The Baum Group – Resisting Nazis in Berlin

Herbet  Baum

The Baum Gruppe was an underground anti-Nazi movement, founded in Berlin by Herbet and Marianne Baum  when the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933 and was made up mainly of Jews who belonged to youth movements who maintained links with all major underground groups in the German capital, strengthening the morale of a Berlin Jewish community being deported to death camps in the East.. Most were Communist, although a few  were left-wing Zionists. Almost all of the Baum Gruppe's members were quite young. The average age of the twenty-odd members of the inner circle of the Baum group was 22; Charlotte Päch, age 32, was nicknamed “Grandma.”

Herbert Baum  the man largely responsible for their actions was born in 1912 into a poor Jewish family in the province of Posen (today Poznan in Poland), but a few years later the family moved to Berlin. There he joined Jewish youth organizations, including the German-Jewish Youth Community (DJJG) and the League of Jewish Youth (Ring). In both groups Baum quickly displayed strong qualities of leadership, but their vaguely idealistic bourgeois ideology soon seemed inadequate to him as the twin specters of Nazism and unemployment loomed on the German horizon. By 1931 he had become a member of the Communist Youth Organization and soon was regarded as a promising Communist activist. He met his wife Marianne in the Communist Youth movement and both were deeply convinced that only the creation of a Communist society would free Germany of the evils of capitalism and anti-Semitism. 

Marianne Baum herself was born Marianne Cohn in Saarburg on December 9, 1912, when that city was part of Germany, grew up in Alsace in the years after that former German province had been returned to France in 1918. After her family moved to Berlin in the 1920s, she became actively involved in Jewish youth activities, moving toward the political Left along with her husband, Herbert, in the early 1930s.

While most Berlin Jews quietly prayed for better times after Hitler came to power, Herbert Baum alongside Marianne and his small circle of Communist activists openly defied the Nazis by building a complex, multitiered cell apparatus and distributing leaflets calling for an overthrow of the regime. As early as July 1934, Baum participated in a successful "action" that disseminated anti-Nazi propaganda to a Berlin populace that still included large numbers of passive anti-Nazis whose morale needed encouragement.

After the Nazi intelligence services succeeded in destroying most Communist and Social Democratic underground cells in 1936 and 1937, the Baum group remained virtually isolated in Berlin, and was ordered by the Communist leadership abroad to maintain itself as an exclusively Jewish organization in order to safeguard both itself and other still-existing resistance cells from Nazi infiltration. But while most members of the group were sympathetic to Zionist ideals, Baum and the inner circle of the organization were orthodox Communists for whom the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin were political wisdom incarnate. His iron devotion to the wisdom of the party's leadership even made it possible for him to accept the correctness of the Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 1939—-an event that prompted many Communists to quit the Party. Without denying his Jewish background, Baum believed that after the fall of Hitler Jews might still be able to live in a renewed German culture purged of Nazi racial hatred, and that as a German and a Communist temporarily transformed into a racial pariah he had a grave responsibility to help bring about this historical turnabout.

In 1936 the Communist underground asked the group's Jewish members to start an independent group and set up Communist units in Jewish youth organizations. From 1937--1942 the group concentrated on giving out illegal literature; organizing political training courses, cultural events, and educational evenings; and bolstering the morale of those Jews who were to be deported.

 Copying leaflets and underground newspapers was not only dangerous but also expensive. As Baum’s resistance group had to rely almost entirely on itself, the members tried to get hold of some of the money they needed for stencils and a duplicating machine through theft. On one occasion, they even broke into the home of a Berlin Jew and stole several valuable items, but were unable to sell them. This radical attempt shows the desperate situation the resistance group around Herbert Baum was in.

The articles for their leaflets were discussed by several members of the group, and usually even written jointly. As Jews were not allowed to use typewriters, the group’s non-Jewish members – such as Irene Walter and Suzanne Wesse – had to type the texts in secret at their workplaces. The stencils were duplicated in Herbert Baum’s basement. Some of their leaflets were widely distributed, while others were given specifically to members of certain professions or sent out by post. Some of the members donated a fifth of their wages to finance the group’s work.

 When World War II broke out, they continued and tried to organize resistance among Berlin’s Jews. In 1940, Herbert Baum was arrested and forced to work for the Berlin-based engineering company Siemens as a slave laborer. Even there, under the most dire circumstances, he organized a group of Jews who resisted Nazism and facilitated some workers’ escape so they could join the Berlin resistance

In May 1942 Baum and several others went into the massive anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda exhibition Das Sowjet-Paradies (Soviet Paradise) set up in Berlin by the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels. and set off several small explosive devices This action was considered to be a major offense against the Nazis. The German press was forbidden to publish any stories about the event, and so the German people were never informed that a small but well-organized resistance circle of Jewish Communists had destroyed a major Nazi propaganda show more than nine years after the Nazis came to power in Germany.

 That part of the exhibition could be destroyed by a Jewish resistance unit in the capital of the Greater German Reich proved a severe propaganda defeat for Goebbels, for even though the destruction was not reported in press or radio, virtually the entire population knew about the incendiary act within a few days. But the powerful Nazi intelligence and police system was determined to destroy men and women who, though numerically weak in numbers and resources, had been bold and resourceful enough to achieve such a significant propaganda victory.

A comrade of Baum's was interrogated by the Gestapo and under torture gave them a list of people associated with the Baum group.

On May 22, 1942, Herbert and Marianne Baum were arrested, as were most of the leading members of his group. Herbert Baum was tortured and taken to the Siemens plant to identify fellow workers who had joined in the arson plot, but he refused to reveal anything. On June 11, his frustrated Nazi captors murdered him (the Gestapo simply informed the trial prosecution staff that Baum had "committed suicide"). The trial of the Baum group's leaders resulted in a verdict that was a foregone conclusion—-death by decapitation. The sentence was carried out on August 18 at Plötzensee penitentiary in Berlin. Executed were Marianne Baum, Joachim Franke, Hildegard Jadamowitz, Heinz Joachim, Sala Kochmann, Hans-Georg Mannaberg, Gerhard Meyer, Werner Steinbrink, and Irene Walther. Franke, Jadamowitz, Mannaberg, and Steinbrink were all non-Jewish German Communists who had cooperated with the Baum group, and whose actions were deemed equally treasonous by a Nazi court. Sala Kochmann tried to kill herself during interrogation because of the intense torture used to make her reveal information, but was only able to fracture her spine. She was carried both to the trial and to her execution on a stretcher. 

