Eugene V. Debs ( 5/ 11/1855 - 20/10 /26 ) - Working Class Hero

Outspoken  Socialist firebrand, political activist  and labour organiser Eugene Victor Debs passed away on this day, October 20, in 1926..In the waning years of the 20th century Debs emerged as a working class leader, a hero of the railroad workers of the U.S and Canada. Aftr working for the railroad, first as a labourer and then a locomotive fireman, Debs went on to  lead the Fireman's union , assist in the organising of other rail unions and ultimatey organise the nations first industrial union - the American Railway Union ( ART). By the turn of the 20th century, Debs emerged as the leader of the Socialist party, and from there went on to assist in the founding of the Industrial Workers  of the World  (IWW) aka the Wobblies, helping to pioneer a fighting union politics that organized all workers, becomming the beloved figurehead of American radicalism. Debs story is the story of labor battles in industrialising America, of a working class politics grown directly of the Midwestern heartland, and of a distinct American vision of Socialism.

Eugene Debs was born on November 5, 1855, in Terre Haute, Indiana to parents Jean Daniel and Marguerite Marie Bettrich Debs, who both immigrated to the United States from Colmar, Alsace, France. and operated aa grocery store. He dropped out of High School at the age of 14 to work as a painter. He did several jobs such as boilerman and grocery clerk. 

In 1875 he was elected secretary of the Terre Haute lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. His intelligence and commitment, coupled with his conservative outlook (he argued against participation in the nationwide railroad strikes of 1877), attracted the attention of the brotherhood’s leaders. By 1881, he was national secretary of the brotherhood, increasingly its spokesman on labor issues, and its most tireless organizer. Simultaneously, Debs entered politics as a Democratic candidate for city clerk in 1879 when only 23. First elected over Republican and Greenback-Labor party candidates, Debs was overwhelmingly reelected in 1881. Four years later, he was elected to the Indiana State Assembly with broad support from the wards of Terre Haute’s workers and businessmen.  Debs organized the American Railway Union, which waged a strike against the Pullman Company of Chicago in 1894

During the 1880s Debs’s ideas began to change. At first a firm proponent of organization of workers by their separate crafts, he resisted the industrial organization implicit in the efforts of the Knights of Labor and ordered his members to report to work during the Knights’ 1885 strike against the southwestern railroads. But his year-long involvement (1888-1889) in the strike against the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad altered these views. He now thought craft organization divisive, a hindrance to working people’s efforts to secure fair wages and working conditions. And concentrated corporate power, he argued, had a debilitating effect on the political rights and economic opportunity of the majority of Americans. By 1893 he had resigned his position as secretary of the brotherhood and begun organizing an industrial union of railroad workers, the American Railway Union (aru).

The  1894 strike against the Pullman Company of Chicago marked a second turning point in Debs’s thinking. Pullman Palace Car Company, was  the largest railway car company in the United States at the time, George Pullman the owner had a business plan that was, if nothing else, creative. He built a company town around his factory in Illinois, named it after himself and made it a requirement that the workers live there (and pay rent to their employer, guess who?). Some historians have said of the town of Pullman (now a suburb of Chicago), that it was "a version of the Indian reservation system.

 The ARU, even before its first convention, was besieged with reports from Pullman as to the unfairnesses of the company towards its employees including a unilateral; 25% cut in wages in 1893, while all of the world reeled from a great economic depression. This, in spite of a discreet increase in the annual dividend payment Pullman sent to his stockholders. 

The workers at Pullman contacted the ARU and Debs paid the town a visit. With Debs in command, the ARU agreed with the suggestion made by Pullman workers, and called for a boycott of all trains in America pulling Pullman cars. It was a risky move but the ARU fell behind its new members from Pullman. Train traffic in and out of Chicago collapsed almost immediately. The press, owned by smaller tycoons, came out in Pullman's side calling Debs a "dictator" and "King Debs". The New York Times called Debs "an enemy of the human race". The cover of the popular magazine, Harper's Weekly had an image of Debs sitting on an idle Chicago railway yard, wearing a crown. 

Railroad owners hired security firms to break the strike and violence broke out. US President Grover Cleveland sent in the federal militia, railway cars were set on fire and inevitably, gun fire broke out. The courts helped out in issuing an injunction on this basis:

 

"… (that) the interstate transportation of persons and property, as well as the carriage of the mails, is forcibly obstructed, and that a combination and conspiracy exists to subject the control of such transportation to the will of the conspirators."

 

This led to Debs being arrested with other boycott leaders on July 17, 1894, and jailed. This broke the union as Debs later described:

 

"Once we were taken from the scene of action, and restrained from sending telegrams or issuing orders or answering questions, then the minions of the corporations would be put to work..

"Our headquarters were temporarily demoralized and abandoned, and we could not answer any messages. The men went back to work, and the ranks were broken, and the strike was broken up, … not by the army, and not by any other power, but simply and solely by the action of the United States courts in restraining us from discharging our duties as officers and representatives of our employees."

 

Clarence Darrow signed up as Debs' lawyer and argued the case before the Supreme Court of the United States in March of 1895, to release Debs and his union brethren from their prison cells. The decision went against the union, with Justice David Josiah Brewer writing:

 

"A most earnest and eloquent appeal was made to us in eulogy of the heroic spirit of those who threw up their employment, and gave up their means of earning a livelihood, not in defence of their own rights, but in sympathy for and to assist others whom they believed to be wronged. We yield to none in our admiration of any act of heroism or self-sacrifice, but we may be permitted to add that it is a lesson which cannot be learned too soon or too thoroughly that under this government of and by the people the means of redress of all wrongs are through the courts and at the ballot-box, and that no wrong, real or fancied, carries with it legal warrant to invite as a means of redress the cooperation of a mob, with its accompanying acts of violence."

 

The unified power of railroad management working intimately with federal authorities  ultimately broke the strike but  Debs emerged from this experience as an avowed and committed socialist and dedicated himself to the start-up of a number of institutions now prominent in the American politics and international labor law such as Social Democracy of America, the Social Democratic Party of the United States, the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Debs questioned the ultimate ability of trade unions to combat successfully capital’s economic power and, after the 1896 elections, looked upon socialism as the answer to working people’s problems.

Between 1900 and 1920 Debs was the Socialist party’s standard-bearer in five presidential elections. In 1912, in a four-way race with Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, he received 6 percent of the vote-,highest total ever.

Between campaigns, Debs was a tireless, charismatic and paassionate  speaker who sometimes called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical style of evangelism—even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion.

Debs often was uncomfortable with his position  as a  leader, despite the Socialist's great love for him and his oratorical skills. Debs  personal values  and lifelong philosophy can be summed up by the following quotes from him  : 

 

"I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.

 

" I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world."

 

" In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor  and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to decieve and overawe the People. "

 

"Years ago, I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth... While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

 

As an  organizer he traveled the nation defending workers in their strikes and industrial disputes. Although many workers enthusiastically applauded Debs’s vision, sadly relatively few actually  endorsed his political program. n 1

In 1918, just as World War I loomed, Eugene Debs directed his very effective speaking talents at the federal government, speaking out against the war as soon as it began.;

 

". I   am for that war with heart and soul, and that is thee world-wide war of the social revolution. In that war I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make necessary, even to the barricades." 

