The Socialist Roots of International Women's Day

On March 8, International Women’s Day, around the world women organize rallies, marches and gatherings of all kinds to assert their claim as women to a say and control over all the affairs of society. Their struggle to affirm their collective rights is part and parcel of the fight to defend the rights of all.Today I celebrate International Women's Day with the recognition that it's not simply one day a year, but  it is every day that women take the lead in protecting our communities, and our rights.   

I also do not forget the radical history of the day itself. Ever since women fought for the right to vote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the essence of their fight has been political. They have put forward their claims on society as a matter of right, facing all kinds of state-inspired discrimination and violence against them and state-sanctioned attempts to relegate them to second, third and fourth grade citizenship based on brutal identity politics and exploitation. Women, however, speak in their own name and refuse to accept any limitations on their right to decide all matters which affect their lives. Their courage and determination in the front ranks of the struggle for a society which recognizes everyone as equal members of the body politic with equal rights and duties inspires everyone to also fight for the rights of all. 

 In 1909 the Socialist Party of America organized a New York City march commemorating a garment workers’ strike the previous year when hundreds of women workers in the New York needle trades demonstrated in Rutgers Square in Manhattan’s Lower East Side to form their own union and to demand the right to vote. This historic demonstration took place on March 8^th. It led, in the following year to the ‘uprising’ of 30,000 women shirtwaist makers which resulted in the first permanent trade unions for women workers in the USA. The famous slogan bread and roses made its debut at this protest . The Socialist Party of America declared National Woman's Day, to be celebrated on February calling for better pay and working conditions as well as the right to vote. 

It was at the second annual meeting of the International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910, that Clara Zetkin, a prominent Marxist activist from Germany’s Social Democratic Party, proposed the following motion at the Copenhagen Conference of the Second International: “The Socialist women of all countries will hold each year a Women’s Day, whose foremost purpose it must be to aid the attainment of women’s suffrage. This demand must be handled in conjunction with the entire women’s question according to Socialist precepts. The Women’s Day must have an international character and is to be prepared carefully.” The conference agreed.  

During the First World War, she along with Karl Liebnecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and other International SPD politicians, had rejected the party's policy of Burgfrieden , which was a call to refrain from strikes during the war. Among other anti-war activities she also organised an international socialist womens anti-war conference in Berlin, 1915. She however was not just an organiser, but also a great writer and thinker. That still remains an inspiration today. 

Because of her anti-war opinions, she was arrested several times, during the war and in 1916 was taken into 'protective custody'.She also held the view that still holds much resonance today, that the source of women's oppression was in capitalism, and that any form of liberation, could only be served with the self-emancipation of the working class. 

IWD, consequently, was celebrated for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. Women in these countries demanded the right to vote, to hold public office and the right to work. Russian women began celebrating IWD in 1913,  and on IWD 1914, across Europe there were marches against the impeding imperialist war and for a women's right to vote. 

In 1917 in Russia, International Women’s Day acquired great significance , it was the flashpoint for the Russian Revolution. On March 8^th  women workers in Petrograd held a mass strike and demonstration demanding Peace and Bread in protest at the deaths of more than 2 million Russian soldiers in the war. The strike movement spread from factory to factory and effectively became an insurrection. After the Russian Revolution, in 1922, in honour of the women’s role  in 1917, Lenin declared that March 8^th should be designated officially as women’s day in the Soviet Union. From there, it was primarily celebrated in communist countries such as China. But on the heels of the U.S civil rights movement in the 1960s, as women fought sex discrimination in the 1960s and ’70s, the United Nations declared 1975 as International Women’s Year. In 1977 the U.N. officially marked IWD by inviting member countries to celebrate women’s rights and world peace on March 8. It has since been celebrated in more than 100 countries, and has been made an official holiday in more than 25. Ever since, International Women’s Day celebrations have been held on March 8 in countries across the globe — serving as an annual reminder of the revolutionary potential of working women. Over the years though, these celebrations have drifted far away from the day's political roots. 

Is a sad fact that for many women in the present day, little if anything has improved, since all those years ago when women initially marched. Many women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men. This day then is also an appropriate occasion to remember the too many gaps hindering, sometimes in a brutal and cruel manner, the process towards the full recognition and protection of women’s rights as universal human rights.  In times of war, women as well as children are those that have to bear the major brunt of the abuses and human rights violations committed, in conflict zones across the globe.Wars and famine also means that tens of millions of women are on the move and homeless as refugees. Across the world, they suffer sexual exploitation, rape, violence and murder from people they know as well from strangers.Many ordinary women still struggling to put food on the table.

We must continue to stand in  unity and solidarity on March the 8th  with all  all those internationally who are still fighting sexism and the inequality, exploitation and hardship that is still rife under the combination of  capitalism and patriarchy and  keep celebrating the social, political and other achievements of women, who continue to try and promote gender equality and political justice, who still try to make this world of ours a better place for everyone.

