jones, known subsequently as Twm Sbaen throughout the labour movement.
The title of the song comes from a harrowing  recruiting poster created and released by the newly formed Propaganda Ministry of the Spanish Republican government in November 1936 that showed images of carnage caused by Francos's Nationalists..Possibly the most famous poster from the Spanish Civil War in Britain, the broader European threat is once more a salient theme in Madrid: The ‘Military’ Practice of the Rebels. Circulated in Britain and France, this poster also directly confronts the audience with the dangers of European fascism and total warfare. The subtitle, ‘If you tolerate this your children will be next’, as used as title for the Manic's song  addresses the viewer with a call to arms, this threat to the children of Britain reinforced by the death of a Spanish girl. The bombers in the background fly in formation to the top left of the poster, or to the northwest of Spain, towards British shores. The planes are, however, not the central focus of this poster. The image of child ‘4–21: 35’, once more taken from ¡Asesinos!, may at first look not to be dead; she is ‘facing’ the camera, almost looking out. On closer examination, the reality of the image and its implications with regards to this new form of warfare are realised by the viewer. This photograph provides the ‘ce n’est pas ça’ of that which has been lost and is now absent, through the inability of the dead girl to return the look of the viewer. The text, though, reiterates ‘reality’ or ‘thereness’ – the ‘ça’ of the situation cannot be ignored, this is happening – and adds the secondary messages of propaganda of agitation: a call to arms in order to protect the basic needs of the people, in this instance, security.
For many it was not just a war to defeat the fascists it was the beginning of a new society. A revolution in fact, unfortunately revolutions do not succeed when the people are divided. There are many lessons to be learnt from this struggle, a struggle that continues to do this day. What the world did or refrained from doing had terrible consequences. Britain and France helped Franco indirectly and Germany and Italy directly. Later came Russia. No country (Except for Mexico perhpas) took side with the legitime government. What happened next was WWII and we all know how that went. So if you tolerate this your children will be next (And in fact they were).
Lets not forget all those who were killed serving with the International Brigades who nobly fought bravely in a spirit of solidarity, and political and moral awareness to try and save us from fascism's threat that still sadly lingers and haunts us  today.The dark shadow cast by the Spanish Civil war, still matters, and the wound inflicted on Spain still within living memory for many has yet to close.
Thia powerful song serves to remind  us that we must continue to resist oppressive forces  and fascism, with our shout of no pasaran and remember to stand for something , otherwise you will fall for anything.

 If you tolerate this your children will be next. - Manic Street Preachers

The future teaches you to be alone
The present to be afraid and cold
"So if I can shoot rabbits then I can shoot fascists"

Bullets for your brain today
But we'll forget it all again
Monuments put from pen to paper
Turns me into a gutless wonder

And if you tolerate this then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this then your children will be next
Will be next, will be next, will be next

Gravity keeps my head down
Or is it maybe shame
At being so young and being so vain

Holes in your head today
But I'm a pacifist
I've walked La Ramblas but not with real intent

And if you tolerate this then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this then your children will be next
Will be next, will be next, will be next, yeah will be next

And on the street tonight
An old man plays with newspaper cuttings of his glory days

And if you tolerate this then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this then your children will be next
Will be next, will be next, will be next

Under the Influence

Music - (noun):The glue that's holding this chaos together. A universal language recognised by all sentient beings.

Music releases comfort, cancels out the dark, non sectarian, flies over walls, liberating minds with pulse of freedom, when life is crap can soothe.Releasing satori breath, without cancelling anger. At home I still play my old records, that take me to uncontrolled steeples heights, punk, jazz and blues, some reggae and soul,psychedelic adventurers, world music cosmanauts, celtic flowers spinning with benediction. Waves of now in deep communication.

Entrapping time, drowning misunderstanding, in magical perfume, atoms of infinity. supplicants of memory, returning me to,gardens of youth. Round and round, paint the sky, with saluted cadence, discharging smiles, floods of necessity, time capsules of electricity, cicada's voice rumbles on, ringing out loud, doubling horizon, opening windows of perception, rhythms endless stream, resurrecting and carrying.

Transistors of heart's beat, that feed my faith,among pastures of endurity, tides that release our dancing feet, floating on rivers of delight. Oceans of sound,melding endlessly in gracious flight, releasing the blossom of chords and notes, enough to sustain and warm as melodies and songs continue to explode on tonque.

Music can collectively unite us all Where war has raged, people need everything to return to life: food, water, shelter, clothing, medicine. But more than anything, people need hope. To reconcile, people need empathy. To heal, people need connection and community.

Music creates empathy, builds connection, can convey important messages and ideals that people can truly listen to, that gives hope allowing people to come together and become powerful forces for change. The music of change is blowing through all Continents. Soak it in.

Happy Birthday Ray Bradbury (22/08/20 - 5/6/12) - Everyone must leave something behind.

