Remembering the Battle of Jarama and the fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War broke out on July 18th 1936. after fascist ‘Nationalist’ forces commanded by a group of military generals led by General  Francisco Franco  attempted to overthrow the democratically elected Republican government of Spain.Franco gained military support from various regimes and groups, especially Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. 

Alarmed at the prospect of another European country falling into fascist hands, and dismayed at the inaction of their political leaders,almost immediately volunteers throughout the world joined the International Brigade, risking their lives to go out to Spain to fight against Franco and fascism.and to defend the Spanish Republic.

Those who signed up either sympathised with one or more of the radical groups trying to reorganise life in republican Spain, or were just acutely aware of the danger that the rise of fascism would pose for the whole world.

This cause, in support of the democratically elected Spanish Republic, brought together an estimated 45,000 to 55,000 men and women from over fifty countries, with the largest contingents coming from France, Italy, Poland, the United States, Germany, the Balkan countries (including the former Yugoslavia), and Great Britain. 

Among the many intellectuals world-wide who rallied to the Republican side were George Orwell, W.H. Auden, Federico Garcia Lorca, John Dos Passos, Andre Malraux, Arthur Koestler, and Langston Hughes,while many other writers and artists devoted their writing and art to the subject, most notably Picasso in his tour de force Guernica, on exhibit in Madrid’s Prado museum.

This week in history on the morning of 6 February 1937 General Francisco Franco’s Nationalist army launched a massive attack on Republican lines in the Jarama valley to the southeast of Madrid seven months following the army revolt.The  attack  launched was an attempt by General Franco's fascist forces to dislodge the anti-fascist (Republican) lines along the river Jarama, just south east of Madrid, and lasted until Feb 28th, Following the failure of the attempts on the west of Madrid in November and December 1936, Franco had prepared a new offensive to the south of the capital, aiming to cut the vital road that linked Madrid with the Mediterranean port of Valencia, restricting vital supplies of food, fuel and munitions to the besieged capital. the seat of the Government.

Initially intended to be part of a combined operation with Italian troops to the east of the city, Franco decided to push ahead with the Jarama action despite the Italians having being delayed by heavy rain. Colonel Varela, Franco’s field commander, had five brigades of six battalions at his disposal, plus eleven reserve battalions, totalling some 25 000 men – mostly elite Moroccan regulares and legionnaires – and  nationalist forces were supported by the German Condor Legion, two heavy machine gun battalions, a tank corps under and batteries of 155mm and 88mm guns and two heavy bombers provided by Mussolini backed up by German armour..

The Republicans had a similar number of men available, who had been mustered for an impending Republican offensive in the same sector, which had also been delayed by the weather.The volunteers were a mixture of Communists, Labour Party members, socialists, anarchists, trade unionists and other sympathisers, all bitterly opposed to the idea of fascism. They came primarily from the unemployed areas of Mersyside, Manchester, Scotland, Tyneside and London.

They had travelled by boat and land to join the fight. Hardened by the British weather, they hadn’t anticipated Madrid’s temperature drops at night and it weakened them. For many of the British volunteers, this was also their first experience of action and they had been given as little as six weeks’ training when they faced Franco’s battle-hardened and weather-ready Army of Africa. 

The Rebel offensive pressed forward quickly and by the evening of the 6th the Republicans had been pushed back to the Jarama River, and Rebel troops were within shelling distance of the Madrid-Valencia road. Over the next three days, Franco's troops forced back the anti-fascists,despite the Republican commander, General Miaja, throwing the elite Spanish Lister, El Campesino and 11th International Brigades into the defence. but after days of fierce fighting no breakthrough was achieved. Anti-fascist counterattacks along the captured ground likewise failed, resulting in heavy casualties to both sides.

Many American anti-fascist volunteers from the Abraham Lincoln Brigades fought and died in this battle to stop the spread of fascism.Jarama marked the beginning of a bruising and often dispirited campaign and witnessed one of the bloodiest battles of Spain's Civil War.By the end of the first day of battle, the British batallion found itself with less than half the number they had set out with.

Early in the morning of 11 February, hostilities begin again. The Tiradores de Ifni ("Ifni Rifles" or "Ifni Shooters") takes the  Pindoque Bridge by surprise. The second part of the offensive begins with the passage of the river. The Third National Brigade, under the command of Colonel Barrón, is going to launch itself towards the conquest of the heights of the vertices Pajares and Valdeperdices, although the republican resistance is beginning to make the advance of Franco’s troops very difficult.

In the early morning of the 12th, another bolt jumps again over the Jarama. On this occasion, it is the III Tabor de Regulares de Tetuán which takes the bridge that joins the San Martín de la Vega road with Morata, which was defended by a company of the 17th Mixed Brigade. The II and the IV National Brigades commanded by the colonels Saénz de Buruaga and Asensio Cabanillas are launched towards Morata ascending to the plains that separate the valleys of Tajuña and Jarama, with the so-called “Army of Africa” in vanguard (Tabores de Regulares and Flags of the Legion).

Opposite Morata they meet with the XI and XV International Brigades, producing a very hard conflict between the two armies in the olive groves that surround the Galiana Way. The Republican units manage to stop the offensive. In the following days the attacks and counter-attacks take place in this olive grove maze, turning the struggle into a battle of exhaustion. It will be considered the first modern battle in history due to the participation of battle tanks, artillery and aviation in coordination with the infantry; and the first open field “Great Battle” of war. 

The maximum point of the Francoist advance on Morata takes place on February 16th, with the road cut of the Arganda bridge and the conquest of the Radio House (El Alto) amid a bleeding of casualties. They’re not moving any further. 

From February 17 onwards, the initiative changes in the battle. There is a changeover in the Republican command, with General Miaja taking charge of the operations, replacing General Pozas. The rebel army is exhausted and has no reserves. They’re going to entrench and try to hold the conquered terrain. On the contrary, the government army launches a counteroffensive in all fronts with the intention of expelling the rebels to the other side of the Jarama River. The key to this counteroffensive will be the reconquest of Cerro Pingarrón, located in the municipal district of San Martín de la Vega. The Republican troops, led by Enrique Líster, head of the 11th Division, are going to throw themselves over and over again against this position.  The most critical day will be the 23 February, when as many as three times the Republicans are on the verge of taking the high ground, recognized as one of the bloodiest places in the Civil War. From this day forward, the battle is fading, although there will still be a last and desperate republican attempt to break the front lines.

On February 27, beside the San Martín de la Vega highway, the Americans of the Abraham Lincoln battalion and the 24th Mixed Brigade launched themselves against Franco’s positions with a disastrous result. It was the epilogue of one of the most important battles of the Civil War. It made it clear that the war was going to be a long one. The front was stabilized without the two sides having achieved their objectives, remaining almost unchanged until the end of the war, beginning a hard fortifying work that has left our landscape marked with innumerable traces of that conflict.

The second part of the offensive begins with the passage of the river. The Third National Brigade, under the command of Colonel Barrón, is going to launch itself towards the conquest of the heights of the vertices Pajares and Valdeperdices, although the republican resistance is beginning to make the advance of Franco’s troops very difficult.

In the early morning of the 12th, another bolt jumps again over the Jarama. On this occasion, it is the III Tabor de Regulares de Tetuán which takes the bridge that joins the San Martín de la Vega road with Morata, which was defended by a company of the 17th Mixed Brigade. The II and the IV National Brigades commanded by the colonels Saénz de Buruaga and Asensio Cabanillas are launched towards Morata ascending to the plains that separate the valleys of Tajuña and Jarama, with the so-called “Army of Africa” in vanguard (Tabores de Regulares and Flags of the Legion). 

Opposite Morata  in a place that became known as 'Suicide Valley" ,they meet with the XI and XV International Brigades, producing a very hard conflict between the two armies in the olive groves that surround the Galiana Way.The Republican units though they were outnumbered manage to stop the offensive and  manage to keep the fascists at bay. but suffered heavy losses. 

In the following days the attacks and counter-attacks take place in this olive grove maze, turning the struggle into a battle of exhaustion. It will be considered the first modern battle in history due to the participation of battle tanks, artillery and aviation in coordination with the infantry; and the first open field “Great Battle” of war..