( This post dedicated to all my sisters whose every day is steeped in struggle )

HSBC Stop Arming Israel

HSBC is a major shareholder in companies selling weapons and military technology to Israel and also provides those companies with the loans they need to operate. There is clear evidence that these companies are contributing to human rights violations against Palestinians and to Israel’s illegal occupation.
In a move though cheered by BDS (Boycott, Diestment Sanctions) supporters, the London-based international financial giant bank  said it will divest from Israeli defense contractor Elbit. followng  immense pressure following 24,000 petitioners emailing the bank while monthly protests were held outside more than 40 branches.
The mammoth effort involved co-ordination between War on Want, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (Caat).
But the campaign continues HSBC are continuing all of their operations, including banking, in Israel, and have stated that they reject boycotts of Israel  so now we must ask the they must cut ties with ALL companies that proft from the violent repession of the Palestinian people. The bank is still a major shareholder in companies supplying weapons to Israel, including Caterpillar Inc., which sells bulldozers to the Israeli military. These bulldozers are used to destroy Palestinian homes and infrastructure.  Other equipment provided by Caterpillar is used to construct apartheid walls and build illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.
We can’t allow banks on our high streets to continue lending support to Israel’s militarised repression of Palestinians. Together, we can break the chain of complicity. It isn’t just Israel that acts with impunity. Banks, ministers and even councils are accustomed to doing what they please regardless of what we think. Every occasion when we force them to stop and listen through people power is a win for our democractic values.
Take action https://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/HSBC-End-your-complicity?fbclid=IwAR1iGbKA4bzJWr85aSeU4221hBxG99r-hKEY6qzQXiVYMUoYJ6bR0C-RmJY

Remembering The Great Miners' Strike of 1984 - 1985

The first few weeks of March  will be a time of deep reflection for hundreds of thousands of people across the UK  and here in Wales who will recall what they were doing when the 1984/85 coal miners’ strike began and ended. On this day, the UK Miners’ Strike of 1984-85 ended in  defeat for Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers when miners reluctantly and bitterly voted to return to work, after just two days short of a year on strike in what was Britain’s longest and largest industrial dispute.In what was a  turning point for the working class in Britain, after an iconic but bitter strike that came to define the decade.
The National Coal Board’s (NCB) announcement in March, 1984, of the imminent closure of Cortonwood colliery, Yorkshire, and Polmaise colliery, Scotland, together with 20 other planned pit closures and the loss of 20,000 jobs led to a swift response from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).NUM national president, Arthur Scargill said the plan would lead to 80,000 job losses. Scargill's prediction proved to be  was correct

Yorkshire and Scottish miners came out on strike, swiftly followed by Durham and Kent. On March 8, , Arthur Scargill, announced that the strikes were official under Rule 41 of the union’s constitution and called on the other NUM Area coalfields to support the action.
Support in Wales was initially confused with the Executive Committee (EC) of the South Wales National Union of Mineworkers (SWNUM) recommending strike action during their conference of March 9, and local NUM lodges in South Wales voting 18 to 13 to stay in while respecting any picket lines, by 12th March, half of Britain’s 187,000 miners had downed tools becoming one of the most inspiring but bitter class struggles in British history.
But Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – riding high from her victory in the Falklands – had secretly and cynically prepared for battle by stockpiling two years’ worth of coal before announcing the closures. And she was hellbent on defeating “the enemy within” by any means necessary, even if it meant turning the full force of the state against its own people. For the first time in a postwar national strike, British police were openly used as a political weapon.Paramilitary riot police placed mining communities under total siege. A scab workforce was organised to break the strike, and billions were spent to keep the power stations running without coal. The full weight of the courts was used to sequestrate the funds of the miners' union and break its resolve. Civil liberties were forgotten as miners were beaten and arrested even when standing still. Agent provocateurs and spies were deployed. State benefits were withheld in order to starve the miners back to work. And the media was used to  churn out a Niagara of lies against the miners.What had begun as an industrial dispute degenerated into a clash of ideologies and civil class war.
For twelve months, the miners and their families held out against  unprecedented onslaughts and unimaginable hardships in order to save jobs and preserve communities.The South Wales miners alone would prove to be obdurate, solid and immovable throughout the long year of hardship and deprivation. Their heroism, determination and courage alongside striking miners across the UK  astonished the world, and would charge and inspire the political consciousness of hundreds of thousands of people, as it did for me, aged 16 and a half at the start of the strike as  they demonstrated their unconquerable will to fight.

Miners on picket lines were brutalised and attacked by baton-wielding police in full riot gear. For me at the time this was to be a year of great awakenings, seeing their fight, I started to see connections with other peoples struggles. The plight of the poor and unemployed, Nicuragua and Apartheid South Africa, people being daily attacked by Margaret Thatchers rabid Government. I decided  to take sides with with those who decided to take on the right wing policies of Thatchers government.
The rights and wrongs of whether the miners should have had a national ballot has been widely discussed, but like many others at the time I believed that once the miners were out, it was our duty to support and work for them. Within weeks of the strike starting 80%  of miners supported the strike, standing against what they saw as the unjustifiable attacks on their right to existence and resistance.