Ray Bradbury, known for his imaginative and evocative tales of Martian lands and sinister carnival characters, was born  100 years ago today.In his lifetime Bradbury wrote hundreds of stories, a number of screenplays, and over two dozen novels,of subtle genius including The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine,and I sing the body electric. earning Bradbury a place within the canon of modern Western literature. Long have I been an admirer of his work. Here is a link to a piece I wrote  several years ago when I heard about his death , :-https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ray-bradbury-220828-5612-rip-something.html A beautiful, writer, of gentle, probing, persuasive thought best known as a science fiction author, Ray Bradbury’s writing was courageous and visionary, combining poignant social criticism..
His  novel Farenheit 451, which came out in 1953 at the height of the “Red Scare” period most memorably exemplified by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s vicious, witch hunt against supposed communists and communist sympathizers which included attempts to remove suspect books from public libraries. This was also the period of the Hollywood blacklist, with many actors, directors, and screenwriters being banned from working on Hollywood films or television. Although Bradbury has said that the book-burnings in Fahrenheit 451 were inspired by the 1933 Nazi book-burnings, he was much more likely inspired by the censorship that accompanied the Red Scare of his own era.
Set in a bleak, dystopian future,where we find Guy Montag, the main protoganist, a fireman,whose main focus isn’t to fight fires, but to start them. In order to control information and its dissemination, the government has banned books. Anyone found in possession of them is subject to having their house burned to the ground by the fire department.
In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor one Clarisse McClennan , who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.
When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.He  become disillusioned with the societal distractions his wife had engaged in and  becomes fascinated with the people who hide and defend the books he is ordered to destroy. As such, he begins secretly hoarding books from the houses he is sent to destroy.Towards the end, Montag is befriended by individuals who have been labeled outcasts for their love of books and knowledge. Montag is speaking with one of them, named Granger, who delivers the following message :

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.
It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away.It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime....


- Ray Bradbury - Farenheit 451.

This end signified a turning point from hoplessness to hope, but the message of the book still powerfully acts today as a warning, teaching us not to accept what we are told is right or wrong as governments around the globe today continue today to suppress knowledge and the free flow of information. We  must keep on clinging to the freedom to read, the freedom of ideas, and the freedom of communication.
The gardeners to  be remembered, leaving their marks of unfettered imagination, seeds of the future to be forever  cherished and treasured. Everyone must leave something behind! Happy birthday, Ray Bradbury.

Stop Arming Israel : National Day of Action

 

Palestinian rights campaigners will gather across Britain on Saturday to protest against this country’s complicity in arming Israel.
The day of action comes on the sixth anniversary of Israel’s 51-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which killed 2,200 people — nearly a quarter of them children.
Israeli forces attacked densely populated civilian areas, destroying 18,000 residential units and leaving over 100,000 Palestinians homeless.
Despite widespread condemnation of Israel’s deliberate and systematic targeting of the civilian population of Gaza, including by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Britain continues to arm Israel. According to Campaign against Arms Trade (CAAT) between 2014 and 2018, the UK issued individual licenses for £364 million worth of military equipment and technology for export to Israel, as well as 20 open licenses, allowing unlimited deliveries over a 3-5 year period. In addition, the UK continues to purchase high-tech weaponry from Israel, advertised as battle-tested on the Palestinian people. As Israel continues to murder Palestinians with impunity, Palestinian civil society has called for effective action to hold Israel to account, including for a two-way arms embargo now.
But the chain of complicity runs deeper than the government. As revealed by research that shows both UK universities and local government pension funds invest in companies complicit in Israel’s war crimes, including companies that supply weapons to Israel.
In addition, financial institutions such as HSBC invest and provide financial services worth millions to companies that supply Israel with weapons. Including BAE Systems and Raytheon. Weapons with both BAE and Raytheon components were used in 2014. All institutions have a moral duty to end their complicity now. They must all #StopArmingIsrael
Meanwhile, the latest Israeli military offensive has now been pounding Gaza with air strikes and artillery for more than 10 days.Israel uses military force to maintain its oppression of Palestinians. It targets people with tear gas grenades, rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition, and carries out mass arrests, house demolitions and extrajudicial executions. This brutality lies at the heart of Israel’s systematic violations of Palestinian rights, amounting to serious breaches of international law, and even war crimes. Gaza officials are currently warning of disruptions to Gaza's only power plant , leaving residents with just a few hours of electricity per day after Israel cut fuel supplies to Gaza's only power plant.
Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s Norma Turner said: “Today, we are calling on people to not just demonstrate but head straight for those most complicit in these crimes, especially the arms factories and offices of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons-maker, which makes the majority of the drones that kill so many Palestinians.
“Companies like Elbit shouldn’t be profiting, they should be punished and banished, given the murder and injury their weapons are being used for.”
Adie Mormech of Manchester Palestine Action warned that Israel is using Gaza as a laboratory for the development of its weapons.
He said: “Just like for the fight against apartheid South Africa, we must stand in the way of such a grotesque industry that thrives on the devastation, loss and trauma that people like the Palestinians face every single day.”

A full list of demonstrations can be found here: palestinecampaign.org/events/stop-arming-israel-national-day-of-action-2/

 Help  increase the pressure on the UK government to end its arms trade with Israel and its complicity in Israel’s occupation and war crimes: email your MP to demand a two-way arms embargo on Israel.