Today is International Roma Day.which celebrates and recognises, the rich history, culture, language of their communities. International Romani Day has its roots in the first significant
international meeting of Roma representatives, which was held in
Chelsfield, United Kingdom, near London from April 7 to 12, 1971, organised by the World Council of Churches and
the Government of India. The Congress was attended by 23
representatives from nine nations, including the former
Czechoslovakia, Finland, Norway,France, Great Britain, Germany,
Hungary, Ireland, Spain and the former Yugoslavia. There were also
individuals from Belgium, Canada, India and the United States, and they formed a political agenda with the intent to achieve emancipation and equality for the Roma.
Several
sub-commissions were created to look closely at social affairs,
education, war crimes, language and culture. Another key outcome
of the first Congress was the turn
towards using the word ‘Roma’ rather than ‘Gypsy’ or other
variants. While it’s true that here in Britain ‘Gypsy’, ‘Roma’
and ‘Traveller’ are all used, in Europe and abroad the preferred
term is Roma. The Roma flag was also promoted as the national emblem and a rousing anthem (Gelem, Gelem).
The Roma flag was created by the General Union of Roma in Romania in
1933. It was adopted by international Roma representatives in 1971,
becoming known as the international Roma flag. The symbolism of the blue
color coincides with the sky, while the green with the earth and the
harvest. The flag, as a symbol of fire, movement and progress, also
bears a red wheel (chakra), linking it to the Indian origin of the Roma.
The 1971 Congress was a landmark event
and pushed a narrative forward which influenced how Roma people were
talked about and included in the social, cultural and political
spheres for years to come. The message to the world was that this
community was active, organised and demanding an end to human rights
violations against it. A few years later, at the fourth Congress, it
was decided that 8 April would become International Roma Day. Since
1990, the day has been celebrated across the globe and Roma from all
walks of life who honour it in a variety of ways.
Originally, the Roma were itinerant court musicians from South Asia,
specifically present-day India and Pakistan. The Romani have their own
cultural language and genetic makeup, despite the fact that they are
travellers who conform to the cultures of their host communities. During
the Middle Ages, Roma migrated to Turkey, France, and Spain. Romani
culture merged with Iberian, Jewish, Muslim, and Moorish cultures upon
their arrival in Spain, giving rise to the Flamenco people.
The Romani's own language, Romani, "Romani", is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the
Indo-European language family. It would be spoken from the beginning of
the Middle Ages only in the diaspora, outside India. Today it is an
integral part of European linguistic diversity. There have been many
scholars who have tried to formalize it by bringing in various primers
and dictionaries. Already, their language continues to be well preserved
and spoken worldwide in various dialects. It has many dialects, and spelling or word choice can differ between groups. Most Romani are multilingual, but their own language is a point of pride and connectivity for the Romani people.
Modern Romani usually live in caravans or similar vehicles, but between the mid 1800s and early 1900s, they used horse-drawn wagons, or vardos.
Roma are widely known for their traditional music and dance. Their
music has even influenced classical music composers such as Franz Liszt
and Johannes Brahams. Violin, guitar and clarinet are the favorite
instruments of Roma musicians. As for their traditional dance, they have
preserved elements from India, blending in with details taken from the
culture of the countries in which the Roma lived. Their typical dance is
the flamenco, which represents the most obvious example of the Roma
contribution to the general style of dance. Roma, too, have developed
their traditions in poetry and painting.
Roma have also excelled in handicrafts, such as metalworking, embroidery
and jewelry carving. Handmade straw baskets are another typical Roma
product. Roma clothing Traditional clothing is still widely used in some
Roma communities. Women wear long skirt tied at the left of the waist, a
neckline blouse, a bolero vest, an apron and colorful earrings.
My solidarity goes out to all Roma people worldwide who are still experiencing massive inequality and huge amounts of racism, discrimination and exclusion state sponsored and otherwise.
Romani people have suffered persecution throughout their history, having left Northern India/Pakisan around one thousand years ago. In the ensuring centuries they have spread across many countries across the globe. Europe, North and South America, Russia, China and the Middle East. Some were nomadic people. Others tried to settle but were met with hostility and either abandoned their identities or became nomadic like their brothers and sisters. What remained however and strong, was that on the move or in settlements, was a tight knit community, but still faced ongoing discrimination. racial oppression and persecution due to their nomadic lifestyle and dark skin. During the Middle Ages, the Romani were executed in England,
Switzerland, and Denmark, and Germany, Italy, and Portugal ordered the
expulsion of all Romani.
Lest not forget either that Hitler named Romani people ‘enemies of the race based state’, and though official figures do not exactly exist, historians estimate that between 220,000 and 500,000 Romani and Sinti,from Central Europe were killed in the 1930s and 1940s. the Nazis killing about 25 percent of Europe's entire Roma (a.k.a. Gypsy) population, accounting for half their total population at the time. This genocide, known in the Romani language, as Porajimas which can translate as “destruction.” It's remembered as the worst event in their peoples' history. Other Romani people in the Balkans prefer to use the term 'samudaripen,' translating as “mass killing,” but there's still no general consensus in the community regarding how to call this tragedy, sometimes even borrowing the word 'holokausto.' Roma persecution by the Nazi regime began in 1933 and during the 1936 Olympic Games, the Roma and Sinti were forcibly relocated to a camp on the outskirts and were not allowed to leave unless they had a job. Their property was confiscated and sold; they were never compensated. Between 1933 and 1945, more than 400,000 people were forcibly sterilised by the Nazis, including thousands of Roma and Sinti, In the late 1930s, the first deportations of Roma to concentration camps began. While the yellow star worn by the Jewish victims of the Holocaust is best known, the Roma had their own symbols, brown or black triangles, symbolising their ethnicity and their inherent ‘anti-social’ status.
Today, the Romani people are still subject to racial stereotyping, often caricatured as mysterious fortune tellers and cunning thieves. Many Romani report segregation and harassment in schools and in the workplace, as well as a lower standard of healthcare and education and repeated forced evictions. That’s why it’s so important for us to understand more about their unique culture and heritage, to overcome the stereotypes and recognise the struggles faced by this remarkable people
Today it is important to remember that many Roma continue to suffer from systemic discrimination and violence. The discriminatory treatment and stereotyping prevents Roma from fully participating in political, social and economic life around the world. Roma experience exclusion, violence and repression in the countries where they live. They are forced to live in conditions that are degrading to human beings.Approximately 80% of Romani in Europe live in abject destitution. They are discriminated against in the labour market because of their ethnic identity.
Racism and discrimination against Roma and Travellers remain
alarmingly rife in Europe, nowhere has this been more evident in recent times than in the
appalling reports received regarding some border officials’ refusal to
allow Roma refugees, who are fleeing Russia’s armed aggression against
Ukraine, the right either to leave Ukraine or to enter neighbouring
States. Such refusals are based on spurious grounds, and
notably on racist assumptions that Roma are not ‘genuine’ refugees. In
other cases, lack of ID – a longstanding issue for Roma in many European
States – has made border crossings more difficult. In addition, some
Roma who have been able to leave Ukraine have also been confronted with
racism in receiving States, including segregation, unfavourable
treatment compared with other refugees, and racist attitudes among
law-enforcement officials, volunteers or the population more generally.
The racism against Roma often goes
unnoticed or even becomes normalised. It has its origins in how the
majority views and treats those considered “gypsies”, who have endured a
process of historical “othering”, which builds on stereotypes, even
unintentional or unconscious attitudes, that result in a still widely
accepted form of racism against Roma.
Its various expressions include hate speech, discrimination, hate
crime, and other harmful practices, resulting in many Roma people’s
exclusion, segregation and poverty. It leads to a perception of Roma
people as a homogenous group that is helpless, inferior and anti-social.
Unfortunately, little effort has been made by national governments in
order to lift Roma people from this precarious situation. This day is
therefore a chance to remind European and world leaders to implement
effective anti-discrimination measures and legislative and policy
initiatives to protect and promote the human rights of all minorities,
including Roma.
But responsibility rests not only on the shoulders of public
authorities, but on all of us. We cannot allow desensitisation to divide
us and put barriers between us. We need to continue to cast a light on the human rights issues.prejudice and violations faced by Romani people around the world. Lets show a gratitude to a beautiful community that so enriches our lives and continue to reject the negative stereotypes. racial stereotyping and bias that impacts their way of life.International
Roma Day is above all, a day of celebration and awareness of the unity,
autonomy, and diversity of Roma communities.
