Be Careful of drunken words

           
                                                                 (Thanks Kim)

Be careful of  drunken words  that are let loose
in particular after drinking large quantities of wine
they will create and reel in havoc
as they tear themselves into pieces
leave a trial of distraction
coming and going in haze of hesitation.

Be careful of drunken words
that cannot walk in straight lines
words  that break through taboos
words if breathalysed could be charged
and then imprisoned
words  that may never be found again
because they have been put in solitary confinement.

Be careful of drunken words
let loose with abandonment
wide eyed and legless
sprawled on the pavement outside
staggering without pause
staining the paths of conformity
refusing to be silent.

Be careful of drunken words
in the streets hawking messages of sorrow,
weeping, keeping faith with blurred sensitivity
rippling with defiance, straining to be heard
spitting against the gates, frightening the sober
                                                 voices away.
be careful of drunken words.

Armed Forces Day 2014

Today  28 June 2014, marks Armed Forces Day,  staged annually for the past  5 years  to pay tribute to UK Armed Forces personnel, past and present. Today 100 years after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the start of the Great war, and 70 years  from the D-Day Landings, this years event  comes with an even bigger  shadow.
In this age is  there really cause  in celebrating conflict, in an event of militaristic might, should we not be raising awareness of the destructiveness of war, and spend more time promoting peace .Why not call the day reconciliation day.
Recently the event has been criticised by Wrexham Peace and Justice Group, who were 'horrified'  to find a picture  of a toddler dressed in military uniform, being used to  advertise the event. They said ' We  strongly object to the targeting of children by the military' also saying ' we contend that it is irresponsible and unacceptable for Wrexham Council  to be presenting the militarised warfare  in the content of family entertainment.'
War is  not family entertainment, but the first casualty of war is truth. Today we should remember too people  like Chelsea Manning  who had the  courage to tell us the truth about war, and its collateral damage.
We should   remember the Great War, remember it not as a 'war to end all war' or a 'victory for democractic', but as a military disaster and a human  catastrophe. We should use this day to remember that war is driven by big powers and their vested interests around the globe, and remember the billions killed in war, the innocents across the globe,  left maimed and wounded,  mark the courage of those involved, but  acknowledge  the absolute  devastation and misery caused,and the harsh realities of actual life in the military, far from the rosy pictures painted. The brutal reality, is  that  for many, having been used by the military are  left  with mental health issues, and simply abandoned
To move forward  we should support  all those  traumatised and displaced by war, and seek ways to avoid conflict, and ways to promote international cooperation instead,focus on some positive steps to promote harmony in a badly trouble world, say no to the military complex that profits out of misery, pointing out the  horrible consequences of war.

Happy Birthday Emma Goldman (27/6/1869 - 14/5/40)

'IF I CAN'T DANCE, I DON'T WANT TO BE PART OF THE REVOLUTION.'

Happy Birthday Emma Goldman, tireless agitator and speaker. In 1910 alone, she gave 120 talks  in 27 cities in 25 states  in the United States to 25,000 people Jailed  in 1917, and described by authorities as 'one  of the most dangerous women in America,' she was deported  to Russia in 1919,  campaigned  against the Bolsheviks in the 1920's, subsequently joined the Spanish  Revolution 1936 -39, backing the Spanish anarchists, as they tried to restructure society with one hand, while battling fascist, Stalinist threats  lined up against them on the other.
Today Emma Goldman  is warmly remembered for the anarcho-feminist, anti-militarist, and internationalist contributions she made  to the social revolutionary struggles in life.
Incidentally the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies, was founded  on this day June 27th 1905. So cheers and solidarity to them too.

Two earlier posts about Emma Goldman

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/emma-goldman-2761869-14540-anarchism.html

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/emma-goldman-2761869-14540-if-i-cant.html

Rebekhah Brooks - I am Innocent

Of course you are dear. You who sniggered all  the way through the trial, knowing  to bloody full well that you would get away with it! Typical British Justice,... Money buys your freedom.
As for the government, who trust them anymore, have they  themselves not  been involved  in shady dealings,  including phone hacking. I kid you not.
All of the  above tainted, it all reeks  of the establishment protecting one of  their own. Brooks will continue to pop round to Daves,  share some lunch, he cannot distance from her at the end of the day, because   she knows where the other bodies are buried.
As well as these two involvement in this scandal,  we  are left with  the legacy of the police's  own implication. Bribes taken, a web of corruption, at the end of the day , the people are not satisfied. Public anger will increase for a long time to come.