One  famous speech,at Canton, Ohio  later analyzed by the federal government, resulted in Debs being charged with sedition, he was charged with having:

 

"… caused and incited and attempted to cause and incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny and refusal of duty in the military and naval forces of the United States".

 

 These words meant he was convicted and even though he was 63, he was given a 10-year prison term (also disenfranchised for life meaning he could never again vote again in America). At his sentencing he told the court:

 

"Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own."

 

His conviction was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States who, again, ruled against him and upheld both the conviction and sentence.

Over time, calls went out that Debs be pardoned  bringing this remark this from President Woodrow Wilson:

 

"This man was a traitor to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration."

 

Debs conducted his last campaign for president as prisoner 9653 in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary and received nearly a million votes, though he had been stripped of his citizenship. In his five campaigns as the Socialist Party candidate for president of the United States, Debs excoriated the economic exploitation of workers, including the then rampant abuses of child labor, with rare oratorical skill. He advocated for unions in all major industries and promoted a vision of socialism as grassroots economic democracy. In a deeply racist, patriarchal society, he was also staunchly anti-racist and pro-women’s rights.

Refusing to ask for or accept special treatment, he was confined to his cell for fourteen hours a day and was allotted twenty minutes a day in the prison yard. He wore a rough denim uniform. He ate food barely fit to eat. He grew  gaunt and weak. He  became an American folk hero, a principled advocate of free speech, and even as he grew sicker Convict No. 9653 refused to ask for a pardon.

On Christmas Day  1921 he was released without a pardon but with a commuted sentence. He was 66. But Debs never recovered from his time in prison  and lived most of of what remained of his life  in a sanatorium.  He died on October 20, 1926, at the age of 70 in Elmhurst.

 He is remembered as an opponent to big corporations and World War One. American socialists, communists, and anarchists honor his compassion for the labor movement and motivation to have the average workingman build socialism without large state involvement. He motivated the left in America and continues to this day. In the legacy of Eugene Debs there is much more than a speech here, a prison term there, and nor did he push the plow of labor rights by himself. But on countless occasions he said what had to be said, urged on his nervous union leaderships to do what was right in spite of the overwhelming force and might of the wealthy in America of his generation. In this, he always put himself on front lines and paid the prices that were collateral to his duties as a social justice crusader: jail, fines, ridicule in the press, but also the heavy personal cost of not just those personal injuries but also of being necessarily loud and alone at the front of a still unawares and very suspicious population as slowly, the American citizen became aware of the importance of unions and of worker rights.

Ten years after his death  later his beloved wife, Kate, was buried beside him. Debs was cremated and his ashes were interred in Highland Lawn cemetery, Terre Haute, with only a simple marker. Today, his home in Terre Haute, Indiana has the designation of a National Historic Landmark, and a website http://debsfoundation.org/   dedicated to him Debs citizenship was finally restored in 1976, fifty years after his death and in 1990, the U.S. Department of Labor named Debs a member of its Labor Hall of Honor.

As a socialist, Debs denounced as irrational and unjust a capitalist system that created extravagant wealth for a few at the top, while millions of ordinary working people struggled to get by. Most important, he thought it was possible to build a new, cooperative society, to transcend the irrationality, waste, and greed of the capitalist economic system, and to end wage slavery and all forms of social oppression. He called this socialism. 

 The life and legacy of Eugene V. Debs stands as a rich and vibrant testament to one man’s dedication to a liberated future. Indeed, Debs was an individual for whom solidarity with his fellow humans was in his blood. who used his  voice in defense of the common man, his legacy can  best summed up in his own words.:

 

 "Yes, I am my brother's keeper," he wrote. "I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by maudlin sentimentality, but by the higher duty I owe myself." 

As a principled left-wing socialist, Debs was cut from a different cloth than most mainstream politicians, then and now. How many career politicians today would be willing to go to prison for their views and ideals. In short Debs  is a socialist icon that we  so need  in our present times.

Turbulent Daze

Getting so tired of these times

Sometimes it's so hard to listen

I know I take things for granted

But under the influence, I question

Not  forgetting the moonshots

Hands,  face, space, time continuam

All the friends and lovers gone

Stolen, secrets, hungry glances

Thinking of ways of fixing one another

Instead of mistakes that make us hurt,

Ready made oven deals sealed with haste

A Government that deliver no protection

Stay at home, under three tier system

Keep on working, support economy

Eat out, dance in your gardens, on your own, 

But because I don't have to much belief

I  don't know which way to go

Maybe, try recapture heart of another

Before, finally all my time is done

Check daily for some small change

Reboot, Reskill, Reboot, Remember

Keep on chasing rainbows, try reaching for moon

The comfortable tangible touch of magic

Beyond the sad opiated smile of capitalism

The future belongs to all, who believe in the beauty of dreams

Where imagination matters  and love and passion rules 

With forces of doldrum  abandoned, we sing impromptu..

Indigenous Resistance Day

Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bahamas 528 years ago this week, beginning a process of colonization and genocide against Native people, which represents one of the darkest chapters in the history of this continent, that  unleashed unimaginable brutality against the indigenous people of this continent.that killed tens of millions of Native people across the hemisphere. From the very beginning, Columbus was not on a mission of discovery but of conquest and exploitation—he called his expedition la empresa, the enterprise. 

Columbus deserves to be remembered as the first terrorist in the Americas. When resistance mounted to the Spaniards’ violence, Columbus sent an armed force to “spread terror among the Indians to show them how strong and powerful the Christians were,” according to the Spanish priest Bartolomé de las Casas. In his book Conquest of Paradise, Kirkpatrick Sale describes what happened when Columbus’s men encountered a force of Taínos in March of 1495 in a valley on the island of Hispañiola: " The soldiers mowed down dozens with point-blank volleys, loosed the dogs to rip open limbs and bellies, chased fleeing Indians into the bush to skewer them on sword and pike, and [according to Columbus’s biographer, his son Fernando] “with God’s aid soon gained a complete victory, killing many Indians and capturing others who were also killed.”

All this and much more has long been known and documented. As early as 1942 in his Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that Columbus’s policies in the Caribbean led to “complete genocide”—and Morison was a writer who admired Columbus.