On February the 18th the brigadiers launched a counter attack, but this was stopped by the fascists. Despite the poor conditons, the brigadiers managed to stand firm. As the men made their way up an outcrop that was later known as " Suicide Hill " they were mown down mercilessly  by machine gun fire. They had little chance.Of the 500 brave men only 140 survived, the memory of this battle haunting them for many years later. 

But the vital road that Franco needed to have cut remained open. The most critical day will be the 23 February, when as many as three times the Republicans are on the verge of taking the high ground. From this day forward, the battle is fading, although there will still be a last and desperate republican attempt to break the front lines.

Mussolini and Hitler continued to give Franco large amounts of aid in men, aircraft, bombers, tanks and ammunition, much of it coming in via Portugal, throughout the war.

On February 27, beside the San Martín de la Vega highway, the Americans of the Abraham Lincoln battalion and the 24th Mixed Brigade launched themselves against Franco’s positions with a disastrous result. It was the epilogue of one of the most important battles of the Civil War. 

The 28 February 1937 marked an end to 'The Battle of Jarama', one of the most vital yet deadliest battles to have taken place during the Spanish Civil War.  Lasting for 21 days, fespite heavy losses – 10,000 dead on the Republican side, the Republican lines held, and a stalemate ensued which stayed in place until the final days of the war in 1939. In all, more than 15,000 died on both sides, making it one of the bloodiest confrontations of the war. 

Depending on the author, an estimated 600 to 1,200 members of the International Brigades lost their lives in the Battle of Jarama, while hundreds were taken prisoner or declared missing in action.Nobody  will  know exactly how many died, let alone the names of all those who fought there

While the rest of the world was either complicit or stood by, the International'l Brigades in Spain showed generations to come what solidarity looked like.Although the Spanish Republic would eventually be defeated in 1939,.the Battle of Jarama forever stands as an example of the courage and determination of the Spanish and international anti-fascists during the civil war.

Franco would establish a military dictatorship, which he defined as a totalitarian state. Franco proclaimed himself Head of State and Government under the title El Caudillo, a term similar to Il Duce (Italian) for Benito Mussolini and Der Führer (German) for Adolf Hitler. Under Franco, Spain became a one-party state, as the various conservative and royalist factions were merged into the fascist party and other political parties were outlawed.  Franco’s regime committed a series of violent human rights abuses against the Spanish people, which included the establishment of concentration camps and the use of forced labor and executions, mostly against political and ideological enemies, causing an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 deaths in more than 190 concentration camps. Spain’s entry into the Second World War. on the Axis side was prevented largely by, as was much later revealed, British Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6) efforts that included up to $200 million in bribes for Spanish officials to keep the regime from getting involved. Franco was also able to take advantage of the resources of the Axis Powers and chose to avoid becoming heavily involved in the Second World War..

The Civil War ravaged the Spanish economy. Infrastructure was damaged, workers killed, and daily business severely hampered. For more than a decade after Franco’s victory, the economy improved little. Franco initially pursued a policy of autarky, cutting off almost all international trade. The policy had devastating effects, and the economy stagnated. Only black marketeers could enjoy an evident affluence. Up to 200,000 people died of starvation during the early years of Francoism, a period known as Los Años de Hambre (the Years of Hunger).

The Spanish Civil was  was a decisive moment in the history of the world. It was of immense significance internationally. From 1936, Europe’s future participants in the Second World War came into direct or indirect conflict with each other during the Spanish civil war. Spain was the first great battle of the Second World War, the test bench for a war to come that would devastate Europe.

For the first time in history civil populations were bombed. We all remember Guernica,https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2023/04/marking-horrific-anniversary-of-bombing.html but there were many Guernicas in Spain.  Europeans lost their lives on both sides and their names populate the cemeteries of Madrid, of Jarama, of Belchite, of Teruel, of Guadalajara, of the Ebro …, mythical names, where so many Europeans lie. 

For some people this war was the last great cause, for others it was a crusade.It was the most passionate war, in which the ideologies of the 20th century confronted each other for the first time: democracy, fascism and communism. It was a religious war, but at the same time a class war, a revolution faced with a reaction.  It was a conflict that would continue in Europe and which also continued in Spain after the war had finished, because it was not just a war. There was also a long and hard post-war period, during which it was no longer a question of beating the enemy, since the war had been won, but rather of eradicating it, in order to maintain a system that lasted for a long time and kept Spain out of the process of democratisation  until  freedom returned in 1975. 

Today I remember those who throughout this conflict their faith and ideals remained intact,with their bravery, sacrifice and committment to their noble cause. Comrades that stood together and fought for good against  the evils of fascism.Ordinary people who made the extraordinary choice to leave their friends and family and fight in a brutal war far away from home, a common cause bringing them together, shoulder to shoulder with the workers and peasants of Spain fighting for their emancipation. 

Those  who  lost  their  lives will never grow old, they will never fade from our memories or their names from our lips, they live on through us - they are legend.We should never forget theirs heroic struggle against the forces of fascism.,While their own government was appeasing the fascist dictators, these brave volunteers knew that fascism had to be defeated and were prepared to die in order to do so;They will continue to be an inspiration to all of us involved in anti-fascist campaigns today.

The International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT), https://international-brigades.org.uk/ keeps alive the memory of the 2,500 men and women who went to Spain from 1936-39 to join the International Brigades to help the Spanish republic as it tried to put down the military revolt launched by Franco with support from Hitler and Mussolini. The struggle continues, the fascists shall  continue to not pass. No pasaron. Remember the Internationale unites the human race.

" It was in Spain  that my generation learned that one can be right but can be beaten , that force can vanquish spirit, that there are times when courage is not its own recompense. It is this doubtless , which so many, the world over feel the Spanish drama as a personal tragedy" -   Albert Camus

The  following poem by the young International Brigades volunteer John Lepper charts the day's fighting in the Jarama valley ..Followed by two more reflections on this battle.

Battle of Jarama - John Lepper.

The sun warmed the valley
But no birds sang
The sky was rent with shrapnel
And metallic clang

Death stalked the olive trees
Picking his men
His leaden finger beckoned
Again and again

Dust rose from the roadside
A stifling cloud
Ambulances tore past
Klaxoning loud

Men torn by shell-shards lay
Still on the ground
The living sought shelter
Not to be found

Holding their hot rifles
Flushed with the fight
Sweat-streaked survivors
Willed for the night

With the coming  of darkness
Deep in the wood
A fox  howled to heaven
Smelling the blood.

Jarama Front - T.A.R Hyndman

I tried not to see,
But heard his voice.
How brown the earth
And green the trees.
One tree was  his he could not move.
Wounded all over,
He lay there  moaning.

I hardly  knew:
I tore his  coat
it was easy -
Shrapnel had helped.

But he was dying
And the blanket sagged.
'God bless you, comrades,
He will thank you.'
That was all.
No slogan,
No clenched fist
Except in pain.

Jarama - A.M. Elliot

Unrisen dawns had dazzled in your eyes,
Your hearts were hungry for the not yet born.
In  agony of thwarted love and wasted life,
Through all long misery, from countries torn
With savage hands, you did not shrink or bend,
But marched on straighter, prouder to the end.

Not blindly, fighting in another's war
Lured by cheap promises and dugged with drums,
Striking down brothers in the name of lies,
Slaves of the blackest with all senses numbed-
But clear-eyed, bravely, counting all the cost,
Knowing what might be won, what might be lost.

The rifles you will never hold again
In other hands will speak against the night.
Brothers have filled your places in the ranks
Who will remember how you died for right
The day you took those rifles up, defied
The power of ages, and victorious died.

Comrades, sleep now. For all you loved shall be.
You did not seek for death, but finding it-
And such a death - better than shameful life,
Rest now content. A flame of hope is lit.
The flag of freedom floats again unfurled
And all you loved lives richer in the world.