We urgently need to move beyond anti-gypsyist attitudes. First
and very simply, because no one should ever be subject to racism or
discrimination. And second, because stereotypes and prejudice prevent us
from seeing the contributions that Roma and Travellers make to European
societies every day.
Today, lets express our solidarity with the Roma people, and with all
persons working to guarantee them safety and shelter. Now, more than
ever, it is time to topple racist stereotypes. Let us stamp out
anti-gypsyism attitudes and prejudice once and for all.
On Tuesday the 4th and Wednesday the 5th of April, the world watched
idly as videos and reports emerged across the internet of Palestinians
being beaten, brutalised and forcibly raided inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque
compound in the middle of their prayers firing rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas at Palestinian
worshippers. These events left at least 12 Palestinians injured, and
over 400 were arrested on the first night. Following the raid, Israeli
violence spread across the west bank. Dozens have been hurt by inhaling
poisonous gas fired by Israeli forces, and a settler in occupied East
Jerusalem shot a Palestinian child. .
To commit such an unlawful and
inhumane act is vile any day of the year, but to repeatedly do so during the holy month of
Ramadan, a month that is bestowed upon Muslims to commit to good deeds
and reconnect with God, is utterly shocking.In the 24 hours preceding this, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians
across the occupied West Bank. This took the number of Palestinians
killed by Israeli forces in 2022 to 47.
Occupation and injustice is something Palestinians have faced
everyday since 1948, but it becomes especially unbearable to watch when Palestinians face brutality inside a
place of worship. Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site to Muslims around the globe,after the two holy mosques in Makkah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia. Not
only are the Palestinian people forbidden from entering their holy
mosque but fanatic Jews also routinely violate the sanctity of the place
under protection of the Israeli police. Since annexing the holy city
more than half a century ago, Israel did whatever it could to prove that
Al-Aqsa Mosque stood on remains of the so-called Temple. But Israel
failed to discover anything that could prove this assumption. Failing in
this attempt, the Israeli government began executing an old scheme to
divide the place among Jews and Muslims as it did with the other holy
mosque in Hebron. Noticeably, the Israeli government has recently escalated its provocations. Sensing
that these Israeli measures will further aggravate the current
situation in the Middle East, many countries have urged Israel to
restrain its settlers and allow the Palestinians free access to the
Noble Sanctuary. Despite international calls, Israel is not doing anything to calm the situation.
As some Palestinians fought back, news reports from outlets such as
the BBC described the events as “clashes” resulting from “tensions”
between Muslims and Jews wishing to pray at the same sites during
Ramadan and Passover.
In fact, it’s about much more than religion.It’s about Palestinians’ right to live and worship freely in their own city.
Al-Aqsa Mosque and the surrounding Old City are centres of
Palestinian life in Jerusalem, especially during Ramadan. They are not actually in Israel but the state of Israel has
kept this area under military occupation since 1967 and wants to claim
it for its own, pushing Palestinians out.
The state uses apartheid laws to evict Palestinians, demolish their
homes and remove their residency rights constantly. And its police clear
the way for Israeli settler activists who seek the destruction of the
mosque to stage provocative acts of worship there.
Following the raid on Al-Aqsa on Wednesday night, Israeli settlers were escorted to Al-Aqsa by Israeli forces on Thursday morning. Prior to their arrival, Palestinian worshippers were forced out so that it could be secured for the settlers for the first day of the Jewish Passover holiday. This double standard is not uncommon for Israel as it is inherent to the structure of the settler-colonial state. Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem (80% of the Palestinian population) under Israeli control are not citizens and cannot become citizens of the state in which they live, nor can they vote for the government which controls their lives. The other 20% of Palestinians, who have Israeli citizenship, have a 2nd class status.
In June 1967, Israel occupied what is usually referred to as the West
Bank, including East Jerusalem where Al-Aqsa Mosque is situated. In
fact, these territories were under Jordan’s administrative control since
1951. Originally, they were given to the Palestinians, the indigenous
inhabitants of the land, in accordance with the UN partition plan that
divided historic Palestine between immigrant Jews and the Palestinian
people who refused to accept this plan and continued resisting it by all
means. According to the Geneva Convention and UN Security Council’s
resolutions, these territories are occupied territories that should be
returned back to their lawful owners. But Israel has never acceded to
any international resolution because it enjoys protection from
punishment by the US and British. Availing itself of the present chaos
in the Middle East, the Israeli government has recently increased its
provocations against the Palestinian people — Christians and Muslims —
and their holy places
Since January 7, over 100,000 Israeli settlers have been protesting every Saturday in response to a judicial overhaul that was proposed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government. The protestors say the reform plan that has now been suspended, is a threat to democracy. The idea that Israeli “democracy” can be protected by blocking the judicial overhaul is a myth. Any plans Israel had for democracy were destroyed when they began the Nakba in 1948. In fact, the reform plan is a product of the settler colonial state, as it would allow the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes even more efficiently than before, a fundamental goal of the Zionist movement. We must ask: What are these protestors really fighting to maintain? How can there be democracy in an apartheid state? Whose democracy is this?
This is a fight to maintain and protect the status quo for Israelis, not Palestinians who have been denied all basic democratic rights under Israel since 1948. For Palestinians, there is no democracy. Despite these blatant acts of unjustified violence committed by Israel, there is no outrage among Israelis. The tens of thousands of people who showed up just last week to protect democracy are suddenly silent. Moreover, Palestinian worshippers are beaten by Israel all the time, this violence is routine during Ramadan.
In 2021, Israel unleashed an 11-day bombardment on Gaza during Ramadan and there has been no outcry by Israelis to prevent that from happening. This is evidence that the movement for democracy in Israel is not about democracy at all, but about maintaining the apartheid state of Israel as it has existed for the past 75 years - at the expense of Palestinians. It is insulting for Israelis to launch this “democracy” movement when Palestinians have been ignored for decades.
Last night Israeli forces bombed Gaza. causing further destruction to an area that is still struggling to rebuild from Israel's previous assaults. The Israeli apartheid government's escalating attacks show that decades of indifference to Palestinian human rights have emboldened Israel's oppression,Whilst Palestinians are risking their lives everyday to protect a
historical landmark that is considered sacred to these two billion
Muslims, the world stays silent. And if history has taught us anything,
it is that silence is as harmful as complicity, it is time for the international community to take concrete actions in opposition to Israel's racist actions and policies.
Friends and supporters of Palestine in the UK are called to take part in a mass protest in front of the Israeli Embassy in Central London (2 Palace Green, London W8 4QB), today Friday, April 7, 2023, at 3.30pm. The protest will end
at 5:30pm, to give those who need to go home for Iftar time to do so.
The demonstration condemns the repeated Israeli attacks on worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan, as well as the recent inhumane strikes in Gaza.
Organized by the Palestinian Forum in
Britain (PFB), Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA), Palestine Solidarity Campaign
(PSC), Stop War coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the
Muslim Association of Britain (MAB),the parties calling for the protest are
demanding the occupational forces to respect the historical and
religious value of the Holy Mosque and stop the provocations of the
Zionists which, from the parties’ point of view, will only lead to an
escalation of violence and tension on the ground.Hands off Al-Aqsa, and hands off Palestine.
Today, 30th March, is Yorn al Ard//Land Day in Palestine one of the most important days marking Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation and apartheid.
Land Day is held on the anniversary of March 30, 1976,when Palestinian villages and cities across the country witnessed mass demonstrations against the states plans to expropriate 2,000 hectares of land in and around the Arab villages of Araba and Sakhnin as a part of a plan to "Judaise the Galilee".Israel's Galilee region. In coordination with the military, some 4,000 police officers were dispatched to quell the unrest. At the end of the day, six Palestinian citizens of Israel were brutally killed, and over one hundred injured by state security forces.
The Day of the land - or Land Day marked the first mass mobilization of Palestinians within Israel against internal colonialism and land theft. It also signalled the failure of Israel to subjugate Palestinians who remained in their towns and villages, after around 700,000 of them were either expelled or forced to flee battles or massacres committed by Zionist armed groups in 1948.It's commemoration is a reaffirmation that the Palestinians who remained in the area on which Israel was declared in 1948, are an inseperable part of the Palestinian people and their struggle.
This important day in Palestinian history commemorates the Palestinians sense of belonging to a people, to a cause and a country, to stand united against racial oppression and rules of apartheid,and the discriminatory practices of the Israeli government, giving continual potency to the Palestinians cause , its quest for justice and Palestinian rights, and its resistance to injustice,who never cease to fight for their land while holding passionately to their history and identity. It is the right of return, recognised in the United Nations Resolution 194, that drives Palestinians to continue with the commemoration of Land Day - regardless of their geographical location. and reveals Palestinians’ unyielding commitment to every single inch of their native land.
