Remembering the injustice of Aberfan

 

 

Today I  once again mark the tragic day when  on Friday 21 October 1966, a terrible disaster struck the close-knit and thriving  coal mining village of Aberfan in  the South Wales Valleys, a tragedy which still stuns those of a certain age, and which has lessons still very relevant to new generations.

For decades leading up to 1966, excavated mining debris from the National Coal Board's Merthyr Vale Colliery had been deposited on the side of Mynydd Merthyr, directly above Aberfan,  onto highly porous sandstone that contained numerous underground springs.

On this morning  21I October 1966 it was raining, as  hard and unrelenting as it had been for days, running into weeks. As the children left the coal-fire warmth of home they emerged into streets shrouded with a dense, cold fog.

Mothers waved goodbye from the doorstep, never imagining in their worst nightmares that it would be for the last time. 

The 240 pupils of the Victorian red brick Pantglas Junior School wound their way through the gullies, the back lanes of the miners’ terrace houses, crunching over layers of sodden clinker swept from the hearth and tipped there on a daily basis. They were excited. At midday the half-term holiday would begin. And so the world turned in Aberfan much as it had done for the past 100 years, when the community burgeoned around the Merthyr Vale colliery which began in 1869.

Then at around quarter past nine disaster struck, an avalanche raced down the steep hill a black tidal wave that would engulf everything in its path in a catastrophic tragedy. It would smother a farm, around twenty houses, demolish Pantglas Junior School and severely damage the Secondary School. It is a mercy that lessons in the secondary school did not start until 9:30, meaning that many of those children were still walking towards the building at the time of the landslide. The eye-witnesses report that when the landslide stopped there was complete silence: for example a local hairdresser who witnessed the landslide reported that “In that silence you couldn’t hear a bird or a child”  

Immediately desperate parents rushed to the scene, many digging through the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the buried children. Police from Merthyr Tydfil arrived on the site, volunteers rushed to the village including miners from local collieries and other pits across South Wales. Conditions remained treacherous with a large amount of water and mud still flowing down the slope. Some children were pulled out alive in the first hour, but no survivors were pulled out alive out of that sticky black tomb after 11 am. Emergency services workers and volunteers continued their rescue efforts but it was nearly a week before all the bodies were recovered.Though many of them have now also passed, the horrific memories of Aberfan would haunt the first responders who came to the aid of the survivors for the rest of their lives. 

The final death toll was 144, including 116 children between the ages of 7 and 10. It was a whole week before all the bodies were recovered. Most of the victims were interred at Bryntaf Cemetery in Aberfan in a funeral held on 27 October 1966, attended by more than 2,000 people.

The shock  that was felt went beyond South Wales too. The television coverage allowed a collective witnessing of the disaster and turned it into a national tragedy. Parents, children, mining communities, Welsh exiles, people who had been evacuated to the area during the Second World War – so many people across Britain and worldwide felt a deep personal empathy and sympathy with those who suffered in the disaster. The surviving 50,000 letters of condolence sent to the village are a testament to that sympathy.The writings show of the warmth of the nation and its people. 

This horror was compounded and made even more poignant as news emerged of previous warnings and previous slides that had been brushed aside. The National Coal Board's(NCB) area management had been made aware of the concerns regarding the tipping of spoil above the primary school, because in 1964  local councillor Gwyneth Williams,  had warned that if there were a landslip it would threaten the school and the children within it. And just two years before the disaster two mothers had given a petition to the school, with concerns over flooding, and also passed it to the local council.  Waterworks engineer DCW Jones also sent a letter to a colleague and the National Coal Board in 1963, expressing concern about the tip.  Even the headmaster, who would  perish in the disaster, had issued warnings about the dangers of the tip.  Despite all this  the NCB's area management did not adequately act upon these concerns. 

Did the NCB have the decency to acknowledge their blame, to bow their head in shame, like hell no, but we were to  learn sadly far too late that the NCB  was ostensibly a capitalist organisation more concerned with profit than lives.. Also some in the media disgraced  themselves. One reporter was heard asking a child to cry for hr dead friends as it would make a good picture. It is not difficult to understand how grief morphed into a deep, visceral anger.

The Rt. Hon. Lord Robens of Woldingham, a former trade unionist and Labour politician whom the Macmillan government had appointed chairman of the National Coal Board, arrived 36 hours later, having first gone to Guildford to be installed as chancellor of Surrey University. He told a TV reporter that the slide had been due to 'natural unknown springs' beneath the tip and that nothing could have been done to prevent the slide. This was not true, the springs had been known about and were marked on maps of the area. Yet the NCB had continued to tip on top of these springs. The potential danger posed by the tip to Pantglas school had also been previously acknowledged. There had also been previous incidents of tip instability in South Wales that would have given clear information on the very real dangers posed.

Lord Robens  also claimed that it was too expensive to remove the tips, with an estimated cost of £3 million pounds.  In response, the community of Aberfan formed a Tip Removal Committee to actively seek out contractors for estimates to remove the tips.  Eventually the tips were removed by the NCB, but using £150,000 that Lord Robens appropriated from the disaster fund.  Understandably, this caused long-term resentment in the community.  In 1997, this sum (but without interest) was repaid to the fund by the UK government. 

Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who had reached Aberfan 24 hours before Robens, ordered an inquiry under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act 1921, headed by a judge assisted by an engineer and a planning lawyer.

The subsequent tribunal placed blame for the disaster upon the National Coal Board stating in its damning conclusion: 'The Aberfan disaster is a terrifying tale of bungling ineptitude by men charged with tasks for which they were totally unfitted'.

Nevertheless, the top management of the NCB tried to give the impression at the inquiry that they had 'no more blameworthy connection than the Gas Board'. The NCB wasted up to 76 days of inquiry time by refusing to admit the liability that they had privately accepted before the inquiry had started. The tribunal called this 'nothing short of audacious'. This may be the strongest language ever used in a tribunal report about a UK public body.

The Aberfan inquiry of 1967 stated: ‘Our strong and unanimous conclusion is that the Aberfan disaster could and should have been prevented’.Blame  for the disaster rests upon  the National Coal Board. The legal liabilities of the National Coal Board to pay compensation for the  personal injury  fatal or otherwise) and  damage to property is incontestable and uncontested."  