Rebekah Brooks admits to paying Police.

Cameron Defending Coulson,

The above is a link to  Dave  praising Andy Coulson  The only reason that Cameron wants to distance  himself now is that Coulson has got caught. Cameron is nothing but an unelected toffy nosed hypocrite.
We should not forget  how Dave has deliberately himself  mislead the people, not just a few times, but it seems like ad infinitum. Time and again he is caught out but we don't hear any apologies from his lips for his actions. How the hell is he  our Prime minister anyway, no one voted for him. He sure has a lot to apologise for, he will be known like  Blair  before him as an exceedingly dishonest politician. Constantly  lying and using disinformation on the N.H.S, his list of broken policies longer than his arm, going back on dozens of pledges, but then, this is what one comes to expect from a Tory.
His art of scheming manipulation he really has got down to a fine art. As for Rebecca Brooks being found not guilty,  oh it's such a farce, who was her barrister, yes Cameron's brother,  seems she still has so many friends in high places.
At the end of the day, it's all still  rotten  at the top, the tory's will carry on hating the poor, as the media  tries to distract us with some trivia, their lies will continue.

Something surely has to change!

The Collective Punishment of the Palestinian People must end.

On Thursday the 12th of this month, three settler youth disappeared while hitchhiking in the Hebron area of the West Bank. No Palestinian group or organisation has taken responsibility for their dissapearance. An unfortunate situation for the three missing individuals.
Since this incident Israels' response has been disproportionate, to say the least, with over 370 Palestinians having  been arrested since last Thursday. All over  the West Bank, in villages, towns and cities, Palestinian homes and offices have been raided, people  being held under siege, with many  being injured, with subsequently being  left for dead.
The Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 33, states  that : "No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not  personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or  terrorism are prohibited.Pillage is prohibited.Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited."
At the time of  this posting, six Palestinians have been killed  in the massive military operations that have been  launched, and attempts  to cast the rising number  of unarmed Palestinian casualties as 'self defence' starts to ring hollow. As  former Israeli soldiers   have testified as recently as 2014, that their units used tactics known as 'Provocation and Reaction,' which has been described  as "the act of entering a village, making a lot of noise, waiting for their stones to be thrown at you, and then you arrest them saying : There, they're throwing stones!!!"
At the moment the Israelis  are using  three missing boys  as pawns in their political game, using  them, as they continue to oppress and to avoid avenues of peace. it is not that we have not witnessed  previously, time after time, that Israels' leaders  need no excuse  to  find reasons to continue their collective campaign of terror against the Palestinians. Their road to peace, seems to be displacing people, 750,000 of them, and continuing  to violate  UN resolutions and human rights, to try to disrupt the recently formed unity government. Yet in the world Israel is feeling  the heat too, as people see it as an apartheid state, and  join the many  successful  boycotts and campaign for disinvestment on Israeli products. In the last week we have seen Presbyterians voting to divest holdings in 3 companies supplying Israel with equipment being used in the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
At the end of the day, this collective Punishment of the Palestinian people must stop. Israel I am sure is obligated to carry out its serach for the missing boys, but it should also  be constantly be reminded of  obligations to International humanitarian law and International Human law and the respect to life of the Palestinians, that minimises damage and injury and protects and preserves human rights.

Lesley Boulton Orgreave

(See Saturday's post for piece about 30th Anniversary of Battle Of Orgreave).

Lesley Boulton talks about the iconic photo taken by John Harris at Orgreave  during the miners strike of 1984

Syrian Refugees - An Insiders View from the Camp

Syrian  refugees - An insiders view from the camp, come and Skype with a Worker from one of camps in Lebanon.
This  event is being put on by my local Amnesty International Group, Cardigan Amnesty Group here in West Wales. We are raising awareness about how Syrian  Refugees  are coping in Lebanon for Refugee week.
Wednesday 18th June 700pm.
Everyone welcome, Admission free,
Refreshments.
Come and join us.