Many countries are now  acknowledging this devastating history by rejecting the federal holiday of Columbus Day which  is marked on October 12  and celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead to honor centuries of indigenous resistance.If Indigenous peoples’ lives mattered in our society, and if Black people’s lives mattered in our society, it would be inconceivable that we would honor the father of the slave trade with a national holiday. Let alone allow our history books to laud Columus as some kind of hero. For oppressed people this day is a constant reminder that many of their ancestors and their suffering simply did not matter. As a result many countries in the Americas  now celebrate October 12 as Día de la Raza and many indigenous peoples and other progressive people celebrate it as Indigenous People's Day or Indigenous Resistance Day. Because this  so-called “discovery” of the America caused the worst demographic catastrophe of human history, with around 95 percent of the indigenous population annihilated in the first 130 years of colonization, without mentioning the victims from the African continent, with about 60 million people sent to the Americas as slaves, with only 12 percent of them arriving alive.Therefore, Native American groups consider Columbus a European colonizer responsible for the genocide of millions of indigenous people. Not an individual worthy of celebration  because he helped contribute  to the Europeans Colonization of the Americas which resulted in  slavery, killings, and other atrocities against the native Americans
As a counter to official celebrations of "Columbus Day"  with indigenous people increasingly demanding their rights, in 1992 the United Nations declared October 12 as the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, ruining thereby the determination of Spain and other countries to call it International Day of America's Discovery, this was then followed  by Venezuela which was the first country of the region to grant the demand under Hugo Chavez's administration, accepting their suggestion of “Day of Indigenous Resistance” in 2002. Chavez described the previous name “Day of Race” chosen by then President of Venezuela, Juan Vicente Gomez in 1921, as “discriminatory, racist and pejorative.”​
Nicaragua and Daniel Ortega´s Sandinista government  has been the only country going as far as Venezuela until now, also choosing the name “Day of Indigenous Resistance” in 2007.
With several exceptions, such as the conservative governments of Paraguay, Colombia and Honduras, for instance, many other countries of the continent have nevertheless changed the infamous name “Day of Race.”
It became the “Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity” in Argentina, after the failure of a legislative project in 2004 to change it to “Day of Resistance of Indigenous Peoples.” Argentina has more than 1,600 indigenous communities, and over a million Argentinian people who claim their indigenous identity according to the National Institution of Indigenous People.Yet the indigenous communities of Argentina organize counter-marches to protest against this name, recalling the damages caused by the conqueror Julio Argentino Roca to their ancestral lands at the end of the 19th century.
In Chile as well, where the Mapuche community are still fighting to claim their native lands in the fertile south of the country, the day was renamed even more weakly, “Day of the Encounter Between the Two Worlds” in 2000.
In Ecuador, President Rafael Correa changed the name to “Day of Inter-culturality and Pluri-nationality” in 2011. That same year in Bolivia, President Evo Morales, the first indigenous leader in South America, changed it to "Day of Mourning for the Misery, Diseases and Hunger Brought by the European Invasion of America." The diseases were indeed the main cause of the indigenous genocide, as the invaders brought viruses and bacterias the indigenous peoples were not immune to.
In El Salvador, social and indigenous organizations presented a legislative project before the parliament, for which the congresspeople of the governing Farabundo Marti Front (FMLN) expressed their support. In June 2014, the congress finally approved a constitutional reform recognizing the existence of indigenous peoples in the country. In 2016, Salvadorean and Uruguayan indigenous peoples began demanding a name change of their governments. The Charrua community of Uruguay for instance has made the demand since 2010, but has faced strong opposition by conservative sectors. In 2014, the National Assembly approved a legislative project, but only changed the name to “Day of Cultural Diversity.” The ruling party Broad Front (Frente Amplio) had pushed for the same name as in Venezuela and Nicaragua, but the legislative commission then chose to modify it.

Indigenous peoples in Latin America account for about 13 percent of the total population – about 40 million, with around 670 different nations or communities, according to the CEPAL. Most of them are in Mexico, Guatemala, and Andean countries. They all face some level of racism, discrimination and poverty, suffering more than the rest of the population from an unequal access to resources like employment, health and education services, but also deprived of their ancestral lands and natural resources – about 40 percent of rural populations are indigenous, according to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.https://www.iwgia.org/en/ 

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, Indigenous people have experienced some of the highest mortality rates in the county. High rates of diabetes, obesity and other poverty-related health problems make Native Americans more vulnerable to the virus than other populations. 

The Navajo Nation, which spreads across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, has been one of the hardest hit locations .Due to pollution caused by mining and lack of basic infrastructure, about 40 perceent of those who live on the Navajo Nation lack access to drinking water and haul water or rely on water trucks. This lack of clean, running water makes it nearly impossible for Navajo people to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance to constantly wash their hands and surfaces.  

In Mississippi, rates of COVID are 10 times higher among the Mississippi  Choctaw, the only federally recognized Native nation in the state, than among the rest of Mississippi’s population. So far, more than 1,000 people or more than 10 percent of all Mississippi Choctaws have contracted coronavirus, and many have lost multiple family members. 

Exacerbating the crises within Indigenous communities across North America, the Trump administration’s border wall and immigration policies have caused further devastation to many Native communities. Thousands of migrants, including many who are from Indigenous communities within Central America, have been exposed to the virus in U.S. detention centers. By housing migrants in these dense holding centers—without proper medical care, sanitation or personal protective equipment, and then deporting them—U.S. immigration practices have exported  the virus to Indigenous communities across Guatemala and Mexico.  

The border wall and these immigration policies have brought further violence and risk of exposure to Native nations whose homelands straddle the U.S.-Mexico border. Native nations like the Kumeyaay in California and the Tohono O’odham, whose lands stretch between Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora, have fought for years against the construction of Trump’s border wall through their lands. Within the last month, multiple Kumeyaay and Tohono O’odham demonstrators have been arrested   and forcibly removed from their own homelands as they attempted to halt construction of the wall and protect their sacred lands.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States,” writes, “By and large the history of relations between Indigenous and settler is fraught with conflict, defined by a struggle for land, which is inevitably a struggle for power and control. Five hundred years later, Native peoples are still fighting to protect their lands and their rights to exist as distinct political communities and individuals.”

Because  of historical traumas inflicted on indigenous peoples that include land dispossession, death of the majority of the populations through warfare and disease, forced removal and relocation, assimilative boarding school experiences, and prohibiting religious practices, among others, indigenous peoples have experienced historical losses, which include the loss of land, traditional and spiritual ways, self-respect from poor treatment from government officials, language, family ties, trust from broken treaties, culture, and people (through early death); there are also losses that can be attributed to increased alcoholism.  These losses have been associated with sadness and depression, anger, intrusive thoughts, discomfort, shame, fear, and distrust around white people   Experiencing massive traumas and losses is thought to lead to cumulative and unresolved grief, which can result in the historical trauma response, which includes suicidal thoughts and acts, IPV, depression, alcoholism, self-destructive behavior, low self-esteem, anxiety, anger, and lowered emotional expression and recognition .These symptoms run parallel to the extant health disparities that are documented among indigenous peoples.

Today is about acknowledging all this whilst  honoring the rich history of resistance that Native communities across the world  have contributed to and  it is  also about sharing  a deep commitment to intergenerational justice. Celebrating Indigenous People’s Day is a step towards recognizing that colonization still exists. We can do more to end that colonization and respect the sovereignty of indigenous nations.  .May we spend this day, and all days, honoring Native Peoples’ commitment to making the world a better place for all. Reflect on their ancestral past , the ongoing struggles of indigenous peoples in protecting their lands and freedoms,celebrate their sacrifices and celebrate life whilst.recognizing the people, traditions and cultures that were wiped out because of Columbus’ colonization and acknowledge the. bloodshed and elimination of those that were massacred.Transforming this day into a celebration of indigenous people and a celebration of social justice  allows us to make a connection between this painful history and the ongoing marginalization, discrimination and poverty that indigenous communities face to this day.

