No to Governments plan to scrap the Human Rights Act

I have written of this before, but as the government yesterday again confirmed plans to scrap the Human Rights Act in the Queens speech it is to important a subject not to come back to. We should not allow politicians to take away our universal privileges for the benefit  of a chosen few and repeal legislation that has been crucial to lifes of so many ordinary people.The state has every interest in preventing light from being shone into dark corners.
The Human Rights Act was created to protect us all as individuals from abuses by the state and state bodies, allows UK nationals access to rights contained in the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) which allows us over 2,000 protections, ensuring all authorities treat people with fairness , dignity and respect, but gradually piece by piece the Tory's are trying to take away our basic freedoms and rights and want to overturn  these recognised principles that  we should all be proud of, but yet again they are attempting to steal them away,which  says so much about their mindset incidentally. They want to replace it with their own Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.They would weaken the rights of everyone, meaning less protection against powerful interests. It would also limit human rights to only cases  the Government considers "most serious!" Threatening the very concept of the universality of human rights.
However many remain fervent in their support for this Act because of its positive contribution to society and the message that it serves globally that we have enshrined an international human rights convention into UK law. The Human Rights Act is ours, scrapping it will take away the rights of everyone, and it is the most vulnerable that will suffer the most.
A useful reminder of whether the Act needs to change, or should remain is to look at the list of rights protected by the Act and ask yourself ,"Which one would I give away? Which one would I not want for myself or for members of my family?"the right to life? the right not to be tortured? the right to a fair trial? http:/legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/schedule/1  
Sometimes we can't appreciate the value of something until it is taken away.We have to stand up for the Act.
Please call on Justice Secretary Michael Gove to save the Human Rights Act

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/Human-Rights-Act

Pablo Neruda (12/7/04 -23/9/73) - Epithalamium

Have been re-reading recently the magnificent Pablo Neruda's Captain's Verses. A writer who I have long admired whose work who continues to inspire. He led a life charged with poetic and political energy and activity, and is now regarded as one of the greatest major poets of the last century. His poems charged with sensuality and passion. Here is a link to a previous post of mine about this poet of love :- https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/pablo-neruda-july-12-1904-september-23.html  .
Here I offer his rather beautiful "Epithalamium " which I dedicate to my lovely partner Jane. The mighty furbster Hope you enjoy. 

Epithalamium

Do you remember when
in winter
we reached the island?
The sea raised toward us
a crown of cold.
On the walls the climbing vines
murmured letting
dark leaves fall
as we passed.
ou too were a little leaf
that trembled on my chest.
Life's wind put you there.
At first I dd not see you :  I did not know
that you were walking with me,
until your roots
pierced my chest,
joined the threads of my blood,
spoke through my mouth,
flourished with me.
Thus was your inadvetant presence,
invisible leaf or branch,
and suddenly my heart
was filled with fruits and sounds.
You occupied the house
that darkly awaited you
and then you lit the lamp.
Do you remember, my love,
our first steps on the island?
The gray stones knew us,
the rain squalls,
the shouts of the wind in the shadow.
But the fire was
our only friend,
next to it we hugged
the sweet winter love
with four arms.
The fire saw our naked kiss grow
until it touched hidden stars,
and it saw grief be born and die
like a broken sword
against invincible love.
Do you remember,
oh sleeper in my shadow,
how sleep would grow
in you,
from your bare breast
open with  its twin domes
toward the sea, toward the wind of the island,
and how I in your dream sailed
free, in the sea and in the wind
yet tied and sunken
in the blue volume of your sweetness?
Oh sweet, my sweet,
spring changed
the island's walls.
A flower appeared like a drop
of orange blood,
and then the colors discharged
all their pure weight.
The sea reconquered its transparency,
night in the sky
outlined its clusters
and now all things murmured
our name of love, stone by stone
they said our name and our kiss.
The  island  of stone and moss
echoes in the secret of its grottoes
like the song in your mouth
and the flower that war  born
between the crevices of the stone
with its secret syllable
spoke, as it passed, your name
of blazing plant
and the steep rock, raised
like the wall of the  world,
knew my song , well beloved,
because earth, time, sea, island,
life, tide,
the seed that half opens
its lips in the earth,
the devouring flower,
the movement of spring,
everything recognizes us.
Our love was born
outside the wall,
in the wind,
in the night,
in the earth,
and that's why the clay and the flower,
the mud and the roots
know your name,
and know that my mouth
joined yours
because we  were sown together in the earth
and we alone did not know it
and that we grow together
and flower together
and therefore
when we pass
your name is on the petals
of the rose that grows on the stone,
my name is in  the grottoes.
They know it all,
we have no secrets,
we have grown together
but we did not know it.
The sea knows our love, the stones
of the rocky height
that our kisses flowered
with infinite purity,
as in their crevices  a scarlet
mouth dawns:
just as our love and the kiss
that joins your mouth and mine
in an eternal flower.
My love,
sweet spring,
flower and sea, surround us.
We did not change it
for our winter,
when the wind,
began to decipher your name
that today at all hours it repeats,
when
the leaves did not know
that you were a leaf,
when
the roots
did not know that you were seeking me
in my breast.
Love, love,
spring
offers us the sky
but the dark earth
is our name,
our love belongs
to all time and the eath.
Loving each other, my arm
beneath your neck of sand,
we shall wait
as earth and time change
on the island,
as the leaves fall,
from the silent climbing vines,
as autumn departs
through the broken window.
But we
are going to wait for
our friend,
our red-eyed friend,
the fire,
when the wind again
shakes the frontiers of the island
and does not know the names
of everyone,
winter
will seek us, my love,
always
it will seek us, because we know it,
because we do not fear it,
because we have
with us
fire
forever,
we have
earth with us
forever,
spring with us
forever,
and when a leaf
falls
from the climbing vines,
you know, my love,
what name is written
on that leaf,
a name that is yours and mine,
our lve name, a single
being, the arrow
that pierced winter,
the invincible love,
the fire of the days,
a leaf
that dropped upon my breast,
a leaf from the tree
of life
that made a nest and sang,
that put out roots,
that gave flowers  and fruits.
And so you see, my love,
how I move
around the island,
around the world,
safe in the midst of spring,
crazy with the light in the cold,
walking tranquil in the fire,
lifting your petal
weight in my arms
as if I had never walked
except with you my heart,
as if I could not walk
except with you,
as if  I could not sing
except when you sing.