Shouts of 'Murderers!; were heard as the names of the child victims were read out at the public enquiry. One grief stricken father determined to oppose  the official causes of this child's death- 'by asphyxia and multiple injuries' insisted that the cause of death on the death certificate should read "Buried Alive by the National Coal Board".

Unbelievably, the Charity Commission opposed the plan for a flat rate of compensation to the bereaved families, instead suggesting that for payment to be made, parents should have to prove that they had been ‘close’ to their dead children, and were thus ‘likely to be suffering mentally’.

Meanwhile, Aberfan villagers lived in fear that tip no.4 and tip no.5 situated above tip no.7 might start to slide as well. The NCB refused to pay to remove them, and the Labour government wouldn’t make it pay. Instead the money was taken from the disaster fund – an act later described as unquestionably unlawful by charity law experts. 

A section of the report condemned the behaviour of Lord Robens:"For the National Coal Board, through its counsel, thus to invite the Tribunal to ignore the evidence given by its Chairman was, at one and the same time, both remarkable and, in the circumstances, understandable. Nevertheless, the invitation is one which we think it right to accept." 

A few weeks later,  Lord Robens offered to resign. The minister, Richard Marsh, refused to accept his resignation.Havingg led the Coal Industry through a then rare strike-free period he was considered far to valuable to Harold Wilson's Labour Government to let go.And so the people  pf Aberfan, were left to deal with their tragedy virtually alone.

The Commons debated the disaster in October 1967. The debate was painful and inconclusive. But at least Aberfan made the dangers of ignoring workplace risks and the catastrophic effects on both occupational and public health and safety all too obvious.

 The Wilson government found the NCB guilty, but the price they placed on each small head was just £500.  Worldwide, people were less insensitive, donations poured in daily and a trust fund was set up, that attracted donations of £1,750,000 (equivalent to about £30 million today), with money being received in the form of more than 90,000 contributions from over 40 countries.  This fund distributed the money in a number of ways, including direct payments to the bereaved, the construction of a memorial, repairs to houses, respite breaks for villagers and the construction of a community centre.  However, the fund itself attracted considerable controversy.  First, when the fund was created it did not include any representatives from Aberfan itself;  and another insult ensued. The bereaved families were not thought to be competent enough to distribute the funds. The grieving families were outraged. The villagers took it upon themselves to form a Parents and Residents' Association, and their solicitors eventually persuaded bureaucrats to include five representatives from Aberfan. The ten officials who were not from Aberfan accepted highly paid salaries from the fund.

The Government of the day was also extremely insensitive to the victims families, and people would have to wait for years for compensation. It was also to  the eternal shame of Lord George Thomas of Tonypandy that he did not do more to support the people of Aberfan, and it was the shame of the establishment that funds raised for the disaster were used to move the slag heaps from the school. Thomas many believed was more interested in toadying up to Royalty than supporting the people of the valleys. Perhaps what moved Welsh Labour to take some action were the fear of other voices speaking out. Plaid Cymru MP, Gwynfor Evans elected in 1966 suggested that had the slag heap  had fell on Eton or a school in the Home Counties more would have been done. 

The security of Labour’s hold on south Wales and the governments shameful marginalisation of the village’s needs after the disaster meant he was probably quite right. Indeed, the disaster played a key role in convincing some in Wales that both the nationalised coal industry and Labour governance were no longer operating in the interests of the working-class communities they were supposed to represent.

Aberfan  at least added to a growing sense that the risks the public were exposed to by industry had to be controlled. This feeling eventually led to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act (HSWA) 1974 which aims to protect both workers and non-workers from the risks of workplace activities. 

Indeed, the HSWA notably requires that employers must safeguard people not in their employment. This includes members of the public, contractors, patients, customers, visitors and students. This may be seen as Aberfan’s legacy. Unbelievably, the committee which effectively led to the creation of the HSWA was chaired by none other than Lord Robens! 

Earlier legislation such as the Factories Acts focused on specific industries or workplaces. This meant over 5 million workers had no Health & Safety protection – as well as the generally ignored public. The law was then more concerned with making sure machinery was safe! 

One key feature of the 1972 Robens Committee Report that is echoed in today’s Health & Safety is the principle of consultation. So whilst we can be comforted by the fact that legislation is more demanding and the safety of people is put first, history tells us that we must never be complacent, take the example of Hillsborough for instance. .

Today  we remember the people of Aberfan, their collective loss, a community that is still profoundly affected by this disaster and injustice, having paid the dirty price of coal,  one in three survivors still suffering  from Post traumatic stress,  over 50 years after this tragic event took place. The community of the Welsh town was deeply traumatised – the psychological and emotional effects rippled from one generation to the next, people felt guilty that they were left alive, they did not feel like survivors, cases of children not being allowed to play in the street, in case it upset other parents. 

What happened at Aberfan on 21 October 1966 left an indelible mark on the valleys of south Wales. Even today, the name Aberfan evokes sadness and contemplation. Most British people born before 1960 remember what they were doing when they heard the tragic news. 

The community suffered a second devastating blow with the closure of Merthyr Vale Colliery, Aberfan’s main employer, in 1989 and  along with the rest of the disinherited industrialised south Wales Valleys, has struggled with high unemployment and its incumbent social problems.

The devastating loss caused by the tragedy, as well as the impact it had on not only survivors, but the Aberfan community for generations, will never be forgotten. and the sores and wounds of this tragedy are now forever  ingrained in the memories  and feelings of the people of Wales because of the collective loss of a generation that was wiped out.There are thousands upon thousands of Welsh people with personal or family connections to the coal industry, and for them the disaster is not simply something that happened in another time and another place. It is part of their own family history. So today again we  try not to forget  the children and adults who died, this human tragedy, that  many say could easily have been  prevented. 

The disaster also summed  up the relationship Welsh society has with its coal mining heritage. At one level, there is an immense popular pride in the work miners undertook and the sacrifices they endured. There is also a recognition that it was coal that made modern Wales. Without it, communities such as Aberfan would not have existed at all. Indeed, the knowledge that it was their labour that created the aste above the village added guilt to the grief felt by some bereaved fathers. 