 

World Mental Health Day 2020 : Mental health for all.

 

World Mental Health Day aims to raise awareness in the global community around mental health "with a unifying voice through collaboration with various partners".

That’s according to the World Federation for Mental Health, the organisation behind the day, which was celebrated for the first time in 1992.  World Mental Health Day was just observed as an annual activity of the World Federation for Mental Health and had no specific theme.

However, in 1994, at the suggestion of then-Secretary General Eugene Brody, a theme for the day was used for the first time. The very first theme of the day was “Improving the Quality of Mental Health Services throughout the World.”

This year it takes place on Saturday 10 October. A day designed to encourage authorities to take action and create lasting change within mental health care.

The theme this year is 'mental health for all'.

"The world is experiencing the unprecedented impact of the current global health emergency due to COVID-19 that has also impacted on the mental health of millions of people", says Dr Ingrid Daniels, president of the World Federation for Mental Health. 

"We know that the levels of anxiety, fear, isolation, social distancing and restrictions, uncertainty and emotional distress experienced have become widespread as the world struggles to bring the virus under control and to find solutions. 

Dr Daniels believes mental health is a human right, and that it is time for that mental health to be available for all. 

"Quality, accessible primary health care is the foundation for universal health coverage and is urgently required as the world grapples with the current health emergency. We therefore need to make mental health a reality for all – for everyone, everywhere."

Good mental health is not just about being free from a mental illness. It involves the ability to better handle everything life throws at you and fulfill one’s full potential. Mental illness is now recognised as one of the biggest causes of individual distress and misery in our societies and cities, comparable to poverty and unemployment. One in four adults in the UK today has been diagnosed with a mental illness, and four million people take antidepressants every year. This can have a profound impact on the lives of tens of millions of people in the UK, and can affect their ability to sustain relationships, work, or just get through the day. What greater indictment of a system could there be.

 There are a number of things you can do to take part if you want to share your support of World Mental Health Day. 

The international symbol for mental health awareness is a green ribbon, and the easiest thing to do would be to wear one.

These can be bought from mentalhealth.org.uk/green-ribbon-campaign, and you can also share it as a digital sticker through most social media platforms.

You could also donate to a mental health charity of your choice, and Mental Health UK suggests you also share its ‘WAIT’ acronym, which is a "good way to remember how you can support another person who may be suicidal,” they say. 

Watch out for signs of distress and uncharacteristic behaviour – e.g. social withdrawal, excessive quietness, irritability, uncharacteristic outburst, talking about death or suicide. 

Reach out for support now if you’re considering seriously harming yourself: there are plenty of people to talk to.not encourage it, nor does it lead a person to start thinking about it; in fact it may help prevent it, and can start a potentially life-saving conversation.

It will pass – give hope and assure your loved one that, with help, their suicidal feelings will pass with time.  

Talk to others – encourage your loved one to seek help from a GP or health professional.

Reach out for support now if you’re considering seriously harming yourself: there are plenty of people to talk to.

 I think raising awareness about conditions and treatments is crucial, but so is re-addressing the way we think about mental illness as not just an individual's problem but as something we must consider and address collectively in the way our society functions.  We feel  such huge pressures to feel we fit in somewhere, but actually it is so much more important to accept yourself whether you feel you fit in or not, after all you are the only person who will ever get to define who you are. 

Among the most menacing barriers to the social progress we need around mental health are the profound levels of guilt, shame and stigma that surround these issues. Mental illness scares us and shames us. Those who suffer are often, like me, ashamed to speak of it. Those who are lucky enough to be free of mental illness are terrified of it. When it comes to mental illness, we still don't quite get how it all works. Our treatments, while sometimes effective, often are not. And the symptoms, involving a fundamental breakdown of our perceived reality, are existentially terrifying. There is something almost random about physical illness, in how it comes upon us , a physical illness can strike anyone – and that is almost comforting. But  mental illness seems  to fall into that same category, the fact  it too could strike any of us, without warning should be equally recognised..

But more than simple fear, mental illness brings out a judgmental streak that would be unthinkably grotesque when applied to physical illness. Imagine telling someone with a broken leg to "snap out of it." Imagine that a death by cancer was accompanied by the same smug headshaking that so often greets death by suicide. Mental illness is so qualitatively different that we feel it permissible to be judgmental. We might even go so far as to blame the sufferer. Because of the  stigma involved  it often leaves us much sicker. Capitalist society also teaches us that we are each personally responsible for our own success.  A system of blame that somehow makes the emotional and psychological difficulties we encounter seem to be our own fault.  This belief is such a firm part of ruling class ideology that millions of people who would never openly articulate this idea, nonetheless accept it in subtle and overt ways.  People are often ashamed that they need medication, seeing this as revealing some constitutional weakness.  People feel guilty about needing therapy, thinking that they should be able to solve their problems on their own.  Millions of people fail to seek any treatment, because mental health care is seen as something that only the most dramatically unstable person would turn to. An ill-informed and damaging attitude among some people exists around mental health that can make it difficult for some to seek help. It is estimated that only about a quarter of people with a mental health problem in the UK receive ongoing treatment, leaving the majority of people grappling with mental health issues on their own, seeking help or information, and dependent on the informal support of family, friends or colleagues.
We need to break the silence around mental health.  These are issues that all of us should have some basic exposure to.  The proportion of the population that will experience an episode of acute emotional distress is extremely high.  Those of us who have never been depressed probably know and love several people who have.It  should be no more shameful to say that one is suffering from mental illness , than to announce that one is asthmatic or has breast cancer.  Talking about these issues is part of the solution.  Breaking the silence can be liberating. Mental health care should be part of what we demand when we think about solutions to the economic crisis, we should keep  fighting for the best mental health care to be the  natural right of all designed to meet human needs. Until then, engaging in the struggle toward such a society can be a source of hope. That is a world surely worth fighting for.
If you need to talk to someone, the NHS mental health helpline page includes organisations you can call for help, such as Anxiety UK and Bipolar UK. or call The Samaritans on 116 123.Call your GP and ask for an emergency appointment Call NHS 111 (England) or NHS Direct (Wales) for out-of-hours to help .Contact your mental health crisis team if you have one

Remember it's ok not to be ok, be kind to  yourself.

 

Robb Johnson - Tony Skinner's Lad

Tony Skinner's lad is a brilliant fitting tribute  by Robb Johnson to the legend that is the  Beast of Bolsover,  coal miner and socialist firebrand  Dennis Skinner. One of Britain's favourite politicians. The single tells the  tale of a man who can't be bought and remained true to his principles and upbringing. It recently topped the Amazon download charts.