Reprinted from :-  The  Captain's  Verses
- Pablo Neruda; New Directions Press 1973,
Translated by Donald D. Walsh

Marking 68th anniversary of the Nakba :- Day of catastrophe.

Today marks the 68th anniversary of the occupation of Palestine, so on this day as Palestinian people enter the 68th  year of dispossession and exile, Palestinians, friends of Palestine and supporters of justice and liberation , commemorate the Nakba ( day of catastrrophe) and call for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and freedom for Palestine.
68 years after the Nakba in which over 800,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and land and the state of Israel created on their land. Palestinians continue to struggle for their right tto return, for freedom from occupation and for justice.
Today also marks 68 years of land theft and bloodshed. It saw 531 villages being cleared , with massacres that led to 16,000 Palestinians being killed at the hands of Zionist para-military groups like Haganah, that later formed the core of the Israeli Defense Force, Ergun and the Stern Gang. Systematically removing the Palestinians from their land in an ethnic cleansing that continues to this day.
I will continue to side with the Palestinian who dares to dream of the day of return, when they can open up the locked doors of their stolen homes, are welcomed home, recognised  and encouraged by a world that acknowledges the injustice that has been inflicted upon them.
Today we will see the Palestinian people renew  their demands for return, to their cities, villages and lands that they were forced to leave in 1948. Many Palestinians still carry keys to the homes they or their ancestors were displaced from,all those years ago, a  continuing haunting memory of their existence.
For the past 68 years  Palestinians have resisted the Israeli Government's continued efforts to erase the memories of trauma and resistance that began with the Nakba and will remain rooted to their land. Beyond their suffering and Israels blockade of the West Bank and the open air prison we know as Gaza it does not stop their dream for their right to return and for having Jerusalem as their capital. 
Today we remember and recount the unique personal stories of those who lived through the Nakba  and acknowledge that today over 4 million registered Palestinians worldwide, the majority of them still living within 60 miles of the border of Israel and the West Bank and Gaza strip where their original homes are located. Israel refuses to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes or to pay them compensation as required by UN resolution 194  of 1948. Over 1.7 million Palestinians now live under occupation in the West Bank  imprisoned by an Israeli wall, and the over  2 million currently living under military siege in Gaza, denied a series of fundamental rights, that include the freedom to move, access to clean water, food, medicine and electricity.
Their catastrophe ongoing. But their will remains  unbroken, we stand with them today in solidarity,until they are allowed to move freely again in Palestine, until they are given back the dignity and respect and basic rights  that they deserve as human beings, hoping that this cycle of injustice can be ended,  it is not just about remembering , a day of mourning , it is acknowledging the Palestinians right to return,  maybe one day, one day the continued catastrophe will end.
Viva Palestina.

Hail Rebecca

The Rebecca riots  took place between 1839 and 1843, in the rural parts of Wales, here where I live in West Wales. Throughout Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire protests against the payment of tolls to use on the roads. 

On the 13th of May 1839, the first of the Rebecca riots took place at Efailwen near St Clears. The leader of the group of rioters was Thomas Rees (Twm Carnabwth) and he and the others dressed in women's clothes to march on Eifailwen tollgate. Apparently, the attack was unsuccessful because the men returned on 6 June, when they again destroyed the turnpike and this time burnt the tollhouse.

In the early 19th century many of the main roads in Wales were owned and operated by Turnpike Trusts. These trusts were supposed to maintain and even improve the condition of the roads and bridges through charging tolls to use them. In reality however, many of these trusts were operated by English businessmen whose main interest was in extracting as much money as they could from the locals. 

The farming community had suffered badly through poor harvests in the years preceding the protests and tolls were one of the biggest expense a local farmer faced. The charges levied to do even the simplest of things, such as taking animals and crops to market and bringing fertilisers back for the fields, threatened their livelihood and very existence.  The people finally decided enough was enough and took the law into their own hands; gangs were formed to destroy the tollgates.
During these protests, men disguised as women with blackened faces attacked the tollgates calling themselves "Rebecca and her daughter," probably referring to a passage from the Bible where Rebecca ( my sisters name incidentally) talks of the need to "possess the gates of those who hate them."
The tollgates were seen as symbols of oppression, and became the focus of discontent.But the protests weren’t purely about the tolls. For rural communities, mired in poverty, the gates were a symbol of gross inequality. Rents and church tithes were spiralling out of control, while the centuries-old Poor Law had paved the way for workhouses.The protesters also hated paying high taxes to the church and resented local magistrates that did nothing to help them. 