 The fate of other Baum group members was decided in two other trials. The first of these resulted in indictments on October 21, with sentences rendered on December 10, 1942. All but three of the defendants were sentenced to death. Executed on March 4, 1943 by guillotine were nine members,

Pictured clockwise from left, Marianne Joachim, Siegbert Rotholz. Hella Hirsch, Hanni Meyer. Heinz Birnbaum and Lothar Salinger

Of the three who escaped death sentences, all of whom were women, Lotte Rotholz received a sentence of eight years' imprisonment but did not survive the war, having been sent to Auschwitz extermination camp. Edith Fraenkel and Hella Hirsch received sentences of five and three years respectively, but they too were killed at Auschwitz in 1944. The final trial of Baum group members took place in June 1943. By then the battle of Stalingrad had taken place, and with the Third Reich fighting for its very existence the regime, and its Nazified system of justice, decided it no longer needed to show a merciful face. All of the defendants were found guilty and condemned to death, with sentences carried out on September 7, 1943; Martin Kochmann was among those executed. Of the 31 members of the group (not counting Herbert Baum) who died during the war, 22 were executed by decapitation, while nine died in death camps.

Only five members of the Baum group, Ellen Compart, Alfred Eisenstadter, Charlotte and Richard Holzer, and Rita Resnik-Meyer (Zocher), survived the war. Their oral testimony, as well as the Nazi court documentation, provides a picture of extraordinary courage in the midst of terror and demoralization. There were other, smaller, and less effective Jewish resistance groups in Nazi Germany, who also shared the daily dangers of carrying out conspiratorial work. Because most of these groups pledged allegiance to various forms of Marxian socialism, which was already a harshly punishable offense for the German "Aryan" population, the risks they took were made all the greater. It has been estimated that about 2, 000 Jewish men and women were either members of exclusively Jewish resistance groups or worked with non-Jews in various clandestine political activities in Nazi Germany during the years 1933 through 1945. This number—-given that the German-Jewish community in these years had a disproportionately high number of older people and was led by an elite that hoped to adapt itself to the Nazi dictatorship through compromise and emigration—-strongly suggests that a younger generation had appeared on the scene that would live, and die, not passively but resiliently in the face of adversity, courageously defying and resisting oppression,

Monuments were erected by the East German government in Berlin’s Weissensee Jewish Cemetery and the Lustgarten, where the 1942 arson took place and the street leading to the Cemetery has been renamed Herbert Baum Strasse.

 A memorial monument in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin's Weissensee neighborhood to members of the Herbert Baum Group,

 

 

Remembering Catalan Anarchist Militant Salvador Puig Antich, the Last Political Prisoner to be executed in Franco's Spain by the Garrotte.

On the morning of 2 March 1974, the young Catalan anarchist militant  Salvador Puig Antich, became the last political prisoner to be executed in Franco's Spain by the garrotte which saw the state literally strangling him to death after twenty minutes of agony in the courtyard of Modelo Prison, Barcelona.

Puig Antich  who was born 30 May 1948, in Barcelona, Spain Puig Antich came from a well-to-do Barcelona family which made its money from a chemicals warehouse. His political journey began early, his family being steeped in democratic Catalan nationalism and opposition to the forces of Spain’s oppressive semi-fascist Franco dictatorship, which they saw as a lethal threat to Catalonia’s identity and integrity. Puig Antich's sister, Imma, said: "My father was afraid something would would happen to us. But we were anti-Franco and we wanted to do something to fight the regime."

 From initially  supporting communist inspired workers’ groups, he embraced anarchism and joined a  small left wing revolutionary organization called the Movimento Ibérico de Liberación/Grupos autónomos de combate (Iberian Liberation Movement/Autonomous Combat Groups) (MIL/GAC).

The MIL was ideologically diverse, incorporating anarchist, situationist and left communist ideas. Tactically, it aimed to use armed force to aid workers’ struggles, and though it issued statements explaining its politics and its actions, saw itself in a supporting role rather than behaving as a vanguard. To this end its units robbed banks and distributed the money to strikers, and even seized printing presses with the intention of creating its own underground media.

Together with his comrades, he dedicated his life to the struggle against the fascist dictatorship and supported the wildcat strike movement that was sweeping Spain at the time. He became a prominent member of the MIL and participated in bank robberies (“expropriations”) meant to finance clandestine propaganda and support workers struggles and the fight against the authoritarian regime of Francisco Franco

After a series of such robberies, in September 1973. the police directed their attention at the MIL, and arrested Oriol Solé Sugranyes, Josep Lluís Pons Llobet and Santi Soler and tortured them to get information about the MIL’s meeting place. One of them couldn’t take it and ended up giving the information, which led to the police ambushing Xavier Garriga and Salvador Puig Antich in the bar where they usually met. Xavier and Salvador managed to run away, but during the melee, Puig Antich was injured and deputy inspector Francisco Anguas Barragán was shot to death. There are still different explanations of what happened at that time; independent researchers suggest the policeman died from shots fired both by his own colleagues and by Puig Antich.

But his defense that his own gun discharged only as he was beaten senseless by the gendarmes never had a chance, since before his tribunal took place, however, the Spanish Prime Minister Carrero Blanco was assassinated by Basque ETA (Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna) separatists, and in the subsequent desire for revenge on the part of the authorities, together with a summary military trial that lasted only one-day that was full of irregularities,and Puig Antich was condemned to death for killing a public servant "for political reasons"..

Despite an international solidarity movement against Puig Antich's death penalty,he became a scapegoat for a regime that wanted to prove it's authority and he was executed by garrote on March 2, 1974,aged 25 setting off protests and strikes in Barcelona, foreshadowing the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975 and helping Spain transition to democracy.

The same day,  a vagrant called Georg Michael Welzel, from Cottbus (then GDR), was executed in Tarragona, charged for killing a policeman. He was known as Heinz Ches because he declared it was his name and to be Polish, from Szczecin. The execution of Georg Michael Welzel, a common criminal, was seen as an intent of Francoist regime to downplay the importance of the execution of a political activist like Puig Antich.

Puig Antich’s subsequent execution turned him into an icon for Catalan supporters of independence and he has become a hero and a symbol of rebellion and  has since become the subject of books, plays and films, as well as providing inspiration for top Catalan artists.

Catalan painters Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies both alluded to Puig Antich's execution in their mid-1970s work Miró's The Hope of a Condemned Man triptych features a line that "sighs and falls with faltering resignation" and flicked paint. Tàpies's Assassins lithograph series, presented at the Parisian Galerie Maeght, too was inspired by Puig Antich's execution and Spanish politics.

A  powerful 2006 biographical film, Salvador manages to  conveys a picture of an exciting, charismatic  militant, while also painting an  intriqing picture of Spanish history.This film is in fact two movies. the first one tells Puig Antich's life and explains how he became involved in the resistance against Franco's dictatorship. and his beginnings in the criminal life. This way, the movie doesn't try to make him like a saint, which he wasn't but at same time justifies him somehow, realistically showing the cruelty and repression that took place at the time.

The other movie tells of his last 12 hours. the relationship with his family. his friends and his enemies and his cruel execution.

