Courage to Resist : Remembering Rachel Corrie killed in Gaza by the IDF 20 years ago

Twenty years ago this week on March 16th 2003 23 year old  American Evergreen  student and human rights activist Rachel Alleyene Corrie was murdered by  Israeli Defense Force bulldozers in Gaza while bravely non violently acting as a human shield against the demolition of Palestinian homes in the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza strip.

Born on April 10, 1979, in Olympia, Washington, Rachel Corrie had dedicated her life to human rights, defending Palestinian rights, in particular.

She was the youngest of three children of Craig and Cindy Corrie, who described their family as "average American, politically liberal, economically conservative and middle class."

 From a young age, she wrote poetry and recorded her thoughts in journals. She also had an awareness of suffering and injustice in the world. As a high school student, she spent six weeks in Russia as a foreign exchange student. This experience help continue her international outlook and her realization of how privileged her own upbringing was.

We have got to understand that people in third world countries think and care and smile and cry just like us.
We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs.
We have got to understand that they are us. We are them.

-poem written by Rachel Corrie at age 10

After high school, Rachel attended The Evergreen State College. She took a year off from her studies there to volunteer with the Washington State Conservation Corps. Corrie worked with patients in a mental hospital and continued visiting with them for three years.

After September 11, 2001, Rachel became involved in political activism. In her senior year of college, she set up a study abroad program in which she traveled to Rafah, a city in Gaza, to establish a relationship between her own city of Olympi and the city of Rafah.

Rachel worked with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). This organization, founded in 2001, is a Palestinian-led group committed to non-violently resisting the oppression and occupation of Palestinians. Much of Rachel Corrie’s work with ISM involved getting to know the people in this area and working to protect them. She sat with families in houses to protect them from demolition, sat in front of wells to protect them from being destroyed, and escorted children to school to keep them safe.

Rachel  was horrified at the destruction she witnessed. Homes were destroyed and people detained and killed on a daily basis. Rachel recorded what she observed and felt in letters and emails to her family that have since been collected in  Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie. . In one email she wrote,home, and internationals who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, wont make it.

 

" Now the Israeli army has actually dug up the road to Gaza, and both of the major checkpoints are closed. This means that Palestinians who want to go and register for their next quarter at university cant. People can't get to their jobs and those who are trapped on the other side can't get home, and internationals who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, wont make it. ""

 
In another email she wrote,

 

"Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom... Honestly a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence off the willful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me."

 

On 16 March 2003 in the Gaza Strip's southern city of Rafah, Rachel stood  before an Israeli bulldozer whilst wearing a bright orange fluoresent jacket and using a megaphone in hopes of stopping it from  demolishing the home of a local Palestinian  family.

Corrie believed that her foreign features and blonde hair would deter the bulldozer, but she was wrong. She was crushed to death when the bulldozer driver ran over her repeatedly, according to witnesses.

The people of Gaza received news of her murder with grief and horror, describing her as a "martyr "and staged a massive funeral for the American activist. Since then the name Rachel Corrie has become synonymous with the Palestinian cause, an icon of global solidarity withe the people of Palestine. Her name was chosen as the name for an Irish aid ship that set out to Gaza in 2010, while her story has been told in several documentary films  portraying Palestinian suffering. 

The play My name is Rachel Corrie first seen two years after her death, directed by Josh Roche and edited by the late Alan Rickman and Guardian newspaper editor Katharine Viner, gives a troubling account of an extraordinary young woman's overwhelming commitment to her cause,  the play darts through the diaries Corrie wrote from the age of 12 upwards. The form makes it potent, nothing if not honest. Diaries, being private, have no reason not to be. They're personal, not political, and whatever anyone makes of her standpoint, there's no denying what Corrie witnessed in Palestine  children growing up surrounded by shellfire, farms razed without warning, soldiers shooting at will. The play allows us to sense Rachel's solitude and sense of impending death. Yet her journal also records the beleaguered existence of people in the city of Rafah where countless homes have been bulldozed, many of those that survive have tank holes in the walls, and checkpoints that to this day prevent people getting to work or registering at university. The singer-songwriter Iris DeMent honoured her in a recent song as a 'warrior of love.' 

