Victor Lidio Jara ( 28/09/32 - 16/09/32) - A Martyr Remembered

What follows is a tribute to Chilean Political Singer and activist Victor Jara murdered by brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet's troops on  this day 16th September 1973. This followed the military coup on 9/11/73  which overthrew the democratically elected government led by Salvador Allende.

For the next 20 years, Pinochet suspended democratic rule in Chile, presisding over an oppressive, sadistic military junta that completely reversed Allende's  socialist economic programs, banning unions and privatizing state programmes such as social security, hunting down all manner of dissidents and imprisoning tens of thousands. 

 Víctor Jara was born to a peasant family. His mother taught him to sing, but by age 15 he was orphaned and on his own. After a brief sojourn in seminary and a stint in the army, he turned to a career in music and theater. He became a director, putting on plays ranging in style from the classical to the experimental. Eventually, his love for music drew him away from the theater, and by 1973,  was one of Chile’s big music stars. A cross between Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, he was unashamedly left-wing; writing popular protest songs about social inequality and the plight of the working man. He was an integral part of the  Nueva Canción movement (New Song) movement, a movement of Latin American musicians who blended Spanish and indigenous folk music to create a genuine music of the people. 

With the folk boom in full swing in the United States, markets around the world were being flooded with commercialized versions of "protest music." Nueva Canción was a conscious alternative, folk in the truest sense. Among people increasingly angry about their country's rising poverty and subjugation to US interests, Nueva Canción found home. Jara himself summed it up the best: "US imperialism understands very well the magic of communication through music and persists in filling our young people with all sorts of commercial tripe. . . . The term 'protest song' is no longer valid because it is ambiguous and has been misused. I prefer the term 'revolutionary song'." 

So when the right-wing Pinochet regime seized power in a bloody coup, they made sure Jara, 40 at the time, was one of the first to be detained.  Transported to the Chile Stadium, Jara found himself in a vision of Hell. One of 60 torture centers that sprang up around Santiago in the days following the coup, the Chile Stadium was notorious for its cruelty. Detainees were forced to sit in the bleachers without food or sleep, watching as people were randomly pulled out and executed on the pitch. Occasionally, guards would turn their machine guns on the crowd and unleash a random spray of bullets, sending bodies tumbling down onto the playing field. 

A lifelong rebel,  Jara responded to his incarceration by composing new songs and singing them to his fellow prisoners to keep their spirits up. Unsurprisingly, he soon came to the attention of the camp commander, who made a seemingly magnanimous gesture: Placing a guitar on a table in the middle of the stadium, he invited Jara to come down and play to the crowd. Naively, Jara agreed. 

What happened next would be etched on the minds of those who saw it forever. The moment he sat at the table, Jara was pinned in place by the nearby guards. The commander then cut off his fingers and mutilated his hands to mush. Some witness claim he used an axe, others the butt of his rifle. The outcome was the same. With Jara’s hands a bloody pulp, the commander screamed at him: “Now sing, you motherf—er, now sing!”

In response, Jara pushed himself to his feet. With infinite calm, he reportedly walked to the nearest set of bleachers and said, “All right, comrades, let’s do the senor commandante the favor.” Then he began to sing. 

He sung unsteadily, with a wavering voice, the anthem of the UP—the political party whose members lay in piles at the bottom of the bleachers. As his voice began to steady, an incredible thing happened. Across the stadium, prisoners who’d had no food or sleep, prisoners who’d been tortured or threatened with death, all rose to their feet and began to sing with him. For a fleeting moment, the guards could only watch in amazement as their charges joined in with Victor Jara for his final song. A volley was fired and Jara fell dead. Then another was aimed into the bleachers at those who’d accompanied him in song and bodies tumbled down the inclines.”

Allende was last seen on the 15th of September when he was left abandoned by a roadside , only for his body to be discovered a day later. When his wife Joan went to identify his dumped body, it was riddled with 44 bullets.  Over 3,000 other political prisoners would suffer a similar fate, during Pinochet's murderous, CIA - supported tenure, Chileans suspected of being dissidents would be similarly rounded up and "disappeared" never to bee seen or heard from again. 