An effort by family members and outside groups to review Puig Antich's case was rejected by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2007, but an Argentinian judge adopted the case along with several others under universal jurisdiction in 2013  Imma Puig said: "Salvador insisted that he didn't want to be a martyr for any cause." His other sister, Carmen, added: "Our wounds are still open and will be until the case is reopened and justice is done."

Miró's The Hope of a Condemned Man 

In Celebration of St David's Day/ Dydd Gŵyl Dewi

It's become a bit of a tradition to mark the very special occasion of St David's Day/ Dydd Gŵyl Dewi, which celebrates my nations patron saint.Today we, as a country. come together to celebrate our culture. history and everything that makes us proud to be Welsh.

As with St. Patrick’s Day, the Welsh have parades in their major cities, where you’ll see the traditional dress and the red dragon proudly on display on the Welsh flag, or the flag of St. David himself, a yellow cross on a black background,alongside the wearing of one or both of Wales’s national emblems, the daffodil and leek.

This is because the daffodil begins to bloom early in the year around this time, and the ancient tradition of eating and wearing leeks on St David’s Day supposedly goes back to the 6th century. It is said that St David told Welsh warriors to wear leeks in their helmets in battle against the despised Saxons to differentiate themselves from their enemies,  and that the leeks won them victory. This is pure legend of course, but soon the association between leeks and war was firmly cemented in the Welsh mind. In the 14th century Welsh archers adopted green and white for their uniform in honour of the leek. And to this day the Royal Welch Fusiliers uphold the tradition of eating raw leeks on 1 March.

Welsh women will often dress in their national finery. The Welsh dress was a traditional farming dress with an apron topped with a distinctive tall Welsh hat. It was worn on special occasions such as going to church, and today it is kept for celebrations such as St. David’s Day parades.

 Schools across Wales hold celebrations, with a number of children dressing in traditional costume – a black hat with white trim; long skirts and shawls. Many boys, meanwhile, will wear a Welsh rugby or football shirt. Schools across the country will also hold an Eisteddfod (a traditional festival of Welsh poetry and music) on this day.

St David’s status as a modern national icon is a good example of how easily myth can trump historical evidence (or rather the lack of it). He lived and died fifteen hundred years ago, during a period of Welsh history often referred to as ‘the Age of the Saints’. The fifth and sixth centuries saw an intense bout of religious activity in Wales as holy men like David preached the word of God, founded churches and, if the monkish historians of the Middle Ages are to be believed, performed all manner of miracles.

Yet we have very little reliable information about who St David was, what he did, or even when exactly he lived. It seems likely that his fame stemmed from the establishment of a monastery in modern-day Pembrokeshire in the late sixth century – a settlement which we know today as the cathedral-city of St Davids. However the earliest direct references to him are found in manuscripts dating from the eighth century, almost 200 years after his death, so it is difficult to be sure about much else.

Luckily the Welsh have never been inclined to let a lack of evidence get in the way of a good story. While little is known  about his life, much of the traditional tales about St David are based on Buchedd Dewi (Life of David), which was written by the scholar Rhigyfarch at the end of the 11th Century.

Rhygyfarch's life of St David is regarded by many scholars as suspect because it contains many implausible events and because he had a stake in enhancing St David's history so as to support the prestige of the Welsh church and its independence from Canterbury, the center of the English church (still Catholic at the time). According to David Hugh Farmer in The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Rhygyfarch's history of St David "should be treated as propaganda, which may, however, contain some elements of true tradition." So most of what we know about Saint David is really legend; and none the less inspiring for it.

St David's existence at least does not seem to be in doubt; it is attested to in written records from earlier dates. He was born in the 6th century in or around South Cardigan and North Pembrokeshire in what is now southwest Wales, the exact year of his birth is unknown, with estimates ranging from 462 to 515 AD.  Born into local royalty, his mother was Saint Non, daughter of a Celtic chieftain, a  woman of great beauty and virtue.St David's father was a prince called Sant, son of the King of Cardigan But David wasn't the child of a love-filled marriage. He was concieved after his father either seduced or raped Non, who went on to become a nun.

St David's greatness was prophesied, both in the Christian and pagan worlds. Merlin, the great mage at the court of King Arthur, foretold his coming. St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, who at that time lived near St Davids, or Mynyw as it was then known, is said to have wanted to found a monastery nearby, but was told by an angel that the place was reserved for another who would appear in due course. St Patrick’s disappointment was soothed by a vision which showed him that his true vocation lay in Ireland. St Davids father, was also warned by an angel that he would find three treasures by the River Teifi in Cardiganshire, which should be set aside for his son; a stag, a salmon and a swarm of bees. These seemingly strange gifts each had a great significance. The stag, said to eat snakes, represents Christianity's conquering Satan (the serpent); the fish represents Saint David's abstinence from liquor; and the bees represent his wisdom and spirituality.

Even from his birth strange things have been said about St David. It is said he was born in a wild thunderstorm, the birthing process was said to have been so intense and fraught that his mothers fingers left marks as she grasped a rock. As St David was born a bolt of lightning from heaven is said to have struck the rock, splitting it in two and at the moment of birth a spring of pure water gushed out of the ground. A blind old man who held St David at the baptism had his sight restored by applying this remarkable water to his eyes. This is one of the colourful stories about the childhood of Dewi Sant.

Non named her son Dewidd, though local Dyfed pronunciation meant he was commonly called Dewi. David is an Anglicised variation of the name derived from the Latin Davidus.

Brought up by his mother in Henfeynyw near Aberaeron, David is said to have been baptised at nearby Porthclais by St Elvis of Munster. It is said that a blind monk, Movi, was cured after drops of water splashed into his eyes as he held David.

St David was educated at a monastery, usually taken to be Whitland in Carmarthenshire, under St Paulinus of Wales. He is said to have cured his tutor of blindness by making the sign of the cross. Seeing him as blessed, Paulinus sent him off as a missionary to convert the pagan people of Britain. Having chosen life as a missionary monk,he travelled to France, Ireland, and the Middle East to learn and to proselytize and went from place to place helping the poor, and teaching men to live as he did and is known for converting his countrymen to Christianity.

It is said  that once when St David  was preaching at a large outdoor gathering, in Llanddewi Brefi people complained they couldn’t hear or see him  until a white dove landed on St David’s shoulder, and as it did, the ground on which he stood rose up to form a hill, making it possible for everyone to see and hear him , both near and far off, where a church now stands. The dove became his emblem often appearing in his portraits and on stained-glass windows depicting him. Doves are considered pure due to their typical role as a messenger or a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

There are many other stories about the man, no one can actually tell if any of them are actually true or not but create a nice tale to tell nevertheless. It is also said that he once rose a youth from death, and milestones during his life were marked by the appearance of springs of water.