This movement sweeped my local countryside, a popular uprising off the oppressed peasantry. By day the countryside seemed quiet, but at night fantastically disguised horsemen careered along highways and through narrow lanes on their their rebellious quests.They developed uncanny skill in evading the police and the infantry, and although their mounts were unweildy farm horses they also succeeded in outwitting the dragoons, after all the rioters knew their territory much better and could spread false information about when they would strike next, often leading troops on a wild goose chase. 

Many of the protests tended to follow a ritual, whereby a ringleader (‘Rebecca’) would stumble towards a gate like a blind, elderly woman. The ‘daughters’ would then clear the path with an almighty racket. A local newspaper recalled the scene after a riot at Llandeilo: “pickaxes, hatchets, crowbars, and saws were set in operation and the gate was entirely demolished.'

They ceased as suddenly as they started, and for three and a half years my countryside was quiet and undisturbed. Then in the winter of 1842, they broke out again with greater violence, and this time continued throughout the following year.

On 19 Jun 1843 a crowd of around 4,500 Rebecca" rioters with blackened faces and dressed as women gathered and attacked the Carmarthen workhouse in Wales, and set about destroying it. It took the arrival of a unit of the British army to disperse them Other major tollgates destroyed included those at  Llanelli, Pontardulais, and Llangyfelach, and at the small village of Hendy near Swansea, a young woman named Sarah Williams, the tollhouse keeper was killed.

After months of disorder, the government concluded that the turnpike trusts should be merged and the hated  tolls reduced. Because of this it  took away many of the  major grievances of the protesters , and by 1845 my corner of West Wales was quiet again.

An inspiring uprising that had justice and reason on their side  and is still remembered  as one of the most  striking protest movements in modern Welsh history. That still strikes the imagination in our hearts, minds and deeds.

Further reading :- The Rebecca Riots- David Williams, University of Wales Press, 1986.

 

It be Friday the 13th

at least the sun is shining over here.

Civil disobedience

( a few thoughts that just drifted by)

Beyond voting,
And the convenience store of conscience,
We can slip outside the gates, 
With no room for control,
Disobey the rules, 
Follow another  path,
Sometimes things need to be bent,
For something else to to be put in place,
In compliance  we can be left  without grace,
With civil disobedience, we can break free,
Shake of their chains of obedience,
Do do not be afraid to stand apart.

Michael. S. Harper ( 18/4/38 -7/5/16) R.I.P - Here where Coltrane Is.

Sad to hear that Michael S Harper acclaimed poet and writer has passed away, known for his innovative use of jazz rhythms , cultural references and personal narrative has passed away.For Harper history and mythology were related. The mythology of white supremacy for instance. 
As an adolescent he was forced into awareness of racism in America. His familt moved from New York to Los Angeles where African Americans were the target of racial violence.
During high school he began experimenting with creative writing. He later attended  the famous Iowa workshop at the University of Iowa in Iowa city. As the only African American student in the poetry and fiction workshop classes, he endured misunderstanding and prejudice. However these experiences motivated him to confirm  the dualism instead in being an African American writer. He refused exclusive containment in either the African American or in the American category. Rather he affirmed his identity in both groups.
Harper's writing manipulated old European and  American myths to create new ones. His first poetry collection was called ' Dear John, Dear Coltrane (1970) for Harper, John Coltrane who he knew personally is both the man and his jazz. Harper included the music of poetry to affirm and articulate suffering in black life and culture, to gain from it and survive it, drawing attention in his work to the many injustices faced by African Americans in the course of his country's history.
Michael S. Harper  was the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island from 1988 to 1993, and was and will be continued to be regarded as a significant powerful voice in contemporary poetry.
The following poem is from his 1971 collection ' history is your heartbeat,' combining philosophical and social concepts and cultural references that is uniquely representative of the Civil Rights movement, mentioning Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and of course John Coltrane, out of this painful and tragic legacy he makes song.

Michael S Harper R.I.P

Here where Coltrane is 

Soul and race
are private dominions,
memories are modal
songs, a tenor blossoming,
which would paint suffering
a clear colo
r but is not in
this Victorian house
without oil in zero-degree
weather and a forty-mile-an-hour wind;
it is all a wet-knit family:
a love supreme

Oak leaves pile up on a walkway
and steps, catholic as apples
in a special mist of clear white
children who love my children.
I play 'Alabama'
on a warped record player
skipping the scratches
on your faces over the fibrous
conical hairs of plastic
under the wooden floors.

Dreaming on a train from New York
to Philly, you hand out six
notes which become an anthem
to our memories of you:
oak, birch, maple,
apple, cocoa, rubber.
For this reason Martin is dead;
for this reason Malcolm is dead;
for this reason Coltrane is dead
in the eyes of my first son are the browns
of these men and their music.

In the Circle, we are all equal.

                                           Image by Jane Ray

In the Circle, we are all equal.
There is no one  in front of you and there's  nobody behind you.
No one is above you, no one is below you.
The circle is Sacred  because it is designed to create Unity.