Poems reprinted from
The Penguin Book of Spanish Civil War Verse
1980.                                                                               

The following  "Jarama Valley" also known as "El Valle del Jarama" is a song from the Second Spanish Republic. Referring to the Spanish Civil War Battle of Jarama, the song uses the tune of Red River Valley.Written anonymously, it became the unofficial anthem of the British volunteers and has been sung by veterans and their supporters to this day at events to commemorate the legendary International Brigades.

Jarama Valley - Woody Guthrie

Happy 110th Birthday to William.Seward Burroughs (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) Literary Outlaw

 Iconoclast; visionary; homosexual crusader; drug advocate; teacher .US author.visual artist and elder statesman to the Beats: William.Seward Burroughs would have been 110 years old today 

Burroughs, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on 5 February 1914 the grandson of the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine.Young Burroughs  went to Harvard university, graduated in 1936 with a degree in English literature .Drifting around Europe for a while, with enough monety to sustain him, came back to America,  diddled around for a spell, a brief  period in the Army just after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, but was soon discharged, influenced by other writers who advocated the complete derangement of the senses, like Genet, Rimbaud and Artoud, it was not long before he fell into drug use.

Although Burroughs the writer would rebel against his bourgeois upbringing, he was happy to receive money from his parents, Mortimer and Laura Lee Burroughs, until he was 50 years old. That allowance, about $200 a month, gave him much freedom and drug money. By the early 1940s, Burroughs had already had at least one stay in a mental institution (diagnosis, schizophrenia). His sexual obsession with a man had led him to cut off part of a finger. While living in New York, he would try heroin and quickly become addicted. In 1946, he was arrested for forging a doctor’s prescription. When his father bailed him out, Mortimer merely told his son, “It’s a terrible habit.”

Nowadays recognised  as one of the most culturally  influential and innovative artists of our time. Outsider, misfit, junky,homosexual, writer, painter, messiah, prophet, satirist, punk godfather, world and inner space traveller extrordinaire. he has been all these things.

He was  to  become one of the most influential and  prominent  voices of the Beat Generation.Alongside his friends, Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Hunke, Gegory Corso and Jack Kerouac,emerging out of the embers of the Second World War, this group of writers rejected social standards and celebrated narcotics, sexuality and Arcane religions in their witings.His novels include: Junkie, Naked Lunch, The Nova Trilogy (1961–1964), Cities of the Red Night, and The Place of Dead Roads.

A figure who looms  large through the last half of the 20th Century counterculture.Whose image greets me every morning in my  bedroom as my dreams awake.A  huge  influence to  me, it has also considered to have affected a range of popular culture, seeping into literature, painting, film and music A true iconclast of the first order, his vision has provoked, outraged, and inspired countless numbers of people.The influence of William Burroughs on popular culture has been enormous: the Beatles, the Stones, Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Keith Haring, David Cronenberg, Kurt  Cobain and Sonic Youth have all paid homage to the Beat writer in various media. 

Now my personal bookshelfs groan under the weight of his tomes, often I listen  to recordings of him reading from them, his distinctive voice, his rich elemental cadence  speaking to me about freedom, nothing short of complete liberation, this was his mission, unfortunately I am only human,  I have  not yet wrestled my way from Control, how they control  our bodies, our ideas, our imaginatuions, our spirits and our futures, but I try, and I remember that it was sweet William who first tempted me with new forms of thinking. His world was one that essentally contained no boundaries,  continents limitless with imagination. As Burroughs saw it history dissolves into a perpetual present, driven by need, control and the need to control. Throughout his life Burroughs continued to share his message, in his attempt at breaking down  the limiting structures that he saw, had been placed all around. His voice still lingers among us, with it's hypnotysing  magnetism, his almost deranged tones of prophesy and warning.

Starting with his first novel  Junky  published in 1953, recently reprinted, explored his intimate experiences with the world  of heroin, serving as a "memory excercise." He set himself  a daily schedule, helped   by injections of morphine. Originally published as a pulp paperback  under the pseudonym ' William Lee' with the lurid subtitle Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict.

 On  September 6, 1953, Burroughs accidentally killed his second wife Joan Vollmer after shooting her in the head, in a drunken  attempt to imitate William Tell's  feat of shooting an apple of his son's head. Burroughs  was charged with criminal impudence and eventually skipped bail, travelled to South America in search of a telepathy-inducing drug called Yage. These travels and his subsequent letters to Ginsberg  would serve as the basis of his 1963 book The Yage Letters.

He would later claim that he would never have become a writer, if  it was not for the guilt that he suffered after this unfortunate incident. Attributing his descent into writing to Joan’s death, Burroughs explains in his introduction to Queer, “I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing. I live with the constant threat of possession and a constant need to escape from possession, from Control. So the death of Joan brought me in contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out.”  One of Burroughs first works Junky was  published in 1953, recently reprinted, exploring his intimate experiences with the world  of heroin, serving as a "memory excercise." He set himself  a daily schedule, helped   by injections of morphine. Originally published as a pulp paperback  under the pseudonym ' William Lee' with the lurid subtitle Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict.

 The son that he had with Joan, Billy Jr was sent to live with his grandparents, Burroughs Sadly ever saw him, and Billy Jr, subsequently drank himself to death in 1981.
In 1956, Burroughs tried to cure his drug addiction with the help of a London Physician  named John Dent. It did not work, and he would spend the rest of his life reliant on methadone, but after living for a spell in Tangiers, where he had headed inspired by the works of the writer Paul Bowles, he wrote one of his most enduring works Naked Lunch.

A collage of disturbing, bizzarre and for some obscene images, of hallucinatory intensity, written whilst under the influence of various drugs. It  would become  his most famous and read book. It was here that he came  under the influence of the painter Brion Gysin, from whom he learnt the cut-up style, a technique  that would dominate his work for the rest of his life, with ideas and images repeating over and over again,  helping produce the works The Soft Machine (1961) The Ticket that Exploded (1962) and Nova Express(1963).

'All was enveloped in a flaming chromosphere..... Swirling within the incadescence of solar energy were sprays of blood.... Perception was heaving .....

WB - Nova Express

He would travel extensively, moving to Paris to live at the famous Beat Hotel, where he joind a younger generation, which included the poet Gregory Corso,and a motly accumulation of misfits and outsiders, a feral crew of miscreants, living lives of excess, coming and going as they pleased, like the rats that scurried through it, a place that endeared itself to Burroughs,  perhaps because of its wildness and the fact that it's front doors were never locked at all. Whilst here  he undertook his most important work, his  second novel The Soft Machine  was assembled and written while he was at the hotel.
In the early 1960's Burroughs moved to London, where he would spend 6 years, supporting  himself and his continual addiction  by publishing extensively in  small literary presses and the burgenining underground scene, as  his avant garde reputation grew internationally, as the emerging hippy counterculture discovered his early work.

He also retained the impeccable manners he grew up with. In London, Burroughs would wear three-piece suits and stand up when women entered the room. Those manners didn’t soothe, however, the embarrassments that his parents suffered.By the early ’60s, Burroughs’ parents had moved to Florida, escaping not just Midwestern winters but also, perhaps, hometown gossip and newspaper articles about their son.  

Burroufgs  during this period was quietly going about his own business in St James, living at  Dalmery Court, 8 Duke Street, an unimposing place, near Picadilly, that I've visited once or twice as an act of homage. Not that much to see though. During his stay he took on the Church of Scientology, turning up outside their headquarters to take photographs, observe and simply annoy them. It worked they subsequently moved.
His  primal books releasing his anti-government ramblings, political  undercurrents coarsing through his work, libertarian, anarchistic, alternative models of thinking.Way beyond consensual reality.

In the 1970's he would move back to America,  first moving to New York, from where he would undertake extensive reading tours,becoming associated with other cultural players like Andy Warhol, John Giorno, Lou Reed and Patti Smith, Keith Karingand a galaxy of other famous names. He became this notorious literary celebrity, lovingly embraced by young new wavers and became a sort of Godfather  to the emerging Punk movement.
In 1981 he settled in Lawrence, Kansa, spending his time painting wonderful beautiful abstract picturesy, some used with the aid of shotguns, collaborating with  many from Bill Laswell, Michael Franti and his Disposable Heroes of Hipocricy and Ministry. Appearing in films, including a seminal appearance  in Guy Van Sants 1980 film the Drugstore cowboy.