Near the home that Rachel was protesting to save, Palestinians launched an annual sports championship in her memory.

It was launched in 2010 by a football match between the two teams from that neighbourhood and evolved into an official championship with more than 32 competing sports teams from all parts of Gaza.

Nearly two decades on, the championship is still held every year with several sports including football, table tennis and martial arts, attended by thousands of Palestinians, according to Mohammad Gharib, the event's Information Coordinator.

Officials print and distribute posters, pictures and leaflets to tell Corrie's story, why she came to Gaza, and how she was killed, quoting her words on Palestinian rights.

These materials are put up in the streets and handed out to all the people who attend the game.

So today day I reflect upon Rachel's brave stand in Gaza and her courage to resist, and all  those who continue to live and struggle there. And all those passionate change makers across the globe who each day act with conscience and work tirelessly to try and make a difference.

Her name and memory are also present at the Return Social Centre, also known as the Rachel Corrie Centre, which serves tens of thousands of Palestinian women, children and teenagers with skills training programs, economic empowerment and psychological support, and as a safe space for victims of violation.

The Centre's administration also joins locals annually to honour the activist's bravery.

"Her family visited the Centre twice in the past several years and supported it. Now, we're keeping contact with them to make them feel how she is still in our minds," said Iyad Abu-Louli, the Director of the Centre.

It was named after her in 2004, due to her friendly relations with the Centre and its team members at the beginning of her stay in Gaza.
Justice has never been served for her, along with many others who have been killed under the Israeli occupation. In 2005 Rachel's parents filed a civil lawsuit against the the state of Israel. The lawsuit charged Israel with not conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and with responsibility for her death. They sued for a symbolic one U.S dollar in damages  to make the point that that the case was about justice for her daughter and the Palestinian cause, she had been defending. Charging Israel with not conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and with responsibility for her death.  In August 2012, an Israeli court  predictably rejected their suit.

Her death they said was a " regrettable accident " for which the state of Israel was not responsible. According to Judge Oded Gershon of Haifa Court she had " put herself in a dangerous situation " whilst dressed in a bright orange jacket  and acting as a human shield,  when she was crushed to death. Israel to all intents and purpose declared itself not guilty of her murder. giving its stamp of approval to the flawed and illegal practices of the Israeli military. the verdict  failed to hold Israel's military accountable for its continuing violation  of human rights. The ruling was slammed by human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as activists.
The home Rachel died trying to protect was razed to the ground, along with hundreds of others. and today Israel still acts with impunity, 20 years on Rachels parents  are continuing to fight for justice that will one day see the  prosecution of the people responsible for her death.

Remember there  is still no justice when Israel's courts show such contempt for justice's meaning. There is no justice either, when the Gaza strip remains a sealed open prison, there is no justice when countless Palestinian families  are made homeless, their houses destroyed. Where is the justice for them or their friends after the uneccessary death of their loved ones and there is no justice for the thousands of Palestinians regularly killed by the IDF. 

Remember that what is happening in Palestine is no inexplicable cycle of violence where each side is as bad as one another.It is no more than an equal  cycle of violence than that seen in apartheid South Africa. Being against this injustice is not anti-Jewish, as is standing up to the British Government's injustices is seen as being anti- British.
Rachel Corrie understood these links and connections and would have known about an active Israeli peace movement, and of the hundreds  of Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories, many of whom have been jailed for their stance. Israel has invaded Palestinian land in breach of international law. Rachel died while attempting to prevent a demolition of a home, a common practice that the  Israeli army, uses as a collective punishment that has left more than 12,000 Palestinians homeless since the beginning of the second uprising in September 2000. A practice that violates International Law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
So here's to the memory and bravery of Rachel Corrie  a true American hero,who courageously died whilst living her dreams, staying human and showing her solidarity with her beloved friends, the Palestinians. who continues to inspire activism and compassion across the globe, her spirit lives on, challenging us to get out of our comfort zones and act with our convictions. Inspiring us that we can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong  even in the most difficult circumstances. 
Rachel's death was tragic, but  brought the world's attention to the suffering and death of thousands of Palestinians. At least 6,500 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli occupation since 2000, so the international community must carry on fighting for their justice too, as well as that of Rachel's, the situation sadly in the West Bank and Gaza, still no different today.Years later  Palestinians are  still being killed and injured as they demand the right to return to lands that have been stolen from them.