- Lakota Wisdom

Sadly some still gets golden parachutes,
Influence is daily up for sale, 
The rich get richer, leading to inequality,
Government policies still dividing all,
The earth in the 21st Century,
Still not a common treasury.  
Life is full of double standards;
The dark side of capitalism,
Our mainstream media fails to expose
There's something rotten at the core
The poor and the weak ridiculed
Who all  deserve dignity, respect,
Time to take down the barriers
For collective welfare, 

The system must fall,
Fill the world with beauty.
For everything and everyone to share.
In rich diversity, we are all still human
In the circle we can all be equal again.

In the garden of love

 ( for the mighty furbster, Jane for her birthday )


The moon is now in pisces,
This is a water sign,
Now is a good time to sow,
A sprinkling of jazz,
Positive vibrations.
Side by side
As clouds float past,
And the west wind blows,
Singing of dreaming and waking,
The smell of the earth rises. 

Planting bulbs,
Our memories will be forever stored,
Tucked in corners,
Mingling in the future,
Together will always run.
Peace by piece,
Our love will grow,
Following Pan's footprints,
Fireflies casting glow.

In the garden of love,
Wildness rules,
With all our strength,
We will nurture,
Take care,
Give all that is needed.

40 years after the American Indian Movement surrenders at Wounded Knee: Leonard Peltier's injustice continues.

                                 participants of 1973, Wounded Knee occupation.

On this day - 8 May - 1973, the American Indian Movement's  (AIM) occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota ended with the surrender of some 120 Native American and Lakota activists.
Initially provoked by the corruption of the Government's approved tribal governance , their goal too was to protest injustices against their tribes, and the many violations of various treaty's with the United States  government and current abuses and repression against their people. In the 2 years prior to the confrontation more than 60 Indians at the Pine Ridge reservation had been killed, without anyone having been bought to justice for their crimes. The occupation began on February 27 lasting for 71 days and was symbolically located at  Wounded Knee which was the site of a US government massacre of 300 Lakota in 1880. In addition to its historical significance , Wounded  Knee was one of the poorest communities in the United States and shared with the other Pine Ridge settlements some of the country's lowest rates of life expectancy.
The actions of AIM acclaimed by many Native Americans. The 200 activists from AIM soon faced a federal government force including Marhalls, the FBI  and the Nebraska National Guard who responded to the occupation with a full scale military style assault. In the resulting melee two fedral agents were shot along with two brave warriors - Buddy Lamont and Frank Clearwater - died during the siege, where over 200,000 rounds of ammunition were fired at the protestors. Also 2 federal agents had been shot during the standoff. This use  of military force by the federal government later ruled to be unlawful..

After AIM's eventual surrender Leonard Peltier, a member of the Lakota Ogkla Sioux was arrested and charged  with the murder of the two FBI agents on the  flimsiest off evidence. Leonard Peltier is now one of American society's  longest serving political prisonersi, considered to be the Native American peoples  own Nelson Mandela, who though admitting to being there at the time, to help protect his community from continuing violence, has always proclaimed his innocence of actually shooting anyone.
Still in jail today despite the protests and claims of AIM and human rights groups, including Amnesty International. His prosecution and conviction  is felt by many to have driven only  by his participation  in the American Indian Movement. He has continued to be a victim of the racism and corruption embedded in the US criminal justice system. But Leonard Peltier is not simply a victim, he is also a fighter, writer, activist, grandfather, Nobel Peace Prize nominess, and was the Presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party in 2004 whose spirit refuses to be beaten. Leonard his friends family and comrades have fought over the years for real justice to be done. In the years since his conviction, millions upon millions of people around the world have come  to learn of his case, agree that he is innocent and demand his freedom. 
With failing health I hope he is given his freedom soon, and the injustice that continues to be metered out finally ends. 40 years later despite serious concerns about the fairness of the proceedings leading to his conviction is time that President Obama grants him clemancy on humanitarian grounds and in the interests of justice.

http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info 

                                       
                                           Leonard Peltier

Congratulations to Monster Raving Loony Party in Wales, but alarmed about UKIP's rise.

Following yesterday's Welsh Assembly elections I would like to congratulate the Monster Raving Loony Party for winning more than two National Front numpties in the South Wales East region.
But very worried about increased vote for UKIP, these dangerous draconian, anti-immigrstion, anti-foreigners, Little Englander party whose vote is up by 11.5% here in Wales. Resulting in their first Senedd seats. There are  8 of the bastards now. Including former Tory's Neil Hamilton, a liar and cheat, a man so dodgy that even the Tories kicked him out of their party and Mark Reckless. Then you've got the racist Graham Bennett, recently embroiled in a race row, when he blamed Cardiff's rubbish problem on Eastern European immigrants. And five bloody more in various shades of dubiousness The ugly whiff ot racism combined with the stench of xenophobia never far from UKIP's doors.  Votes from disgruntled Tories or just from people who have been fooled. How can anyone though  be fooled by their anti-Europe, anti-refugee, anti-immigrant shit. Mark my words they will  to shit on any form of democracy that lies in their path. Is their a risk that their policies of blame and division will now become normalised here in Wales. We can't allow this to happen.
I think the people of Wales should hang their heads in shame or at least wake up.