In spite of courting controversy throughout  his whole career, he was not without his supporters. American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac, for example, called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift."  While American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor, and political activist Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius.”  

While I adore Burroughs’ novels, my interest in Burroughs’ work also lies in his semiotic and cut-up collaborations with Brion Gysin. Originating during their stay at the Beat Hotel in Paris, Burroughs and Gysin experimented with the cut-up technique as a means to transcend, as Burroughs would say, Control and access an unrestricted, unmediated truth, culminating with their text The Third Mind.

While Burroughs’ life story and sexual/narcotic proclivities have had their own legacy, the “cut-up” method that he developed in the 1960s with his friend Brion Gysin has proved his most generative legacy. Writers, musicians and artists of all kinds have adopted this chance procedure, which involves the cutting and splicing of language--or image, or sound--to produce unexpected conjunctions and scramble consensus reality. “The cut-up is actually closer to the facts of perception than representational painting,” Burroughs wrote of the method. “Take a walk down a city street and put down what you have just seen on canvas . . . consciousness is a cut up.”

Gysin and Burroughs

 William S. Burroughs on his Cut-Up Method of Writing

Here  iis a link  to  an essay  on The  Cut Up Method:-

 https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/burroughs-cutup.html

Later in his life, Burroughs enjoyed his status as a Downtown, New York forefather, recording an album with poet John Giorno and Laurie Anderson. He also collaborated with director Robert Wilson and musician Tom Waits on a play The Black Rider, a mythical tale vaguely reminiscent of Burroughs’ wife’s death.n 1990 he released the spoken word album Dead City Radio with musical back up from producers Hal Wilmer and Nelson Lyon and alternative rock band Sonic Youth. In 1992 he recorded with the Kurt Cobain, a piece called The Priest They Called him.

At the end of his life he was living in a two bedroom cottage, with his beloved feline companians,taking gentle stroolls around his garden, a lover of men and science fiction, visited by admirers on his front porch. Despite his struggles with his addictions, his rage, with an 'ugly spirit' that he knew well, was able to quote Prspero, finding some kind of peace "But his rough magic, I here abjure."
For Burroughs the war on drugs were totally unachievable,  one that the world was incapable of winning.Burroughs considered  opiates to be depressents. They work on the back of the brain, suppressing the emotional and social centres of thought. This was for him was part of the addiction. An addict does not need society, feels no love or hate, gripped by this illness, that cannot be escaped, hooked in junk time, their mind and body becomes regulated  by their sickness, their addiction. But for Burroughs addiction was a general conditin limited to drugs. Politics, religion, the family, love are all forms of addiction. In the post-Bomb society, all the mainstays of ther social order have lost their meaning, and bankrupt nation states are run by control addicts.
Burroughs finally died on  August 2, 1997 at the age of 83 on in Lawrence,Kansas ,USA from a heart attack, still reliant on a methadone maintenence programe, but had survived most of his peers.His work  continues to inspire, influence, writers, lyricists and artists  of all kinds across the globe. Leaving behind a  solid body of work, his legacy still evolving, regarded as one of the greatest writers of our time. His final written words were "Love? What is it? Most natural  painkiller what there is. LOVE."

William Burroughs remains one of the most complex and controversial American writers of the twentieth century.This agent;s  words are still shared, El Hombre Invisible, is still visible for all. Remembered for his lifelong subversion of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. A writer who has been many things to many people.You get what you want from Burroughs, more importantly, you get what you need, and that can sometimes be uncomfortable.Happy birthday William Burroughs.

 "How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity. I want real freedom, to live in gross abandonment, to walk the forbidden paths... to burn the bridges and roads meant to contain me."- William S. Burroughs,

Realms of Mercy

The world is very weary,

Feeling so much terrible pain

While injustice is continually denied

To the oppressed people of Palestine,

Witnessing and watching misery

Mourning tears difficult to restrain

The light of humanity dimming

After innocent civilians slain,

Unimaginable horrors inflicted

Apocalyptic landscapes of despair,

A disturbing unending nightmare

Releasing tormented sleep,

Trapped by enshrouding blackness

Of endless restless disquiet,

Catastrophic conditions unfold

Casting darkness all around,

Amid constant bombardment 

Terrorised by Israel Defence Forces,

Without shelter or essentials to survive, 

Over rumpled ground, minds growing numb

Reason and logic with cruelty shattered,

Walking among paths, upon unweildy feet,

Feeling empty inside, unease in stomachs,

Despite the sadness, against all the odds, 

Still steadfastly resist malevolent protrusion 

Refuse to be beaten. find ways to ease affliction,

Remain defiant, repel deliverers of tainted death 

Deny extermination, exhale liberated breath.

Holocaust Memorial Day : Never Again

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day an important opportunity for us all to reflect on the darkest times of our history..We remember the six million Jewish people, and everyone murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, all victims of Nazi persecution and the victims of subsequent genocides. The genocide of the Jewish people, Roma and other minorities during World War II is a brutal reminder of what can happen in a society overtaken by division, prejudice and hatred, and the fragility of our own humanity, security and safety.Today we remember the victims but also the lesson. Never again must mean never again.

The slogan Never Again symbolised the determination of anti-fascists and the labour movement that after the Holocaust, genocide must never happen again - that no one should be annihilated because of an accident of birth and who they are.

  

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” 

 

These are the words of Elie Wiesel, a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He, along with 1.3 million other Jews, was held prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, and he was also one of only 200,000 (approx) Jews who survived it.

Elie went on to write a number of books about his own personal story and that of the Holocaust (also known as 'the Shoah’ in Hebrew) in general, and his works — along with the likes of Primo Levi (author of If This Is A Man) and Anne Frank, whose diary is famous across the world — are some of the most defining stories of that era. They are books I would implore everyone to read, especially as a 2021 study found that over half of Britons did not know that six million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust, and less than a quarter thought that two million or fewer were killed.

And though it is easy to leave history in the past, events like The Holocaust must be remembered — they must be remembered out of respect for those who lost their lives, for those who overcame the most severe form of persecution and went on to become productive members of the communities in which they settled and for those who are yet to even step foot on this planet. We must, as Elie Wiesel says, “bear witness” to these events, and pass their stories and their lessons onto the next generation, so that we can avoid such horrors happening again.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Holocaust was the greatest crime of the 20th century because of the sheer scale of the premeditated and industrialized murder that  occurred.

As we contemplate the monumental nature of this moment, it’s instructive to consider the history of International Holocaust Remembrance Day itself. This annual commemoration was created by the UN in 2005, to take place annually on January 27: the day Aushwitz-Birkenau , the largest of the Nazi Concentration Camps was liberated by allied forces. In its resolution establishing the day, the UN General Assembly made it clear that this observance would not merely be about commemorating the past; it pointedly urged member states “to develop educational programs that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide.” 

The GA also made it explicit that this remembrance would not be limited to the European Jewry alone, but should also extend to “countless members of other minorities” who were murdered en masse by the Nazi regime.

From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used  persecution, propoganda,  and legislation to deny human rights to so many. Using hate as their  foundation. By the end of the Holocaust more than a million inmates, primarily Jews, were brutally and systematically killed in the place where the Nazis introduced the monstrous concept of ‘industrialized murder.’ Among the other victims were non-Jewish Poles, political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses,Trade Unionists,. half a million mentally and physically disabled, to say nothing of the millions of prisoners of war, Poles, Russians alongside  others deemed  undesirable  who were exterminated by the nazis between 1939 and 1945.We honor their memory and must pledge to defeat antisemitism and all forms of hatred, never again allowing such horrors to occur.

Zionism however drew different conclusions from the Holocaust. As Professor Yehuda Elkana, a child survivor of Auschwitz and the Rector of the Central European University wrote in Ha’aretz, in 'The Need to Forget' in 1988:  a profound existential “Angst” fed by a particular interpretation of the lessons of the holocaust … that we are the eternal victim (arose). In this ancient belief… I see the tragic and paradoxical victory of Hitler. Two nations, metaphorically speaking, emerged from the ashes of Auschwitz: a minority who assert, “this must never happen again,” and a frightened and haunted majority who assert, “this must never happen to us again.” 