In the years since Rachel's death Palestinian home demolitions by Israel ;have increased several fold. So  Rachel's message remains as relevant as it was then. if not more.
The world must not stay silent, while the struggle continues against the demolition and occupation of Palestinian homes and lands, restrictions of movement, detentions, arrest, collective punishment, the siege of Gaza and the aggressive military attacks that continue  on a daily basis.We must continue to hold Israel accountable for decades of oppression, displacement, land theft, occupation, and loss,

Here is a link to the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice set up in her memory

.https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/  

I conclude this post with a poem I wrote about Rachel in her memory a few years ago.Rachel continues to  represent the individual human feeling that is often not represented by governments.The kind of human feeling that makes a person refuse to normalize unjust realities, even if it’s at the expense of personal interest or even one's life.

Courage to Resist ( For Rachel Corrie 10/4/79-16/3/03 ) 

Rachel Corrie witnessed the oppression
So she bravely stood with the Palestinian
Shoulder to shoulder in a land of occupation

Her breath full of peace, no room for compliance

With firm belief in heart she stood in front of force
In act of defiant non violent resistance
To try to prevent destructive demolition

Of peoples homes and olive groves 

The world witnessed as she was crushed

By a Israeli bulldozer, and left like a rag doll 

Years later her message of solidarity still strong
Her spirit remains free. moving and inspiring
Because oppressors can never kill a thought
Defiance will always rise, wherever there is injustice
In the town of Rafah their gentle sister is not forgotten 

Her deep passion, courage and conviction honoured

We must continue her brave struggle for freedom

As the skys are still weeping, tears still raining down.

Tibetan Uprising Day 2023

Each year on March 10th, Tibetans and allies around the world commemorate Tibetan Uprising Day one of the most important dates in the Tibetan Freedom Movement callender and remembers the courageous Tibetans who took a stand against Chinese imperialism. It is a symbol in Tibetan history, marking the day in 1959 when tens of thousands of Tibetans  rose up in protest against China’s invasion and  occupation of their  country.. This revolt was preceded by several deliberate acts of the Chinese which deprived the Tibetans of freedom to follow their religious practices, customs and traditions.The all-enveloping subjugation, discrimination and harassment resulted in pent up frustrations amongst the peaceful Tibetans which burst out in the form of an unprecedented uprising. 64 years after the first uprising, Tibet’s culture is in peril with more than 800,000 Tibetan children separated from their families and at risk of losing their connection to their native culture. The destruction of Buddhist monuments and the brutal  crackdown in Drakgo has been likened to the Cultural Revolution. Dozens of Tibetans who have spread news about this tragedy have been arrested. 

The vast landlocked Tibet is a region in Central Asia inhabited mainly by the Tibetan people. For thousands of years Tibet was a self-governing, independent entity with its’ own language, script, costumes, traditions & religion. Being an independent Buddhist nation in the Himalayas, Tibet had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism.Religion is a unifying theme among the Tibetans, as is their language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh environments. After  Chinas newly established communist government  took over Tibet in 1949- 50, in an invasion of unprovoked aggression, a treaty was imposed on the Tibetan  government acknowledging  sovereignty over Tibet  but recognising the Tibetan governments autonomy with respect to Tibets internal affairs. But as the Chinese consolidated their control, they repeatedly violated the treaty, nut since it was signed under duress anyway  the agreement was already in  violation of international law. In open resistance and with simmering resentment growing it led to the first major popular uprising against Chinese rule. 

On 10 March - in Lhasa in 1959, the Dalai Lama was supposed to attend a dance troupe performance, but he was told he could not bring his bodyguards.Fearing his abduction to Beijing soon thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Norbulinka summer palace of their spiritual leader, in order to protect him from being taken away by the Chinese army. From Tibet then aged 23 he reached the safety of India having escaped on foot disguised as a soldier in a gruelling 15- day journey over the Himalayan mountains, traveling by night and hiding by day. where he has maintained a government-in-exile in the foothills of the Himalayas ever since. 