35 years since the death of Bobby Sands ( 9/3/54 - 5/5/81)

As people go to polling booths today to vote in assembly elections, thought  i'd remember a man who also took part in the political process subsequently becoming  a Member of Parliament.
Today marks the 35th anniversary of the death of poet, soldier,  and revolutionary Robert  Gerard "Bobby " Sands  who died after being on  hunger strike for 66 days in the Long Kesh  Maze Prison in Northern Ireland  to protest against British treatment of IRA prisoners.  He was 27, emaciated weighing a mere 95 pounds his fillings having fallen out, his organs shut down and the whites of his eyes turned orange from toxins released.
Over the next few months, 9 other republican prisoners followed him, the culmination of a 5 year struggle in the prisons of Northern Ireland demanding jail reforms and the return of special category status allowing them to be treated as prisoners of war , allowing them the privileges of POW's as specified in the Geneva Convention.
Margaret Thatcher the British  Prime Minister at the time decided that no concessions be made to the prisoners, and with cold and calculated cruelty she and her government allowed them to die.
Bobby Sands had been bought to the republican struggle through personal experience after being intimidated out of his job as an apprentice car builder  by fellow workers. and after his family were intimidated out of their home in Rathcoole, a predominantly loyalist area of North Belfast, growing up under the cloud of nationalist and loyalist divisions, Catholics like Bobby were  reduced to second class citizens while the Protestant majority were granted privileges in jobs, education and services.
In 1971 the British introduced internment - allowing its forces to arrest anyone they saw fit and hold them indefinitely without charge. In 1972 the year he joined the IRA he was picked up by the police beaten up and tortured after some handguns were found in a house he was staying in and was sentenced to 5 years in Long kesh, he was rearrested in 1976 and in a juryless trial was sentenced to 14 years  for possession of a gun found in a car he shared with 5 other people
Developing his political ideas he was to  become a leader and inspiration to the prisoners.He pushed hard for prison reforms confronting the authorities, and for his outspoken ways was often given solitary confinement sentences He was also a prolific writer , who wrote numerous poems . His name will always be remembered, his sacrifice never forgotten. Today his smiling face is known the world over and his fight for freedom  remains an inspiration wherever people rise up against  injustice. Following his death Nelson Mandela led a hunger strike by prisoners on Robben Island to improve their own conditions.Palestinian prisoners have increasingly  used the same tactics too to bring attention to their plight. The hunger strikers who died over thirty years ago still continue to provide inspiration to political prisoners everywhere.
Many years later it is perhaps difficult to fully appreciate the sacrifices made by Sands and his comrades, which even if you disagree with the aims for which they gave their lives remains a monumental testament to the power of the human spirit.
It should be noted that their fight won huge support in Ireland, North and South and around the world One month before his death Bobby Sands was elected to Parliament in a rebuke to the British Government from the people of Northern Ireland having won 30,492 votes, ten thousand more than Thatcher in her London Constituency of Finchley and with a majority twice as large. I remember  Thatcher's ( British PM at the time)  callous refusal to reach any compromise - " crime is crime, it is not political." she said,  which only served to reinvigorate the republican cause at the time. It is estimated that over 100,000 people attended Bobby's funeral.and  an international outpouring of grief and anti British demonstrations were to take place. Protests were held in Paris, Milan, Ghent , Australia and Greece. In a ripple effect that was felt across the world.
And although Thatcher claimed victory , her government conceded the hunger strikers demands soon after the protest ended and even she, the main adversary of Sands and his comrades was moved to say years later " It was possible to admire the courage of Sands and the other hunger strikers who died."
In political terms , the 1981 hunger strike marked a sea change in irish republicanism and in the history of the Northern Ireland conflict, the scale of the mass campaign in support of the prisoners it helped turned the republican struggle increasingly towards a political, rather than a purely military focus , away from viole, decommissioning  and towards ceasefire  which would be crucial in laying the ground for the peace process which would have once seemed inconceivable, that has continued to prosper because peace and justice is what the people want and need.
Bobby Sands stature keeps growing, and his poetry and songs still resound, let us remember him, let us never forget.
He said before he died " our revenge will be the laughter of our children." - a phrase that says all that we need to know about him and looks beyond the bloodshed to true peace.

Here is a link to a previous post that includes some of his fine poetry

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/bobby-sands9354-5581-rhythm-of-time.html

a small eulogy from my own pen :-

For Bobby

He died in springtime,
When flowers were waking,
But his passion born of love and anger,
Remained undimmed, his will unbroken,
On the side of justice and right,
The most profound human hunger of all,
Through pain and struggle he rode on,
Kept up the fight, let the world be his witness,
Let truth shine it's light, for his cause to be seen,
Strength and courage carried this poets bones,
No fear, only defiance was to be seen in his eyes,
And  now today his spirit still lives on, 
As the ugliness of injustice continues to roam.  

The Haymarket Square Riot.

Today in history May 4, 1886, the Haymarket Square Riot took place. A day after police had killed four striking workers,injuring several others protestors. This was a time of violent repression by the police. The demonstrators were calling for greater power and economic security, standing against capitalism, calling for an eight hour day and to protest about the increased brutality of the police. 
At the May 4th meeting  a number of radical and anarchist speakers addressed a crowd of over 3,000 people. The meeting  was peaceful but the mood became  more confrontational when the police tried to disperse the crowd. As  scuffles broke out, someone who has never been positively identified threw a bomb at police lines.. (some have since claimed was an agent provocateur in the pay of the authorities to try and stoke up division.) The bomb landed and exploded unleashing shrapnel. One officer was killed and several were wounded. The police responded by drawing their weapons and firing into the panicked crowd.  Seven  policemen  were killed, most likely from police bullets fired in the chaos, not from the bomb itself. Four  civilians were also killed and more than hundred persons injured.