Aberfan is now known  today as one  of one of Wales worst mining disasters in it's history,but brought back memories of the pit disasters of Senghennydd (1913 - 439 killed)  https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/10/senghennyd-mining-disaster-lest-we.htmland Gresford (1934 - 263 killed) https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/09/gresford-colliery-disaster.html  

and the numerous less-known accidents that killed and maimed individual miners. Such fatalities continued to occur in the wake of 1947 but miners accepted the dangers inherent in their occupation. Aberfan however was different. This time it was their children that were killed, and by implication, a part of the future was lost,  because of mans greed.  It is important to note that no employee of the NCB was ever disciplined for the breaches that caused the disaster.

Like  the Hillsborough victims, the people of Aberfan were let down by the very institutions that owed them a duty of care, and just like at Hillsborough those institutions sought to obstruct the search for truth and the solace it might provide. 

And, as with Hillsborough, justice was a long time coming. More than three decades later the Charity Commission apologised, and a Labour Government under Tony Blair eventually paid back to the Disaster Fund the money taken from it in 1966 by the NCB. 

Today as we remember the people of Aberfan, their collective loss, a community that is still profoundly affected by this disaster, ,Today, we remember those who lost their lives and stand with the community of Aberfan now and always. Never again.

The lessons of  Aberfan, that still holds a profound relevance today. They touch on issues of public accountability, responsibility, competence and transparency. Aberfan was a man-made disaster. This is a fact that often needs underlining. There was nothing “natural” about it, nothing freakish about the geology of Aberfan, nothing uniquely unforeseeable about the deadly slide. 

It happened because of a mix of negligence, arrogance and incompetence for which no individual was punished or even held to account.so as we remember today lets not forget the shocking way these families were treated by a system that failed to value them.

The disaster was dramatized for the first time onscreen in the third season of The Crown; the episode, titled “Aberfan,” details the day leading up to the tragedy and its aftermath, as the town’s surviving inhabitants dig through the rubble and eventually receive a visit from Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman)

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Aberfan on 29 October to pay their respects to those who had died. Their visit coincided with the end of the main rescue phase; only one contracting firm remained in the village to continue the last stages of the clear-up. 

Marjorie Collins, an Aberfan woman who lost her son in the disaster, remembered the queen’s visit in a 2015 interview with ITV: “They were above the politics and the din and they proved to us that the world was with us, and that the world cared.” Another mother told ITV that no one judged the queen for her delayed response. “We were still in shock, I remember the Queen walking through the mud,” she said. “It felt like she was with us from the beginning.” 

Leon Rosselson  one of England's most respected songwriters wrote the following  song ‘Palaces of Gold’ in response to news of the disaster at Aberfan. It appeared on his 1968 album A Laugh, a Song, and a Hand-Grenade:

Palaces of Gold - Leon Rosselson

If the sons of company directors,
And judges’ private daughters,
Had to got to school in a slum school,
Dumped by some joker in a damp back alley,
Had to herd into classrooms cramped with worry,
With a view onto slagheaps and stagnant pools,
Had to file through corridors grey with age,
And play in a crackpot concrete cage.

Buttons would be pressed,
Rules would be broken.
Strings would be pulled
And magic words spoken.
Invisible fingers would mould
Palaces of gold.

If prime ministers and advertising executives,
Royal personages and bank managers’ wives
Had to live out their lives in dank rooms,
Blinded by smoke and the foul air of sewers.
Rot on the walls and rats in the cellars,
In rows of dumb houses like mouldering tombs.
Had to bring up their children and watch them grow.

In a wasteland of dead streets where nothing will grow.

I’m not suggesting any kind of a plot,
Everyone knows there’s not,
But you unborn millions might like to be warned
That if you don’t want to be buried alive by slagheaps,
Pit-falls and damp walls and rat-traps and dead streets,
Arrange to be democratically born
The son of a company director
Or a judge’s fine and private daughter.

 

Memory of the disaster remains at the fore in Aberfan.and .the memorial is quietly observed every year unless there is a key anniversary.Here is an evocative poem written  at the time  by local poet Ron Cook.

Where Was God - Ron Cook

Where was God that fateful day
At the place called Aberfan.
When the world stood still and the mountain
Moved through the folly of mortal man.
In the morning hush so cold and stark
And grey skys overhead.
When the mountain moved its awesome mass
To leave generations of dead.
Where was God the people cried
Their features grim and bleak.
Somewhere on their knees in prayer
And many could not speak.
The silence so still like something unreal
Hung on the morning air.
And people muttered in whisper tones
Oh God this isn’t fair.
The utter waste of childhood dreams
Of hope and aspirations.
A bitter lesson to be learnt for future generations

But where was God the people cried.
The reason none could say
For when the mountain moved its awesome mass.
God looked the other way.

 The Aberfan Memorial Garden was created on the site of Pantglas School and was opened in 1970.  A section of the school playground wall has been retained in the Memorial Garden while the other walls evoke the former layout of the school. 

In 2019, the Memorial Garden underwent major renovations, principally replacing all the old walls. The National Botanic Garden of Wales was involved in designing and planting the current bee-friendly garden. It includes commemorative trees presented by the Queen and the Prince of Wales, another planted by local schoolchildren on the 50th anniversary, and a recently added tree dedicated to the teachers and staff at the school.  

The Memorial Garden design incorporates reclaimed and recycled materials, such as stone from disused local bridges for the walls, and benches made from recycled plastic bags, which also reduced the level of maintenance required. 

At the Aberfan Cemetery Memorial, which was renovated extensively in 2007, most of the victims are buried side by side, with each grave marked with linked archways carved in pearl white granite.The names of all 144 victims are inscribed on a large granite cross at the Cemetery Memorial, where there is also a separate enclosed garden for quiet reflection and offering a long-awaited. redemption from so much pain that was inflicted on this cruel October morning all those years ago. 

I conclude this post with a poem I wrote a few years ago

Cofiwch Aberfan/ Remember Aberfan

On October 21 1966

a ticking timebomb of slurry

left a community scarred

angels laughter forever lost

buried deep in the wounds of history

my nation mourns with anger 

bitterness, heartache and shame

after the  dirty spoils of injustice

drowned a community in coal

left generations in ruin

our tears keep on flowing

never ever  forgiving.