Later at Orgreave it became apparent, of the true intentions of Thatchers government, with the full collusion of the police ,it was noticed that they had no intention of finding reconciliation or settlement to this industrial dispute. The sole intention was an ideological one, to mortally wound the National Union of Mineworkers, to defeat it with military force and with naked violence ,by any means necessary.
As the miners  attempted to blockade the Orgreave coking plant. The police showed the lengths they would go to break the strike with violent attacks, mass arrests and deliberate but fortunately unsuccessful attempts to fabricate evidence and frame miners. The insult was added to by the BBC reversing footage of miners defending themselves from police attacks to try and make out that the police were attacked first. 
It was one of the most brutal attacks by the state on its own citizens of the last 20th Century.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.Campaigners have long been calling for a public inquiry into the horrendous events that occurred on 18 June 1984, simply asking for an apology to the victims who suffered in this bloody confrontation. More details here .https://otjc.org.uk/

Despite increasing hardships the miners fought on with determination and bravery. During the course of the strike over 6,000 were arrested, with over 20,000 miners being injured in acts of state violence.
Throughout the strike I would witness, how the right wing media  was used  to vilify and undermine. The media being used to lie, and used as a political weapon to crush the miners resiliance, the media  also enabling to misrepresent, and divide the movement, churning out a Niagra of lies against the miners .The propoganda part of Thatchers assault, was being pushed out  everyday. At her so called enemy within.
Psychological  pressure was  also used, with the police encouraged to wave wads of cash at pickets, designed to undermine and demoralise, the use of scabs increased, bussing them through picket lines in a determined effort to break the will of the striking miners.

Throughout the country, groups emerged, either as individuals or part of miners support groups, raising money and awareness, standing in solidarity. Disparate groups found common ground,  from the Unemployed, the Peace Movement, students, other Trade Unions, all standing firmly behind the miners in their great struggle. The women from the mining communities in particular acted as bulmarks of strength, organising welfare and support, collecting food and money and giving much needed moral energy. Lesbian and Gay support groups also  played a vital role and consequently the NUM led the pride demonstration in London  in 1985.The chant of the miners’ support groups was: “The miners united will never be defeated”. It was an energising time, new friends were made, the camerardie that emerged was simply amazing.
Sadly eventually some miners started drifting back there will broken, and the increasing hardsgips they faced, but it should be noted  that 63% of the miners stayed out  to the bitter end.

Sadly despite the strikers being pitted against the full force of the ruling class, they were  betrayed by the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party’s refusal to mobilise support, especially  their spineless leader  Welsh 'windbag' and class traitor Neil Kinnock, who refused to attend picket lines or events supporting the miners, in effect helping Thatchers dirty war of attrition. In fairness the Party rank and file were with the miners. Labour Party activists, premises and equipment were involved in the miners' strike to a degree probably not seen in any dispute since the 1920s. The National Executive Committee backed the miners and called for a levy to support them. Conference condemned police violence and defied Kinnock's request to condemn pickets' violence.
But what most people saw, courtesy of TV, was the public weaseling of Kinnock, Hattersley and others. We should not underestimate the role played by this in dampening the spirits of the labour movement.

On 3^rd March 1985, an NUM delegate conference narrowly voted to end the strike. The miners marched back to work together, brokenhearted but their heads held high in defiance. Thatcher was graceless in victory. “There is no such thing as society,” she infamously declared. Her neo-liberal blueprint would result not only in the selling off and selling out of the coal industry, but also the decimation of Britain’s manufacturing industry, the subjugation of all trade unions, and the doubling of unemployment and inflation.
Though the heroic struggle ended in defeat, the proud and dignified nature of the return to work, like the Maerdy miners  of South Wales who marched back to work behind colliery bands and banners who thus robbed Thatcher of the "total" victory she and her class sought. Nevertheless, the Tory government subsequently closed over 100 pits and more than 100,000 were made redundant. The pit closure programme was carried through remorselessly. It tore the guts out of the industry and out of the mining communities. The mining industry was decimated.
The strike  may have been defeated but years later I remember the courage and sacrifice made during this bitter struggle and the spirit   of revolt they unleashed, and those who remained defiant to  the end, and acknowledge the miners who were arrested and locked up on trumped up charges.The communities that never fully recovered from the financial blow of the strike. Those who fought for the survival of a humane society here in Wales and across Britain, and a vile government who used the powers of the state in almost all its entirety to defeat the miners and to teach the whole working class a lesson.
Miners and their families will remember those miners and their strike supporters who will have passed away since, and in particular those who were killed either by reckless lorry drivers at picket lines at the time or from the “death by malice” of someone hurling a brick at a striking miner, as was the case with David Jones outside Thorseby Colliery in the Nottingham coalfield and Joe Green who was killed on the picket line.
Passions remain unwaned, and I feel the miners strike has left us with a legacy that we should be proud of, of a people and community standing together in solidarity in the face of adversity. The fighting spirit of the miners lives on , It has left behind a tradition of courageous struggle, which can  still be seen among us today with people fighting for their lives and what they believe in, today as then  solidarity is needed  more than ever, as we continue our own for jobs, social justice and welfare. in our opposition to the current Tory Government, who are carrying on where Thatcher left off.