The Holocaust played an important part in the establishment of the State of Israel yet it was because of the Nakba, the expulsion of three-quarters of a million Palestinians from their homeland, that a Jewish State was formed. A series of massacres accompanied the Nakba which were aimed at ‘encouraging’ the flight of the Palestinian refugees. 

International Holocaust Remembrance Day  arrives today at a deeply fraught moment for the Jewish community. Just yesterday, we received the news that the International Court of Justice, ruling on a case brought by South Africa ordered that Israel must do everything within its power to prevent genocidal acts against Gazans. Such acts include, among others, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about Gazans’ physical destruction, carried out with the intent to destroy the Gazan people.

To further mitigate the risk of genocide, the court also ordered Israel to immediately and effectively enable the provision of humanitarian aid and basic services to Gaza.  The ICJ’s order is legally binding on Israel, as are the Genocide Convention and Geneva Conventions. Accordingly, there is no doubt that Israel must take concrete actions to ease what the court found to be a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” and restore conditions that can support life in Gaza, not risk its destruction. Specifically, Israel must allow food, water, medical aid, fuel, and other humanitarian essentials into Gaza, without delay or arbitrary restrictions on quantities or types of aid. Israel must cease telecommunications blackouts to ensure aid can be delivered to and distributed across Gaza. Israel must stop denying humanitarian aid distribution within Gaza. Israel must limit its military operations in Gaza to ensure that humanitarian aid can be delivered to and distributed across all of Gaza. Israel must not attack civilians waiting for humanitarian aid.  Failure by Israel to take these steps places Gazans at further risk The order but stopped short  of ordering  a  ceasefire.https://icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf

In short, International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024 is arriving just as Israel are literally being judged on the world stage for an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. 

I realize how painful – even unthinkable – it will be for many Jews to lift up the lessons of International Holocaust Remembrance Day to suggest Israel that is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.But if this particular day is truly is to be a day for us to apply the “lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide,” it is all the more critical for us to speak out and name a genocide that is literally unfolding before us in real time. No matter how uncomfortable or painful the prospect.Lett's  remember the 26,000 slaughtered Palestinians in the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine and Apartheid Israel  murdering hundreds of people within 24 hours of the InternationaL Court of Justice ordered it to prevent  acts  of  genocide.

On International Holocaust Memorial Day, we must  remember all those who lost their innocent and precious lives in the past.Remember, it didn’t start with gas chambers. It started with politicians dividing the people with ‘us vs. them.’ It started with intolerance and hate speech, and when people stopped caring, became desensitized, and turned a blind eye.

 “Never Again” was  always meant to  mean  never again for all regardless of skin colour, religion or ethnicity.We are all human. We all bleed the same colour, red. When we say 'Never Again', we have to mean it. “Never again” means we must never see the slaughter that we saw during the Holocaust again. And it doesn’t matter who these crimes are being committed against, just as it doesn’t matter who the perpetrators of the crimes are.

Holocaust Memorial Day is about remembering everyone who is the victim of Genocide: WW2, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and Gaza etc History begs us not to make the same mistakes. No human deserves death in the name of politics or power.Peace not war is the only solution for humanity

This International Holocaust Remembrance Day, let us find the courage to speak the words that must be spoken. Ceasefire now. No more genocide.

Some thoughts on talk of conscription into the army

 

The iconic First World War recruitment poster, featuring Lord Horatio Kitchener asking British citizens to "join up" in 1914. Drawing by Alfred Leete.

Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, the head of the British Army, has said people must be prepared to support the armed forces by participating in a war if called upon to do so.  Referring to people in the UK as a "prewar generation",

Speaking at the International Armoured Vehicles conference in west London on Wednesday, Sanders' remarks have been read as a warning to civilians to be ready should Nato go to war with Russia.

Sanders, who is retiring as chief of the General Staff in the Army this summer, referred to the UK's allies as examples of countries "laying the foundations for national mobilisation". 

He highlighted the role that Ukrainian civilians have played in the war against Russia, implying that he envisions a similar strategy for the UK, should conflict ever break out. 

 "Taking preparatory steps to enable placing our societies on a war footing when needed are now not merely desirable but essential," he said, adding: "Within the next three years, it must be credible to talk of a British Army of 120,000, folding in our reserve and strategic reserve." 

Since making the statement, social media has been alight with concerns about conscription.Some expressed scepticism that it would be possible to mobilise many people, given the low popularity of the government and anti-war sentiment.I simply cannot see Gen Z or millennials accepting this; conscientious objections and civil disobedience would be abundant.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak insisted the UK government had 'no intention' of bringing back conscription. They added: 'The British military has a proud tradition of being a voluntary force. There are no plans to change that.' The Downing Street official also labelled 'hypothetical scenarios' about potential future conflicts as unhelpful. 

Previously when conscription was used in Britain it was often dependent on age, with many younger citizens being called up to bear arms first. When conscription was first introduced between 1916 and 1920 - during the Fist World War - unmarried men from the ages of 16 to 40 were summoned to bear arms for their country.

Unless they were in a particular career which was needed for the war effort - or were single parent or minister of religion - they would be expected to serve for King and country.  By the time the Second World War rolled around, single men between the ages of 20 and 22 were required to serve.

However as the war continued to blaze, men aged between 18 and 41 - except those who were deemed medically unfit or workers in key industries - had to register for service.The fighting age range then became bigger, with anyone aged 18 to 51 liable to be drafted. 

Prison workers, students, medical staff, ministers of religion, government staff and police officers were all exempt from bearing arms, however. Additional exceptions were also based on health, so those who had mental of physical isssues, such as blindness were not called to the frontlines.

Unlike the aforementioned groups, pregnant women were liable to conscription however in reality they were never summoned to serve.

For millions of British citizens, conscription was a controversial issue, especially for those who had strong anti-war convictions,Those who objected on moral grounds became Conscientious Objectors. A pacifist who objected to war in principle and therefore refused to be enlisted was considered a Conscientious Objector. 

Others had political objections to the war as they did not consider the government of Germany to be their enemy. Some had religious objections to the war, believing whole-heartedly in the commandment 'thou shalt not kill'. Members of religious groups such as Quakers or Jehovah's Witnesses fell into this category. 

As with those wishing to be exempted from fighting for reasons of employment, family needs or disability, Conscientious Objectors had to attend a Tribunal hearing to register their objection to participating in combat.  If a man's job was considered valuable to the war effort, he was exempted from enlisting. The cases of Conscientious Objectors, however, were usually rejected. 

Those who had been rejected were forcibly enlisted in a combatant Corps, although some could opt to join the Royal Army Medical Corps. If the Objector refused to don the uniform and cooperate he would be sent to prison where the conditions were harsh.

The No Conscription Fellowship was formed to campaign against the imposition of compulsory conscription. Later, when this failed and conscription became law, the NCF provided support for conscientious objectors throughout the country.There were over 20,000 Conscientious Objectors in Britain between the years of 1916-1918.

During the Second World War, men up to the age of 60 were required to do some form of National Service. After the war, when the passing of the National Service Act came into force In 1949, conscription became a major part of British life once again.

Initially recruits were required to serve for 18 months, but this was extended to two years when the Korean War started in 1950. Only those who failed the medical or who worked in the three 'essential' industries of coalmining, farming and the merchant navy were exempt. 

National Service was deemed necessary in part because of Britain's military commitments abroad.But towards the tail end of the 1950s National Service was scrapped, because of the burden it placed on the Army and the fact that workers were being drained from the economy.

The last recruits entered the armed forces in November 1960, with their service coming to an end in 1963. In the present day, there is no conscription legislation in the UK, thank  goodness and only those who have a desire to pursue a military career join the army. Therefore, it is unprobable that you would be asked to engage in military combat for Britain under the present legislation. If they were, it would largely be dependent on your age, career path and fitness.