  

Cofiwch Aberfan : This clock stopped ticking at 9.13 on the morning of October 21,1966 

Civility and decorum?

Like many, I condemn the appalling vicious murder of Sir David  Amess MP. This atrocious act has reopened existing wounds when it comes to fears about the safety of MP'a and others in public life.

It is telling that when news broke that the man arrested for the murder of Sir David Amess was a British man of Somalin heritage, The reaction of the far-right to the murder was one of joy and glee. It is a reminder of how quickly these types of atrocities are so easily exploited, becoming another tool for those who seek to spread hate in our society.

It  has all sparked a lot of deep reflection form people of all walks of life, different political and religious faiths but has also helped point  out that attempting to put the blame for the level of violence, chaos and polarisation in society on the left, migrants, social media etc after the Tory establishment have been stirring things up for such a long time, just reeks of hypocrisy. 

And pardon me we are currently being lectured on 'civility in politics; by papers and politicians who demonised migrants, doctors, and produced a deafening silence when an effigy of Jeremy Corbyn was being used as target practice by British soldiers, and were not bothered when it was reported that a Corbyn win at the General election would result in a coup. Remember that? Or what about the dangerous rhetoric during the referendum that led to Jo Cox's death. Damaging rhetoric that is still very much evident in papers like the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Telegraph and the Sun etc

We are currently being set up for a clamp-down on protest, free speech and anonymity that the government, their lobbyists and the establishment and corporations they work for want us to simply ignore. 

Double standards are the new normal, Civility is for normalcy. When things are normal and working as intended, civility is part of maintaining balance. But when that balance is gone, civility does not help return it but rather destabilises it further. Because civility gives cover for evil.

Political violence can also  be seen  in how they starve people  into poorly paid employment, as is allowing 1000s of people to die needlessly to coronavirus . Hunger and poverty is violence.War is violence. Dropping bombs on people is violence. Racism is violence. White supremacy is violence, Cutting healthcare is violence. How Civil is it to vote to deprive the poorest of £20 or to vote to not feed children, vote for war after war? I don't want to hear about ' civility and decorum' when so many people are suffering.

It would be so nice if we could all get along but our government is objectively corrupt, dishonest, autocratic, cruel and negligent.  It's culture war is pitching its own people against each other , It has cut welfare, voted against feeding the poorest children, slashed foreign aid and we;re expected to believe they care about.kindness, truth and decency. Yes our society has become  coarse, brutal, divided ,anxious, angry, fearful, ill-informed, gullible confused, Exactly how the regime wants it to be, and planned it to be. It is no accident, 

Every politician has a choice  but they want to shame us from  using vigorous language, or holding power to account or even daring to think of standing up in disobedience We must continue to stand against intolerance, the rising tide of incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence against persons based on religion , race or belief , that is fuelled both online and offline, and keep promoting mutual understanding, dialogue with inspiring, constructive, fierce debate,because this is how the true pathways of democracy are maintained. 

Anti-Slavery Day

                             

 

Many people may think of slavery as a thing of the past, but unfortunately they couldn’t be more wrong. The realities of modern day slavery are not always visible in our direct surroundings or social circles, however it still runs deep in communities all around the world. 

Whilst the transatlantic slave trade was outlawed in 1807 and slavery is prohibited internationally by Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there are still an estimated 12.3 million people across the world in slavery today, forced to work for little or no pay.

It is thought that the buying, selling and exploitation of people is the fastest growing crime in the world today. Long supply chains in today’s globalised economy create spaces of opportunity for traffickers to exploit the most vulnerable. 

Thousands of people in the UK alone are currently living as slaves. This means they can’t exercise personal freedom and they are being forced to work against their will.

Created by Anthony Steen CBE, then MP for Totnes, now Chair of the Human Trafficking Foundation, through a Private Members’ Bill in December 2009.The Bill passed through all its stages in the House of Commons and the House of Lords quickly and gained Royal Assent on 8 April 2010, becoming law as the Anti-Slavery Day Act 2010. In July that year, the Prime Minister, David Cameron MP, announced that Anti-Slavery Day would fall on 18 October every year. This date coincides with the European Union’s Anti-Trafficking Day. Since then, it remains a firm date in the calendar for human rights defenders, charities, civil society and government alike and is often marked with events about combatting modern slavery together.

Anti-Slavery Day was introduced with three aims. Firstly, to “acknowledge that millions of men, women and children continue to be victims of slavery, depriving them of basic human dignity and freedom.” To “raise awareness amongst young people and others of the dangers and consequences of slavery, human trafficking and exploitation and encourage them to be proactive in the fight against it.” And finally, “draw attention to the progress made by government and those working to combat all forms of slavery, human trafficking and exploitation, and (to) what more needs to be done.”  

Anti-Slavery Day serves as a reminder to people across the UK that despite the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, slavery which is supposed to be illegal in every country on the planet, it is still a thriving industry and rife in modern society. People are trafficked to, from and within the UK for sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude, criminal exploitation, bonded labour and even organ trafficking.

It is a global problem that can affect anyone, regardless of their age, gender and ethnicity.Poverty, limited opportunities at home, lack of education, unstable social and political conditions and economic imbalances are just some of the key drivers that contribute to someone’s vulnerability in becoming a victim of modern slavery.

Identifying the root causes behind slavery helps us to make changes that will prevent vulnerable people from being targeted and exploited, while outreach programs and support systems provide victims of slavery with an opportunity to escape their situation and build a sustainable future.

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 introduced by Theresa May [former UK Prime Minister] brought existing offences into one law and created new duties and powers to protect victims and prosecute offenders of modern slavery.

Victims of slavery and trafficking who have been forced to break the law were protected under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and law courts were granted the power to hand down a maximum life sentence for offenders or to place restrictions on people they believe may commit a human trafficking or slavery offence.

Businesses with an annual turnover of at least £36 million were also required to publish an annual statement setting out the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery within their supply chains. This can include information about modern slavery policies and due diligence processes which includes slavery, forced labour and human trafficking.

Since the new law was introduced there has been a considerable increase in tackling modern slavery offences at every stage; the police are referring more cases to be prosecuted, the Crown Prosecution Service is making more decisions to charge and overall, there are more convictions.