Sadly the veteran Labour MP lost his Bolsover seat which he had held  for 40 years at the last election. During his five decades in Parliament, Skinner earned a reputation as a fervent left winger and for his sharp tongue and straight talking style. In recent years he regularly interrupted the State Opening of Parliament with a topical heckle. Buy the single now - all profits go to the Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign

https://smarturl.it/dennisskinner

"I've sailed  close to the wind in my lif, but always for the good of the cause, to chamion thoe, ar the bottom of the pile." - Dennis Skinner

Happy Birthday Joe Hill (7/10/1879 - 19/11/15) - The Man who never died

Today, October 7, 1879, Joe Hill was born, a Swedish immigrant, songwriter and organiser with the Industrial Workers of the World. Born as Joel Emmanuel Hagglund  in Gevalia, Sweden, he emigrated to the United States in 1902, where he changed his name to Joseph Hillstrom. I make no apologies in writing about him again here, after all  this was a man who became a myth. A myth on which many people across the globe  continue to pin their hopes and dreams. Moving across America in search of work,  leading an itinerant life, he ended up in New York, and together with people from the same background, people yearning for a new way of life,  inspired by its revolutionary spirit he was to become a Wobbly  and became a member of the revolutionary rank-and-file union the IWW ( The Industrial Workers of the World.)  Members of the IWW, were especially active in the western United States, where they enjoyed considerable success in  organising mistreated and exploited workers in the mining, logging and shipping industries.
Throughout his day Joe Hill was actively involved in many of the labor battles of the day, fighting in Mexico, with partisans against the dictator Ricardo Flores Magon  and  used his voice as a songwriter and cartoonist for the IWW, many of whose songs still sung today, including 'There is Power in the Union,' his memory still enduring and being kept alive. His songs  and tunes  urged workers to quit thinking of themselves as a dispirited crowd of immigrants, but through  solidarity and organisation. People of all nationalities and differing languages would come together and sing Joe Hill's tunes  together. Even if  jailed for their protests, the workers would carry on singing his words until their release.The IWW included some of Hill's songs in the "Little Red Song Book." which the union began publishing in 1909.
In 1914 Joe Hill  was accused of the murder of a Salt Lake Grocer and former policeman. He was suspected because he had suffered a gunshot wound on the same night. At his trial though  not one witness was able to identify him as one of the murderers  but he was convicted  and sentenced to death anyway, The IWW argued that  he had been framed and recent  evidence unearthed, seems to back up this view, that he had been engaged in conflict somewhere else, while engaged in a fight over his love. Following an unsuccessful appeal and an international campaign calling for clemency, Joe Hill was executed by firing squad on November 19th, 1915, an innocent man condemned to death for his passion. Many historians have come to recognise it as one of the worst travesties of Justice in American  history, after a trial that was riddled with biased rulings and suppression of important defence evidence and other violations of judicial procedure, which  was characteristic of many cases  involving labour radicals. Just prior to his execution, he had written  to Bill Haywood the IWW leader, saying 'Goodbye Bill, I die like a true blue rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning. 'Organize!"  This  is still used as a motto by the IWW to this day (Don't mourn organise) .His last  actual words were 'Fire!.'  Joe then became a martyr to the cause of the working class struggle for social justice, and he became a larger-than-life symbol of the movement in America.
A guard reported that at about 10 pm Joe Hill handed him a poem, through the bars  of his cell. It was his last will, which has since become a prized piece of poetry in the American Labour Movement.

Joe Hill's Last Will

My will is easy to decide
For there is nothing to divide
My kin don't need to fuss and moan
Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.

My body - Oh - If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow

Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again
This is my last and Final Will
Good luck to all of you,

-

Joe Hill's Last Will - Utah Phillips

An estimated 30,000 people attended Hill's funeral i an impressive singing demonstration under the banner ' In Memorium -Joe Hill, Murdered by the Capitalist Class. The instructions left in Hill's last poem were carried out:  Hill's ashes were put into small envelopes and on May Day, 1916, were scattered to the winds in every state of the union. This ceremony also took place in several other countries. Alfred Hayes wrote a poem about Hill that was later adapted by Earl Robinson and became the famous folk song, I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill last Night, and  he has since been immortalised in poetry and song,from Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs,  Paul Robeson to many others. In 1971 Bo Widerberg wrote and directed the popular Swedish film, Joe Hill. Today his name still used as a rallying cry, as we remember this rebel folk hero, many believe his spirit now lives on through the works and deeds of the IWW,, this man and his myth still continuing to inspire, in movements  that reflect his call for social justice.Without memory of the past , there can be no hope for the future.

Paul Robeson - Joe Hill

The Continuing Relevance of Visionary Socialist, William Morris (24/3/1834 – 3/10/1896)

William Morris was born in 1834 on the 24th of March 1834  in Walthamstow, Essex, the third of nine children. William's father, after whom he was named, was a self-made business man, who was able to provide an upper-middle-class lifestyle for his family because of a shrewd investment in a Devonshire mine. Although William Morris Senior died when his son was just thirteen, the wealth he had accumulated provided a generous income for the artist well into his adult life. 

In 1853, Morris began his studies in Theology at Exeter College, Oxford, planning to become a priest in line with his mother's wishes. However, within less than a year, his outlook on life had changed drastically: his reading in the library shifted from religious matters to history and ecclesiastical architecture, and eventually to the art criticism of John Ruskin. Soon, he discovered his lifelong passion for writing poetry, and his fate as a creative was sealed when he met fellow student Edward Burne-Jones, a budding artist and designer with whom he would remain friends for the rest of his life.

Morris is known today for his exquisite patterned wallpapers, his famous chair design, and his rule, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

but far more than this he was  a man of tremendous energies, his accomplishments astonishing in their range and depth. He became successively a poet , embroiderer, textile designer, artist, writer and revolutionary socialist and political agitator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts movement. Morris was swept up in a wave of artistic creativity, in the company of artists whose work focused on nature, and the romantic chivalry of the medieval past.

Like his undergraduate hero John Ruskin, Morris's political views were inseparable from his aesthetics. He believed that art should be produced and enjoyed by all; that the products of artistic labor should be offered back to the working classes.His aim was not only to create beautiful things but also a beautiful  society.

In 1883, he joined the Social Democratic Federation, the first official socialist party established in England. Like many in the movement, Morris struggled to define his vision amid the many competing views on the ideal organization of society.

He became an important figure in the emergence of socialism in Britain, active in promoting its cause through  his writing and lecturing on street corners. Throughout  his life  he continued  to identify with the revolutionary left. He was heartened  by the Labour  movements break with liberalism,  but he warned, perhaps more clearly than anyone else at the time of the dangers of reformism.

 He advocated radical revolution and change through government reform at different times in his life. With Eleanor Marx, the daughter of Karl Marx, and other prominent party members, Morris formed the breakaway Socialist League in 1884.Unfortunately it lasted only six years due to lack of organising ability. The League's paper the Commonweal and Morris's writing was a legacy, due to his poems of beauty which were appreciated by so many whether they knew of the socialist league or not. 

The brutal governmental response to the Trafalgar Square riots which occurred on Bloody Sunday in November 1887, however, shocked and saddened Morris (hundreds of workers were wounded and three were killed) and he became convinced that the forces of repression were so entrenched in Victorian society that the longed-for Revolution would not come to pass during his lifetime.

 Morris wrote 'A Death Song' for the funeral on 18 December 1887 of Alfred Linnell, a week after 'Bloody Sunday',Mr Linnell's fatality occurred after a vicious clubbing where 'the crowd was batoned by the police.'