Test Department and the South Wales Miners Striking Choir - Comrades in Arms

Ghost of Yesterday

Ambling down the path of irrevocable memories
Nostalgias breath pervades my lungs,
Seismic segments of time fermenting and erupting
Intoxicatingly redolent of a turbulent storm,
My effervecent dream flat and fizzed out
Bubbles burst and evaporated,
Leaving my yearning taste buds dry and shrivelled
Bittersweet emptiness and a jaded palate.

The torturous syncopated rhythm of yesteryears melodies
Blast out their discordant notes in my ripened golden years,
The bells of bygone days ring out evocations of a decadent past
Every chime churns out an echo of a shattered dream,
Each jarring vibration plunges into my embittered soul
As spiralling silhouettes dance in unison,
Acerbic assailants from the springtide of my life
Seemingly oblivious to my former fragile naive spirit.

Britain Is Broken - We can't Afford The Tories - Mass Rally.

When Theresa May was gifted the role of Prime Minister from a disgraced and departing David Cameron, she stood outside Downing Street and delivered the following message:
“I would like to pay tribute to David Cameron for the leadership he has shown our part and our country… We need to unite our country and we need a strong new positive vision for the future of our country.  A vision of a country that works not for the privileged few but that works for every one of us. And that’s how together we will build a better Britain.”
What we’ve seen, however, is quite the opposite. Rising rents and prices. Falling wages in real terms. Unprecedented levels of homelessness and child poverty. The return of Victorian illnesses caused by malnutrition. Crippling household and personal debt directly attributable to austerity policies.
Despite Theresa May's announcement  that austerity is over, the realities for millions of people is quite the opposite. The Government shows no sign of stopping austerity. Every section of society is at breaking point  from our underfunded NHS, schools without supplies, councils unable to provide even basic services, and millions on poverty wages unable to provide for their families.
The government has repeatedly stated that they are committed to building a country that works for everyone, but the truth of the matter is they simply could not give a damn, as they continue to show their complete and utter contempt for the poor, the disabled and the vulnerable. At the same time the gap between the very rich  and the rest is wider  in Britain than in any other large country in Europe, and  society is the most unequal it has been since shortly after the First World War.
We cannot let this go on. As the Tories actions continue to be marked by incompetance and farce, it is time for all of them to go as soon as possible for the greater good of all. Theresa May and co should not be left to cause even more irreplaceable harm to our country.
As a result of all of this on 2 March, the People’s Assembly Against Austerity has organised a mass rally in Haverfordwest called: Britain Is Broken – We can’t Afford The Tories. This is the latest in a UK-wide ‘tour’ to highlight the devastating effects of Tory austerity.which they say is now cutting deep into every layer of society.
Goodwick based Jim Scott, of Pembrokeshire People’s Assembly, one of the main organisers of the rally, says :"Tory austerity has been an utter disaster. It has always been an ideological and economically illiterate policy. After nearly a decade of savage cuts to every layer of society, working-class people are suffering under the heavy weight of austerity while the wealth of a privileged few has tripled."
Because, as Scott continued: " The Tories are engaged in a shameless and cynical agenda; transferring wealth from the public purse into the pockets of the super rich. The Tories are literally picking the bones of our society and it is time for them to go. We need a general election now! Here in Pembrokeshire there is no way that Crabb will not survive at the ballot box, it's time for him and Hart to go too"
Ahead of the rally, the People’s Assembly has been touring around Pembrokeshire, Wales, with ‘Sanctioned Steve’. Steve is “the Tory’s skeleton in the closet”.

So far, Sanctioned Steve has visited the Job Centre to ask them why they were fulfilling sanctioning targets over people's welfare and causing soo many people to suffer. The Tories brutal sanctioning regime has forced thousands to go without any form of income for 100 days or longer in some cases. Creating homelessness, poverty and destitution. Universal Credit roll out is making this problem even worse.
The local PATCH  charity food bank to show his solidarity with the victims of Tory austerity in Pembrokeshire who have been forced to collect a total of 3,500 'five-day' food parcels in the last year alone.
Steve also wonders how his Tory MP Stephen Crabb has the audacity to pose for photos at the foodbank but keeps voting for austerity every chance he gets.
He’ll also visit Welsh Citizens Advice Bureaux, to question them about £51m the DWP “gave them to run a benefits support service and ask them if they can really run an impartial service while taking backhanders from the Tories! Steve isn't so sure! Also a  trip to Crabb's Office (to ask him why he always votes for cuts) 
You can follow Sanctioned Steve’s tour on Facebook.
Preseli Pembrokeshire has been Conservative since MP Stephen Crabb was first elected to parliament in 2005. In 2015, he held the seat with a majority of almost 5,000. By 2017, that majority had crashed to just 314. As a crowdfunder to raise money for the rally says, the former DWP secretary “is universally disliked”.
Pembrokeshire People’s Assembly has “campaigned tirelessly” for six years “to highlight” the impact of austerity “and cuts” which Crabb has voted for. In 2017 huge crowds gathered for a similar event to #UnSeatCrabb. Just "one last push" is needed to remove him from his seat in any future General Election.