Such was Victor Jara's power though  his voice will never die. It resonates through the ages, a beacon, that we should not forget, standing strongly against oppression. In his lifetime, the Chilean folksinger Victor Jara became the voice of Chile's dispossessed. He became a symbol for their aspirations of equality and a figure of hope to progressive movements worldwide.

 He has also been remembered not only in Latin America's folk tradition,  but by artists the world over. The Clash, U2, and even 80s popsters Simple Minds who have paid tribute to Jara in their songs.  

And faced with the emnity of the world, and the unending resistance of the Chilean people, Pinochet's distatorship withered away in the late 1980's and with democracy  restored to Chile, Victor Jara, could finally be properly remembered by his compatriots, which  saw  the stadium in which he was murdered being renamed after him  and on 3rd December, 2009, Jara,  at last given a full funeral in Santiago.  

Chile’s junta might have silenced Jara’s voice, but not his music or legacy. He has been remembered not only in Latin America's folk tradition,  but by artists the world over who have paid tribute to Jara in their songs. Only recently James Dean Bradfield, the former leader of the band Manic Street Preachers, dedicated his new album, Even in Exile, to the life of Victor Jara. “If you just focus on his (Victor Jara) death, you ignore the journey, you ignore the ambition, you ignore the songs, and you kind of ignore Chile”, said the Welsh artist in a long and informative interview with BBC Culture. Bradfield discovered the Chilean artist through the music of The Clash and the movie The Missing, but when actually listening to Jara´s songs, he was struck by the way he delivered a political message. Here in Wales there has also been a festival (El Sueno Existe) of music and dance every two years in memory of Jara.  Whose incarceration, mutilation, and brutal murder has come to symbolize the tragic cruelty of the Pinochet regime. 

 His wistful, Manifesto, the last song he wrote, released posthumously, feels like an eerie premonition of his death:

The song is considered his testament, the manifesto of what it means to be a revolutionary artist.

 As tyrants fall away, history remembers the heroes and the martyrs. The military burned many of Jara’s master recordings, but Jara’s wife Joan Jara took some recordings out of the country.

American folksinger Phil Ochs, who had met Jara in Chile, was devastated by the killing.  He helped organize a memorial fundraiser called “An Evening With Salvador Allende” in New York in 1974. The same year, a Soviet astronomer named an asteroid after Jara.

Others paid tribute to Victor Jara, including Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie  who wrote and recorded a tribute to the singer-activist with the song, “Victor Jara,” from the 1976 album Amigo.  Guthrie wrote the music and Adrian Mitchell provided the lyrics with each verse focusing on Jara’s hands that officials would break:-

Victor Jara of Chile
Lived like a shooting star
He fought for the people of Chile
With his songs and his guitar

And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

Victor Jara was a peasant
Worked from a few years old
He set upon his father's plough
And watched the earth unfold

And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

When the neighbours had a wedding
Or one of their children died
His mother sang all night for them
With Victor by her side

And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

He grew to be fighter
Against the people's wrongs
He listened to their grief and joy
And turned them into songs

And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

He sang about the copper miners
And those who work the land
He sang about the factory workers
And they knew he was their man

And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

He campaigned for Allende
working night and day
He sang take hold of your brother's hand
The future begins today

And his hands were gentle
is hands were strong

The bloody generals seized  Chile
hey arrested Victor  then
They caged him in a stadium
With five thousand frightened men

 And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

Victor stood in the stadium
His voice was brave and strong
He sang for his fellow prisoners
Til the guards cut short his song

And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

They broke the bones in both his hands
They beat his lovely head
They tore him with electric shocks
After two days of torture they shot him dead

And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

And now the Generals rule Chile
And the British have their thanks
For they rule with Hawkers Hunters
And they rule with Chieftain tanks

And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

Victor Jara of Chile
Loved like a shooting star
He fought for thee people of Chile
With his songs and his guitar

And his hands were gentle
His hands were strong

Reprinted from:-
The Apeman Cometh - Adrian Mitchell
Jonathan Cape, 1975

 This ballad was later set to music  by Arlo Guthrie, which you can hear here :-

What was so dangerous about Jara was that his songs were such a integral part of a struggle of millions who were fighting to win their basic human dignity -- the very same people over whom Pinochet ruled with an iron fist until his deposition in 1990. Scottish folk musician  Dick Gaughan said it very frankly: those who say that "music and politics should not be mixed . . . [should] tell that to the CIA and their thugs who murdered Jara because his repertoire didn't suit their interests."