In 550 AD, St David was named the Archbishop of Wales at the Synod of Brefi church council and stayed in the settlement of Mynyw and set up a large monastery. David was a bit of a disciplinarian and hard task masker, but the monks in this monastery  obeyed him and lived a simple life, drinking water and eating only herbs and bread. He became known as Dewi Dyrfwr (David the water drinker) as meat and beer were forbidden. Although the monks farmed the surrounding land, St David insisted that they did not use animals to carry their tools,and they were to carry them. Also none of the monks were allowed any personal possessions and they spent evenings praying, reading and writing.

Eventually became so unpopular with his monks for the life of austerity he made them live, that they tried to poison him. St David was informed about this by St Scuthyn, who as legend says, presumably in the absence of a ferry or a Ryanair flight, travelled from Ireland on the back of a sea-monster for the purpose.

He frequently visited other places in South Wales, and churches were afterwards built in  many of these villages in memory of him.  A legend says that he once went to Jerusalem with two companions, St Teilo https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/02/st-teilos-day-dydd-sadwrn-teilo.html?m=1 and St Padarn. The three left Wales together "with one mind, one joy, and one sorrow." When after a hard journey they arrived at Jerusalem they were received with joy and hospitality, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem gave St David, before he returned to Wakes, a remarkable bell which " shone with miracles," a staff, and a coat woven with gold. 

His last words to his followers before his death are thought to have been: "Be joyful, keep the faith and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do." The phrase gwenwch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd - 'Do the little things in life' - is still a well-known phrase in Wales. 

Here I offer you this beautiful song from Bob Delyn a'r Ebillion called Pethau Bychain Dewi Sant ( St David's Little Things) from the album Dore.

 

Geriau/ Words

Pethau bychain Dewi Sant
nid swn tan ond swn tant.
Nid derw mawr ond adar mân,
nid haul a lleuad ond gwreichion tân.

Ond o, dyna chi strach, trio cael hyd i sach
 i gadw'r holl bethau bach.

 Pethau bychain Dewi Sant,
 y ll'godan ond nid yr eliffant.
 A darnau'r gwlith nid dwr y moroedd,
 ond yn y briga', stwr y mae.

 Ond o, dyna chi strach, trio cael hyd i sach
 i gadw'r holl bethau bach.

 Pethau bychain Dewi Sant,
swn 'yn traed ni yn y nant.
Yr hada' yn disgyn yma a thraw,
a'r tamad, y tamad ola' o wenith yn dy law.

Ond o, dyna chi strach,
trio cael hyd i sach i gadw'r holl bethau bach.

Map y byd yn llyfr y plant,
pethau bychain Dewi Sant.

Y pellter sydd rhwng dant a dant ar ol nawdeg naw a chant
 pethau bychain Dewi Sant.

Ond o, dyna chi strach,
 trio cael hyd i sach i gadw'r holl bethau bach.

English Translation Lyrics:

St David's little things,
not the sound of fire
but the sound of chords.
Not a large oak but small birds,
not the sun and moon but the sparks of fire.

But oh, what a hassle it is to try and find a sack
to keep all of the little things.

St David's little things,

the mouse but not the eliphant.

And the dew drops, not the water of the seas,
but in the branches, uproar is found

But oh, what a hassle it is to try and find
a sack to keep all of the little things.

St David's little things,
the sound of our footsteps in the stream.
The seeds fall here and there,
and the scrap, the last scrap of wheat in your palm.

But oh, what a hassle it is to try and find a sack
to keep all of the little things.

The world's atlas in a children's book,
St David's little things.

The distance between a tooth and a tooth between ninety nine and a hundred - St David's little things. But oh, what a hassle it is to try and find
a sack to keep all of the little things.

 St David is also said to have lived for over 100 years, and some say, hold your breathe, to the age of 142 or 147 (his clean living ways, sure must have helped him) and died on Tuesday 1 March 589, in the week after his final sermon. He was buried in the grounds of his monastery, which was said to have been "filled with angels as Christ received his soul". 

 Mynyw is now known as St David’s, the UK’s smallest city (,near the southwestern tip of Pembrokeshire.) in his honour. The monastery has since become the magnificent St David’s Cathedral and was a prestigious site of pilgrimage in the middle ages and is still a site of immense interest to this day. It is said by some that two pilgrimages to St Davids are equal to one pilgrimage to the Vatican in Rome. His shrine  became so famous that three English monarchs - William 1, Henry 11 and Edward 1 are said to have made pilgramages to it.  

 

 

St David’s Day has been celebrated in Wales on 1st March since the 12th Century when David was made a saint by Pope Callixtus II, at the height of the Welsh resistance to the Normans. You will find churches and chapels dedicated to him in south-west England and Brittany, as well as Wales. His influence also reached Ireland, where the Irish embrace his beliefs about caring for the natural world.

The nickname ‘Taffy’ for a Welshman links back to St David as the original and ultimate Welshman – the term dates to the 17th century and derives from ‘Dafydd’, the Welsh for David.William Shakespeare name-dropped St David in Henry V. When Fluellen’s English colleague, Pistol, insults the humble leek on St David’s Day, Fluellen insists he eat the national emblem as punishment: “If you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek” (Act V, Scene I).

Whatever the true story of Dewi Sant is , there is no doubt that he was indeed a figure of much historical and spiritual significance that still carries with him much importance to the people of Wales today,  a cheerful and celebratory day as my country comes together in honour of their patron saint to celebrate Welsh history, culture, and identity with pride.

In 2000 the National Assembly for Wales voted unanimously to make St David’s Day on the 1st March a bank holiday.to celebrate out patron saint just like they do in the Republic of Ireland and Scotland, but sadly the idea was rejected by Westminster, surprise, surprise. Nevertheless, St David’s position as the patron saint of Wales has only grown stronger since then, with parades and concerts now a staple part of the festivities each year.

To conclude this post and mark Saint David’s Day this year, I share the following moving poem Rhyfel (War) in both English and Welsh by the Welsh language poet/ pacifist Ellis Humphrey Evans, better known by his bardic pen name Hedd Wyn. (Blessed Peace).https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/07/remembering-pacifist-poet-hedd-wynn_42.html It is one of his best known and most frequently quoted works in which he interweaves ideas about faith, music, class and conflict in a lament for the brutality and devastation caused by the First World War. This time of the year also serves to remind me that the miracle of spring is just around the corner.Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus i bawb /Happy Saint David’s Day to you all. Heddwch/ Peace.

 War (Rhyfel) by Hedd Wyn

English translation by Gillian Clarke

Bitter to live in times like these.
While God declines beyond the seas;
Instead, man, king or peasantry,
Raises his gross authority.

When he thinks God has gone away
Man takes up his sword to slay
His brother; we can hear death’s roar.
It shadows the hovels of the poor.