Scott concludes: "Tory austerity has failed… [It] has been a shameless transference of wealth from the public purse into the pockets of the super rich. It’s as simple as that. The Tories are picking the bones of our society and it is time for them to go." 

The rally is due to assemble at 2pm on 2 March in Castle Square, Haverfordwest. Speakers will include former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood , Mark Serwotka, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Nicola Field , one of the original LGSM activists as featured in the film Pride. There will also be speeches from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) and Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter, Stand.Up to Racism and others.The lineup is subject to change deending on circumstances.
The main theme of the day will be the damaging effects of Universal Credit and poverty in Britain. Organisers also believe that the Conservatives have used racism and division as a smokescreen for cutting services and cutting back the state. Nimisha Trivedi from Stand Up to Racism Wales who will be speaking at the rally said; "Racism was invented to justify slavery. Today it is used to take our attention away from the people who have given us austerity. To fight austerity we need to fight racism and to fight racism we need to fight austerity. Let’s turn out in big numbers. Unite and fight."
 Philippa Thomson; Labour Party Candidate for Preseli Pembrokeshire will be speaking on the platform and said; " I hope people from across Pembrokeshire will come and support the rally. It's unbelievable in this day and age that so many people in our country are living in poverty, including people in work. Here in Pembrokeshire our local charities are doing an amazing job to help struggling families, but what would really help would be for the Tory Government to stop their failed Universal Credit roll-out "
Ellen Clifford from Disabled People Against Cuts, has sent the following statement : "
"Austerity and so-called welfare reform have disproportionately impacted on the most disadvantaged members of society including disabled people. In 2016 the United Nations concluded that the threshold of evidence for grave and systematic violations of disabled people's rights due to welfare reform had been met. This is not an accident but the product of a deliberate ideological agenda to reshape the welfare state, and to punish and demonise those who are reliant on out of work and disability benefits. There is overwhelming evidence of the direct harm caused by removing essential support through benefit assessments that are not fit for purpose and the cruel and perverse conditionality and sanctions regime. The roll out of Universal Credit threatens yet more misery and destitution of an as yet unseen scale. We need to end this now which is why DPAC supports the Britain is Broken initiative and we encourage all those that can to get involved."
 UNISON Pembrokeshire County Branch will also be officially supporting the rally and encouraging their members to turn out in large numbers, other local union branches are expected to follow. Pembrokeshire Green Party; also supporting have donated £200 towards the costs of the day.
 A comedy gig, Stand Up Against Racism and Austerity, will take place in the evening in the Merlin Theatre at 6pm. Mark Serwotka will host the evening which will feature stand up comedy from the brilliant and hilarious Wil Hodgson & local comedian poet Clare Ferguson-Walker as well as Trevor J Williams and Liam Schewitz from South Wales. There will also be music from Pat Bollard the well known busking band who gained fame with their song 'Millionaires'. Union of Love - Street Performance group - will also be bringing street performance to the theatre with a moving performance on poverty in Britain.Tickets for the gig may be purchased here

As Tory austerity continues to destroy people's lives I stand  with the Britain is broken rally and I hope to see you there. The Tories are causing suffering on an unimaginable scale. Please will you support this important event, help us take down the Tories in Pembrokeshire and make West Wales a Tory free zone! Together in unity we can be a powerful movement against austerity, for the many not the few.

Yves Rocher Act beautiful, stop union-busting

French cosmetic and skin care giant Yves Rocher who makes a whopping 2 billion Euros a year  has come under fire after132 workers at its Turkish subsidiary Kozan Kosmetik  in the Turkish industrial district of Gebze, near İstanbul, mostly women ,got so sick and tired of the appalling conditions -- they joined a union.The management then fired them.Yves Rocher’s built its brand on women’s empowerment. But it’s walking all over one of the most fundamental rights of its female workforce,   despite the Fact that the Right to unionise is recognised both by the Turkish Constitution and the Internationally Recognised Conventions of the International Labour Organisation. .
The sacked employees  mainly female workers have  been picketing the factory for almost 300 days since May 15  with  bosses erecting barbed wire fencing to prevent them from speaking to other workers.
Yves Rocher bought a 51 per cent stake in Flormar in 2012, in a deal worth estimated at $150 million (£116m). Flormar is the number one make-up brand in Turkey with a 21 per cent market share. Its goods are exported to around 60 countries, with global sales worth around $100m (£77m) per year.
However, the workers at the Flormar factory complain of low pay and poor safety conditions, with bosses demanding that they work extra hours for no more than the minimum wage.
The company went to court to challenge a union certificate issued by the Ministry of Labour, exploiting loopholes in the law to block union recognition.
Flormar bosses started targeting workers for their trade union activities in April, when they sacked 14 members of Petrol-Is.
By mid-May, a total of 132 union members had been dismissed. Many have been campaigning under the slogan “Act beautiful, stop union-busting,” subverting the motto of Yves Rocher, which has tried to distance itself from responsibility for the dispute.
  soL HD has shot  the following  documentary video, “Beauty is resisting”, with English and French subtitles, dedicated to the struggle of the resisting workers.