 A Death Song - William Morris

What cometh here from west to east awending?
And who are these, the marchers stern and slow?
We bear the message that the rich are sending
Aback to those who bade them wake and know.

Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay,
But one and all if they would dusk the day.

We asked them for a life of toilsome earning,
They bade us bide their leisure for our bread;

We craved to speak to tell our woeful learning:
We come back speechless, bearing back our dead.
Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay,
But one and all if they would dusk the day.

They will not learn; they have no ears to hearken.
They turn their faces from the eyes of fate;
Their gay-lit halls shut out the skies that darken.
But, lo! this dead man knocking at the gate.

Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay,
But one and all if they would dusk the day.

Here lies the sign that we shall break our prison;
Amidst the storm he won a prisoner's rest;

But in the cloudy dawn the sun arisen
Brings us our day of work to win the best.
Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay,
But one and all if they would dusk the day.

Right up to his death on October 3, 1896 he was though still agitating and arguing  for a socialist movement that would change the world . He also embraced radical ideas  of sexual freedom and libertarianism. There is a strong libertarian temper in his writings and being a close friend of Peter Kropotkin ( eminent anarchist at the time) was well aware of the anarchist case against government and political authority.
His texts  such as Useful Work Versus Useless Toil bristle with truths still relevant today. Arguing that only a classless society could eliminate the exploitation and waste of human creativity and of the world’s resources, he exclaimed: “No-one would make plush breeches when there are no flunkeys to wear them!” 
 In 1885 he bought out his Chants for Socialism and in  his novel News from Nowhere (1890) he recorded his own idiosyncratic vision after the abolition of classes. In it he envisages a society of equality and freedom and, confirmed Morris's belief in the potential of human beings to transform society, and in the process transform themselves. It is the account of a dream in which a socialist future appears in the present. It is a future without oppression, violence and drudgery. Human beings are free to enjoy their own creativity, and to 'delight in the life of the world'. But such freedom had to be fought for:

'"Tell me one thing if you can," said I. "Did the change come peacefully?' "Peacefully?" said he, "What peace was there amongst those poor confused wretches of the nineteenth century? It was war from beginning to end: bitter war, till hope and pleasure put an end to it..."' 

Such a vision - a rational grounded utopia , apparently so distant to us - is precisely what is needed for us today.
An interesting  passionate and varied life, he hated the age he lived, its commerce, its poverty, its industry, but most of all he hated its individualistic, selfish system of values. At the end of his life  he explained:. 

"The study of history and the love and practice of art forced me into a hatred of  the civilisation which, if things were to stop as they are  would turn history into inconsequent nonsense, and make art a collection  of the curiosities of the past."

When Morris lay dying in 1896 one of his doctors diagnosed his fatal illness as ‘simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men.' and  that Morris had “died the victim of his enthusiasm for spreading the principles of socialism”.

 Morris was not a politician, but an activist and agitator who brought intellectual weight and energy to the socialist cause. According to fellow party member Bruce Glasier, socialism was "integral to his genius;  it was born and bred in his flesh and bone." He gave much to British socialism,  he wrote to awaken men's imagination, to give them visions of working for a realisation of a dream, in fact he gave them comradeship. Morris's tremendous political speeches and writings were central to the revival of the British socialist movement at the end of the 19th century. Their relevance today is striking, writing in the 1890's he warned against faith in partial reforms that depended on ' parliamentary agitation' Such reforms would he believed

 ' be sucked into the tremendous stream of commercial production, and vanish into it, after having played its part as a red herring to spoil the scent of revolution.' If they wanted real change, Morris argued, 'people must take over for the good of the community all the means of production' ie credit, railways, mines, factories shipping, land machinery.'

His artistic and poetic skill, along with the radical new ethos on art and society that he espoused, sent shockwaves through the worlds of art, architecture, design, poetry, and political thought. Morris looked forward to a genuine rebirth of art as ‘the spontaneous expression of the pleasure of life innate in the whole people’ The arts and crafts movement spread across Europe and the US. Bauhaus, de Stijl and Soviet Constructivist artists were indebted to his aesthetics, if not to the style of his designs, and their placing of the unity of the arts at the heart of design education continues to this day.The William Morris Gallery is currently putting on the first ever exhibition to explore Victorian William Morris and the modernist Bauhaus  movement. Although working half a century before the Bauhaus opened its doors in 1919, Morris's ideas about art, craft and community  had a profound influence on the seminal German designer school.  Designers and artists are still inspired by Morris’s works while his questions about the social role of art and creativity were so fundamental that they remain relevant,  and many contemporary artists still look back to Morris as an inspirational figure. Jeremy Deller and David Mabb, for example, have both commented on how Morris's work contrasts with and compliments the production methods and political ethos of much twentieth-century art..William Morris’s ideas were still very much alive in the years that followed the First World War as artists and craftspeople struggled to find themselves a viable place within the modern world. Morris’s original ‘campaign against the age’ seemed essential at a period of increasing political cynicism and materialist frivolity and waste.

And his  ideals of art for the people were a central  to the planning of the Festival of Britain of 1951 who took inspiration from Morris's socialist beliefs, and from his sense of the role of the community in artistic production, introducing these principles to a new generation of creatives. The early-twentieth-century heyday of the artistic avant-garde was also in a very real sense preceded by the utopian collectivism of Morris's ventures.

In a powerful expression of continuity between reform campaigns and people throughout history, Morris appropriated the French slogan ' Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' as the head design for the Democratic Federation membership card, harking back to language and imagery used by the French  revolutionaries  at the end of the eighteenth century.The global relevance of his life and work is still felt today, with the reiterated calls  for ' Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' revealing the enduring power of words, and the humanitarian values  echoed by Morris.
Today Morris's ideas are woven into our lives , sung upon our souls, and etched into our minds, he remains a hero to socialists, communists and even anarchists who continue to strive for a new society.Morris's efforts to conserve the natural environment and to protect our architectural heritage are being carried on by people who are members of the same groups he helped to found and supported..He saw the true source of oppression as capitalism which  had to be abolished before all the resources could be used with creative freedom :

. I do not [believe] we should aim at abolishing all machinery; I would do some things with machinery which are now done by hand, and other things by hand which are now done by machinery; in short, we would be the masters of our machines and not their slaves, as we are now. It is not this or that...machine which we want to get rid of, but the great intangible machine of commercial tyranny which oppresses the lives of all of us'  

Morris's contention that art and creativity are essential contributors to well-being and that beautiful surroundings are essential for a healthy, happy and productive life, still powerfully resonates today. We read Morris's writings today because we still hold out hope for a better world. After all Morris's vision for a just society where art plays a central role has not yet been seriously tried. And although we have not yet achieved Morris's post-capitalist, ecologically healthy and economically sustainable humane society with its lively arts, his battles of over one hundred years ago have become our battles today.His words still have powerful resonance in our own turbulent times.

"The study of history and the love and practice of art forced me into a hatred of  the civilisation which, if things were to stop as they are  would turn history into inconsequent nonsense, and make art a collection  of the curiosities of the past."   - William Morris
 
All for the Cause - William Morris (from Chants for Socialists)
 
Hear a word, a word in season, for the day is drawing nigh,
When the Cause shall call upon us, some to live, and some to die!