The day is celebrate annually by Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and further afield in refugee camps and among the Palestinian diaspora worldwide, with demonstrations, marches and by planting olive and fruit trees, in honor of Indigenous sumud (resilience).
Sumud is the concept most frequently employed to describe the daily reality experienced by Palestinians in the occupied territories and those caught up in the ongoing diaspora, translates as steadfastness and refers to a form of everyday resistance, and describes a stubborn insistence on continuing with life despite all obstacles.
Land Day is typically met with violent Israeli repression, yet this movement gained a renewed surge in 2018 when thousands of Palestinians — families, people of all ages, and genders — commemorated Land Day by peacefully walking towards the border areas along the Gaza Strip. They dubbed this the Great March of Return and originally intended to highlight the sacrifices of those who resisted and continue to resist land acquisition; it was also a protest against Israel’s 10-year long siege of Gaza.
It was land that motived them to start this largely non-violent protest which was met with Israeli fire and snipers. Israel claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinians at the Great March of Return, and thousands more lives before and since then. But it is beyond doubt, that Israel has failed to erase the love in the hearts of all Palestinians for their land.
Since the Great March of Return, Palestinians in Gaza have held weekly marches towards a security fence put up by Israel. They mainly attempt to break the siege around their territory and demand their land back as well.
On March 29, 2002, at the height of the Second Intifada, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield, a devastating military assault that killed nearly 500 Palestinians, wounded over 1400, and left over 17,000 Palestinians homeless. Though these events all happened years apart, they serve as a great representation of the realities of ongoing Israeli settler-colonialism, ethnic cleansing, occupation, and apartheid today.
Today many of the Land Day protests against the theft of their lands focus on the Negev region, since much of the land that has been marked for appropriation in the Galilee has already been confiscated. The Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel also now face the appropriation of 800,000 dunams of the Negev by the Israeli state.The housing situation for the Bedouin remains dire. Settlements that house 160,000 people are deemed "illegal" by Israel, and risk demolition. The issue of land allocation and housing for Palestinian citizens of Israel has now reached crisis point.
Land seizures remain an essential part of Israeli policy that can be seen regularly applied in area ‘C’ within the West Bank, that is under the full Israeli control. As a result of such measures, and the continued attacks on these lands, and inaccessibility to basic services provided to the people living there, most of the Palestinians have been forced to leave the area that is now considered de facto annexed to the occupying state of Israel who has squeezed the Palestinian population, of some 5.3 million, to live in less that 9% of Mandate Palestine.
Land Day remains poignantly relevant as Israel continues to confiscate land, expand their colonies, and build their illegal settlements in flagrant violation of all international conventions, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law.
Land day has come to symbolise the struggle of the Palestinian people for their legitimate rights to their own land, homes and property; indeed, their legitimate right to their homeland and for its people to proudly declare that they are one from the River to the Sea.
As we commemorate the Palestinian Land Day, let us continue to strongly condemn Israel’s apartheid regime and policies that has consistently displaced Palestinians from their native lands, simultaneously destroying their ecosystems It is also worth noting that while some 10 million Palestinians live in refugee camps struggling and demanding to return to their land since they were displaced starting in 1948 with the Nakba,
This Land Day, Palestinians across the board are resisting ethnic cleansing from al-Walaja, Jerusalem, to Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills, to Al-Naqab desert in what is known as Israel today, to the Jordan Valley, to Gaza, and beyond and call for long-overdue sanctions on apartheid Israel.
On Palestinian Land Day we can express our solidarity through our deep commitment to continue working towards ending the prevailing violations and work towards bringing about a just peace. Against a backdrop of Israeli forces, murdering over 90 Palestinians. amd wounding over 2.000 so far this year, with land theft, ethnic cleansing, home demolitions and settlement expansion increasing at an alarming rate,settler organisations have been further emboldened by a new Israeli government that is worrying even more right wing than its predecessors that threatens even more annexations. creating conditions that will make like for the Palestinian's more unbearable than it is now.
On this important day in the Palestinian struggle for liberation,as they renew their commitment to the struggle for freedom. justice and return, our strength must be drawn from their resistance and steadfastness/that has not ceased since 1976 against those that seek to sever the connection they have to their land.
The day of the land reminds us that the Palestinian right of return enshrined in international law is inextricably linked to the right of existence that refuses to be forgotten. The Palestinian people have suffered enough and their collective pain must not be allowed to continue.
The international community must take firm and principled actions to promote the human rights and dignity of the Palestinians.and their access and use of their land and Properties,and defend the rights of the Palestinian People and hold Israel accountable to its obligations under international humanitarian Law.
I would like to draw attention to the Keep Hope Alive – Olive Tree Campaign, that helpa Palestinian farmers, access, maintain and save their land. Olive trees and harvests have an exceptionally important place in Palestinian culture, especially in villages where farming is the main source of income for Palestinian families. Palestinians and especially farmers have always looked at olive trees as a national symbol that should be kept and protected as it speaks of the thousands of years of their history in Palestine. This special importance has been expressed in the Palestinian culture, through oral history, songs, and poetry.
The Land Day strike inspired the following two poems, the first by Tawfiq Zayyad, ,and then another strong poem by the pen of Mahmoud Darwish that continues to resonate across the Palestinian generations.
Here we will stay - Tawfiq Zayyad ( 7/5/ 29 - 5/7/ 94)
In Lidda, in Ramla, in the Galilee, we shall remain like a wall upon your chest, and in your throat like a shrad of glass, a cactus thron, and in your eyes a sandstorm. We shall remain a wall upon your chest, clean dishes in your restaurants, serve drinks in your bars, sweep the floors of your kitchens to snatch a bite for our children from your blue fangs. Here we shall stay, sing our songs, take to the angry streets, fill prisons with dignity. In Lidda, in Ramla, in the galilee, we shall remain, guard the shade of the fig and olive trees, ferment rebellion in our children as yeast in the dough.
To our Land - Mahmoud Darwish
To our land, and it is the one near the word of god, a ceiling of clouds To our land, and it is the one far from the adjectives of nouns, the map of absence To our land, and it is the one tiny as a sesame seed, a heavenly horizon ... and a hidden chasm To our land and it is the one poor as a grouses wings holy books . . . and an identity wound To our land, and it is the one surrounded with torn hills, the ambush of a new past To our land, and it is a prize of war, the freedom to die from longing and burning and our land, in its bloodied night is jewel that glimmers for the far upon the far and illuminates whats outside it . . . As for us , inside, we suffocate more !
A sad farewell to the much loved British television presenter, actor, and comedian Paul "Lily Savage" O'Grady who has passed at the age of 67 “unexpectedly but peacefully” on Tuesday evening which was confirmed by his husband Andre Portasio Ourtia.
Born in Birkenhead in 1955 on the Wirral, to a working-class Irish immigrant family/ In 2015, he told
a reporter that despite his wealth, he still felt “very much”
working-class, saying, “I know that probably sounds strange. Mentally, I
still am. I’m still thinking, have I got the rent for Friday?”
His
mother’s maiden name was Savage, which inspired his act. So did other
female relatives and clients he met during his early career as a social
worker. He performed as Lily in a solo show that ran for eight years at
South London’s famed Royal Vauxhall Tavern and became renowned for
speaking out about LGBT rights, notably the Aids crisis, police
harassment and Section 28. He combined warm compassion with outrageously
spiky wit – a rare combination that stood him in good stead throughout a
glittering, eclectic career.
Rather than dressing in Hollywood-style super-glam like most drag acts
of the era, O’Grady consciously made Lily a streetwise everywoman. “I
gave her cheap clothes, visible roots, a tattoo and a lovebite,” he
later recalled on Michael Parkinson’s chat show. “Her heels were scuffed
and she had holes in her tights. She was a divorced ex-prostitute with
two children and a fondness for booze and drugs. Next thing I knew, she
was on primetime telly. What happened there?”
O'Grady took his deliciously naughty foul mouthed Lily from pubs to peak time
television. All in an age when homophobia was the ‘norm’! He helped
break those barriers down, as an activist while lending his voice to those to scared to come out.
After O’Grady killed off Savage in 2005, claiming Lily had “seen the
light,taken the veil and packed herself off to a convent in France”.
Thereafter he took centre stage as himself. As the host of the Paul
O’Grady Show and Paul O’Grady Live he could be just as caustic as
Savage.