Like the old songs they left behind,
We hung our harps in the willows again.
Ballads of boys blow on the wind,
Their blood is mingled with the rain.

Original Welsh poem by Hedd Wyn

Gwae fi fy myw mewn oes mor ddreng,
A Duw ar drai ar orwel pell;
O’i ôl mae dyn, yn deyrn a gwreng,
Yn codi ei awdurdod hell.

Pan deimlodd fyned ymaith Dduw
Cyfododd gledd i ladd ei frawd;
Mae sŵn yr ymladd ar ein clyw,
A’i gysgod ar fythynnod tlawd.

Mae’r hen delynau genid gynt,
Ynghrog ar gangau’r helyg draw,
A gwaedd y bechgyn lond y gwynt,
A’u gwaed yn gymysg efo’r glaw.

Links to a few earlier St David's Day/  Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Posts

Gillian Clarke - Miracle on St David's David's Day 

 https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2013/03/gillian-clarke-8637-miracle-on-st.html

The Praise of St David's Day Showing the reason why the Welch -men Honour the Leeke on this Day 

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-praise-of-st-davids-day-showing.html

Evan James (Ieuan ap Iago) An Ivorite song to be sung to the tune of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2014/03/evan-james-ieuan-ap-iago-1809-2091878.html

Harri Webb -  The Red , White and Green

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/03/harri-webb-7920-311294-red-white-and.html

The Welsh Language - Alan Llwyd

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-welsh-language-alan-llwyd-b1948.html

 

Remembering occupation of Wounded Knee and continuing injustice of Leonard Peltier

On 27 Feb 1973 armed Native American activists occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in protest at corruption and US treaty breaches with Native Americans. Despite state  violence and killings they held out for 71 days and galvanising huge support which saw.within days, hundreds of activists joining them for what became a 71-day standoff with the U.S. government and  law enforcement. agencies.

It was the fourth protest in as many years for AIM the American Indian Movement. The organization formed in the late 1960s and drew international attention with the occupation of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay from 1969-1971. In 1972, the Trail of Broken Treaties brought a cross-country caravan of hundreds of Indigenous activists to Washington, D.C., where they occupied the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters for six days.

Then, on Feb. 6, 1973, AIM members and others gathered at the courthouse in Custer County, South Dakota, to protest the killing of Wesley Bad Heart Bull, who was Oglala Lakota, and the lenient sentences given to some perpetrators of violence against Native Americans. When they were denied access into the courthouse, the protest turned violent, with the burning of the local chamber of commerce and other buildings. Three weeks later, AIM leaders took over Wounded Knee.

Initially provoked by the corruption of the Government's approved tribal governance , their goal too was to protest injustices against their tribes, and the many violations of various treaty's with the United States  government and current abuses and repression against their people. In the 2 years prior to the confrontation more than 60 Indians at the Pine Ridge reservation had been killed, without anyone having been bought to justice for their crimes.

Within days, hundreds of activists had joined them for what became a 71-day standoff with the U.S. government and other law enforcement agencies.

The occupation  was symbolically located at  Wounded Knee because it  was the site of a US government massacre of 300 Lakota in 1880. In addition to its historical significance, Wounded  Knee was one of the poorest communities in the United States and shared with the other Pine Ridge settlements some of the country's lowest rates of life expectancy.

The actions of AIM was acclaimed  by many Native Americans, but the 200 activists from AIM soon faced a federal government force including Marshalls, the FBI  and the Nebraska National Guard who responded to the occupation with a full scale military style assault. In the resulting melee two federal agents were shot along with two brave warriors - Buddy Lamont and Frank Clearwater - died during the siege, where over 200,000 rounds of ammunition were fired at the protestors. Also 2 federal agents had been shot during the standoff. This use of military force by the federal government was later ruled to be unlawful.

 

 

After AIM's eventual surrender Leonard Peltier, a member of the Lakota Ogkla Sioux was arrested and charged  with the murder of the two FBI agents on the  flimsiest off evidence who had been asked by the traditional people at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, to come and help protect these people from violence and to protect the peoples land  from mining operators,for uranium. In the two years prior  to the confrontation more than 60 native Americans at the Pine Ridge Reservation had been killed, without anyone being brought to justice for their crimes.

Leonard Peltier is now one of American society's  longest serving political prisoners and is considered to be the Native American peoples  own Nelson Mandela, who though admitting to being there at the time, to help protect his community from continuing violence, has always proclaimed his innocence of actually shooting anyone.

Though out the world this man 'dubbed' the Nelson Mandela of North America is considered a political prisoner. With the support of AIM (The American Indian Movement), Amnesty International, global religious and political leaders, as well as over 20 million individuals, Peltier continues to fight not only for personal freedom but for justice for all Native Americans.

 

He was never given a fair trial, faced with an all white jury,federal authorities quashed or destroyed thousands of pages of evidence which would have led to his freedom.The ballistic evidence was deeply flawed, and no real links  to identify  Mr Peltier with the murder.
.He has continued to be a victim of the racism and corruption embedded in the US criminal justice system. But Leonard Peltier is not simply a victim, he is also a fighter, writer, activist, grandfather, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and was the Presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party in 2004 whose spirit refuses to be beaten. Leonard his friends family and comrades have fought over the years for real justice to be done. In the years since his conviction, millions upon millions of people around the world have come  to learn of his case, agree that he is innocent and demand his freedom. His  most recent petition for release on parole was denied in 2009, and I understand that  he is not eligible for consideration for parole again until 2024.

 Over the years he has become a model prisoner, still proclaiming his innocence,  his commitment to his fellow  Native American rights undimmed, he spends his time concentrating on art and writing ..Peltier, who is currently detained in Coleman, Florida, has spent  over 40 years in maximum security, despite multiple recommendations to lower his prisoner classification, so that he can be transferred to a less restrictive prison closer to his family, have all been rejected.It is time to free him now. 

http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info 

 

 

                                       
                                           Leonard Peltier

One who goes his own way

 

Poem loosely inspired by painting above which is called 'One who goes his own way' by German artist Hans Dieter 1861- 1968

I am who I am

Who else could I be,

I won't conform

To consensus reality,

These are my thoughts

Releases of self identity.

I will never lie

Falter from my ideals,

I have flaws

Some are my fault,

Many are not

Got capacity to change.

Sometimes mad

Can seem crazy,

A bender of rules

Following own path,

Drinking. smoking

Mind bending, shifting.

With consciousness rising

Emotions, feelings woken,

Mind really free and open

Often will be very unspoken,

Having been beaten and broken

Can't allow pride to be stolen.

Being blunt hate bullies

Voices of Fascists and Tories,

Cries of injustice of any genders

Pain caused by their tormenters, 

Prejudice and discrimination

Passivity devoid of reason.