The aftermath created  widespread hysteria, further repression and a national wave of xenophobia, as hundreds of foreign born radicals and labor leaders were rounded up in Chicago and elsewhere in what  is seen as the first great political witch hunt and frame up trial, used as an excuse to  crack gown on  the entire labor movement. A grand jury eventually indicted 31 suspected  labor radicals in connection with the bombing, and eight anarchist leaders form the revolutionary syndicalist tradition were convicted of instigating violence and conspiring to commit murder. in a controversial trial, despite lack of evidence and no connection to the actual bomb. Judge G Gary imposed the death sentence on seven of the men, and the eighth was sentenced to 15 years in prison.In what is seen as a racist show trial,   which like all kangaroo courts was a travesty of justice. Many of the accused not even present when the incident took place.
These men have become known as the Haymarket Martyrs, Albert Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel who were  tried and convicted and executed  for their political beliefs, not for their actions  on May 3th, who still occupy an honored history of the class struggle in the United States and internationally whose sacrifice is remembered every year on May 1st International Workers Day, whose deaths sparked protests around the world. Six hundred thousand working people turned out for their funeral.
When one of the accused Albert Spies mounted the gallows and a noose was placed around his neck he shouted out. " There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful, than the voices you strangle today."
Rather than suppressing labor and radical movements the events of 1886 and the execution of the Chicago Anarchists,  actually mobilised and galvanised a new generation of radicals and revolutionaries. Emma Goldman a young immigrant at the time later pointed to the Haymarket affair as her political birth. Lucy Parsons widow of Albert Parsons , called up on the poor to direct their anger at those responsible - the rich. In 1938 , fifty-two years after the Haymarket riot , workdays in the United States were legally made eight hours by the Fair Labor Standards Act. It is up to us to keep the memory of the  Haymarket martyrs alive. to learn the lessons of their struggle so that they did not die in vain, acting as enduring symbols of labors struggles for justice.

I swear allegiance to the Welsh people

Thanks to https://republic.org.ukc for this one

No matter who is elected to the National Assembly for Wales this Thursday, they won't be pledging allegiance to you or to Wales, but to the Queen.
Regular visitors here will already know that I don't believe in a hereditary monarchy, so yes I have a problem with this, I do have my own ways of swearing though.
It's one of the greatest  ironies of  our political system that are democratically elected representatives are currently forced to swear  allegiance to an unelected monarch, and not their constituents.

Frankly it's an insult  to democracy, and to all those who decide to take part!

After campaigning to be elected, if successful , they will then be forced to pledge allegiance to the Queen.

" I do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Her Heirs and Successors, according to Law. "

" Y wyf i, yn datgan ac yn cardernhau yn ddifrifol ac yn ddidwyll, y gwasanathaf yr Ail, ei hefeddion o'i holynwyr, yn unol air gyfraith. "

If your Assembly Member refuses to take the oath they'll be banned from proceedings, won't be paid any salary, and after two months they'll no longer be a Member of the Assembly.
Should they simply not be able to make a broader pledge to their constituents and the people of Wales  generally
If you agree call on the National Assembly for a New Oath for Wales.
Sign the following petition calling for a Welsh oath of allegiance to the Welsh people - NOT to the Queen.:-

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/welsh-assembly-a-new-oath-of-allegiance-to-the-people-not-the-queen

Against the darkness

(The people of Gaza currently have to endure a life under occupation, while also having to cope with only 3 hours of electricity a day. The following poem is dedicated to their daily resistance. 

Darkness surrounds the lives
of the people of Gaza,
but the echo of dignity sizzles and sustains
under times heavy burden,
the struggling flame of resilience never fades.

The sorrow of existence
now well tended,
comfort found huddled in ruins
under starry sky's,
where shadows meet endurance
to ignite, hearts, mind and blood.

Among the cracks and dust
strains of hope refuse to die,
pavements littered with citrus scent
allow imprisoned people to remain free,
and with touch and words
in this hard place, pride is shared,
freedoms light still growing strong.

The hourglass delivers comfort
against the darkness, light shines,
people find ways to survive
that allows thoughts to persist,
laughter and kindness to rise
in togetherness, dignity stands proud,
against the darkness of oppression,
currents of resistance never fade.

The Origins of May Day: International Workers Day

What are the Origins of May Day - Rosa Luxemburg ( 5/3/1871 - 15/1/19)