In 2010 he provoked complaints to Ofcom for attacking the new coalition
government during Paul O’Grady Live. “Do you know what got my back up?”
he told his ITV audience. “Those Tories hooping and hollering when they
heard about the cuts. Gonna scrap the pensions – yeah! – no more
wheelchairs – yeah! ... I bet when they were children they laughed at
Bambi when the mother got shot.”
In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, O’Grady stated that he was
“ashamed” of the state of the country under the Tories, particularly in
regards to the underfunding of the National Health Service (NHS). He
also expressed his belief that the austerity measures implemented by the
government had caused unnecessary hardship for many people.aul O'Grady never compromis
O’Grady also criticised the Conservative Party’s stance on issues
such as Brexit, climate change and LGBTQ+ rights. In a 2017 interview
with The Independent, he accused the Tories of “destroying the country”
and said that he would “rather eat a wasp” than vote for them.
In 2019, O’Grady made headlines after he accused Prime Minister Boris
Johnson of being a “buffoon” and a “complete and utter disgrace”, after
Johnson made comments about Muslim women wearing burqas. O’Grady also
accused the Conservative Party of deliberately stoking racial tensions
for political gain.
While some criticized O’Grady for his political activism, many of his
fans applauded him as a national treasure for using his platform to speak out on issues he was
passionate about. O’Grady’s comments on the Tories are just one example
of his willingness to use his voice to effect change and hold those in
power to account. accountable, proving .to be more effective in opposition to the viciously cruel Tories than the brown nosed subservient Starmer and his treacherous Blairtes ever could.
An iconic trailblazer,passionate campaigner and fantastically funny observer of real
life who laughed with us cried with us and offered support to those
who had no voices at all, he remains a national treasure admired by many because he never compromised his beliefs for anyone, while breaking down barriers for gay rights and mainstream
acceptance.
He should be remembered as a fiercely defiant gay man whose righteous fury against the establishment should remain a battle cry for us all. My thoughts go out to his loved ones, his family and his friends,.
After being ruled by the British for almost 200 years, India got its independence on August 15, 1947, after years of revolts, struggle and freedom battles that entailed blood, sweat and sacrifices of numerous sons and daughters of the soil. Many names were recorded in the archives, many more were not. However, the country pays tribute to all those who martyred in the freedom struggle by observing Shaheed Diwas. or Martyrs’ Dayis celebrated in India on seven different occasions in a year. One of these occasion is on March 23 which marks the death anniversaries of revolutionary freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru and their story of sacrifice is now considered to be one of the most inspirational chapters of the Indian freedom movement which has continued to inspire generations many years laters to fight for their rights. ..
Bhagat Singh who would become popularly known as Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat was born on September 28, 1907, in Banga village of Lyallpur district ,western Punjab, India which is now in Pakistan to Kishan Singh and Vidyavati. At the time of his birth, his father
Kishan Singh, uncles Ajit and Swaran Singh were in jail for
demonstrations against the Colonization Bill implemented in 1906. His
uncle, Sardar Ajit Singh, was a proponent of the movement and
established the Indian Patriots' Association.
Bhagat Singh attended Dayanand Anglo Vedic High School, which was operated by Arva Samai(a reform sect of modern Hinduism), and then National College, both located in Lahore.
Bhagat Singh’s Sikh family was politically active and were advocates of independence. His father and his uncles Ajit Singh and Schwann Singh were active in progressive
politics, taking part in the agitation around the Canal Colonization
Bill in 1907, and later the Ghadar Movement of 1914–1915. The presence of such revolutionary people at home had a profound impact on Bhagat Singh.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 at Armistar when he was only 12 after a large peaceful crowd had gathered to protest against the arrest of pro-Indian
independence leaders Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satya Pal. in which in response to the public gathering, the British Brigadier-General R. E. H. Dyer surrounded the Bagh with his soldiers and ordered his troops to open fire on the nationalist
meeting brutally killing hundreds and the violence against unarmed Akali protestors at Nankana Sahib in 1921 also all left a huge impact on the young Bhagat Singh and as a result of decided to join the freedom struggle in the fight against colonialism.
He joined the non-violence movement of Mahatma Gandhi.but felt disillusioned with Gandhi's idea of
non-violence as the latter called off the non-cooperation movement which
was started after the Jallianwala Bagh incident. and as he was attracted to Marxist ideologies and also influenced by
Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
In 1923, he joined the National College in Lahore, founded two years
earlier by Lala Lajpat Rai in response to Mahatma
Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement, which urged Indian students to shun
schools and colleges subsidized by the British Indian government.
The following year Singh became a member of the
Hindustan Republican Association, a revolutionary organization that believed in armed struggle against British colonial rule in India that was started by Sachindranath Sanyal a year earlier. The main organizer
of the Association was Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh became very
close to him.
Initially, Bhagat Singh’s activities were limited to writing corrosive
articles against the British Government, printing and distributing
pamphlets outlining principles of a violent uprising, aimed at
overthrowing the Government. Considering his influence on the youth, and
his association with the Akali movement, he became a person of interest
for the government.The police arrested him in a bombing case that took
place in 1926 in Lahore. He was released 5 months later on a 60,000
rupees bond.
In 1926, he founded the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, an organization that aimed to encourage revolution against British rule by rallying the peasants and workers.
He made contact with the ‘Workers and Peasants Party’ which brought
out the monthly magazine Kirti in Punjabi. For the next year, Bhagat
Singh worked on the editorial board of Kirti.
In 1928, he established the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) along with Sukhdev Thapar, Chandrashekhar Azad and others. However after Azad was shot dead in 1930.the HSRA collapsed.
Singh popularised the slogan
"Inqilab Zindabad". which can be translated as “Long Live Revolution” that became one of the
most famous slogans during the Indian freedom struggle. It was used by
Shahid-e-Azam Bhagat Singh throughout his speeches and writings.The slogan was originally coined by the Urdu poet and Indian
freedom fighter Maulana Hasrat Mohani in 1921.
In October, 1928, the British government of India appointed the Simon Commission to enquire into the possibility of granting India the chance to rule itself. That this Commission had no Indian representative made it the focus of popular attack in Lahore. Lajpat Rai was at the head of a peaceful demonstration that was asking the Simon Commission to go back to England.
Despite the non-violent nature of the demonstration, the Superintendent of Police, James A Scott, ordered the police to use batons to disperse the protesters.and Lala Lajpat Rai sustained fatal injuries during the clash.The revolutionaries although great critics of Lajpat Rai and his politics, were determined to avenge his death. The Assistant Superintendent of Police, J.P. Saunders who is believed to have hit Lala Lajpat Rai directly, was assassinated by Bhagat Singh, and his associates Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru..
On the next day in Lahore, there were public notices put up in the name of the Indian Socialist Democratic Army. One such notice declared, 'We regret having killed a human being but this man was a part of that unmerciful and unjust system that must be destroyed... Sometimes it is important to shed blood for a Revolution. The Revolution we envisage is one where the exploitation of man by man will finish...Inquilab Zindabad.'
The murder was condemned as a retrograde action by Mahatma Gandhi, but Jawaharlal Nehru later wrote:
“Bhagat Singh did not become popular because of his act of terrorism
but because he seemed to vindicate, for the moment, the honor of Lala
Lajpat Rai, and through him of the nation. He became a symbol, the act
was forgotten, the symbol remained, and within a few months each town
and village of Punjab, and to a lesser extent in the rest of northern
India, resounded with his name. Innumerable songs grew about him and the
popularity that the man achieved was something amazing.”
In March 1928, the government introduced the Public Safely Bill in the Legislative Assembly. The Indian members rejected the Bill and in 1929, the Viceroy attempted to pass it as an ordinance. The Naujawan Bharat Sabha passed resolutions opposing this and the Trade Dispute Bill and it finally decided to intervene directly. On 8th April, 1929, Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw a small explosive in the Assembly and stayed in the visitors' gallery till they were arrested. On 7th May, Bhagat Singh's trial began and in the statement made in court on 6th June, Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt, representing the HSRA declared, 'we dropped the bomb on the floor of the Assembly Chamber to register our protest on behalf of those who had no other means left to give expression to their heart-rending agony. Our sole purpose was to make the deaf hear and to give the heedless a timely warning... from under the seeming stillness of the sea of humanity, a veritable storm is about to break out'
On the 12th June, Bhagat Singh whose revolutionary ideas were becoming immensely popular during the freedom struggle, and seen as a threat by the empire, was sentenced to transportation in the Assembly Bomb case.
Singh considered himself a political prisoner along with others, noted the discrimination between the European and the Indian prisoners. The political prisoners demanded equality in food standards, clothing, toiletries, and other hygienic necessities, as well as access to books and a daily newspaper.