On March 12, 1959, two days after the National Uprising Day, thousands of women gathered on the ground called Dri-bu-Yul-Khai Thang in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa. This demonstration marks Tibetan Women’s Uprising Day. March 12th was the catalyst that sparked the Tibetan Women’s Movement for independence.Tibetan rebels launched an attack on March 19, but Chinese troops captured the city on March 25.The uprising was vastly outnumbered and met with extreme force, and brutal suppression, some 87,000 Tibetans were killed, and some 100,000 fled as refugees.resulting in the beginning of increasingly harsh  Chinese rule over Tibet.Members of the Dalai Lama's bodyguard remaining in Llasha were disarmed and publicly executed  or arrested, and monasateries and temples around the city were looted or destroyed. The Chinese government dissolved the Tibetan  government headed by the Dalai Lama on March 28, 1959, and the Panchen Lama assumed control of the Tibetan government on April , 1959. The Malayan government condemned the Chinese governments use of military force against the Tibetans on March 20, 1959, and Prime Minister Nehru of India expressed support for the Tibetan rebels on March 30, 1959. Prior to its invasion, Tibet had a theocratic government of which the Dalai Lama was the supreme religious and temporal head. The Chinese media routinely try to illustrate a narrative of oppression  being commonplace in Tibet  before their invasion and painting the Dalai Lama  as a terrorist and dangerous seperatist to justify their occupation, stating they freed the pwople of Tibet from "misery" and " slavery" under a feudal serfdom controlled by the Dalai Lama and his followers to try and distract us from the human rights abuses that China committed.Though it was no Shangri-La like paradise not only are their contradictions in this false narrative of serfdom and oppression that China likes to portray, most scholars have soundly rejected it and are moving away from this idea. 

Tibetans since the invasion were treated as second-class citizens in their own country. They are routinely kicked out of their homes and sent to townships so the government can ‘develop’ occupied spaces '. Over 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed and those that have survived are not being used by monks, but ironically, are used as spiritual attractions for – mostly Chinese – tourists while they tighten Tibetans’ religious freedom. Areas that were once spiritual spots and pure nature are used as nuclear waste sites. Worst of all, Tibetans do not have freedom of speech, religion or movement. Many passports have been recalled and the borders are closed, trapping Tibetans in the country as their culture and land diminishes.Chines replaced Tibetan as the official language, Despite official pronouncements, there has been no practical change in this policy. Secondary school children are taught all classes in Chinese. Although English is a requirement for most university courses, Tibetan school children cannot learn English unless they forfeit study of their own language. In addition the Dalai Lama says 1.2 million people  have been  killed under Chinese rule, though China disputes this. 

The international community has since reacted with shock to the events that have occurred in Tibet. The question of Tibet was raised at the U.N General Assembly between 199 and 1967. Three resolutions have been passed by the General Assembly condemning China's violations of human rights in Tibet and callIng upon China to respect their right including their right to self determination.  

The following website https://tibetuprising.org/  is a useful one to view a timeline of Tibetan resistance over the decades. Large scale protests across Tibet took place in the 1980s and in 2008, as Beijing prepared to host the Olympic Games. China's  response left 227 dead, over 1,000 injured and 6,810 in prison.  Some have since been released.  Some are still behind bars.  Some didn’t live to tell the tale. A few not only survived until release but then evaded surveillance and managed to escape into exile. At least 155 Tibetans, young and old, monks and nuns, have self immolated since 2009 calling for the freedom of Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama..With no end in sight to the Chinese occupation of their motherland, the Tibetans have been forced to choose the path of self-immolations as an individual form of non-violent protest to highlight their plight and sufferings. 

The gravity of the present day situation can be understood from the recent action of  Tsewang Norbu, a 25 year old popular Tibetan singer attempted self immolation on February 25 2022 in front of the Potala Palace in Llasha and was subsequently reported dead, Courageous protesters on this day usually end up in detention. Some known as potential protesters are also arrested in advance as a cautionary measure, simply meaning that innocents are imprisoned in absence of any crime. In some cases, Tibetan protesters in Tibet have been also shot on spot. Even Tibetans residing abroad are routinely locked up in some countries before March 10, on the pretext of avoiding disturbances between the host countries and Chinese Government. 