Rosa Luxemburg

' The happy idea of using a proletarian holiday celebration as a means to attain the eight-hour day was first born in Australia. The workers there decided in 1856 to organise a day of complete stoppage together with meetings and entertainment as a demonstration in favour of the eight-hour day. The day of this celebration was to be April 21. At first, the Australian workers intended this only for the year 1856. But this first celebration had such a strong effect on the proletarian masses of Australia, enlivening them and leading to new agitation, that it was decided to repeat the celebration every year.
In fact, what could give the workers greater courage and faith in their own strength than a mass work stoppage which they had decided themselves? What could give more courage to the eternal slaves of the factories and the workshops than the mustering of their own troops? Thus, the idea of a proletarian celebration was quickly accepted and, from Australia, began to spread to other countries until finally it had conquered the whole proletarian world.
The first to follow the example of the Australian workers were the Americans. In 1886 they decided that May 1 should be the day of universal work stoppage. On this day 200,000 of them left their work and demanded  the eight-hour day. Later, police and legal harassment prevented the workers for many years from repeating this (size) demonstration. However in 1888 they renewed their decision and decided that the next celebration would be May1, 1890.
In the meanwhile, the workers' movement in Europe had grown strong and animated. The most powerful expression of this movement occurred at the International Workers' Congress in 1889. At this Congress, attended by four hundred delegates, it was decided that the eight-hour day must be the first demand. Whereupon the delegate of the French unions, the worker Lavigne from Bordeaux, moved that this demand be expressed in all countries through a universal work stoppage. The delegate of the American workers called attention to the decision of his comrades to strike on May 1, 1890, and the Congress decided on this date for the universal proletarian celebration.
In this case, as thirty years before in Australia, the workers really thought only of a one-time demonstration. The Congress decided that the workers of all lands would demonstrate together for the eight-hour day on May 1, 1890. No one spoke of a repetition of the holiday for the next years. Naturally no one could predict the lightning-like way in which this idea would succeed and how quickly it would be adopted by the working classes. However, it was enough to celebrate the May Day simply one time in order that everyone understand and feel that May Day must be a yearly and continuing institution.
The first of May demanded the introduction of the eight-hour day. But even after this goal was reached, May Day was not given up. As long as the struggle of the workers' against the bourgeoisie and the ruling classes continues, as long as all demands are not met, May Day will be the yearly expression of these demands. And , when better days dawn, when the working class of the world has won its deliverance then too humanity will probably celebrate May Day in honour of the bitter struggles and the many sufferings of the past.'

1894

So today May Day, the 1st of May is now recognised all over the world as International Workers Day. It is a day for the working class to down tools and take to the streets in protest against capitalism and wage slavery. We should not  forget Chigago , Haymarket either,  where on May 4, 1886, demands for an eight hour working week became particularly intense. Where a demonstration largely staged by a group of anarchists, caused a crowd of some 1,500 people to gather. When policemen tried to disperse the meeting, a bomb exploded and the police opened fire on the crowd. More than 100 people were injured. Eight leading Chicago anarchists were subsequently arrested, and charged with the bombing, despite no evidence of their involvement, five were sentenced to be hanged, two were given life sentences and the last was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The trial is now known by legal historians as one of the worst miscarriages of American history.

 In 1889 the congress of the Second International Workingman's association adopted a resolution to take up the fight for the 8 hour working day and to make 1st of May a worldwide day of protests in memory of the Haymarket martyrs, as they had become known.
The first British May Demonstration was held in the 1890's and in London alone, attracted 300,000 protestors in Hyde Park, and has continued to this day. Since then,  May Day has become established as an annual event to commemorate all the workers who have died in the struggle against those who exploit them. A celebration of international struggles and our solidarity. Many today will remember the 400 plus who have died in the recent Bangladesh building collapse.With these acts of solidarity we also lay down the foundations of a future world.  In Britain we even have a Bank holiday now close to the day, that the Tories have considered scrapping because of it's association, which thankfully has failed.
Today also marks a neo-pagan festival,Beltane, the Celtic festival of Summer's beginning a time to dance under a Maypole, a time of cleansing and renewal,drink and be merry, follow Jack in the Green, the mystical Green Man of legend.
I see no reason why not to celebrate all of the above.
Happy May Day
Heddwch/peace

A Garland for May Day

1895, Walter Crane 

Remember the dead,
fight for the living. 

Avoid head trash

The world is currently,  being destroyed by psychopaths, dont keep calm, go out and make change. But be careful do not be a garbage can  for anything that does not fuel your intellect, stimulate your imagination and help connect with others. Refuse to carry other peoples head trash. When conflict arises , face it with who you are, whilst being open to other perspectives.
Respect your intellect and heart felt passions. Give respect to others by not taking what they are responsible for, if you do not, it can infect you with a mind virus of cynicism or defeat and you wont even know it.
But without action very little will be done, be persistent ,and  try and be consistent, I realise though that under present conditions of capitalist domination it is easy to switch to negative thought patterns, that can lead to cynical resignation, that can become an obstacle in itself. So find others that you can connect with, share your ideas, that help one another build together,  help create a new world, a better one. Avoid cutting yourself from this possibility no matter what the circumstances. The secret is to to begin, there is no room for compromise. Laugh together, avoid disconnection, avoid futility and fruitlessness, focus on struggle and change. Resignation is death. Revolt is life. Avoid head trash.
It's obviously not as easy as it sounds, I've been on anti-depressants for last ten years, but recently been avoiding them, reconnecting  taking a chance, my inner scream still carries an anguished enthusiasm for changing the world. I guess it takes time, chemicals can help, can lead to a life though of numbness, especially in the absence of community or solidarity, alienation can lead to all sorts of malaise, if you really want to change, there are ways to achieve it,  don't trust me though I'm no shrink or doctor, I know that it is not always possible to prevent unhelpful thoughts from occurring, these words  just some gathered food for thought, just remember to look after yourself, and if your strong enough you can  look out for and help others.