Singh along with other prisoners underwent a hunger strike. Failed attempts were made to break the strike by the government. With the nationwide popularity of the hunger strike, the government decided to advance the Lahore Conspiracy Case and Singh was transported to Bostal Jail in Lahore and the trial needless to say, which was one-sided started on 10 July 1929 and ended on the 7th of October, 1930 with a death sentence which was widely opposed and many attempts were made to challenge the decision.
When Bhagat Singh’s mother went to visit him in jail, he was believed to be laughing loudly. Everyone around him was shocked. Most of them considered that he was close to death. Reports suggest that the revolutionary leader was smiling when he was was hanged along with his comrades Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru on March 23, 1931, at the age of 23 and it is said that the trio proceeded quite cheerfully towards the gallows
while chanting their favourite slogans like “Inquilab Zindabad” and
“Down with British Imperialism”. Singh and his peers were cremated at
Hussainiwala on the banks of Sutlej River.
Despite his short life, Bhagat Singh's death had the effect that he desired and he inspired thousands of youths to assist the reminder of the Indian Independence movement. After his hanging, youths in regions around Northern India rioted in protest against the British Raj and also against the indifference of the congress. To this day he is revered by many as a symbol of resistance to British colonialism in India, and his example continues to inspire new generations of activists worldwide.
Apart from being a freedom fighter,participating in various acts of resistance against British rule in India. Bhagat Singh was also a great speaker, reader, writer and journalist.for Punjabi and Urdu language newspapers. He was moulded and guided by not only the political situation in India but also by the situation in Asia, Europe and America. The Russian revolution and Marxist writings and literature on the Soviet Union captured his imagination when he was in his teens. By the time he was 20, Bhagat Singh had devoured books on the theories of socialism, economics and revolution in European countries.
According to historian J.N. Sanyal, Bhagat Singh was an extremely well-read man and his special sphere of study was socialism and the economic experiment in Russia under the Bolshevik regime that greatly interested him.But he was equally alive to the importance of national language and literature in bringing about an awakening and national integration among the masses.
Although he often quoted from the writings of Guru Gobind Singh, Swami Ram Tirath and Swami Vivekananda, Bhagat Singh was totally against using religion for political ends. He believed that the failure of earlier revolutionaries lay in their divided loyalty to their nation and their religion.An atheist as well as being a socialist, Bhagat Singh was also attracted to communist and anarchist causes.
He wrote a series of articles on anarchism, wanting to
fight against mainstream misconceptions of the word in the Punjabi periodical Kirti and explainrd his
interest in anarchist ideology andexpress his concern over misunderstanding of the concept of anarchism
among the public. Singh tried to eradicate the misconception among
people about anarchism. He wrote, “The people are scared of the word
anarchism. The word anarchism has been abused so much that even in India
revolutionaries have been called anarchist to make them unpopular.” As
anarchism means absence of ruler and abolition of state, not absence of
order, Singh explained, “I think in India the idea of universal
brotherhood, the Sanskrit sentence vasudhaiva kutumbakam etc.,
has the same meaning.” He wrote about the growth of anarchism,”the first
man to explicitly propagate the theory of Anarchism was Proudhon and that is why he is called the founder of Anarchism. After him a
Russian, Bakunin, worked hard to spread the doctrine. He was followed by
Prince Kropotkin etc.”
Singh explained anarchism by writing :
The ultimate goal of Anarchism is complete independence,
according to which no one will be obsessed with God or religion, nor
will anybody be crazy for money or other worldly desires. There will be
no chains on the body or control by the state. This means that they want
to eliminate: the Church, God and Religion; the state; Private
property.
In ‘To Young Political Workers,’ his last testament before his death, he called for a “socialist order” and a reconstruction of society on a “new, i.e, Marxist basis.” He considered the government “a weapon in the hand of the ruling class”, which is reflected in his belief that Gandhian philosophy only meant the “replacement of one set of exploiters for another.”
Bhagat Singh is often admired and celebrated for his dedication to the cause of liberation. However his socialist, communist and anarchist beliefs were suppressed by the successive governments in Independent India, who saw a revolutionary who had the potential to inspire, unite and motivate the growing population of a spectrum of activists all over India, in direct response to the fast-spreading divisiveness and intolerance in the country, often patronised by the groups and organizations professing a right-wing fascist ideology.
Writing the introduction to Bhagat Singh’s remarkable essay Why I am an Atheist in 1979,the late Bipan Chandra described the Marxist leaning of Bhagat Singh and his associates in the following way; “Bhagat
Singh was not only one of India’s greatest freedom fighters and
revolutionary socialists, but also one of its early Marxist thinkers and
ideologues. Unfortunately, this last aspect is relatively unknown with
the result that all sorts of reactionaries, obscurantists and
communalists have been wrongly and dishonestly trying to utilise for
their own politics and ideologies the name and fame of Bhagat Singh and
his comrades such as Chandra Shekhar Azad.”
Bhagat Singh’s dreams of a new social order live on, not just in his writings, but also reflected in the hearts of every activist, protester, and dissenting citizen.The fight for freedom,revolution, Inquilab, may have changed in meaning, but itis far from over. Bhagat Singh remains one of the most influential, revolutionary figures in the Indian history and continues to serve as a tremendous source of inspiration for every generation.
The inspiration that Bhagat Singh still ignites within the soul of Indians can be felt in the popularity of the films and theatrical adaptations on his life. Several films like “Shaheed” (1965) and “The Legend of Bhagat Singh” (2002) were made on the life of 23-year old revolutionary. Popular songs like the “Mohe rang de basanti chola” and “Sarfaroshiki Tamanna” associated with Bhagat Singh are still relevant in inspiring patriotic emotions in the Indians. Numerous books, articles and papers have been written about his life, ideologies and legacy.
Today is marked as Bhagat Singh Jayanti and is celebrated all over India to remember his courageous sacrifice that ignited the spark of patriotism among countless people. To commemorate Shaheed Diwas, people observe a two-minute silence to remember these three freedom fighters and all the other martyrs who laid down their lives for the nation. revisit their work in art and history, from singing songs that defined their time, to reading the lessons passed down by Bhagat Singh in his essays and diaries.
The President, the Vice-President, and the Prime Minister of India pay tribute to these great freedom fighters at their respective memorials in Delhi.Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to
revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru on Martyrs’ Day on
Thursday. Modi tweeted, "India will always remember the sacrifice of Bhagat
Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. These are greats who made an unparalleled
contribution to our freedom struggle." There is also a tradition of organizing processions, marches and rallies on this day in various parts of the country and schools and colleges hold special programs to commemorate the occasion. The day is a reminder to the people of India about the value of freedom and the sacrifices made by the freedom fighters for the country..
“They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit.”
"Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is an
imperishable birthright of all. Labour is the real sustainer of society"
This powerful track from British rapper and activist Lowkey a.k.a Kareem Dennis. featuring Mai Khalil and The Grime Violinist called Free Assange has been released as part of States of Violence, a collaboration between a/political https://a-political.org/WikiLeaks https://wikileaks.org/and the Wau Holland Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wau_Holland_Foundationon the 20th anniversary since George Bush and Tony Blair launched their criminal invasion of Iraq, leading to the death of more than a million people, that also saw the Iraq state smashed into smithereens.
It sent shockwaves reverberating around the wider region, greatly strengthening the terrorism it professed to be combatting. A month before the war on February 15rg. eight million people on five continents, me included, 1.5 million of them in London took to the streets and marched against the coming invasion. We were ignored and sadly the masters of war around the world today remain as arrogant and belligerent as they were two decades ago.
Wikileaks the whistleblowing news site that was founded in 2006 alongside courageous journalist Julian Assange were at the forefront of the many information leaks that helped expose the morally, despicable and illegal activities committed by governments and corporations at the time of the Iraq war. and now in 2023 WikiLeaks is partnering with the London-based
arts organisation a/political and the freedom of information
organisation Wau Holland Foundation to present an exhibition this month
which will include a physical copy of some of the top secret US
diplomatic cables it leaked in 2010.
The
leak, widely known as “cablegate”, began on 28 November 2010 when
Wikileaks began releasing 250,000 diplomatic cables gathered from US
embassies around the world, including logs from the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan which exposed human rights abuses. Wikileaks’ founder Julian
Assange was shortly after arrested on espionage charges in London and
remains in Belmarsh Prison facing extradition to the US where he could
receive 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act.