Misconceptions felt in the dark

Labels that have left heavy mark,

Perceived to be half-baked, lazy

Lacking moral credibility.

Don't try to judge or misconstrue

Please accept my human nature.

Containing light that shines

Wanting to brighten days,

I can be a decent friend

Offer kindness, compassion,

Unless pushed too far

Driven close to the edge.

We are all different

With our own realities, 

Uniqueness of perception

Routes of variable direction,

So follow your own blazing star

I will carry on chasing mine.

Remembering the life of Revolutionary Black Panther Huey P Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989)

Huey Percy Newton was an American revolutionary and political activist who was born on February 17, 1942 in Monroe, Louisiana the youngest of Walter Newton and Armelia Johnson’s seven children. Walter Newton was a Baptist preacher, sharecropper, and, at one time or another, worker in the local sawmills and sugarcane mills. He co-founded the Black Panther Party, a Marxist-Leninist political organisation, that played a pivotal role in the 1960'-70's  in defending Black communities against discrimination and the harsh economic and social conditions these communities faced in the US.

Long an iconic figure for radicals, Huey Newton is now being discovered by those interested in the history of America's social movements and since its Black History month I figured it be a good  idea to give some insight on who Huey was and who the Panthers were.

Newton and his  family moved to Oakland, California, in his childhood because of the racial discrimination against Black communities in the Southern states.As Newton later recalled in his autobiography, Oakland was subdivided into two worlds where radically different class realities seemed to be sculpted into the local topography. The hills and the affluent area known as Piedmont were the exclusive enclaves of the white middle classes and the wealthy. “The other Oakland—the flatlands,” Newton wrote, “consists of substandard income families that make up about 50 per cent of the population of nearly 450,000. They live in either rundown, crowded West Oakland or dilapidated East Oakland, hemmed in block after block, in ancient, decaying structures, now cut up into multiple dwellings.” 

Newton had a difficult childhood and was arrested many times as a teenager for minor crimes, such as vandalism or gun possession. In school Newton struggled with disciplinary problems, reading, and his teachers’ racist low expectations, and when he graduated from high school he was functionally illiterate. With the help of his older brother Melvin, he taught himself to read. His path to literacy and intellectual life was similar to Malcolm X’s: a combination of crude methods, self-discipline, the solitude of the prison cell, and ultimately the camaraderie and lively debates of the various political study groups he encountered after enrolling at Oakland City College in 1959.

Newton was a voracious reader, and during his tenure at the  college, he read the works of Marx, Lenin, Malcolm X, and other communist thinkers and civil rights leaders and he became involved in politics, joining a handful of Black organisations and partnerships.He developed a Marxist/Leninist view of the Black community. He saw Black people as a community controlled by the police, white business people, and local authorities. Following his Marxist-Leninist approach, he believed that the Black community should empower themselves and seize control of the oppressing institutions.

 In October 1966, he founded, along with Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party of Self-Defense.Seale and Newton had become  friends  with at college. They started working with the Afro-American Association to organise students and demand representation on Pioneer Day.The duo later joined more radical organisations, such as the Maoist Revolutionary Movement. Both wanted to create a new way of doing Black politics.

Together Seale and Newton wrote the doctrines that formed the Black Panther's Ten-Point Program which encompassed  the founders' 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) It also called for an end to economic exploitation of Black communities, along with military exemption.

The organization itself was not afraid to punctuate its message with dramatic appearances. For example, to protest a gun bill in 1967, members of the Panthers entered the California Legislature armed. (Newton actually wasn't present at the demonstration.) The action was a shocking one that made news across the country, and Newton emerged as a leading figure in the Black militant movement.

Seale was one of the “Chicago Eight” (later the Chicago Seven), a group of activists who protested against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic Convention and were accused of conspiracy and inciting a riot in the Convention.

The movie “Chicago 7” recalls the trial of these activists and received an Oscar Nomination in 2021.

Newton's role in the Black Panther Party was the Minister of Defense and ideologist. The slogan of the movement was “freedom by any means necessary”.

The Black Panthers arose out of the radicalizing Black freedom movement, inspired by the surging anti-imperialist and socialist movements around the world. The party's original purpose was to protect African American communities from police brutality, arming patrols who would oversee black neighbourhoods, but eventually called for arms to every member of the black community and called on the government to exclude black people from the Army's draft.and upholding the right of armed self-defense. They burst onto the scene and inspired a generation of young people to move toward revolution and socialism.

Newton would frequent pool halls, campuses, bars and other locations deep in the black community where people gathered in order to organize and recruit for the Panthers. While recruiting, Newton sought to educate those around him about the legality of self-defense. One of the reasons, he argued, why black people continued to be persecuted was their lack of knowledge of the social institutions that could be made to work in their favor. In Newton's autobiography, Revolutionary Suicide, he writes, "Before I took Criminal Evidence in school, I had no idea what my rights were." Newton also wrote in his autobiography, "I tried to transform many of the so-called criminal activities going on in the street into something political, although this had to be done gradually." He attempted to channel these "daily activities for survival" into significant community actions.

Newton led the Black Panther Party to found more than 60 social programs for Black communities, such as medical clinics, legal advice seminars and even an ambulance service.The Black Panthers quickly expanded to many cities in the US, such as Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit. In 1967, the organisation had over 10,000 members in 68 chapters across the United States. 

The Black Panthers wanted to improve life in Black communities and took a stance against police brutality in urban neighborhoods by mostly white cops. Members of the group would go to arrests in progress and watch for abuse. Panther members ultimately clashed with police several times and faced severe repression from the FBI's insidious COINTELPRO program, which sought to break apart many of the powerful civil rights and Black activist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover reportedly caused dissent and unrest between the Black Panthers and other Black nationalist groups. Revolutionary ideas and socialist movements were seen as a significant national security threat in the United States. Dozens of activists were arrested and beaten in the protests at that time.Hoover described the Panthers as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country” and in November 1968 ordered the FBI to employ “hard-hitting counter-intelligence measures to cripple the Black Panthers” Also, many leftist organisations were infiltrated by the FBI to be undermined. The Black Panther party's treasurer, Bobby Hutton, was killed while still a teenager during one of these conflicts in 1968.

Newton himself was arrested the previous year for allegedly killing an Oakland police officer during a traffic stop. He was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to two to 15 years in prison. But public pressure — "Free Huey" became a popular slogan of the day — helped Newton's cause. He was freed in 1970 after an appeals process deemed that incorrect deliberation procedures had been implemented during the trial.

The global success of the Black Panther resulted in many opportunities for Newton. For example, Newton visited China in 1970. He was welcomed by large crowds of Chinese people who supported the Black Power movement and criticised American imperialism.

After being released from prison Newton renounced political violence. Over a six year period 24 Black Panthers had been killed in gun fights with the police. Another member, George Jackson, was killed while in San Quentin prison in August, 1971.