As the video shows, the Flormar workers, were fired one by one, including many of them who had worked for the company day and night for 14 years, simply for seeking  their labour rights.
Social media users from Turkey and around the globe have since started to share soL News’ video to show their solidarity with the resisting workers.The video sharing has turned into a mass social media campaign with those supporting  them popularizing the video with hashtags such as #ActBeautiful (in Flormar-in Turkey) and #STOPUnionBusting. Social media users criticizing French Yves Rocher and its Turkish trademark Flormar for their anti-labour and anti-trade union practices  that they have imposed upon the workers
.One worker employed as a subcontractor, who did not wish to be named, explained: “They asked about my partner’s job and if I had taken part in May Day protests or was a member of a political party.
“They said being in a union was a big problem for them and told us that, if we spoke to those resisting, we would be sacked.”
Pinar Koca, who was sacked the day after she joined the union, said: “We are defending not only our own rights but also the rights of our friends in the factory.”
She called on women to “boycott cosmetic products by Flormar and Yves Rocher and support our action.”
Sacked Flomrar worker Elif Ulsu remains confident of victory, saying: “We will not give up. I believe women are going to win at Flormar.”
If one company gets away with firing workers in Turkey for joining a union, what’s to stop other big employers doing the same thing?
If people can't join  a union, they have no way to stand up for themselves  and demand wages that will feed their families, safe workplaces, time off when they’re sick and freedom from management bullying.
Yves Rocher’s makeup and skincare products target women. They even sponsor awards for women leaders around the world. Well, the many women who worked at this factory aren’t asking for an award -- they just want their jobs back, and a guarantee they can stand up for themselves by working together in a union.
Now SumOfUs, the large international campaigning group, has taken up the Yves Rocher case as a priority campaign. Thousands of supporters daily are signing the online SumOfUs petition calling for Yves Rocher to stop the union busting in Turkey.
Support the workers and join the campaign.

 TO: Yves Rocher 

Demand that your Turkish subsidiary reinstates union members illegally fired and respects its workers rights.

https://actions.sumofus.org/a/yves-rocher-stop-union-busting-in-turkey 

Woken

 

Awoken again with mind ablaze
Tangential thoughts flooding my brain
Lost in times deep seated memories
Scrapped Poetry snippets strewn across the floor
Proscrastination fuels my aversion to tidying up
Time now to walk through sunshine
Reflections of wonder, surfacing embrace
Within the minds eye
Opportunities present themselves
Lessons to be taught again
Time to go for papers, rizlas
Follow some straight lines
Allow the darkness to recede
Find some glimmer to share
Reflections of inner hunger
In the garden look for serenity
Beyond the fractures, the deep blue hue
States of karmic energy
Awakening again
Fractal dreams igniting
Passions thirst liberating
Springs eternal kiss releasing
Guiding obsessions emanating
Forever lost in fierce permanence.

People who betray those who gave them power.

"I'll be blunt with you Roy, you talk about cancer - I feel very strongly about people whose entire life depends on the working class movement, your father was a miner, he was in jail during the General Strike, you got into parliament as a Labour member, every office you held was because of The Labour Party, Cabinet Minister appointed by a Labour Prime Minister, and then you left the party
.
Now THAT'S a cancerous growth. People who betray those who gave them power are the real threat, and I must say that bluntly those who stay true to those that put them in power - these are the ones I admire."

Tony Benn speaking to the traitor Roy Jenkins, who, along with Shirley Williams, Bill Rogers & David Owen formed the so called 'gang of 4' who cemented Margaret Thatcher's rule in the 80s.

As Tory Austerity continues to tear our lives apart, the new so called called Independent Group betrays all who voted for them, if they were really committed to helping the lives of millions in Britain  they would not be fuelling the Torys fragile grip of power.

If they actually had the guts and did the decent  thing they should all face by-elections immediately, I truly believe they would be absolutely crushed. At the moment they are just a bunch of elite opportunists, who have absolutely  no mandate.The SDP though actually had some policies, but like yesterday the Independent Groups are the same sneering traitors who are never forgiven by history.