Modern slavery is a serious and often hidden crime which continues to affect people across the UK and the threat has been heavily impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Labour exploitation saw a proportion of the threat being displaced following the closing of public-facing businesses such as nail bars, car washes and restaurants. In response, offenders sought to adopt the non-employer model, placing potential victims into legitimate employment and increasing their takings from rent, fees and wages.

Both domestic servitude and sexual exploitation predominantly occur in a secluded environment, and became even more difficult to detect with national lockdowns. Criminal exploitation, particularly in young persons has continued to increase. Slavery is  the commodification of people for the purpose of exploitation and financial gain and is often hidden in plain sight.We want things cheap things. Are we complicit in the darker elements of humanity that continue to oppress, exploit and humiliate?

 Slavery is often termed an invisible crime, and in many ways the resultant exploitation can be difficult to spot. It is our job, as allies, as colleagues, as friends, as people who want to do the right thing to do better so that the invisible comes into sharp focus. As William Wilberforce said “You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

Modern slavery is a heinous crime which has no place in our society that often  happens because people are discriminated against, denied their rights and not protected by the law. Let us not stop in our fight against it while changing attitudes, challenging power and to help end the systemic inequality that hampers efforts to bring freedom and justice for everyone, and with small steps lets continue to break the chains that are all around us. 

Climate change is a growing human crisis which is increasingly  forcing impoverished vulnerable people from their homes in search of shelter and work. Consequently adults and children are finding themselves more and more vulnerable to forced labour and sexual exploitation. And millions more will be posed to this kind of slavery in the coming decades if we don't act. 

As world leaders prepare to discuss the human act of climate change at COP26  next month the time to jointly address human rights, the environment and climate change is now : https://www.antislavery.org/antislaveryday-fighting-for-climate-justice/.  And for further information on Anti-Slavery Day go to:

 

https://www.humantraffickingfoundation.org/

https://hopeforjustice.org/

https://www.slavefreealliance.org/

Boris Johnson holidays in the Sun as the UK braces itself for a "winter of discontent,"

16 days before the GTO in 2009,Prime minister Gordon Brown was travelling the world to get binding commitments from world leaders to help get binding commitments from world leaders to help the world economy recover from crisis.

Prime minister Boris Johnson 16 days before #COP26 with hopes for the summit under serious threat of collapsing, after emptying the pockets the pockets of the working class and the poor  jetted out of the country for a  luxury holiday in Marbella, in a £25,000 a week villa ( that is linked to a number of offshore tax havenshttps://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/johnsons-luxury-spanish-holiday-villa-linked-to-offshore-tax-havens-295415/?fbclid=IwAR04OUf-yg61WvpD5FwlQmphZ-bR1IYaNe7sfbX4deyIOM-qsCkaJ01vzQg ) he has apparently borrowed from his chum, Tory peer Zac Goldsmith despite the escalating crises in the UK, and has since been seen relaxing and trying to emulate his hero Winston Churchill but lacks any credibility, any statesmanship and  is considered the most untrusted leader in the G7.Churchill painted in the sun, so Boris had to do the same ( and be photographed doing it ) just one day after his government was slated for its handling of the pandemic.

The timing of his jaunt could not have come at a worse time  as he went in the same week that the £20 uplift to Universal Credit was cut, that even six former Conservative Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions opposed and which charities warned will push 800,000 people into poverty, this combined with increasing energy prices to damning criticism over how the health pandemic was handled, HGV shortages and empty supermarket shelves, the UK is bracing itself for  a "winter of discontent,"

Boris knew what was happening, a savage report was imminent on his handling of the COVID crisis was coming out,  which said the United Kingdom's Covid response was slow and "reactive,". Among the biggest failures of the government's  approach was an initial policy at the start of the pandemic to try and manage  the spread of Covid, rther than stop it spreading altogether.  A delayed lockdown was also criticized , failures in the UK's contract-tracing program, and a lack of attention given to the most vulnerable, specifically those in the social care sector and at risk communities, namely Black, Asian and other ethnic minorities. The UK has one of the highest death tolls from the pandemic and more than 138,000 people have died.

So Johnson did the one thing that he is capable of doing, he escaped his responsibilities to avoid the scrutiny and backlash. Meanwhile Johnson despite mounting criticism carried on his holiday with wife Carrie and their year old son Wilfred regardless.In arrogance he was back behind his easel yesterday morning without a care in the world, As Britons struggled with mounting problems at home Boris was busy playing with his paints finishing his picture. Wearing  dark blue shirt and casual trousers, with a white tie-up cord, he occasionally scratched his head as he added more brush strokes to his work His actions have only served to remind us all, that he has the same contempt for those that voted for him in, as he has for truth and honour.

On Monday, a  Downing Street spokesperson defended Johnson's  decision to take a holiday this week but refused to confirm who was funding the stay, The spokesperson also refused  to discuss whether there was a potential conflict in interest from Johnson accepting a holiday from a peer whom he ennobled and made a minister. Boris's holiday comes less than two months after he and then foreign secretary Dominic Raab were under fire for going on holiday during the Afghanistan crisis. 

Some people think they are above us, as they laugh and treat the rest of us as fools, but  it's a joke that is really beginning to wear very thin. It's Swift meets Orwell meets Kafka, and the media are facilitating it. This sad excuse of a man does not give a damn about anything other than himself, What he sees in the mirror is all that he worships and adores, but is the very worst Prime Minister in decades.

My advice to Johnson is if he really feels the need for a holiday in the sun, then perhaps he should never have been PM in the first place (it' truly is such  a sad indictment on our society that this shallow, lazy, incompetent and bigoted clown ever was.)  May he carry on with his painting if he wishes , on all accounts still on his jolly, but he might be best at  trying  sticking to crayons and  do us all a favour and resign, instead of continuing to take the piss,  because many of us who are still  stuck back at home would be ever so grateful if he at least did this.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is recognized the same day as Columbus Day each year, the second Monday in October. This year, Indigenous Peoples Day falls today Oct. 11, 2021.It is a day to recognize indigenous people and the contributions they’ve made to history, as well as to mourn those lost to genocide and Western colonization—and to remember that Native Americans were actually here long before European settlers showed up on these shores. In 1977, the United Nations International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas proposed that Indigenous Peoples Day replace Columbus Day.