He that dies shall not die lonely, many an one hath gone before;
He that lives shall bear no burden heavier that the life they bore.

Nothing ancient is their story, e’en but yesterday they bled,
Youngest they of earth’s beloved, last of all the valiant dead.

E’en the tidings we are telling was the tale they had to tell,
E’en the hope that our hearts cherish, was the hope for which they fell.

In the grave where tyrants thrust them, lies their labour and their pain,
But undying from their sorrow springeth up the hope again.

Mourn not therefore, nor lament it, that the world outlives their life;
Voice and vision yet they give us, making strong our hands for strife.

Some had name, and fame, and honour, learn’d they were, and wise and strong
Some were nameless, poor, unlettered, weak in all but grief and wrong.

Named and nameless all live in us; one and all they lead us yet
Every pain to count for nothing, every sorrow to forget.

Hearken how they cry, “O happy, happy ye that ye were born
In the sad slow night’s departing, in the rising of the morn.

“Fair the crown the Cause hath for you, well to die or well to live
Through the battle, through the tangle, peace to gain or peace to give.”

Ah, it may be! Oft meseemeth, in the days that yet shall be,
When no slave of gold abideth ’twixt the breadth of sea to sea,

Oft, when men and maids are merry, ere the sunlight leaves the earth,
And they bless the day beloved, all too short for all their mirth,

Some shall pause awhile and ponder on the bitter days of old,
Ere the toil of strife and battle overthrew the curse of gold;

Then ’twixt lips of loved and lover solemn thoughts of us shall rise;
We who once were fools and dreamers, then shall be the brave and wise.

There amidst the world new-builded shall our earthly deeds abide,
Though our names be all forgotten, and the tale of how we died.

Life or death then, who shall heed it, what we gain or what we lose?
Fair flies life amid the struggle, and the Cause for each shall choose.

Hear a word, a word in season , for the day is drawing nigh,
When the Cause shall call upon us, some to live, and some to die!

 No Master  

Saith man to man, We've heard and known
  That we no master need
To live upon this earth, our own,
  In fair and  mainly deed,
The grief of slaves long passed away
  For us hath forged the chain,
Till now  each worker's patient day
  Builds up the House of Pain.

And we, shall we too, crouch and quall.
  Ashamed, afraid of strife,
And lest our lives untimely fail
  Embrace the Death in Life?
Nay, cry aloud, and have no fear,
  We few against the world;
Awake, arise! the hope we bear
  Against the curse is hurled.

It grows and grows - are we the same,
  The feeble hand,  the few?
Or, what are these with  eyes aflame,
  and hands to deal and do?
This is the lost  that bears the word,
  NO MASTER HIGH OR LOW-
A lightning flame, a shearing sword,
  A storm to overthrow.

 

"If others can see it as I have seen it, then it may be called a vision rather than a dream" - From, News from Nowhere, William Morris. 

The following Socialist 10 Commandments inspired by William Morris remind us that the movement embraced a vision that was admirable, humane, and enlightened. Who could possibly object to such a vision?

Ten Commandments from the William Morris Hall Socialist Sunday School, Walthamstow , North London 

 

Socialist Sunday School

Ten Commandments

 

1. Love your schoolfellows, they will become your fellow workers and companions in life.

 

2. Love learning which is the food of the mind Be as graceful to your teachers as to your parents.

 

3. Make every day holy by good and useful deeds and kindly actions.

 

4. Honour good people; be courteous and respect all; bow down to none.

 

5. Do not hate or offend anyone. Do not seek revenge; defend your rights and resist tyranny.

 

6. Be not cowardly; protect the feeble and love justice.

 

7. Remember that all the products of the earth are the result of labour; whoever enjoys them without working for them is stealing the bread of the worker.

 

8. Observe and think, in order to discover the truth. Do not believe that which is contrary to reason and do not deceive yourself or others.

 

9. Do not think that he who loves his own country must hate and despise other nations, or wish for war which is a remnant of barbarism.

 

10. Help to bring about the day when all nations shall live fraternally together in peace and prosperity.

 

Declaration :

 

We desire to be just and loving to all our fellow men and women, to work together as brothers and sisters to be kind to every living creature; and so help to form a New Society, with Justice as its foundation and Love its law.

 This plaque showing the Socialist 10 Commandments is from the William Morris Hall in Walthamstow, which  was opened on 13 December 1909 by artist and socialist Walter Crane. The town was a hive of working class agitation, organising and self-help and workers had clubbed together to build the hall which they named in honour of the Arts and Crafts Movement leader and socialist dynamo who was born in the town.

National Poetry Day: See It Like a Poet

National Poetry Day takes place on the first Thursday of October each year, which this year will  land on Thursday 1 October 2020. This years theme is Vision, and the strapline for the day is ' See It Like a Poet' 

See It Like a Poet

Expand  your mind's eye

As darkness falls, play with shapes

Cultivate humility, do not envy

Look beyond hatefulness and greed 

Keep writing what you feel is right

While shadows give way and life flows

With windows open, seek peace and tranquility

To ease distress, the black depression we often sink

Caused by the world's cruelties, the pains of life

As Autumn mellows the heart, releases reason

Become near in spirit to the earth

Keep on seeking, keep on looking

Among life's bustle and calamity

With a continual searching mission

Beyond chains that confine

Find the way that spells liberty.

International Translation Day 2020 : Finding the words for a world in crisis

International Translation Day is observed on September 30, every year on the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator who is an epitome and known as the patron saint of the translators. The day aims to celebrate the work of language translation professionals which facilitates dialogue, understanding, and cooperation, contributing to the development and strengthening of world peace and security, and raise the awareness of the importance of their work and express solidarity with the fellow translators worldwide.

Translators play a significant role in diplomatic engagements that not only prevent border disputes and foster peace but also help in the growth of the economy through globalization. St. Jerome was a priest from North-eastern Italy, who is known mostly for his endeavor of translating most of the Bible into Latin from the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. He also translated parts of the Hebrew Gospel into Greek.

 The International Federation of Translators (FIT) organise the day ever since it was set up in 1953. The first official celebration of ITD was held in 1991. In May of 2017, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution and adopted 71/288 on the role of language professionals in connecting nations and fostering peace, understanding, and development, and declared 30 September as International Translation Day.

 The theme of International Translation Day 2020 is “Finding the words for a world in crisis”. – the title seems well-chosen and doesn't need comment. Translators, terminologists, and interpreters provide crucial services both on the front line and behind the news in crisis situations, so the celebration of the day aims to contribute and provide the general public with information about the work.

The idea behind this theme was to bring focus on the use of indigenous languages whose existence is in danger to the extent of extinction. The day was primarily focussed on the role and important work of translators, interpreters, and others who are in the service of the language industry.

The modern, digitalized and technologized world is marked by the swift and dramatic changes of the ways we communicate. The exchange of information has never been faster, the world has never been smaller, but the need for professional human translators has never ceased.