The great band the Clash  mentioned earlier referenced Jara in their song Washington Bullets from their 1980 album Sandinista!

Along with those killed by Pinochet's military rule which finally came to an end  in 1990,  and the thousands murdered,  28,000 people had been tortured. The details of Jara's torture and death were finally revealed by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission created by the new government of Patricio Aylwin. But it was not until July 2018 that eight former military officers were sentenced for killing  Jara,  to just 15 years each. 

 Pinochet  would  be cremated for fear of his grave becoming vandalized. With his remains, the notion of Pinochet as anything other than a ruthless tyrant were scattered to the wind, his  legacy that of a brutal dictator; Jara's,  though is that of  a people's troubadour. Pinochet ground thousands into poverty; Jara sought to lift them up. Pinochet's legacy  reminds us of just how vicious the force of reaction can be.  Victor Jara though is remembered  as an artist, martyr and hero  whose music has and will continue to inspire us to fight against it.  

Though Víctor Jara died a brutal death under a brutal regime, his songs are not all about the horror he witnessed. They are also about the hope and courage of people who stand up to those who use violence to sustain injustice. He said, Song is like the water that washes the stones, the wind which cleans us, like the fire that joins us together and lives within us to make us better people.  

Long after his death his cultural influence still resonates. Here is Jara’s last poem, Estadio Chile/ Chile Stadium which was  smuggled out in the shoe of a friend.

Chile Stadium

In this small part of the city.
Five thousand.
How many of us are there in all
In the cities and in all the country?
Here we are, ten thousand hands
Who plant the seeds and keep the factories running. So much humanity,
hungry, cold, panicked, in pain,
Under moral duress, terrified out of their minds!
Six of ours lost themselves
In the space of the stars.
One man dead, one man beaten worse than I ever thought
It was possible to beat a human being.
The other four wanted to free themselves of all their fear.
One jumped into the void.
Another beat his head against the wall.
But all had the fixed look of death in their eyes.
What fear is provoked by the face of fascism!
They carry out their plans with the utmost precision, not giving a damn about anything.
For them, blood is a medal.
My God, is this the world You created?
Is this the product of your seven days of wonder and labour?
In these four walls, there is nothing but a number that does not move forward.
That gradually, will grow to want death.
But my conscience suddenly awakens me
And I see this tide without a pulse
And I see the pulse of the machines
And the soldiers showing their matronly faces, full of tenderness.
And Mexico, Cuba, and the world.
Let them cry out this ignominy!
We are ten thousand fewer hands that do not produce.
How many of us are ther throughout our homeland?
The blood of our comrade the President pulses with more strength than bombs and machine guns.
And so, too, will our fist again beat.
Song, how hard it is sing you when I have to sing in fear.
Fear like that in which I live, and from which I am dying, fear.
Of seeing myself amidst so much, and so many endless moments
In which silence and outcry are the tragets of this song.
What have never seen before, what I have felt and what I feel now
Will make the moment break out...

Christy Moore with Declan Sinnott - Victor Jara

I think I am passionate because I am full of hope.
—Víctor Jara

End Of Summer

 

We fear for our lives
For our children and our lovers
For our country and our friends,
As the wind dies slowly
It's pale murmour calling,
And sun drenched blossom closes weary eyes
The mourning drone of flies cluster by the trees,
And swooping swallows whisper in the skies
The once golden apples lie fallen on the ground.
The old thrush sings his solitary song
And summers no longer by his side,
Though its memory keeps calling
Among the haunting sadness that envelopes us
Shadows fusing, clouds drifting by,
As Autumn makes way, words still outpour
And Birds fly to warmer climes,
Close the window, fasten the door
As the days grow cold, sit by the fire,
When the morning comes tumbling down
Don't forget to keep wearing your masks.

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.