On Friday, President Biden issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day,

 "Today, we also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities," Biden wrote. "It is a measure of our greatness as a nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them."

which the Associated Press reported as "the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus toward an appreciation of Native peoples."

Many however had a message for him today asking him as they gathered in Washington DC if he could hear them now. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/11/biden-can-you-hear-us-now-ask-indigenous-leaders-amid-arrests-fossil-fuel-protest?utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium= 

Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bahamas on October 12, 1792, 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. 

Even during his day, Christopher Columbus was viewed as controversial. While his arrival in the Americas, specifically in Ayiti, (Modern Haiti) allowed for the initiation of the colonialization and settlement of the Western Hemisphere, the Atlantic slave trade and the amassing of massive wealth for many European countries, many of his contemporaries thought he was unnecessarily brutal.

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 Columbus as some kind of hero. 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.

Columbus' voyage has even less meaning for North Americans than for South Americans because Columbus never actually set foot on this continent, nor did he open it to European trade.

During large waves of Italian immigration between 1880 and the start of World War I in 1914, newly arrived Italians faced ethnic and religious discriminations. In New Orleans in 1891, 11 Sicilian immigrants were lynched. A year later, President Benjamin Harrison became the first president to call for a national observance of Columbus Day, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival,

Italian Americans viewed celebrations of Columbus as a way to become accepted into the mainstream American culture and, throughout the country, they began to advocate for his recognition.
Though it wasn't recognized as a federal holiday until 1971  Italian immigrants had celebrated Columbus Day for centuries, Mariano A. Lucca, of Buffalo led the campaign for the national holiday. Colorado was the first state to formally recognize Columbus Day, doing so in 1905,

However Native Americans have been a part of the American tradition even before the United States began, but due to hundreds of years of persecution, much isn’t left of the neighboring tribes and many have integrated into modern society.

In the last several years, with growing awareness of Columbus' brutal legacy and what the European arrival meant for America's first inhabitants, at least 14 states and more than 130 local governments have chosen to not celebrate the the second Monday in October as Columbus Day or have chosen to celebrate it as Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead.

Indigenous Peoples have spearheaded the cultural shift in understanding about how to mark this day.

The idea of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day was first proposed in 1977 by a delegation of Native nations to the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas, held in Geneva, which passed that resolution.

In July 1990, representatives from 120 Indian nations from every part of the Americas met in Quito, Ecuador in the First Continental Conference (Encuentro) on 500 Years of Indian Resistance. The conference was also attended by many human rights, peace, social justice, and environmental organizations. This was in preparation for the 500th anniversary of Native resistance to the European invasion of the Americas, 1492-1992. The Encuentro saw itself as fulfilling a prophesy that the Native nations would rise again “when the eagle of the north joined with the condor of the south.” At the suggestion of the Indigenous spiritual elders, the conference unanimously passed a resolution to transform Columbus Day, 1992, "into an occasion to strengthen our process of continental unity and struggle towards our liberation." Upon return, all the conference participants agreed to organize in their communities. While the U.S. and other governments were apparently trying to make it into a celebration of colonialism, Native peoples wanted to use the occasion to reveal the historical truths about the invasion and the consequent genocide and environmental destruction, to organize against its continuation today, and to celebrate Indigenous resistance. (Indigenous Peoples' Pow Wow Website)

In the past twenty years the celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day has become a counter narrative to Columbus Day as way of correcting historical wrongs in acts of reconciliation  and the roots of this rethinking go back several decades.

On October 6, 2000, the American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council wrote in a statement that "Columbus was the beginning of the American holocaust, ethnic cleansing characterized by murder, torture, raping, pillaging, robbery, slavery, kidnapping, and forced removals of Indian people from their homelands." The organization called for the federal abolition of the holiday.

In June, 2020, protestors in three cities targeted statues of Columbus, according to The Smithsonian Magazine. 

A statue of Christopher Columbus in downtown Syracuse has been the subject of lawsuit against a plan by Mayor Ben Walsh to remove it, according to syracuse.com.

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. 

Nationwide one in every 475 Native Americans has died from Covid since the start of the pandemic, compared with one in every 825 white Americans and one in every 645 Black Americans.

The true death toll is undoubtedly significantly higher as multiple states and cities provide patchy or no data on Native Americans lost to Covid. Of those that do, communities in Mississippi, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas have been the hardest hit.

The findings were part of the Color of Coronavirus project, and provide the clearest evidence to date that Indian Country has suffered terribly and disproportionately during the first year of the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Native Americans have suffered 211 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 121 white Americans per 100,000.

Indigenous leaders took coronavirus more seriously than many communities from the beginning and certainly more seriously than the White House took the virus. By late Spring 2020 the rate of infection among Navajo Nation communities was worse than New York, then the center of the pandemic in the US.

Even then it emerged that Native Americans were being left out of demographic data on the impact of the coronavirus across the US, raising fears of hidden health emergencies in one of the country’s most vulnerable populations.

Centuries after Columbus 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, 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, whilst transforming this day into a celebration of indigenous people and a celebration of social justice  that allows us to make a connection between  painful history and the ongoing marginalization, discrimination and poverty that indigenous communities face to this day. We cannot dedicate just one day to acknowledging Indigenous People's, each and every day should be an act of solidarity, by us honouring and advocating for Indigenous rights.

World Mental Health Day 2021 : Mental Health In An Unequal World'

 

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 Sundayy 10 October. A day designed to encourage raising awareness and spreading education about mental health issues across the globe.

The theme of this year's World Mental Health Day is 'Mental health in an unequal world'. and is about making mental health care a reality for all. This theme emphasizes the urgent need to close the huge gap in access to care for people with mental health problems and psychosocial disabilities around the world, and aims to raise awareness of the inequality in access to mental health care, both locally and globally, for marginalised people, particularly for people living in poverty.

The day will highlight that access to mental  health services remains unequal with between 75% to 95 % of people with mental  disorders in low and middle income countries unable to access mental health services at all and access in high income countries not much better. Lack of investment  in mental health disproportonate to the overall health budget contribute to the mental health treatment gap. Also according to UN 2016 data, “nearly 800,000 persons died every year by suicide, and 79 per cent of global suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries”

While the pandemic has affected everyone, people with long term health conditions, or facing discrimination or parenting on their own are struggling the most and need more support. The world has experienced  the unprecedented  impact  of  COVID-19 that has also impacted on the mental health of millions of people..