March 10 is the most restricted day in Tibet with several thousand of Chinese security forces usually sent throughout Tibet Autonomous Region. To cope with this, young and educated Tibetans have adopted new strategies to combat Beijing’s policies, always using non-violence. They of course use social media, a toll that reveal itself to be effective and efficient in waking up consciences in the world at large Recent evidence shows that there has been a significant increase of Tibetan political  prisoners since the protests, and torture has become more widespread than ever. In 2015, Tibet Watch put the testimony of seven torture survivors in front of the UN. Voices that China tried to silence now told tales of barbaric cruelty and incredible bravery.  They told of the unbreakable spirit of Tibetan resistance. Please see the following link for more details www.tibetwatch.org/blood-on-the-snows 

A report by human rights experts of the United Nations on the eve of International Language Day on February 21 unmasked the real nature of oppression on Tibetans practised by the Communist Party of China (CCP) in the form of forced assimilation of Tibetan identity into the dominant Han Chinese identity, the Tibetan Press reported.  The report by UN human rights experts, released in Geneva on February 6, 2023, talked about a million Tibetan children who have been separated from their families by the Chinese authorities and placed in government-run boarding schools.

“We are alarmed by what appears to be a policy of forced assimilation of the Tibetan identity into the dominant Han-Chinese majority through a series of oppressive actions against Tibetan educational religious, and linguistic institutions,” the experts said in their report.  The Chinese rulers in Tibet are using the residential schooling system as a ploy to assimilate Tibetan people culturally, religiously and linguistically with the Han identity

At the moment the citizens  of Tibet do not have anything that resembles any form of basic human rights. Children and adults can dissapear at any time. To practice their religion means they will face prison, torture and death. The people are prevented from displaying their banned flag, or in joining mass protests, but Tibetans still assert their desire for freedom in the face of severe repression.  Today this struggle  is being carried forward by a generation of Tibetans whose parents and even grandparents do not remember a life free of Chinese rule. Tibetans’ spiritual leader has pleaded with the Chinese government to make Tibet truly autonomous so people can have freedom of speech, religion, and movement. The Tibetan people should be allowed to retain their right to protest and allow their struggle and dscontentment with China and its illegal occupation and continued mistreatment of Tibetans to be recognised.Even though the plight of the Tibetans does not seem to garner the media attention it once received,

The fact remains that China still occupies Tibet in much  the same way that Western empires of the nineteenth and twentieth century occcupied large parts of Africa and Asia. Chinas claims to have ' liberated 'Tibet rings hollow,and the continuing Tibetan resistance represents a legitimate important call for self-determination.   Despite being stripped of virtually all freedoms of their identity, Tibetans have continued to preserve their rich and diverse culture and traditions. The struggle is still not over yet. Tibetans are still fighting for basic human rights, such as the freedom to practice their religion, follow their own religious leaders, learn their own language in schools, being able to openly speak Tibetan, and live freely in their own country. 

The international community has since reacted with shock to the events that have occurred in Tibet. The question of Tibet was raised at the U.N General Assembly between 199 and 1967. Three resolutions have been passed by the General Assembly condemning China's violations of human rights in Tibet and callIng upon China to respect their right including their right to self determination. 

The following website https://tibetuprising.org/  is a useful one to view a timeline of Tibetan resistance over the decades. Large scale protests across Tibet took place in the 1980s and in 2008, as Beijing prepared to host the Olympic Games. China's  response left 227 dead, over 1,000 injured and 6,810 in prison.  Some have since been released.  Some are still behind bars.  Some didn’t live to tell the tale. A few not only survived until release but then evaded surveillance and managed to escape into exile.

At least 155 Tibetans, young and old, monks and nuns, have self immolated since 2009 calling for the freedom of Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama..With no end in sight to the Chinese occupation of their motherland, the Tibetans have been forced to choose the path of self-immolations as an individual form of non-violent protest to highlight their plight and sufferings. The gravity of the present day situation can be understood from the recent action of  Tsewang Norbu, a 25 year old popular Tibetan singer attempted self immolation on February 25 2022 in front of the Potala Palace in Llasha and was subsequently reported dead,