30th Anniversary of the Battle for Orgreave

Today I remember the 30th anniversary  of one of the 20th Century's most brutal attacks by the state on its own citizens.The Battle of Orgreave, during the1984 Miners strike,which resulted in an all out military operation by Margeret Thatcher's Conservative cabinet.
On June 18th  1984, 6 to 7,000  miners and supporters gathered  to picket Orgreave  cokeworks  near Rotheram in South Yorkshire.
Police directed  pickets to an area of land which left them  hemmed in on three sides.Before this event the miners had been stoically out on strike for about 12 weeks, during which they had  been assaulted on picket lines, with individuals being handcuffed and beaten without  any cause or provocation.
At Orgreave  the miners after being herded together. were savagely attacked by Police cavalry  in full riot gear under the jurisdiction of Thatcher's Government attacking fleeing miners  with long swaying batons as Miners ran for safety. It saw the police  going berserk under state orders, repeatedly  attacking  individuals  wherever they sought refuge,  as they fled into a nearby Wheatfield and into the community of Orgreave, where the police  carried on their pursuit through the streets. A scene of ugliness, fear and menace, as  all concepts of Law and order that  the constabulary  were supposed to withhold abandoned all its basic principles.

At the end  the day  over 100 people were arrested, for no crime whatever, with many  more being injured along with  the Miners leader Arthur Scargill. Following Orgreave, the police  conducted a deliberate  and co-ordinated  attempt to frame arrested miners  for one of the most serious events  on the statute book - the offence of Riot. No police officer has ever been prosecuted or even disciplined for their role in the terrible events that occurred.

Today all the victims  of this bloody confrontation,are simply asking for an apology for the actions taken out against them. We should never forget, today  people will be honouring them at the Orgreave Mass Picnic & Festival taking place at  Catcliffe Recreation Ground.
The  miners 1984 was one of the longest and most brutal in British labour history. A community fighting for jobs and survival was wholly denigrated and depicted as violent by the majority of the media. The above film THE BATTLE FOR ORGREAVE puts the record straight, as miners recount their own history, their economic and political struggle over decades and the trial they endured for 48 days in Sheffield when charged with riot at Orgreave - facing life imprisonment.
Containing compelling testimonies, emotive cinematography, in depth analysis coupled with meticulous detail of the mass picket and the ensuing events of June 18 1984 at the Orgreave coking plant, the documentary also has unique footage of police violence - all these make this an historic and important document of our time.
See the film at the British Film Institute.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/
or purchase from journeyman Pictures at
http://www.journeyman.tv/
30 years later  many still seek some form of justice.

For  further details of the Orgreave Peace and Justice Campaign

I refer you to this excellent site

http://otjc.org.uk/

An earlier post on the 30th anniversary of the Miners Strike can be found here

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/30th-anniversary-of-miners-strike-their.html

Enjoy the World Cup but consider the injustice of it all.

First things first, I confess I am not a fan of the so called beautiful game, but with massive protests breaking out daily against the World Cup in Brazil  because  of mass unemployment and severe poverty I can also understand why many indigenous youth  do not support the World Cup  currently being held in Brazil  and realise why the large scale opposition that is taking place has so much validity.
Many Brazilians see their government having wasted billions of their money on  this event, while their futures  offer little hope,  as billions of  pounds  of money, seems to have been wasted, instead of being  directed elsewhere on essential things like  healthcare and education.
A country rich in this  games history, afterall having won 5 World Cup titles, more than any other country, anticipating a win against their first game against Chile later, one would have thought  this event would have garnered some kind of favour, but at the end of the day the poorest people of Brazil  will not  not benefit, from this most  expensive World Cup to date . 
People of the World should consider the many people evicted, from their once proud homes and neighbourhoods to make way for this global corporate event, with street vendors  removed from their daily sufficiency.
If this occasion, draws attention to the underprivileged Brazilians,it will possibly be of some worth.
Daily protests are rising in numbers, and hopefully the World's stage will be able to witness  the people of Brazil speaking out against injustice with their increased  public displays of anger.
The world will  hear Jennifer Lopez sing 'We are One'  but  might also  understand  the the clear voices of opposition standing below,   risking  arrest for simply  displaying their outrage.
Any further  disruption to this  event I will completely understand, from the favelas and the streets that link, I will support their hungry resistance, with solidarity's breath.
Anyway message spread,  enjoy the World Cup, if you can.