Titled States of Violence,
the aim of the London show (24 March-8 April) is to “unite the people
who support both Wikileaks and Julian Assange”, according to Joseph
Farrell, a Wikileaks ambassador, and Chloe Schlosberg, an art consultant
at the Wau Holland Foundation.
Describing
Wikileaks as “a persecuted organisation”, Farrell and Schlosberg say:
“Julian Assange is sitting in a maximum security prison for publishing
the truth about war and government corruption. As a result we understand
more than most what it means to live and work under insidious and
secretive states of violence."
They
add: “We have had great success with rallies and demonstrations in
support of Julian and here we are creating the chance that allows people
to reflect and consider the gravitas of what both Julian and the
organisation have been through in the last 16 years.”
States of Violence brings together artists, agitators and icons such as Ai Weiwei, Dread Scott and The Vivienne Foundation to unveil and oppose techniques of government oppression, from war and torture to police brutality and surveillance. The world’s most outspoken individuals turn the spotlight on global power structures, releasing material which lays bare the darkest truths of our contemporary reality. This is presented alongside “SECRET+NOFORN” (2022), a body of work by the Institute for Dissent & Datalove, which comprises the highest classification of cables, SECRET and NOFORN (meaning no foreign nationals), from the 2010 WikiLeaks Cablegate publication of U.S. diplomatic cables. It is the largest-ever physical publication of top secret government cables, never before available in the UK in hardcopy.
The video above https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hytO-oSzdD8 features a clip from 'Collateral Murder' released by WikiLeaks on the 5th of April 2010. It shows a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
Next month marks 4 years since Julian Assange, a man who committed his life to transparency was buried in Belmarsh supermax prison for lifting the lid on numerous war crimes and human rights abuses, while as Lowkey has pointed out 'war criminals like Bush and Blair are free, delicately humanised, solemnly listened to, and even revered, while Julian who published information about their crimes, is cursed, spied on, imprisoned, and ignored.'
And let us not forget that all these years later too many of the pundits who cheered on the carnage two decades ago continue to stink out the opinion pieces of national newspapers.
The Iraq War was an unnecessary conflict, launched on the basis of flawed
intelligence, secret diplomacy and with no sound legal basis, 20 years has not diminished the horror of the Iraq War,and it's
only because of Mr Assange and WikiLeaks that the world knows of some
of the shocking war crimes committed by the United States in Iraq, and
for the US to be pursuing him the way they are is simply unconscionable, and it is long past time that those responsible were held to account.
Is it not now hypocritical that Western leaders are calling currently calling for Vladimir Putin, a U.S ally I will remind you in the early years of the so called war on terror- to face trial for war crimes but those others mentioned continue to evade justice for their own crimes.
Thank you Lowkey for speaking truth to power with your beautiful and empowering words, and for reminding us that we must free Julian Assange before it is too late and that it really shouldn't be the case that :
' The poor get bullets and the bombers get medals
Contracts for the rich and a cell for the rebels.'
On this day March 18th, 1871, artisans and communists, labourers and anarchists took over the city of Paris and established the Paris Commune, rising up against a despised and detested government and proclaimed the city an independent municipality belonging to itself. The workers of Paris, joined by mutinous National Guardsmen, seized the city and set about reorganising society in their own interests based on workers' councils.
This heroic radical experiment in socialist self government may have lasted only 72 days before being violently being crushed in a brutal massacre that established France's Third republic. but the rebellion would shake the foundations of European society to the core,building a commune where they would directly and collectively manage their society through new institutions and voluntary associations of their own creation. It would mark the first major experience in history of men and women. picking up arms in a proletarian revolution to create a socialist society, and taking charge of their own destiny.Celebrated as an episode in which the have-nots wrested power, albeit briefly, from the haves, the Commune is remembered as a golden “What if?”
Paris was, at the time, the second largest city in the world after
London, and had a population of over 1.8 million by 1870. It was the political
centre of the world, and there had been revolutions or overthrows of
governments in France in 1830 and 1848, and many insurrectionary incidents in
the years that followed. Leading up to 1870, Napoleon III was in power and his
government amounted to a police state, which kept down workers. But France was
also the largest section of the First International, or the International
Workingmen’s Association, of which Marx and Engels were early influential
members.
The Paris Commune came into being in the context of the Franco-Prussian war, Napoleon went to war because his repression at home had not
succeeded in stopping strikes or the growth of the International. He needed a foreign distraction to pull the
country behind him, and chose a war with Prussia over the issue of who would
ascend to the vacant Spanish throne. The
main reason he lost this war was because he and the rest of the ruling class
were terrified of recruiting and arming a mass army, of giving guns to the
workers. As Adolphe Thiers (who would later become the President) said, “it is
not safe to place a gun on the shoulders of every socialist.
The war against Prussia began in July 1870 and within two months,
Napoleon and some several thousand French troops were captured. Immediately
afterwards, crowds of Parisians invaded the Legislative Assembly and the City
Hall and declared a new, republican government on September 4, 1870. Everyone, except royalists and the defenders
of the old empire, was thrilled that the Napoleonic dictatorship was gone. The
Parisian deputies to the Legislative Assembly formed a provisional government.
Many hoped that an armistice with Prussia would be reached immediately. When
this did not happen, Parisians turned to the task of preparing the city to
resist. In September 1870, the Prussian siege of Paris began. At the end of
January 1871, the Government of National Defence accepted Bismarck’s armistice
terms and surrendered the city to the Prussians.
The French held elections for a National Assembly, which in turn
selected the elderly and extremely conservative statesman Adolphe Thiers to
lead the government. Appalled at the government’s capitulation to Bismarck’s
terms and angered that the Prussian troops who had starved and bombarded Paris
were to be allowed to humiliate the city with a triumphal march, the Parisians
grew daily more suspicious of the government’s motives. Working class
neighbourhoods barricaded themselves. Cannons that had been left in the zone to
be occupied by the Prussians were dragged by hand to the hills of Paris for
safekeeping.
The French Government of Thiers decided that unpaid back rents had
to be paid up, which was impossible because there was no money due to mass
unemployment. The government also said
that all debts incurred during the war had to be paid, and then the government
stopped paying the National Guard. It suppressed radical newspapers. It sentenced the working class leaders
Auguste Blanqui and Gustave Flourens to death in absentia. And it moved the
capital of the country from Paris to Versailles, the historic centre of French
royalty.
The Versailles government wanted to disarm the National Guard. The
government’s army went to Montmarte, a working class neighbourhood, to remove
the cannons. The National Guard became aware of this attempt and one of the
Communards who led the resistance was Louise Michel. Michel described the
situation in Montmartre: “It was an
ocean of humanity, but there was not death, because the women threw themselves
on the cannon, and the soldiers refused to turn on the crowd.” Later that day,
two senior French military officials were killed by their own soldiers.
As Val Morel of the Central Committee of the National Guard, said
“This fighter had dreams for fifty years and now he was living his dream, and
seeing businessmen humbled, begging for an audience. At last.”
By March, there was a situation of dual power, with the National
Guard in Paris, and the ruling class government moved outside Paris, to
Versailles.Even though the National
Guard at one time had been bourgeois, it had become working class in makeup.
The wealthy had left Paris during the winter, leaving the workers armed in the
National Guard.
The Commune emerged on March 18, 1871, out of material conditions
that drove the masses into action. First, the siege of Paris cut off the city
from the rest of world (except by air balloon), and there was total economic
collapse. Secondly, the winter added to a food and heat crisis. The government
did not ration food so the wealthy did just fine—eating the animals in the zoo,
horses, cats, dogs and rats—while the masses starved. Thirdly, while the
government talked about defending the
country, it preferred surrendering to Prussia than giving power to its workers.
It had set up the National Guard, essentially a citizens militia, and lots of
unemployed workers joined up. Now there was a mass, organized, and armed
working class.
The ruling class was now more terrified of its own working class
citizens than it was of the Prussians. And for good reasons. The National Guard
was democratized: officers were elected, there were instant recall provisions,
and there was no extraordinary pay for senior officers. This became the basis
for the workers’ democracy the Commune tried to develop. So there was working
class unity, democratic control, and centralization to take on the ruling
class. This was something brand new, a mass and democratic movement from below
to create a new society.
A large fraction of the National Guard were
proletarians, and rejected
to wear the official uniform. While there was a general discontent with
the unconditional surrender of the French army and nationalist calls to
continue the war or revenge Prussia for the defeat were widespread, the
First International had gained significant influence especially within
the working class of Paris, as well. This combined the general
frustration within the population due to the lost war and the
devastating siege with a general urge for profound social change due to
arising class consciousness. Accordingly, already within the last month
of the war, some attempts of uprising were undertaken with popular
demands like the civil control of the military and elections of a
commune.