Courageous protesters on this day usually end up in detention. Some known as potential protesters are also arrested in advance as a cautionary measure, simply meaning that innocents are imprisoned in absence of any crime. In some cases, Tibetan protesters in Tibet have been also shot on spot. Even Tibetans residing abroad are routinely locked up in some countries before March 10, on the pretext of avoiding disturbances between the host countries and Chinese Government.  Yes, March 10 is the most restricted day in Tibet. Several thousand of Chinese security force are usually sent throughout Tibet Autonomous Region. To cope with this, young and educated Tibetans have adopted new strategies to combat Beijing’s policies, always using non-violence. They of course use social media, a toll that reveal itself to be effective and efficient in waking up consciences in the world at large

Recent evidence shows that there has been a significant increase of Tibetan political  prisoners since the protests, and torture has become more widespread than ever. In 2015, Tibet Watch put the testimony of seven torture survivors in front of the UN. Voices that China tried to silence now told tales of barbaric cruelty and incredible bravery.  They told of the unbreakable spirit of Tibetan resistance. Please see the following link for more details www.tibetwatch.org/blood-on-the-snows   

At the moment the citizens  of Tibet do not have anything that resembles any form of basic human rights. Children and adults can dissapear at any time. To practice their religion means they will face prison, torture and death. The people are prevented from displaying their banned flag, or in joining mass protests, but Tibetans still assert their desire for freedom in the face of severe repression. 

Today this struggle  is being carried forward by a generation of Tibetans whose parents and even grandparents do not remember a life free of Chinese rule. Tibetans’ spiritual leader has pleaded with the Chinese government to make Tibet truly autonomous so people can have freedom of speech, religion, and movement. The Tibetan people should be allowed to retain their right to protest and allow their struggle and dscontentment with China and its illegal occupation and continued mistreatment of Tibetans to be recognised.Even though the plight of the Tibetans does not seem to garner the media attention it once recieved todays anniversary still marks  years of oppression and exploitation.The fact remains that China still occupies Tibet in much  the same way that Western empires of the nineteenth and twentieth century occcupied large parts of Africa and Asia. Chinas claims to have ' liberated 'Tibet rings hollow,and the continuing Tibetan resistance represents a legitimate important call for self-determination. 

 Despite being stripped of virtually all freedoms of their identity, Tibetans have continued to preserve their rich and diverse culture and traditions. The struggle is still not over yet. Tibetans are still fighting for basic human rights, such as the freedom to practice their religion, follow their own religious leaders, learn their own language in schools, being able to openly speak Tibetan, and live freely in their own country. 

On this annual day of resistance and hope for the Tibetan people, I pay tribute to the extraordinary courage of Tibetans  resisting in Tibet, and all Tibetans, past and present who have courageously resisted China’s violent colonial rule I  urge citizens around the world to join me in calling for an end to China’s occupation of Tibet, stand in solidarity with the Tibetan people, to show them that they are not alone and that the world is responding to their calls for freedom . Call our governments to action to challenge China's repression in Tibet and to unite in action to help resolve the Tibet crisis, and hold Xi Jinping and the Chinese government accountable for it extreme and violent policies against the Tibetan people, and .commit to securing the promise of human rights and religious freedom for the people of Tibet and support their ongoing fight for autonomy. while remembering the bravery and strength of Tibetans .Long live their resistance. 

Think Peace Beyond War

Dedicated to Celia Lang, Peace and Justice activist RIP

Think about the present, and times before

Recognise uncomfortable truths don't ignore,

Consider the follies of man, wounds unspoken

Contemplate the future, when we are gone.

Think about the injustices of life

Who's fighting now for a better world,

Of those suffering in pain because of conflict

That hurts us all but them much more.

Think of those who constantly talk of peace

With honesty and sincerity, reason release,

As leaders of nations spread political lies

As they have done since days long past.

Think of those who have lost family and friends

Lives wasted on battlefields for no noble cause;

Those who have witnessed carnage and destruction

Innocent children torn apart, blown into smithereens.

Think of the war profiteers counting their cash

Who enable the tyrants to kill their own people,

To torture and maim with gross immorality

To occupy and attack others lands with impunity.

Think of the kinder more compassionate souls

Those with loving, nobler, hearts and minds,

Never cease trying to break the chains that bind

So that the afflictions of humanity no longer grind.

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.