Sunak trying to look tough by bombing the Houthis is one thing, but the Tories using the threat of WW3 to try and get re-elected is next level evil. All this talk about preparing for War with Russia, China and Iran. Whoever, expanding armaments, conscription. Put all this energy into peace. No, I'm not naive but it's this sort of war talk driven by the media and  certaint  politicians that makes me  so  bloody angry. Conscription? Fucking do one! We are NOT going to allow it!

The idea of dragooning ordinary people into these wars is utterly reprehensible and underlines the dystopian nature of the increasingly aggressive foreign policy being pursued by this government.

Personally speaking In case of any attempts of conscription into the UK army, I would like to put on Public Record.I have flat feet. I am short sighted,I have a dodgy  shoulder. Besides all  that I'm  probably  far too old for all this rubbish, and I hate bloody  wars.If you’re happy to be a disposable pawn in a game of proxy war chess, then good for you. I on the other hand, am not.

I do however love the absolute hubris of  people like Sir Patrick Sanders,and politicians demanding people put their life on the line for a political system that has been actively excluding, disenfranchising and in many cases, trying to kill them, for decades  Russia is not the enemy. China is not the enemy. are. Anyone  pushing for this stipid idea needs to lead by example and go fight their own fucking wars and  the UK Government will always be a bigger direct threat to UK citizens than Russia.Besides this millions would defy conscription and young people want peace not war..I think the following  sums up my thoughts on conscription perfectly!

After Storm Isha

Storm Isha arrived growling ferociously

Causing disruption with annoying force,

Flexing her muscles across the UK

Like a battering ram of elemental  instensity,

Moving very fast pushing things over

As she moved swiftly across the land.

I found shelter in my comfortable warm home

As mother natires fury kept on raging,

Thought of the homeless left abandoned outside

Left me feeling angry like the howling wind,

Stirring emotions. creating inner disturbance

As storm raged on, releasing  fierce turbulence,

Killing  many trees that we  treasure and love

That had stood proudly not wanting to be hurt, 

Though calmness has returned today

After the tiring hours from the night  before,

The urgency of climate change is very real

Gusts of  force arrive to give us a warning,

Unless we act  now. with  utter ermergency

Isha's sisters will call again, far from gently

Bringing danger to life, delivering destruction

A maelstrom of chaos and willful obstruction.

.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ( 15/1/1809 -19/1/1865) - To be Governed

Pierre Joseph Proudhon was a French politician,  socialist /printer and philosopher. A member of the French Parliament, the socio-economic system which he expoused is generally called mutualism. Proudon was the first man to call himself an anarchist", holding that "Anarchy is Order", inspiring the famous symbol the anarchist circled-A symbol. He is regarded as a forerunner and prominent influence on individualist anarchism.

Proudhon’s view of the ideal anarchist society, which he expanded upon in The Principle of Federation, consists of a world without nation-states or borders, with political authority decentralized by a system of independent federated communities, with contracts amongst the parties replacing state-backed laws. It is a government of no one, a self-regulating system in which no individual has power over others. Workers, either individually or collectively, would take control over their own affairs, coming together to coordinate when necessary. 

One person claiming authority over others, Proudhon argued, is an inherently oppressive form of despotism. No one has the right to rule and be obeyed, or to impose penalties for disobedience. Relations between individuals need to be made consensual and be based on principles of mutual aid.

In a statement traditionally misattributed to Karl Marx, Proudhon argued that “property is theft!”  He thought that privately-owned productive resources, insofar as their ownership could always be traced back to some act of arbitrary violence, were all stolen goods. Proudhon believed that the state was inherently unjust, too, as it provided violent security for the owners of capital and tended to violate the individual freedom of its citizens. 
Proudhon, was born in Besançon,the son of a cooper and tavern keeper, Proudhon’s early life was marked by poverty. Although his family’s poverty forced him to leave education and work as a cattle herd, his intellectual brilliance did not go unnoticed, winning him a scholarship to the prestigious college in Besançon. Proudhon’s time at the college ignited a lifelong passion for learning, although he was forced to leave early to help support his family by training as a printer. While training as an apprentice printer, the autodidact Proudhon taught himself Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, all of which helped him succeed in his new profession. Working as a printer also gave the young Proudhon access to local intellectuals, most notably the utopian socialist Charles Fourier, with whom he became lifelong friends. 

A prolific author, Proudhon printed many books, the most notable of which are Philosophy of Misery and What is property? The latter is famous for the quote, "Property is theft; property is liberty: these two propositions stand side by side in my System of Economic Contradictions and both are true". Since Proudhon made the statement, the passage has been misrepresented and distorted by crypto- Bolshevik collectivisations masquerading as anarchists, who quote only the first three words, excluding the reference to liberty.
His influence in France was immense, and his theories played a great part in the First International and the Paris Commune, in French syndicalism and in contemporary movements for currency reform. As a writer he was admired by Baudelaire, Saint-Beuve, and Victor Hugo; as a thinker he was respected by Tolstoy, Amiel, and Madame d'Agoult. Marx knew him, and it was around the rivalry of these two strong personalities that the leverages between libertarian and authoritarian socialism, developed in the first international, was crystallized.
He was a leading member of the International Working Men's Association after becoming involved with radicals at Paris. A major dispute broke out between Proudon and Karl Marx, splitting the international between anarchists and Marxists. Proudhon favoured worker co-operatives and a financial system similar to credit unions free from usury. He held that such as social revolution could be made peacefully. 

Proudhon made his biggest impact on the public during the Second Republic through his journalism. He was connected with four different newspapers: La Représentant du Peuple (February 1848 - August 1848); Le Peuple (September 1848 - June 1849); La Voix du Peuple (September 1849 - May 1850); Le Peuple de 1850 (June 1850 - October 1850).

His polemical writing style, combined with his perception of himself as a political outsider, produced a cynical, combative journalism which alienated some, but appealed to many French workers. In his numerous articles he criticized the policies of the government and continued to propose the reform of credit and exchange.

To realize his plan, he attempted to establish a popular bank (Bank du Peuple) early in 1849, but despite numerous adherents (perhaps as many as 13,267--mostly workers), receipts were meager (about 17,993F) and the whole enterprise was essentially stillborn. 

Proudhon failed to get elected to the constituent assembly in April 1848, though his name appeared on the ballots in Paris, Lyon, Besançon, and Lille. He was successful, however, in the complementary elections held on June 4, and was therefore a deputy during the debates over the National Workshops. Proudhon had never advocated such workshops, accurately perceiving them as essentially charity institutions which did not directly attack the problems of the economic system, but he opposed their elimination unless some economic assurances could be given to the workers who relied on them for subsistence.

Proudhon's actions and writings over the years have been controversial.He also was sexist and an anti-Semitic. For Proudhon, the Jew was the "source of evil," as "incarnated in the race of Shem" (Césarisme et christianisme, 1 (1832),  He accused the Jews of "having rendered the bourgeoisie, high or low, similar to them, all over Europe" (De la justice dans la Révolution et dans l'Eglise (1858),  In his "diary," published posthumously, he called them an "unsociable race, obstinate, infernal… the enemy of mankind. We should send this race back to Asia, or exterminate it" 

Proudhon's unremitting hatred of the Jews was probably influenced by his  friend Fourier, but above all by his own xenophobic passion for France, which he saw as "invaded by the English, Germans, Belgians, Jews," and other foreigners (France et Rhin (1867),

Thrust into the public sphere by tumultuous events of 1848, Proudhon desired to influence national socioeconomic policy, but he proved to be an ineffective political actor. As he himself perceptively noted in 1850, he was basically a "man of polemics, not of the barricades."