The central government, not unaware of the revolutionary potential of
an armed Paris, secretly sent troops into the city in the night of
March 17th/18th in order to bring the cannons of
the National Guard under the control of the central army. However, the
attempt was soon revealed and the people of Paris quickly rushed to
defend their cannons. Only a few shots were fired before the soldiers
defected to the crowd that had surrounded them. On March 18th,
authorities of the central government started to flee from the city,
followed by a general retreat of the French Army which left the National
Guard in control of the city. The republican tricolor was replaced with
the red flag. The Paris Commune was born.
The National Guard Central Committee, arrondissement mayors, and
Parisian deputies instituted self-rule for Paris, announced city-wide elections
and tried to negotiate with the government in Versailles to reach a peaceful
solution to the crisis. On March 28th the Paris Commune officially
came into existence. The newly elected municipal council was inaugurated at the
city hall, or Hotel de Ville, and began to undo the decrees of the National
Assembly.
The Paris Commune was the high point in the surge of the workers movement also expressed in the First International founded in 1867. Ideologically charged, with lots of division, the backlash following the defeat of the Commune, also broke up the International in 1872, which would see it splitting into two factions; Marxist and Anarchist. The leading figures on the two sides were Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin.
Both Marx and Bakunin supported and hailed the Commune - unlike some English trade unionists in the International, who recoiled in horror. Bakunin and his followers would use the word 'commune' a lot saying that the state could be immediately abolished by transforming society into a federation of free communes. The Paris Commune reflected anarchist ideas of community control, workers associations and confederations, and surprisingly at the time Karl Marx strongly embraced the Commune, writing at the time he said " Working men's Paris, with its commune, will be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society. It's martyr's are enshrined in the great heart of the working class."
Since then the Paris Commune has been thus variously described as either Anarchist or Socialist depending on the ideology of the commentator. It still fills me with much cause for celebration and inspiration. Along with the establishment of a state of, by, and for the working class, the Commune’s claim to greatness is the remarkable range of measures it passed. Rent payments were deferred, as were debt obligations for a period of three years, with no accrual of interest; goods held in the government pawnshop were released to their owners; the separation of church and state was declared, with the government no longer funding church operations and all religious emblems removed from classrooms; the standing army was abolished, replaced by the National Guard, with its officers elected by its members; the guillotine was publicly burned; all elected members of the Commune’s council were made revocable, with their wages limited to those of a worker; factories closed down by their owners during the siege and Commune were to be turned into cooperative enterprises under worker control; and night work for bakers was banned. The Vendome Column, the symbol of Napoleonic military glory, was torn down, its demolition organized by Gustave Courbet.
From March 18 to 28 May the two million residents of Paris ran their city as an autonomous commune, establishing 43 worker co-operatives, and advocated for a federation of revolutionary communes across France, establishing an 8 hour day,and began to regulate workers wages and contracts, abolishing fines for workers, giving them compensation, this was truly a government who put the interest of workers first . It also aimed to make education free, opening up culture for the people, formerly the sole property of the wealthy, opening reading rooms in hospitals to make life pleasant for those sick. Paris was filled with life, ideas and enthusiasm , though their city was under siege, attempts made to starve and break the will of the people surrounded by a hostile army.
The Commune also opened the way for the emancipation of women, allowing them a greater role in politics than they had previously enjoyed. The name of Louise Michel, who headed a vigilance committee and organized an ambulance service, is the best known of the female Communards, but there were others of note. The most important organization was the Union of Women for the Defense of Paris and the Care of the Wounded, co-founded by the Russian emigré Elisabeth Dmitrieff, who also fought at the barricades in the final days of the Commune and later fled to Switzerland. Women weren’t granted the vote or the right to sit on the Commune, but they played a key role at the barricades and were involved in the fight from its first day. The Communards famously set fire to many of Paris’ most famous and important buildings, the arson attributed to roving bands of revolutionary women known as Les Petroleuses.
Peter Kropotkin later enthused "Under the name of the Paris Commune, a new idea was born, to become a starting point for future revolutions.' But many others thoughts that the Paris Commune did not go far enough .
Anyway the French government was not going to tolerate this radicalism in its capital, and finally the French army marched from Versailles, but retaking the city would prove to be difficult, the communards would hold out for several weeks. The revolutionaries had built 600 barricades around the city which had to be cleared one by one. The French army finally entered Paris on May 21 and crushed the movement by May 28. Paris burned and was drowned in blood , the estimate of Parisian civilians killed usually tally's to be around 20,000, many died on the barricades. The leaders of the Commune might have had faults but for all their mistakes , they chose to fight to the end alongside the other workers. At the Père Lachaise Cemetery the French army lined up and executed 147 Commune members.
In reckoning with the French state’s actions concerning the Commune, it is important to also highlight that even after the mass executions had ended, a further 9,000 Communards were sentenced to either imprisonment or exile. In the forts along the French Atlantic Coast, but above all in the penal colony on New Caledonia—known as the “dry guillotine”—Communard resistance fighters died in great numbers, before an amnesty declared in 1880 permitted survivors to return to their homeland.
The amnesty, however, was no rehabilitation; the sentences received by the Communards retained their legal validity, and to this day French authorities have staunchly refused efforts to have them revoked. This means that the Communards retain the status of political criminals. The intent here is clear: to delegitimize the Paris Commune. In this sense, the depiction of the aforementioned events published in an 1881 issue of the German magazine Der Sozialdemokrat to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Commune’s defeat remains as apt as ever. A sea of blood separating two worlds; on the one side, those who struggled for a different and better world, and on the other, those who sought to preserve the old order
There is a wall at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, known as “Le Mur des Fédérés” It was there that the last fighters of the Paris Commune were shot To the left, the wall became the symbol of the people’s struggle for their liberty and ideals and a reminder of the ferocity of the government's reprisals.In keeping with their anti-bourgeois principles the former Communards rejected the grandiosity of monuments land wished only for a simple plaque to mark the wall where the mass executions had taken place. However, fearful of encouraging future insurrection, the authorities attempted to sell off the plots associated with the common grave and banned any mention of the events on individual or collective monuments within the cemetery. Many leaders of the French Communist Party, especially those involved in the French resistance, are also buried nearby.
Jules Jouy, a chansonnier from Montmartre wrote:
"Tombe sans croix et sans chapelle, sans lys d'or, sans vitraux d'azur, quand le peuple en parle, il l'appelle le Mur.”
"Tomb without a cross or chapel, or golden lilies, or sky blue church windows, when the people talk about it, they call it The Wall."
The memory of the Commune remained engraved in the people's memory, especially within the workers’ movement which regenerated itself in a few years time. However following the Commune, worker’s protests were not authorized in the streets of Paris until roughly 1910. For anarchists and socialists commemorative ceremonies at the Wall of the Communards assumed the same role that the funerals of opposition figures had during the Restoration. The first march to the Wall took place on 23 May 1880, two months after the partial amnesty for former exiled and deported communards, which came into effect in March 1879, and just before the general amnesty of July 1880. It would be coordinated principally by the (Guesdist) Workers’ Party via its associated relays such as the Socialist Committee for Aid to the Pardoned and Unpardoned (Comité socialiste d’aide aux amnistiés et non-amnistiés) and the Federated Syndical Workers’ Union of Workers of the Seine and the Socialist Press (Union fédérative ouvrière et l’Union syndicale des travailleurs de la Seine et la presse socialiste) which included the publications L’Égalité and Le Prolétaire.: 25,000 people, a symbolic "immortal" red rose in their buttonholes, stood up against police forces. From that time on, this "ascent to the Wall", punctuated French labour force political history. Every year since 1880, the organizations of the French left have held a demonstration in this symbolic place during the last week of May.
The “Wall” has, little by little, become established as the open-air domus ecclesia of a secular and revolutionary left. This secular space has become a new space of sacralization around which those who still believe in and hope for the coming of a more just and egalitarian society and for the completion of the work left unfinished by the revolts of March 1871, come to rest, to reassemble, and to recharge.
Unlike the masculine crowds of street protests that often ended in insurrection, these are respectful family affairs that included women and children. Their orderly nature was later invoked to convince the authorities to grant permits to political parties so that growing worker’s movements might march in the streets of the capital. The modern protest march, now an institution of Parisian life, can be said to have in part been born within the walls of Père Lachaise, where innovations of funerary practice and funerary architecture first allowed for personal and collective commemoration.