Over the past year we have all been in thee same storm but in different boats, experiencing  a wide range of thoughts and feelings. We know that the levels of anxiety, fear, isolation, social distancing and restrictions, uncertainty and emotional distress experienced have become widespread as the world has struggled to bring the virus under control and to find solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the effects of inequality on health outcomes and has brought additional mental health challenges through infection and illness, bereavement, job loss and insecurity, and social isolation due to physical distancing measures. There is no doubt that this will have negatively impacted on people's wellbeing and mental health. 

Mental health is a human right, and a rights-based approach to mental disability means domesticating treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Using the framework of this convention and others like it, it is possible to formulate an active plan of response to the multiple inequalities and discrimination that exist in relation to mental disability within our communities. While health care professionals arguably have a role to play as advocates for equality, non-discrimination, and justice, it is persons with mental disabilities themselves who have the right to exercise agency in their own lives and who, consequently, should be at the center of advocacy movements and the setting of the advocacy agenda..

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.

While the uneven distribution of mental health resources both within and between countries springs to mind there are many other inequalities that I hope will be thought about on this day. These include inequalities driven by race, sexuality, gender identity, socio-economic status, access to technology and people living in challenged humanitarian settings such as displaced people, refugees, and those living in conflict/post-conflict situations are at greater risk of mental health difficulties..Due to ongoing political and social conflicts, the number of international refugees has been increasing. Refugees are exposed to severe mental challenges and potentially subject to traumatic experiences so the risk of psychiatric disorders is increased.  

Older people and immigrant groups are both thought to be more likely to experience social isolation and loneliness which can cause worse mental wellbeing.

Societal discrimination is likely to have an impact on mental health. Interventions that take into account the specific mental health risks that marginalised communities face, and are designed to meet the needs of these groups, are therefore needed.

There are also  significant mental health related inequalities for the UK Black community as people from Black African and Caribbean backgrounds are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act, and experience poorer treatment and recovery outcomes in comparison to other ethnic groups. The ON TRAC project aims to address this by developing a mental health awareness and stigma reduction intervention for Black faith communities.

Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and other factors is also widespread, and is known to cause or exacerbate mental health problems. Stigma in all parts of society must be eradicated.

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 head shaking 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.Personally I have spent years of my life taking various antidepressants, anti anxiety medications whilst trying to deal with my own mental health (I am currently free from but the journey has not been an easy one. ) 

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, and 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 a fairer more equal society can be a source of hope. That is a world surely worth fighting for.

World Mental Health Day is a great opportunity every year to bring together the common voice of people with psychosocial disabilities and those working in mental health around the world. I wanted to add my voice to the call for a better deal for people with psychosocial disabilities, and people living with the stresses of injustice and inequity that have such a negative effect on mental well being.

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.There are also a number of resources available from Mind to help start questions about Mental Health inequality, we all have the power to  achieve change ad make a difference about how we talk about mental health, challenge the stigma and help start conversations. https://www.mind.org.uk/get-involved/world-mental-health-day/wmhd-2021-resources/,

.If you are at all impacted remember that you are not alone, and there is no shame in reching out for support to get through it. 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 that is you have one. Remember it's ok not to be ok. Bekind to  yourself and others. Mental health matters but what people suffering truly need at the end of day is well-funded good quality services that actually respond to each individual's needs, and that can be accessed immediately, and in an equal world this would actually be happening. Sadly in Britain at the moment mental services are seriously inadequate and letting down manybadly, this is the harsh and bitter reality.

John Lennon (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) - Revolutionary Artist

John  Winston Ono Lennon, English musician, singer and songwriter  who rose to fame as founding member of The Beatles was born on this day October 9, 1940, in  war-time Liverpool. Lennon's parents, Julia and Alfred Lennon, soon seperated. His father, a merchant seaman, returned with the intention of taking the young John with him to New Zealand, and he was forced to choose between his two parents, eventually going with his mother. 

Julia prove too have a profound influence on his life. introducing him to the seminal  music of Fats Domino, and teaching him to play the banjo.

However it was a strained relationship, and Lennon  grew up largely with his aunt, Mimi Smith. He largely lost contact with his father, and his mother tragically died after being hit by a car in 1958.

Lennon started his first band, The Quarrymen, in 1956, at the age of 15.This was the genesis of The Beatles, where Lennon formed a celebrated songwriting  partnership with Paul McCartney that became one of the most successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music.They remain the best selling bands in history, having sold up to one billion albums worldwide. 

Lennon's  life went far beyond Strawberry Fields and wanting to hold hands. He was an incredibly complex person that led a life of highs and lows just like any other person. His rebellious nature  also gave his writings, interviews and work a notably acerbic and sardonic wit. A dreamer, a believer, a songwriter, a poet, an avant garde artist, a rebel, a thinker; John Lennon was all of these things, but above all he was a man full of love, though some of his action reveal that he was not without faults, and far from perfect. Through his revolutionary songwriting and ability to express his visionary ideals of peace, tolerance, multiculturalism, and independent thought, John Lennon made an impression on popular music and activism that resounds just as clearly today as it did during the era marked by the creative heights of Beatlemania.

 A man who began his career as as ordinary pop star who made  extraordinary music. During the last few years of the Beatles, Lennon was very much influenced by the ideas  of the hippy movement. His song "Revolution " was a cynical response to  the events of 1968, Lennon sung "You say you want a revolution" but ended the verse  with " count me out"

 

The Beatles - Revolution

 

 

 But as time went on he slowly began to evolve as his fame grew, becoming radicalized through meetings and associations with sixties activists. during this time , John started  referring himself as a "Revolutionary artist." Lennon especially used his social status to raise awareness for war and discrimination rather than hiding his thoughts. John Lennon was a humble working class Liverpool boy and despite being at the center of attention with the achievements of the Beatles,  he never turned his back to social problems and the problems of the individuals he was raised among.

Back in 1965,  the Beatles were awarded the MBE (Members of the British Empire) by the Queen. Four years later, as John’s political awareness developed, he returned his medal in protest against British policy in the Nigerian civil war and against the Vietnam war – and also, he said in jest, to protest against his record, ‘Cold Turkey’, slipping in the charts.