In the 1970s, Newton aimed to take the Panthers in a new direction that emphasized democratic socialism, community interconnectedness and services for the poor, including items like free lunch programs and urban clinics but by the mid-1970s, factionalism began to tear the Black Panthers apart. Newton wanted an approach favouring gradual social change, while other members wanted to build relationships with foreign revolutionary movements.By 1980, the Panthers were a former shadow of themselves. Much of what the group stood for had been rendered unrecognizable by bouts of infighting and a general shift in public perception of the group. There were also some Panthers who were allegedly involved in criminal activity, using the group to mask their intentions.

While Newton is primarily known for his activism, some controversies surrounded him. In 1974, Newton was accused of killing a sex worker. That led him to exile to Cuba in 1973 to avoid prosecution. Though he stood trial for the murder in 1977 and was acquitted in 1978, other accusations of violence persisted. 

Huey Newton returned to college and earned a PhD in Social Philosophy at the University of California in 1980. In his final years, however, he suffered from major drug/alcohol problems and faced more prison time for weapons possession, financial misappropriations and parole violations.In 1982, Newton was charged with stealing $600,000 of state funds that was supposed to go to the Oakland Community School. As the case went on, Newton disbanded the Black Panther Party. The charges were dropped six years later, and Newton took a plea deal.

The once popular revolutionary died on August 22, 1989, in Oakland, California, after being shot on the street by  a member of the Black Guerrilla Family that had clashed with the Panthers over the decades.

His rhetoric and political courage had inspired thousands to stand against war, racism, and imperialism, and yet at other moments he succumbed to personal acts of brutality and self-destruction. Newton's funeral was held at Allen Temple Baptist Church. Some 1,300 mourners were accommodated inside, and another 500 to 600 listened to the service from outside. Newton's achievements in civil rights and work on behalf of Black children and families with the Black Panther Party were celebrated. Newton's body was cremated, and his ashes were interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland.

Whatever mistakes he made during his time as leader of the Black Panther Party do not outweigh his great achievements and contributions to the historic struggle for social liberation. for this I remember him. Newton and the Panthers deserve to be studied and debated because so much of their analysis and political practice addressed ghettoization, racist policing and incarceration, mass unemployment, and failing schools, problems that defined the urban crisis of the 1960s and have grown more intense and graver in our own times.

Few organizations from the Black Power era are as venerated as the Black Panther Party. Their courageous words and deeds have grown more radical as American life has become more conservative, and as the very social contradictions they attempted to address have expanded in scale and consequences. Their survival programs, armed patrols, popular education campaigns, and revolutionary aspirations continue to resonate in a context where urban poverty, police brutality, crime, and neoliberalism produce heartache within black working-class life and across U.S. society.

Newton had published a memoir/manifesto Revolutionary Suicide in 1973, with Hugh Pearson later writing the 1994 biography The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America. Newton's story was later depicted in the 1996 one-man play Huey P. Newton, starring Roger Guenveur Smith. A 2002 filmed presentation of the project was created by Spike Lee, and documentarian Stanley Nelson looked at the history of the Panthers in the 2015 film The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.

The following poem was written was written for Huey P. Newton by  the late Tupac Shakur whose mother was in the black panthers.

 

Fallen Star: Dedicated to Huey P.Newton - Tupac Shakur

 

They could never understand
what u set out 2 do
instead they chose 2
ridicule u

when u got weak
they loved the sight
of your dimming
and flickering starlight

How could they understand what was so intricate
2 be loved by so many, so intimate
they wanted 2 c your lifeless corpse
this way u could not alter the course
of ignorance that they have set
2 make my people forget

what they have done
for much 2 long 2 just forget and carry on
I had loved u forever because of who u r
and now I mourn our fallen star.

 

Huey Newton Interview on his book  Revolutionary Suicide (1972)

 

 

Keep Dancing Without Chains

( For Dimlo)

Last weekend we celebrated a brother

Forgot  differences  of  opinion,

As we swayed in dance rhythm 

To dub techno psychedelic vibration

Acoustic magical notation

Trance drumming of deep devotion

On dancefloor all equal

In ocean of  glorious sound

Leaving  behind  inhibition

There is something amazing about this

The resonance off holy music

That continues to keep spinning

Allows us to  carry on smiling

Love  that will always sustain us

Take us  to another dimension

On a trail of time and  truth

Ecstatic healing inclination

Of deep stimulating elevation.

Love Conquers Hate

Valentine's Day is a time to celebrate romance and love  But the origins of this festival are actually  rather dark. From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain.Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them.. They believed this would make them fertile.

The ancient Romans may also be responsible for the name of our modern day of love. Emperor Claudius II executed two men , both named Valentine. on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day. The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be coupled up for the duration of the festival, or longer, if the match was right. 

Later, Pope Gelasius I muddled things in the 5th century by combining St. Valentine's Day with Lupercalia to expel the pagan rituals. But the festival was more of a theatrical interpretation of what it had once been. Around the same time, the Normans celebrated Galatin's Day. Galatin meant "lover of women." That was likely confused with St. Valentine's Day at some point, in part because they sound alike.  

As the years went on, the holiday grew sweeter. Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized it in their work, and it gained popularity throughout Britain and the rest of Europe. Handmade paper cards became the tokens-du-jour in the Middle Ages. Eventually, the tradition made its way to the New World. The industrial revolution ushered in factory-made cards in the 19th century. And in 1913, Hallmark Cards of Kansas City, Mo., began mass producing valentines. February has not been the same since and today, this commercialization has spoiled the day for many.

Despite all this I am  reminded by Martin Luther King Jr that .“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that” Hate can fog visions, making people do unforgettable things, killing people for example. 

The events in Knowsley last Friday night were horrific and inevitable.  A large group of far-right rioters gathered outside a hotel where people who are going through the asylum system are living. The group was extremely hostile and violent, setting a police van on fire. The residents of the hotel, looking on to these scenes, were of course terrified, especially after many of them had already fled unimaginable violence.  For years, people in positions of power have been warned that the words they use will increase the number and severity of racist attacks against refugees.

The dehumanising language of hate, racism and hostility used by the Government, its ministers, and its departments against refugees is fuelling far-right violence against people who have asked us for safety.  What happened in Knowsley is a direct result of the dehumanising language used by the government and in particular by the Home Secretary in the House of Commons.

This language is used daily by MPs and Ministers to target migrants and people seeking asylum. They are all too happy to whip up hate and then identify the hotels where people, including men, women and children, are living. This recklessness is putting lives at risk. The Government must stop empowering the far right with its language and policies. If they do not, the consequences could be fatal.  The Nationality and Borders Bill has further bolstered this hostile agenda and it is  anticipated that the new legislation announced by Rishi Sunak before Christmas will only make this hostility worse.