Luis Bunuel ( 22/2 1900 - 29/7/83) - A Statement

Spanish Surrealist Luis Bunuel was widely regarded as an innovator of avant-garde filmmaking. In his  pioneering efforts date from the late 1920s, he cited Marxism as the political motivation behind his respective works.
He is  considered to be the father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium.In 1928 after returning from shadowing and working for the renowned French director Jean Epstein in Paris, Buñuel used his newly acquired filmmaking techniques to collaborate with Salvador Dali on Un Chien Andalou  A “surrealist weapon,” the movie was made to shock the Spanish bourgeois and criticize the avant-garde.

Surrealism rose out of Dada, an artistic movement which believed, in part, that an excess of cold rationality brought about the carnage of The Great War, later known as World War I. This conflagration destroyed a generation of Europe and threw the old world into the new in a blood-drenched tide. The stated aim of Surrealism was to undermine the scientific, rational precision which was taking over every facet of life, using the Freudian conceptions of the mind and specifically the unconscious to, "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality."
Up until this point, in the early 20th century, the common view was that civilization was on an unstoppable onward and upward curve towards perfection, perfection aided by science. The Surrealists, led by André Breton, rejected traditional meaning in favor of an art dominated by the unconscious, the new and little understood part of consciousness which operated underneath daily consciousness, working via symbols and apparent randomness.
Andre Breton defined surrealism as: "Pure psychic automatism through which it is intended to express, either orally or in writing, or in any other way, the actual way thought works." And Un Chien Andalou, which means An Andalusian Dog, the name of a breed of dog from the Andalusian region of Spain, certainly follows a dream logic. Decades later, the film would also inspire "Debaser," a very sad song by American alternative rock band The Pixies.
 Connecting himself to the Surrealist movement, Buñuel later said of  "It was an aggressive morality based on rejection of all existing values. We had other criteria: we exalted passion, mystification, black humour, the insult and the call of the abyss."
Of their famous first film, Buñuel later recalled: "Our [Dali and Buñuel] one and only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted. We had to open all doors to the irrational and keep only those images that surprised us, without trying to explain why." As filmmaking is a labor intensive, industrial process, this was, to say the least, a risky proposition. Interestingly, the film was a huge hit with the French bourgeoisie, playing for eight months in Paris and making stars out of the two. Naturally, this led to Buñuel's disgust:

What can I do about the people who adore all that is new, even when it goes against their deepest convictions, or about the insincere, corrupt press, and the inane herd that saw beauty or poetry in something which was basically no more than a desperate impassioned call for murder?

The images are startling and manage to haunt long after the few 'scenes' of the film are done, and this is a low-budget, silent, short film more than 3/4 of a century old (so there's no excuse for you not to get out there and put your vision on the screen!). In fact, one could argue that Un Chien is the first low-budget indie film, since by 1928/9 there was most definitely a production and distribution system in place, and Buñuel and Dalí were working completely outside of said system, self-financed, and so low-budget that Buñuel had to edit the film in his kitchen without the benefit of any equipment save his (unsliced) eyeball and, ironically enough,  razor blades and tape. It has also been argued that the film was an inspiration for the symbolic, associative editing and imagery in music videos -- many commercial directors saw the film in school, which for years was one of the few places that had a print to screen.
The turbulent years of the 1930s were of profound importance in his life. He joined the Surrealist movement in 1929 but by 1932 had renounced it and embraced Communism.He continued to develop his surreal movie-making style, travelling between Hollywood and Spain until Civil war broke out in 1936. During the war he worked for the Republican government and created a war documentary titled, España Leal en Armas (1937).

In 1946 Buñuel moved to Mexico, where many other intellectuals had fled with the outbreak of war in Spain. He would stay there for the rest of his life, becoming a citizen and directing over 20 films by 1964. All of his films were very critical of the systems and powers that be, and one of his  favourite targets was the Catholic Church. But he always mitigated his fierce critique with great talent, a very peculiar sense of humor, and with the the heavy influence of one of the mot releant artistic movements of the Twentieth century;surrealism.  His films  1961's Viridiana and 1962’s The Exterminating Angel Buñuel developed a new style that was surrealist in both form and content. Employing the language of classical Hollywood cinema, both films skewer the status quo with taboo imagery and disturbing scenarios involving sexual mania, religious hypocrisy, and social savagery.
 Buñuel continued to attack church and state through film, and by the 1980s he created his autobiography, My Last Sigh. Buñuel died in Mexico City on July 29, 1983, a decorated and celebrated filmmaker.