Proudhon was shocked by the violence of the June Days. He visited the barricades personally to acquaint himself with the events that were unfolding and reflected in 1855 that his presence at the Bastille at this time was "one of the most honorable acts of my life." But in general during the tumultuous events of 1848, Proudhon opposed insurrection and preached peaceful conciliation, a stance that was in accord with his lifelong stance against violence. He never fully approved of the revolts and demonstrations of February, May, or June, 1848, though he sympathetically portrayed the social and psychological injustices that the insurrectionaries had been forced to endure, and argued that the forces of reaction were the responsible parties for the occurrence of these tragic events.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon died on Jan. 19, 1865.in Passy.on  19 January 1865  disappointed that his non-violent economic revolution did not appear to be making the sort of progress he believed not merely desirable, but inevitable. Like Marx, he was convinced that capitalism would be but a brief way station on the road to a socialist society. Nonetheless, he remained hopeful that the world would eventually come to its senses and recognise the deep truth within those three words…Property is theft. He was buried in Paris at the cemetery of Montparnasse

I will end with the following much quoted passage which many years later shows how well he wrote.It has an almost poetical quality to it and still raises pertinent questions for the times we live in today.

To Be Governed

“To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality."

The life and legacy of Socialist novelist Jack London (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916)

Novelist and journalist and passionate advocate of labor unions, socialism, and the rights of workers,Jack London was born on January 12, 1876 in San Francisco as John Griffith Chaney ,His parents were Flora Wellman, the headstr.ong daughter of a well-to-do businessman, and “Professor” W.H. Chaney, an itinerant astrologer, whose celestial counseling took a more earth-bound course (though he later claimed, in correspondence with London, that he was impotent and couldn’t possibly be his father).

When he was eight, his mother married John London, a middle-aged widower with two daughters. She wanted to make money quickly but his stepfather failed as a grocer and the new family had a series of disasters which drove them from home to home in the Bay Area. 

Flora had little time for young Jack, so he found mother substitutes in Mammie Jenny, his black nurse, and his stepsister, Eliza, eight years his senior. Shy and sensitive (he later called himself a boy without a boyhood), London felt the only way he could win social acceptance from his peers was by excelling, which meant being a better fighter (he lost a few teeth along the way, but made his point). But he wasn’t so shy he didn’t develop a strong mercantile instinct, such as selling other boys’ rags, bottles and oil cans to junkmen for commissions. He also got a headstart on his writing career when, upon his refusal to sing with his class, the school principal sentenced him to write a composition each noon.  

A restless nature and family finances caused him to quit school at 14 and start working around the Oakland waterfront. He also made good use of the Oakland library, beginning to delve into Marx and Nietzche. Between the ages of 15 and 18 he held a variety of jobs such as newsboy, saloon cleaner, and fruit canner. He bought a skiff at the tender age of 15, replete with live-in girlfriend, and became an oyster pirate; he was known as “the prince of the oyster pirates” due to his prowess at this unusual craft. He also hunted for wild cats on the belief that the Chinese would pay large sums for these felines which allegedly gave them strength for tong wars.  He went on to sail to Japan as a North Pacific sealer and bummed hisway around the U.S., part of the time as a member of Kelly’s Industrial Army, a protest group which arose out of the Panic of 1893 and which marched on Washington D.C. 

But after serving a 30-day vagrancy charge at Niagara Falls, London returned to Oakland determined, despite his refusal to become a “work beast,” to improve his lot in life. At 19, he enrolled in an Oakland high school but found the pace too slow. Taking a five-week cram course, he passed the entrance examination to the University of California. He only went one semester, however, before family finances compelled him to quit school and work, regardless of the risk, for 10 cents an hour at a jute mill.  He was so poor he ate meat once a week at the house of his girlfriend,Mabel Applegarth. He did manage, through Eliza, to get a set of false teeth (he chewed tobacco to relieve the pain in his teeth from all the cavities) and celebrated this event by buying his first toothbrush. (Years later, in Korea, he was called to a hotel balcony thinking the crowd wanted to see him as a famous author and discovered the people just wanted to look at his bridge of artificial teeth!). 

But he received writing encouragement when, in 1893, he won a prize in the San Francisco Morning Call for a story “Typhoon Off The Coast of Japan.”

Restless, he fled Oakland again and spent the winter of 1897 in the Alaskan Klondike, which was to provide a substantial amount of material for later stories. By this time he had deduced that writing was the best way to earn a living as a socialist under a capitalistic system.

Jack London married Elizabeth "Bessie" Maddern on April 7, 1900. Their wedding was held on the same day that his first short story collection, "Son of the Wolf", was published. Between 1901 and 1902, the couple had two daughters, Joan and Bessie, the latter of which was nicknamed Becky. In 1903, London moved out of the family home. He divorced Bessie in 1904. 

In 1905, London married his second wife Charmian Kittredge, who worked as a secretary for London's publisher MacMillan. Kittredge helped to inspire many of the female characters in London's later works. She went on to become a published writer.

By the age of 30 London was internationally famous for his books Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904) and other literary and journalistic accomplishments. Though he wrote passionately about the great questions of life and death and the struggle to survive with dignity and integrity, he also sought peace and quiet inspiration. His stories of high adventure were based on his own experiences at sea, in the Yukon Territory, and in the fields and factories of California. His writings appealed to millions worldwide.

London became an active socialist in the 1890s. Already notorious before the age of 20, he had written an article “What Socialism is” for the San Francisco Examiner at the end of 1895. In 1896, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about the “Boy Socialist”.Neither a theorist nor an intellectual socialist, London's socialism grew out of his life experience. As London explained in his essay, "How I Became a Socialist",his views were influenced by his experience with people at the bottom of the social pit.

In 1896 he joined the Socialist Labor Party (SLP), led by Daniel De Leon, and later that year had a letter published in the Oakland Times urging readers to study Marx’s Capital. London would leave the SLP and join the breakaway socialists around Eugene Debs, running as the Social Democratic Party candidate for mayor of Oakland in 1901 and amassed some 245 votes. He ran again several years later and quadrupled his votes. Though spoken of for the Socialist candidate for the presidency, London’s political career never got past these two unsuccessful mayoral tries. This might be because he signed some his letters, “Yours for the Revolution” and lectured on the evils of capitalism, stressing that “Excess profits were unpaid profits.”

During the early years of the twentieth century, he wrote and spoke up for the burgeoning socialist movement, spreading the message far and wide and leaving a literary legacy around which organisers could recruit. 

 In “The Scab” (1903) London provided a fitting epithet for those who ignore workers’ solidarity. He wrote that workers apply “the opprobrious epithet ‘scab’ to the labourer who takes from him food and shelter by being more generous in the disposal of his labour-power. The sentimental connotation of scab is as terrific as that of ‘traitor’ or ‘Judas’, and a sentimental definition would be as deep and varied as the human heart… The labourer who gives more time, or strength, or skill, for the same wage, than another, or equal time, or strength, or skill, for a less wage, is a scab. This generousness on his part is hurtful to his fellow labourers, for it compels them to an equal generousness which is not to their liking, and which gives them less of food and shelter…” 

In 1905, London founded the Intercollegiate Socialist Society to propagate socialism among students. London spoke at Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League universities, spreading the message of class struggle. In “Something Rotten in Idaho” (1906) he defended the miners’ union leaders Bill Haywood and Charles Moyer, who had been arrested and fitted up for murder.

His 1908 novel The Iron Heel depicted the rise of fascism in an America eventually freed by a socialist hero.The Nazis burned this and other socialist-leaning works in 1933, but did not, however, ban London's adventure stories. 

 London remains a complicated character. He was a socialist who worked hard at making money, becoming one of the highest-paid writers of his day; an author who broke ground by having nonwhites as protagonists in some books and yet made troubling ethnic references , consistent with the racism prevalent in his day.Nevertheless  it is an infected scar running across his politics that is hard to ignore. 

London was also widely known for his personal exploits. A colorful, controversial personality, London was often in the news. Generally fun loving, he was quick to side with the underdog against injustice of any kind.Jack London's commitment to socialist ideals shaped his worldview and led him to advocate for social and political change. An eloquent public speaker, he was much sought after as a lecturer on socialism and other economic and political topics.

Most people considered London a living symbol of rugged individualism, a man whose fabulous success was not due to special favor of any kind, but to a combination of immense mental ability and vitality. Strikingly handsome, full of laughter, restless and courageous, always eager for adventure, Jack London was one of the most romantic figures of this time. He ascribed his worldwide literary success largely to hard work—to “dig”, as he put it. Jack London's adventurous lifestyle and commitment to socialist ideals shaped his worldview and led him to advocate for social and political change. 