 Lennon was able to present a vision of beauty and a world united from one of the most chaotic periods in recent memory, marred by governmental corruption and the Vietnam war. Songs like “Give Peace a Chance” served as a rallying cry to the anti-war movement, while songs like “Imagine” made a world at peace seem more attainable than it had ever been before. In addition to the songs he wrote, Lennon used his incredible fame as a vehicle through which to voice his opinions on both the political and basic human issues he believed in. The infamous “Bed-in For Peace” alongside his partner, Japanese artist Yoko Ono was more than a publicity stunt – behind the outlandish media spectacle was a rationality and optimism that filled the void of war and intolerance with a universal love and hope.

 After John and Yoko returned to the UK from Japan in January 1971, they gave an interview to political activists Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn of the Trotskyist  newspaper Red Mole. Almost immediately John began writing a song inspired by the interview and the day afterwards began work on the song at Ascot Sound Studios. Released on 12 March 1971, ‘Power To The People’ came from a phrase that was used as a form of rebellion against what US citizens perceived as the oppression by The Establishment. The Black Panthers used the slogan ‘All Power to the People’ to protest the rich, ruling class domination of society, while pro-democracy students used it to protest America’s military campaign in Vietnam. ‘Power to the people’, laid bare what democracy is really about. Or should be. .. According to John, “I wrote ‘Power to the People’ the same way I wrote ‘Give Peace a Chance,’ as something for the people to sing. I make singles like broadsheets. It was another quickie, done at Ascot.”

 John Lennon - Power to the People

 

 It was also during the early '70s that Lennon began to express a deeper commitment to the concerns of oppressed people of color. Lennon backed both Native-American and African-American rights. He expressed sympathy for the African-American struggle and an understanding of the need for Black consciousness. In a 1972 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, Lennon stated support for the Black Panther's Ten-Point Program and their faith in self-defense. The Ten-Point Program encompassed calls for Black self-determination, a decent education, for Black children free of racist and historical bias, as well as "land, bread, housing… justice and peace." (Huey P. Newton, War Against the Panthers, 1966)

The Black Panthers were criminalized and pathologized by the White Establishment. Former President Herbert Hoover even called the group the greatest threat to America's national security and subjected it to FBI surveillance. The party's radical reputation was partly due to its commitment to armed self-defense. Its community programs also sought to provide free health care and clothing for the poor as well as hot breakfasts for children.

Lennon's music in this period sought to reawaken the moral conscience and political consciousness of the people. He wrote songs for Black Panther campaigner Angela Davis and the co-founder of the supportive White Panther Party, John Sinclair. The latter had been sentenced to ten years in prison for a drug possession charge in 1969. Lennon performed at a concert for Sullivan in Ann Arbor in December 1971. He also wrote about Ireland's "Troubles" ("Sunday, Bloody Sunday") explicitly condemns the murders of 13 unarmed Catholic  civil rights protesters in Northern Ireland by British forces  and calls for the British to get out, .and in early 1972 attended a demonstration in New York City against the killings. 

 

 John Lennon - Sunday Bloody Sunday

 

 He penned “Attica State”, a song about the insurrection and repression of prisoners in Attica prison https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2018/09/attica-prison-uprising1971-and-its.html and attended a concert benefit for the relatives of the slain inmates on December 17th, 1971 with Ono.

John Lennon - Attica State

 He also participated that year in a demonstration with the Native-American tribe the Onondaga Indians against the government's planned construction of a freeway through their land. His song Woman is the Nigger of the World was inspired by the writings of James Connolly and paraphrases his famous quote ‘The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave.’

 

John Lennon - Woman is the Nigger of the World

 

All this made the American system very  afraid of him. Richard Nixon even involved the FBI to deport Lennon. A past drug’s offence would be used to threaten the singer with deportation. And he would struggle to gain permanent resident status in the U.S. period to come.

Under the plan to deport Lennon who criticized  the war of Vietnam that covered between 1971 – 1972, FBI created a 300-page long file. The case was published by the end of 2006. A sentence from the report said: “The doubt that Lennon has revolutionary views is supported with official meetings with the Marxist, his songs and other published content.”

The conservative US was afraid of John Lennon’s radicalism and to use his position to spread anti-war and anti-capitalist views. Whether Lennon was seen as a pacifist or a revolutionary, he used his music and visual existence to spread certain ideas around the world. Without being afraid of the consequences of his views that he supported without taking a step back, he used his fame to change certain things without forgetting his social class.

While some of his songs might come across as simple sloganeering, “Working Class Hero” from 1970 is an insightful social commentary on class splits and how society tries to exploit folks to become cogs in the machine. It also touches how religious indoctrination and media causes people to lose sight of the big picture. Despite being a millionaire, Lennon was still able to see the world through the eyes of ordinary people. Sadly the song is more poignant than ever.

John Lennon- Working Class Hero

 

 Although his creative genius was lost tragically short of its time, John Lennon attained more in his forty years than most could accomplish in a hundred full lifetimes. And although Lennon’s creative output in the last eight years of his life was uneven and decidedly less political, in 1975 he withdrew from the music business to raise his son, Sean, but returned in 1980 to release the album Double Fantasy, with Yoko Ono. Three weeks after its release he was shot and killed in his adopted home of New York City on 8 December 1980 by psychotic fan, Mark David Chapman. His death triggered an outpouring of grief on an unprecedented scale throughout the world. 

81 years after his birth John Lennon lives on through his music and whenever people imagine a better future. His example as a leader in social activism paved the way for the prominent activists of today. I believe that together, as individuals or in groups we can still be forces for change like John Lennon, whether it be for human rights,  economic and social justice , working for a culture of peace , equality and freedom, in the words of John Lennon ' some people call me a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.' Lines from his ultimate song, ‘Imagine’,  released in 1971. It has been described as ‘a humanist plea and socialist anthem’. Its sweet slow gentle delivery hides a message that is uncompromisingly radical, even revolutionary, in its call for a world without borders, without religion, and based on sharing rather than possession. Revolutionary, but sad that we've still not moved further forward.

 

John Lennon - Imagine 

 

 

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world... You...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one