Luis Bunuel  - A Statement

1.In none of the traditional arts is there such a wide gap between possibilities and facts as in the cinema.Motion pictures act directly upon the spectator; they offer him concrete persons and things;they isolate him, through silence and darkness, from the usual psychological atmosphere. Because of all this , the cinema is capable of stirring the spectator as perhaps no other art. But as no other art, it is also capable of stupefying him. Unfortunately, the great majority of todays films seem to have exactly that purpose; they glory in an intellectual and moral vacuum, movies seem to prosper.                                                                           

2. Mystery is a basic element of all works of art. It is generally lacking on the screen. Writers, directors, and producers take good care in avoiding anything that may upset us. They keep the marvellous window on the liberating world of poetry shut.They prefer stories which seem to continue our ordinary lives, which repeat for the umpteenth time the same drama, which help us forget the hard hours of our daily work. And all this, of course, carefully watched over by traditional morals , government and international censorship, religion, good taste, white humour and other flat dicteria of reality.
                                                                                     
3. The screen is a dangerous and wonderful instrument, if a free spirit uses it. It is the superior way of expressing the world of dreams, emotions and instinct. The cinema seems to have been invented for the expression of the subconscious, so profoundly is it rooted in poetry. Nevertheless, it almost never pursues these ends.

4. We rarely see good cinema in the mammoth productions, or in the works that have recieved the praise of critics and audience. The particular story, the private drama of an individual cannot interest -I believe - anyone worthy of living in our time. If a man in the audience shares the joys and sorrows of a character on the screen, it should be because the character reflects the joys and sorrows of al l society and so the personal feelings of that man in the audience. Unemployment, insecurity, the fear of war, social injustice, etc., affect all men of our time , and thus, they also affect the individual spectator. But when the screen tells me that Mr X is not happy at home and finds amusement with a girlfriend whom he finally abandons to reunite himself with his faithful wife, I Find it all very moral and edifying, but it leaves me completetly indifferent.

5. Octavia Paz has said :" But that a man in chains should shut his eyes, the world would explode." And I coould say : But that the white eyelid of the screen reflect its proper light, the Universe would go up in flames. But for the moment we can sleep in peace : the light of the cinema is conveniently dosified and shackled.


The above originally puplished in "FILM CULTURE ", no 21, Summer 1960, pp. 41-2. Still relevant methinks

International Mother Language Day.2019

 

Happy International Mother Language Day.
The day was proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1999. International Mother Language Day aims to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used around the world.The day is also observed to promote linguistic and cultural diversity, multilingualism  and bring awareness to languages on the path to extinction.
The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police.
International Mother Language Day provides a grand exposure for the recognition, protection, and spread of lesser-used and threatened languages to reassert themselves in their struggle for language rights, to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
This year’s theme is “Indigenous languages matter for development, peace building and reconciliation”.Languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development are of strategic importance for people.Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.
But linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages  disappear. One language disappears on average every two weeks, taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage.According to the United Nations, 43 percent of the estimated 6,000 world languages are  “endangered.” Thousands of local languages used as the daily means of expression are absent from education systems, the media, publishing and the public domain in general because of state policies.
 We learn better in our mother tongue when it is taught in school  But this is not the case of all minority languages. 476 million of world’s illiterate people speak minority languages and live in countries where children are mostly not taught in their mother language
Tashi Wangchuck's Tibetan Language advocacy was peaceful, non-political and conducted  through official channels. He was  neverthcless arrested by the Chineses authorities and sentenced to five years in prison.
https://freetibet.org/news-media/na/china-bars-lawyer-jailed-tibetan-activist-visiting
In Turkey, because of repressive assimilationist policies, many Kurds have suffered language loss. The so-called democratization process has proven to be elusive, cosmetic, inconsequential and peripheral. It is not surprising that despite all the misleading rhetoric on language reform in Turkey, Kurdish has not been given its denied status, and the demand for the basic right to education in the mother tongue is still controversial and rejected.
In Iran, draconian restrictions are being used against using the language in official institutional and educational settings. Government directives issued periodically reinforce a repressive policy that has turned schoolyards into a battlefield where administrative personnel and teachers have been requisitioned to watch over and eavesdrop on Kurdish students to ensure that no one speaks “the local dialect.”
Similarly, Kurdish ethnic and linguistic identity in Syria has been denied and brutally repressed. To this day, Kurds are treated as outsiders and foreigners. These entrenched state language ideologies, in short, have made a stateless nation subjected to harsh measures of linguicide and ethnocide.  
These exclusionary and discriminatory practices have detrimental social and educational implications for Kurdish children who find it more difficult to thrive endemically.
When a language disappears, it takes with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity..As we celebrate the 70 th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights remember it enshrines the right to freedom of opinion and expression and promotes the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world. Not only does the recognition of the value of one’s mother tongue help develop a sense of pride in it, it can help promote an attitude of mind towards other cultures and tongues, as being due a reciprocal respect.
 International Mother Language Day is also a good opportunity to remind ourselves that children of migrants and Indigenous people have an international right to speak, grow up with, and celebrate their own heritage languages, wherever they reside. Languages enriches society, economic mobility and at end of the day is what makes us human.
 On #MotherLanguageDay, let’s stand together to make sure that #IndigenousLanguages are preserved! https://on.unesco.org/2Brk2wU