On the contrary, the role of translators in the globalized world is essential. While the communication is flowing in a heartbeat, it is the task and the duty of translators to make sure it is flowing in the right direction and that the precise meaning, intent and style of the message remain intact.

The way the things work has changed and it is going to change even more, but the essence of the translation profession remains the same – to facilitate the exchange of ideas between different languages and cultures in various ways and on different levels. This is exactly what we do at all times, regardless of what it is that we translate – a poem, a novel, a movie, an instruction manual or a website.

Translation is a essential literary endeavour, a means of access into the language, thinking and stories of other cultures, histories and experience.

 This evening on International Translation Day, a digital event will be held to celebrate the success of the winners of the Translation Challenge 2020 competitions, Grug Muse and Eleoma Bodammer. 

This year's challenge was to translate a sequence of short poems by the poet Zafer Şenocak in German entitled 'Nahaufnahmen’.

A prize of £200 each is presented to the two winners and the winning translations will be published on the websites of O’r Pedwar Gwynt and Poetry Wales. The Her Gyfieithu Staff for the best translation into Welsh is also presented to Grug sponsored by Cymdeithas Cyfieithwyr Cymru.

The competition was organised by Wales Literature Exchange, Wales PEN Cymru and Literature Across Frontiers at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in collaboration with Swansea University, the Association of Welsh Translators, O’r Pedwar Gwynt, Poetry Wales and Goethe-Institut. 

11 entries received in Her Gyfieithu, and the Welsh competition's adjudicator Mererid Hopwood, Professor of Languages and Welsh Curriculum at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, says that Grug's work was the "translation that caught my imagination more than one of the others and best succeeded in creating the feeling of a 'poem'."

Professor Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones of the Wales Literature Exchange said: “We are delighted that we have been able to hold the Translation Challenge again this year despite the concerns and challenges of the pandemic. The competition is going from strength to strength and this is the twelfth / 12th year that we have held it in collaboration with a number of partners. It is a very important time for us in Wales to celebrate the links between ourselves and other countries, languages and cultures. WLE’s motto is Translating Wales, Reading the World, and this is a very suitable event for International Translation Day.”

During the event we also hear from Eluned Morgan MP, Minister for International Relations and the Welsh Language; Menna Elfyn, President of PEN Cymru and Professor Emerita of Creative Writing University of Wales Trinity Saint David; Gosia Cabaj of Goethe-Institut along with representatives from our other partners. The event is sponsored by the Presiding Officer, Elin Jones MS.

The event will be held at 7pm this Wednesday evening and you can register to be part of the evening by clicking on the link below:

 

 https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dbuEqo5fS_-8-cqsQJ5jFw

 

“In the profession of translation, there is no such thing as an ideal, perfect, or correct form of translation. A translator always strives to extend his knowledge and to improve the means of expression; he always pursues the facts and words”

 

“Without translation been in existence, we would be probably living in provinces bordering on silence”

 

"If we are talking to a man in a language he understands, that will go to his head. But If we talk to him in his own language, that will go to his heart”

 

“As per UNESCO, about 40 percent of the 6700 languages spoken around the world are in danger of disappearing."

 

"Writers make national literature, while translators make universal  literature "Jose Saramago

 

"Translating from one language to another is the most delicate of intellectual exercises; compared to translation, all other puzzles, from the bridge to crosswords, seem trivial and vulgar. To take a piece of Greek and put it in English without spilling a drop; what a nice skill! " Cyril Connolly"

 

"The translator is a privileged writer who has the opportunity to rewrite masterpieces in their own language." Javier María

 

 

James Berry (28 September 1924 – 20 June 2017) - Outsider

James Berry was born  in Boston, Jamaica on 28 September, 1924 . One of six children. his parents were subsistence farmers, and he enjoyed an early life of rural rhythms and experiences. By the age of ten, however, the young writer began to feel frustrated by what his village could offer. “I began to be truly bewildered by my everyday Jamaican life,” he remarked in a Horn Book piece quoted in Authors and Artists for Young Adults. “I felt something of an alien and an outsider and truly imprisoned.” 

Indeed, rural Jamaica provided Berry with few opportunities. 

Though eager to learn about the wider world, the boy had access to few books. He had to share his single school text with all the other members of his family. But, through Bible stories and traditional folk tales, the young writer began to nurture what he described in the Horn Book as an “inner seeing,” who had “an inner life that could not be shared.ranged from the lyrical to the caustic, but almost all of them intimately caught the speech patterns of his native Jamaica. Berry helped to enrich and diversify the capacities of the English language, making conversational modes of West Indian expression, which a previous generation would have considered exotic or barely literate, normal and easily understood. In doing so he gave literary respectability to forms of language increasingly heard in the streets and playgrounds of multicultural Britain”

When he was 17, during World War II, Berry went to work in the United States. But he resented the treatment of blacks there, and returned to Jamaica after four years. After  opportunities in the West Indies had not improved, in 1948 , as past of the Windrush generation Berry decided to try his luck in London. Working and attending school at night, Berry obtained training as a telegrapher, and worked in that field for more than two decades. At the same time, he began to write short stories and stage plays. and became involved over the years with  many social and cultural organisations in North London, including being sessions organiser for the Carribean Artists Movement.

He  became a much loved poet , helping to  enrich and diversify the capacities of the English language, making conversational modes of West Indian expression, which a previous generation would have considered exotic or barely literate, normal and easily understood. In doing so he gave literary respectability to forms of language increasingly heard in the streets and playgrounds of multicultural Britain.  In 1976 he compiled the anthology Bluefoot Traveller and in 1979 his first poetry collection, Fractured Circles, was published. In 1981,  he then  won the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition, the first poet of West Indian origin to do so. He also edited the landmark anthology News for Babylon (1984), which was considered “a ground-breaking publication because its publishing house Chatto & Windus was ‘mainstream’ and distinguished for its international poetry list”.

A pioneering  writer and activist,  his powerful  poem ' Outsider’  was influenced by his own experiences of racism and urgently seeks action for equality. Each stanza questioning ‘If you see me’ is direct criticism and evoked pathos at the lack of education, acknowledgement, and action against the racism embedded in the UK. Sadly so relevant to this day. Black lives matter

 

Outsider - James Berry

  

If you see me lost on busy streets

my dazzle is sun-stain of skin,

I'm not naked with dark glasses on

saying barren ground has no oasis:

It's that cracked up by extremes

I must hold self together with extreme pride.

If you see me lost in neglected
woods, I'm no thief eyeing trees
to plunder their stability
or a moaner shouting at air:
it's that voices in me rule
firmer than my skills, and sometimes
among men my stubborn hurts
leave me like wild dogs.

If you see me lost on forbidding
wastelands, watching dry flowers
nod, or scraping a tunnel
in mountain rocks, I don't open
a trail back into time:
it's that a monotony
like the Sahara seals my enchantment.

If you see me lost on long
footpaths, I don't set traps
or map out arable acres:
it's that I must exhaust twigs
like limbs with water divining.

If you see me lost in my sparse
room, I don't ruminate
on prisoners and falsify
their jokes, and go on about
prisons having been perfected
like a common smokescreen of mind:
it's that I moved
my circle from ruins
and I search to remake it whole.