In addition to his writing and speaking commitments, London carried on voluminous correspondence (he received some 10,000 letters per year), read proofs of his work as it went to press, and negotiated with his agents and publishers. He spent time overseeing construction of his custom-built sailing ship, the Snark, (1906-1907); the construction of his dream house, Wolf House (1910-1913); and the operation of his farm, Beauty Ranch, (1905). 

The natural beauty of Sonoma Valley was not lost on Jack London. The magnificent vistas and rolling hills of Glen Ellen were an ideal place for Jack and Charmian (London’s second wife) to relax and enjoy the natural life. “When I first came here, tired of cities and people, I settled down on a little farm…130 acres of the most beautiful, primitive land to be found in California.” 

Though the farm was badly run down, he reveled in its natural beauty. “All I wanted,” London said later, “was a quiet place in the country to write and loaf in and get out of Nature that something which we all need, only the most of us don’t know it.” But true to London’s vigorous nature, he did little loafing and was soon busy buying farm equipment and livestock for his Sonoma Mountain ranch. He began work on a new barn as well as envisioning his dream, Wolf House. “This is to be no summer residence proposition,” he wrote to his publisher as he began planning in 1905, “but a home all the year round. I am anchoring good and solid, and anchoring for keeps.” 

Living and owning land near Glen Ellen was a way of escaping Oakland, from the city way of life he called “the man trap.” But, restless and eager for foreign travel and adventure, he decided to build a ship, the Snark, and go sailing around the world, serializing his adventure. The Snark voyage made it as far as the South Pacific and Australia but was curtailed due to ill health. Discouraged by health problems and heartbroken about having to abandon the trip and sell the Snark, the Londons returned to the ranch in Glen Ellen. 

Between 1908 and 1913 London purchased adjoining farms and in 1911 he moved from Glen Ellen to a small wood frame house in the middle of his holdings. (This Cottage and adjoining Stone Dining Room can be toured at the Park, a touchstone to the early 20th-century life Jack and Charmian enjoyed at the ranch). On horseback, Jack explored every canyon, glen and hilltop. He threw himself into the farming fad of the period, scientific agriculture, believing this to be a truly justifiable, basic and idealistic means of making a living. A significant portion of his later writing—Burning Daylight (1910), Valley of the Moon (1913) and Little Lady of the Big House(1916)—centered on the simple pleasures of country life, the satisfaction of making a living from the land and remaining close to nature.  Jack and Charmian London’s dream house began to take shape early in 1911 when a well-known San Francisco architect, Albert Farr, created the drawings and sketches for Wolf House. Farr supervised the early stages of construction of a grand house that was to remain standing “for a thousand years”. 

By August 1913 London had spent between $50,000 and $75,000 and the project was nearly complete. On August 22 final cleanup got underway and plans were laid for moving the Londons’ specially designed custom furniture, thousands of books, collections from travel, and personal belongings into the massive stone and redwood residence. That night, a ranch hand noticed a glow in the sky half a mile away. Wolf House was burning. By the time the Londons arrived by horseback the house was ablaze, the tile roof had collapsed, and even a stack of lumber some distance away was burning. Nothing could be done. 

London looked at the fire philosophically, but the loss was a crushing financial blow and the end of a long-cherished dream. Rumors abounded about the cause of the fire. In 1995 a group of forensic fire experts visited the site and concluded that the fire resulted from spontaneous combustion in a pile of linseed oil-soaked rags left by workers. London planned to rebuild Wolf House, but at the time of his death in 1916 the house remained as it stands today, the stark but eloquent vestige of a shattered dream.  The loss of Wolf House left London depressed, but he forced himself to go back to work.He added a new writer’s study to the Cottage, continued his efforts to breed prize livestock, and expanded his plans for the 1400 acres he now owned.

Occasionally, London traveled to New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles on business. He spent time living and working aboard his 30-foot yawl, the Roamer, which he sailed around San Francisco Bay and the nearby Sacramento and San Joaquin deltas.

In 1913, London published what was arguably his least successful book, John Barleycorn, a non-fiction account carrying the subtitle Alcoholic Memoirs.A classic biography of Jack London as a drunk; it is most likely the first thoughtful analysis on alcoholism in Amreican literature. The novel is packed full with London’s notorious adventures including his well known drinking career via the character known as John Barleycorn - a term even now given to alcohol just like the ‘demon rum.’ It is an incredible insight into London and alcoholism.

John Sutherland, professor of English Literature at University College in the UK, wrote in his introduction to the Oxford edition of Jack London’s book that London had pitched the book as “the bare, bald, absolute fact… of my own personal experiences in the realm of alcohol.” As Sutherland notes, “The drunk’s stigma was, however, indelible in 1913. No one of London’s public standing had ever come clean on the question of problem drinking before—at least not while at the zenith of their power and fame.”

In 1914 Jack became a war correspondent in Mexico, covering the role of US troops and Navy ships in the Villa-Carranza revolt. London dropped out of any active socialist politics by the end of the noughties. In 1914 he supported the allied side in WWI. He resigned from the Socialist Party in early 1916. London made it clear in his resignation letter that he was not abandoning the ideals of socialism, but rather the Socialist Party itself because of "its lack of fire and fight, and its loss of emphasis on the class struggle." It's an important distinction. He never did abandon socialism, and even in his departure, he stated what it was all about: “I believed that the working class, by fighting, by never fusing, by never making terms with the enemy, could emancipate itself”.

After breaking with the Socialist party, London became increasingly isolated from his friends and political compatriots in the last years of his life.London’s physical health deteriorated as well. By age 37, the strong, ready-for-anything body of his youth of which he had taken so much pride had become bloated and creaky, old before its time. His formerly fit waistline had expanded, his joints ached from rheumatism, and he was stricken with uremia. kidney failure.

Doctors pleaded with him to change his his work habits and his diet, stop all use of alcohol and get more exercise, he refused. If anything, the pressure of his financial commitments to helping friends and relatives and his increasingly severe health problems only made him dream larger dreams and work harder and faster.habits, but he refused to alter course. He continued to chain-smoke 60 Russian Imperials a day, gorge himself daily on two nearly raw ducks (his favorite meal), and enjoy the regular company of John Barleycorn. He was constantly fatigued and in pain, and when kidney stones arose to deepen his suffering, he added morphine to his arsenal of self-medications

In 1915 and 1916, Charmian persuaded her husband to spend time in Hawaii, a relaxing and healthful respite for the two of them. But London’s greatest satisfaction came from his ranch activities. His ambitious plans to expand the ranch and increase productivity kept him in debt and under pressure to write as fast as he could, even though this might mean sacrificing quality for quantity. He continued to push to complete 1000 words per day regardless of his location, duties, or health.

Jack London's death remains controversial. an alcoholic and addicted to painkillers, he had been suffering from a variety of ailments, but up to the last day of his life he was full of bold plans and boundless enthusiasm for the future. Many older sources describe it as a suicide, and some still do. However, this appears to be at best a rumor, or speculation based on incidents in his fiction writings. His death certificate gives the cause as uremia, also known as uremic poisoning (kidney failure).

He died November 22, 1916,  at  the  age  of  40 in a sleeping porch in a cottage on his beloved ranch and it is possible that a morphine overdose, accidental or deliberate, may have contributed to his death. Words of grief poured into the telegraph office in Glen Ellen from all over the world.  

The buildings and property where he built his last home, and where he and his wife were cremated and interred, were later preserved as Jack London State Historic Park, in Glen Ellen, California. London became for much of the 20th century possibly the best known American author around the world,

Despite his relatively short life, his literary legacy remains influential, inspiring generations of readers with his gripping storytelling.and his legacy and writings speak to a life lived with abandon.In any era undergoing dramatic social change, the work of a writer like London  can still arouse people’s sense of fairness and justice  that still remains relevant and engaging.

London's literary executor, Irving Shepard, who visited London weeks before he died reported that London said, "I would rather be ashes than dust ... The function of man is to live, not to exist. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.  I would rather be a superb meteor every atom of me in magnificent glow than a sleepy and permanent planet.  The function of man is to live not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."