The crisis in the asylum system was entirely designed by the Government prioritising deterrence and cruelty rather than a workable system grounded in compassion.  We know that neither these attacks nor the governments overwhelmingly hostile narrative reflect what most people in the UK believe.

So  let us not let the forces of darkness, fear and hate overcome, remember that Love Conquers hate. Racism breeds hate and separation in the world  and  leads to much anger and people being killed. Love is the answer because  it conquers all fear. Lets live like brothers and sisters. Roses are red, violets are blue  refugees are welcome here. .

'30p Lee' Anderson becomes Tory deputy chairman

'30p Lee'' Anderson, the 56 year old  ex miner and Tory MP for Ashfield  has become the Deputy Chairman of the party, five years after defecting from Labour who he represented as a councillor before he went on to serve as a Tory councillor in Mansfield and just over three years after his election to the seat. despite being known for a number of unsavoury things he has said and done.. 

He defected after he was suspended by his local group for placing concrete blocks to stop travellers illegally camping in a car park.  Discussing his change of party, he has blamed a ‘takeover’ of Labour by the ‘hard-left’ under former leader Jeremy Corbyn. 

In 2019, while on the campaign trail, he posted a video on social media where he criticised “nuisance tenants” in a council estate for “making people’s lives a complete misery”. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he went on to argue they should be be evicted and forced to live in tents in a field where they would pick vegetables. 

Around the same time, he and two other Conservative candidates became the subject of a party investigation after it was alleged that he was an active member of a Facebook group where members expressed support for far-right figure Tommy Robinson.

He will take his new position alongside new Tory chairman Greg Hands, who was given the job following the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi over his tax affairs.  Mr Anderson retweeted the announcement from the official Conservative Twitter account, saying: ‘Yes it’s true. From the pits to Parliament. Feeling very proud.’ 

Anderson is known as ' 30p Lee' because he claimed, to much shaking of heads, that people could feed themselves on 30p a day if they could budget and cook properly. Anderson revived the riff in January by posting a picture – two, in fact – that highlighted Tesco own brand “wheat biscuits”. “Just been asked for proof of a 30p breakfast. There you go,” he wrote, as others pointed out issues to do with nutrition (among others). 

Anderson is no stranger to controversy, who staged a door knock during the 2019 general election campaign.Journalist Michael Crick caught him getting one of his friends to pose as an anti-Labour swing voter. Anderson forgot he was wearing a live mic while he phoned his friend to set up the encounter to impress the reporter.  “Make out you know who I am... you know I’m the candidate, but not a friend, alright?,” Anderson was recorded saying as he spelled out instructions to his friend minutes before bringing the journalist to his door. 

After Anderson was elected, the controversies kept racking up. In 2021, he refused to watch the England team’s matches at the Euro 2020 tournament because players were taking the knee, an anti-racist gesture. He described Black Lives Matter as a “political movement whose core principles aim to undermine our very way of life”. 

Shortly afterwards, he hit out at the Traveller community in Ashfield, accusing them of stealing people’s lawnmowers and tools. 

Anderson has also spoken out against refugees. Speaking in the House of Commons, he suggested most who arrive in the UK via routes deemed “illegal” by the government are “economic migrants” rather than “genuine asylum seekers”

When told that the Home Office had concluded that the significant majority of those who arrive to the UK in boats are refugees, he said: “I think that is a fault of the old failing asylum system. When they get in they know how to fill the forms out.”  

In May  2022 he was slammed  after claiming there was no “massive use” for foodbanks in Britain and that people who relied on the service “cannot cook or budget properly.”Anderson then, invited the opposition benches in the Commons to visit a foodbank in his constituency to “see the brilliant scheme we have got in place: when people come for a food parcel, they have to register for a budgeting course and a cooking course.”

Labour’s shadow work and pensions minister Karen Buck said at the time that “out of touch” doesn’t even come close to describing his comments.

She said: “The idea that the problem is cooking skills and not 12 years of government decisions that are pushing people into extreme poverty is beyond belief.”

Anderson's comments came as economists warned that about 1.3 million households in Britain will struggle to pay their food and energy bills amid a deepening cost-of-living crisis.

To top all this in an interview with The Spectator magazine a few days before his appointment,  Anderson said he would support the UK reintroducing the death penalty because “nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed. You know that, don’t you? 100% success rate.  “Now I’d be very careful on that one because you’ll get the certain groups saying: “You can never prove it.” Well, you can prove it if they have videoed it and are on camera – like the Lee Rigby killers. I mean: they should have gone, same week. I don’t want to pay for these people.”   Anderson’s comments drew condemnation online, with one social media user commenting: “I see tory knuckle dragger Lee Anderson is now supporting the resurrection of the death penalty. Coupled with his demonisation of benefit claimants/travellers/refugees its obvious why Sunak apptd him, the tories are going low, deeper into the sewer, Anderson is their sewer rat..” 

Others have pointed out that Anderson is calling for the state execution of innocent people, because no conviction is ever utterly certain.  Rishi Sunak at least  immediately said Anderson’s views were not those of the government, slapping him down and creating a distraction from the important real news at the same time.

If the government wanted to distract attention from something, such as a former prime minister trying to make a comeback, or a different former prime minister being increasingly incriminated in a ‘jobs for favours’ scandal – it was probably mission accomplished for a while.

I guess Anderson actually is perfect for the job (a role of no great significance) because as an individual who seems to rejoice in deliberately  making provoking aggressive statements that fail to recognise the complexities facing the country at this present time. In fact while being a divisive ludicrous  right wing reactionary, he is in  no different to any other Tory, I sincerely hope that  his party are totally decimated at the upcoming local elections in May, it would be a really good wake up call for them .ahead of a national parliamentary election expected in 2024, when we get the much deserved change that we all deserve..

Beyond Avariciousness

Which way to go? the streets full of briar  

The world dripping in muck and mire,

We ride the winds. navigate the treadmills

Racing ahead against the drowning waves.

In search of survival, keep on resisting

Rising and falling, shrieking and calling,

As the 1% keep on exploiting the poor

In sadistical game of unwinding power.

Devoid of empathy or kindness

In soundless abundant darkness, 

With self centred purpose

Plundering and stealing plenty.

 

Syphoning money from corruption

Without fear of retribution,

Daily they gluttony feast and feed

In the name of avarice and greed.

Like their masters in government 

Releasing no amorous intent,

Expecting us to submit to poverty 

While they swallow all the honey. 

 

With grubby hands accrue

Making the air turn sour, 

Smugly carry on grinning  

Finding new depths to gouge.   

Bloated and wretched, milk the land

Crawling in deceit, shameless breath, 

Ugly toxicity of grandiose matter

Do not care who they displeasure..

Duplictiousness in nature 

Indifferent  towards morality, 

No redeeming features at all  

Time to put their backs against a wall.