Ironically Strangely, Adolphe Theirs is also buried in the cemetery. He was the French President who presided over the execution. and the man most widely associated with the Communes brutal suppression. In May 1971, 100 years after the Commune and just three years after the 1968 protests that had rocked both the capital and the Fifth Republic, commemorators once again lined the streets. Some individuals tried to blow up the tomb of Adolphe Thiers. And in May 2019 thousands of gilet haunes poured out onto the streets and into Père Lachaise to commemorate the Commune and its stand against the French State.Many leaders of the French Communist Party, especially those involved in the French resistance, are also buried nearby.
“Ce que nous demandons à l’Avenir.
Ce que nous voulons de Lui.
C’est la Justice.
Ce n’est pas la Vengeance.”
Victor Hugo (Inscription on the Communards’ Wall)
What we ask of the future
What we want from it
Is justice
Not vengeance
Every year the tens of thousands, of French people, but also people from all over the world, who visit this exalted place of memory of the labour movement, either coming alone or in demonstrations, with red flags or flowers, they sometimes sing an old love song, which became the song of the Communards: “Le Temps des Cerises”. We do not pay homage to a man, a hero or a great thinker, but to a crowd of anonymous people who we refuse to forget.
The cemetery is built on a gently sloping hill side in Paris in the 20th arrondissement on the eastern side of the city. To walk through it is almost to visit the last 200 years of French history. The pathways are cobbled and elegantly maintained. It is like walking along a stretch of peaceful country lanes, a place where time seems to stand still. Vive la Commune.
The annual Memorial Meeting Near the Wall of the Communards in the Cemetary of Père Lachaise
Painting by Ilya Repin
After its demise, the Commune became all things to all people on the left; for some, the first socialist state, for others, anarchism in action. For Friedrich Engels, as he wrote in his postscript to Marx’s The Civil War in France, it was the “dictatorship of the proletariat” that he and Marx and the First International had long called for. It was, in reality, not just the first revolution of its kind, but in many ways the last, above all a product and prisoner of France’s particular conditions and history. The measures implemented by the Commune, a form of government that, like so much else about its foundations, harked back to the French Revolution, would be echoed through the decades, inspiring movements around the world and playing an essential role in the rise of the left. But if Engels is right and the Paris Commune was the embodiment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, many of those who later invoked their ideas ultimately betrayed them..Engels’s description was championed by Marx and later by Lenin who, in the months leading up to the Russian Revolution, called for the creation of “a state of the Paris commune type.”
As Walter Benjamin said in his theses “On the Concept of History” (1940), the struggle for emancipation is waged not only in the name of the future but also in the name of the defeated generations; the memory of enslaved ancestors and their struggles is one of the great sources of moral and political inspiration for revolutionary thought and action. The Paris Commune is therefore part of what Benjamin calls “the tradition of the oppressed”, that is to say, of those privileged (“messianic”) moments in history when the lower classes have succeeded, for a while, in breaking the continuity of history, the continuity of oppression; short - too short - periods of freedom, emancipation and justice which will, each time, serve as benchmarks and examples for new battles.
Since then both Communists, left wing societies, socialists, anarchists and others have seen the Commune as a model for a prefiguration of a liberated society, with a political system based on participatory democracy from the grass roots up
Inarguably, the Commune triumphed as an ideal for the Left, creating a
set of radical possibilities. It endures not only as a historical event,
but also as a sketch open to multiple interpretations. Its historical
content provides a map suggesting various routes to egalitarianism,
while ‘the idea of the Commune’ presents an open vessel, sufficiently
ample to hold differing and shifting equitable ideals.
Just as Lenin saw the October revolution in the tradition of the Paris Commune as he proved by euphorically counting every day up to the historical 73 day mark of resistance of the Commune, this remarkable legacy has acted as an exemplary model for all victorious revolutions that followed and has been continued in the resistance of Sur in Bakur (North-Kurdistan) as well as with the revolution in Syria and Rojava (West-Kurdistan). It is a story of possibility not failure, evidence that points to the seeds of building an alternative society, that unites a spring of peoples, resisting together., and committed to continue building up the practical alternative we want to live.
Many aspects of this first attempt at social emancipation of the oppressed retain an astonishing relevance and should be reflected on by the new generations. Without the memory of the past and its struggles there will be no fight for the utopia of the future.The people of Paris began the fight for a new world, I guess it's up to us to finish the task.The sun that rose over Paris on the 18th of March 1871 is eternal. The dream stays alive.
Today the anniversary is being observed amidst a powerful upsurge of class struggle in France, Paris again in flames due to people protesting against their capitalist oppressors, and globally a wave of protests and strikes, that imparts to this historic day intense contemporary relevance .How appropriate that all this is going on during the anniversary of the start of the Paris Uprising.
The
spirit of the Commune is wonderfully captured in the song “The International”
written by Communard Eugene Pottier. Ir has been a standard of the socialist movement since the late nineteenth century, when the Second International adopted it as its official anthem.Sung in languages around the world even
today, the lyrics, continue to inspire:
Debout, les damnés de la terre / Arise, damned of the earth
Debout, les forçats de la faim / Arise, prisoners of hunger
La raison tonne en son cratère, / Reason thunders in its volcano
C’est l’éruption de la fin / This is the eruption of the end
Du passé faisons table rase, / Lets make a clean slate of the past
Foule esclave, debout, debout, / Enslaved masses, arise, arise
Le monde va changer de base / The world is is going to change its foundation
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout / We are nothing, we will be all
Chorus:
C’est la lutte finale / This is the final struggle
Groupons-nous, et demain, / Group together, and tomorrow
L’Internationale, / The Internationale
Sera le genre humain. / Will be the human race
Il n’est pas de sauveurs suprêmes, / There are no supreme saviors
Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun, / Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune
Producteurs sauvons-nous nous-mêmes / Producers, let us save ourselves
Décrétons le salut commun / Decree the common salvation
Pour que le voleur rende gorge, / So that the thief expires
Pour tirer l’esprit du cachot, / To free the spirit from its cell
Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge, / Let us fan the forge ourselves
Battons le fer tant qu’il est chaud / Strike while the iron’s hot
Chorus
L’État comprime et la loi triche, / The State oppresses and the law cheats
L’impôt saigne le malheureux; / Tax bleeds the unfortunate
Nul devoir ne s’impose au riche, / No duty is imposed on the rich
Le droit du pauvre est un mot creux. / The right of the poor is an empty phrase
C’est assez languir en tutelle, / Enough languishing in custody
L’égalité veut d’autres lois: / Equality wants other laws
«Pas de droits sans devoirs, dit-elle, / No rights without duties she says
Égaux, pas de devoirs sans droits!» / Equally, no duties without rights
Chorus
Hideux dans leur apothéose, / Hideous in their apotheosis
Les rois de la mine et du rail, / The kings of the mine and the rail
Ont-ils jamais fait autre chose, / Have they ever done anything
Que dévaliser le travail? / Than steal work?
Dans les coffres-forts de la bande, / Inside the strong-boxes of the gangs
Ce qu’il a créé s’est fondu. / What work has created is melted
En décrétant qu’on le lui rende, / By ordering that they give it back
Le peuple ne veut que son dû. / The people only want their due
Chorus
Les Rois nous saoulaient de fumées, / The kings made us drunk with fumes
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans / Peace among us, war to the tyrants
Appliquons la grève aux armées, / Let the armies go on strike
Crosse en l’air et rompons les rangs / Stocks in the air, and break ranks
S’ils s’obstinent, ces cannibales, / If these cannibals insist
A faire de nous des héros, / On making heroes of us
Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles / They will know soon enough that our bullets
Sont pour nos propres généraux. / Are for our own generals
Chorus
Ouvriers, Paysans, nous sommes / Workers, peasants, we are
Le grand parti des travailleurs; / The great party of laborers
La terre n’appartient qu’aux hommes, / The earth belongs only to men
L’oisif ira loger ailleurs. / The idle will go reside elsewhere
Combien de nos chairs se repaissent / How much of our flesh have they consumed
Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours, / But if these ravens, these vultures
Un de ces matins disparaissent, / Disappear one of these days
Le soleil brillera toujours / The sun will shine forever
Chorus
“If socialism wasn’t born of the Commune, it is from the Commune
that dates that portion of international revolution that no longer
wants to give battle in a city in order to be surrounded and crushed,
but which instead wants, at the head of the proletarians of each and
every country, to attack national and international reaction and put an
end to the capitalist regime.” —Edouard Vaillant, a member of the Paris Commune.
" History has no like example of a like greatness... to these Parisians storming heaven" - Karl Marx.
Long live the memory of the Paris Commune / Vive la Commune!