What Zionism has meant for Palestinians

 There is currently a lot of discussion in the public realm in the UK about anti-semitism (anti-jewish racism), As Israel lobby groups ( among others) try to equate the two.
For some being critical of Israel is now seen as  the same thing as being anti-jewish or rasict. Personally I will always oppose beyond the pale and vile racism wherever it tries to lay it's hat. An abhorrent stain that has no place in modern society and should always be condemned and given zero tolerance.
I am not a member of the Labour Party  but like many others I have been talking to feel that the crisis of anti-semitism in the Labour party has been deliberately created by the media,  whilst co-ordinated by the right wing element of the party and the Zionist lobby.
The prospect of a pro Palestinian like Jeremy Corbyn as elected leader has triggered a dirty tricks operation worthy of a CIA effort to destabilise a South America  country, all aided by a compliant media, serving to stir things up and foster division, running on hysterical soundbites to smear instead of encouraging unity.The Daily Mail being chief among them, with a terrible history of their own when it comes to this issue. Is is wrong to simply criticize a country that illegally treats and oppresses the Palestinian people on a daily basis.
Anti-semitism tragically exists  and must continually be exposed and fought against, in the same way as other forms of racism by all concerned with fighting racism and fascism.
I should also point out that Anti-semitism and anti-zionism are not the same. Zionism is a political ideology which has always been contested within jewish life since it first emerged in 1897. In my  humble  opinion it is entirely legitimate for non-jews as well as jews to xpress opinions about it. Remember not all jews are zionists and not all zionists are jews.
As an anti racist and an anti fascist I do not think it is helpful to discredit those who simply make legitimate criticism of Israeli policy. I will continue to support anyone who seeks to promote peace with justice.
What is being forgotten about though and utterly marginalised is the Palestinian narrative. Should we forget the fact that for the Palestinian people, Zionism is an ideology that denied their very existence and has continued to justify their ethnic cleansing from their home and lands.
We should be seeking some balance, not get whipped up by hysteria, by forces serving to feed their own dubious agendas. We should continue to fight racism, fascism  with all our might whilst exploring and understanding all narratives.

Here is a link to an interesting article I discovered earlier. Heddwch/peace.

http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160429-what-zionism-has-meant-for-palestinians/ 

Cassetteboy vs Jeremy Hunt

Another Labor of love from Cassetteboy.  Jeremy Hunt should stop telling us how reckless and dangerous the Junior Doctors' strikes are, because trained medical  professionals  clearly feel his policies are far more reckless and dangerous.
Jeremy Hunt can keep saying that it is in the best interests of the NHS, but the actions of him and his government speak far louder than his lies. Time for him to drop the ego and listen to the heart of the NHS - the doctors.
Luckily the junior doctors are standing together, taking part in the first all-out strike in the history of the NHS,  it's up to us to support them, as they continue to defend and save a publicly funded , publicly owned, our beloved  N.H.S. 

Parasites ( poem dedicated to Sir Phillip Green, David Cameron among others)

Scoffing cucumber sandwiches on gilded lawns,
Like ravenous vultures they feed on the helpless,
Mock the poor, ignore our pain,
While washing down champagne,
Reeking of greed, taking all that we need,
Lying and cheating is their game,
Exploiters of people for profit,
The world is their oyster,
See how they scoff it,
Fed by a relentless drive for more,
Appropriated from the labor of others,
After pushing and grabbing for far to long,
In the end will have to make amends,
Having been found proven,
To have been in the wrong,
But may pay no heed,
The greed remains,
Too entangled,
Trapped inside,
Too deeply hidden,
To be removed.

79 Years ago - The Bombing of Guernica.

                         Guernica- Pablo Picasso

During the afternoon and early evening of Monday, April 26th, 1937,  the German and Italian fascist air forces destroyed the Spanish town of Guernica in a raid lasting three hours. The war crime was ordered by the Spanish nationalist military leadership and carried out by the Congor Legion of the German luftwaffe and the Italian Aviazone Legionairre. Designed to kill  or main as many civilians as possible, Operation Rugen was deliberately chosen for a Monday afternoon when the weekly town market would be at its most crowded. Guernica, in the Basque  country where revolutionary sentiment among workers was deep, was defenceless from the bombers, which could fly as low as 600 feet.
The airplanes made repeated raids, refuelling and returning to drop more bombs. Waves of explosive, fragmentary, and incendiary devices were dumped in the town. In total, 31 tons of munitions were dropped between 4.30 in the afternoon and 7.30 in the evening. In the aftermath of the raid, survivors spoke of the air filled with the screams of those in their death throes and the hundreds injured. Civilians fleeing the carnage in the fields surrounding the town were strafed by fighter planes. Human and animal  body parts littered the market place and town center, a horror soon immortalised by Pablo Picasso's Guernica.
Guernica was effectively wiped of the map. From a population of 5,000 some 1,700 residents were killed and a further 800 injured. Three quarters of the buildings were raised to the ground. Farms four miles away were flattened.

The savage and barbarous attack was a deliberate attempt to terrorise and intimidate the workers of Republican Spain. Spanish nationalist general Emilio Mola had spoken of destroying the industry of Barcelona and Bilbao in order to cleanse the country. In other words, the Nationalists would endeavour to destroy the industrial proletariat. As the historian Paul Preston has recently written in Spanish Holocaust, the Nationalist forces had launched a scorched earth policy during their rapid advance through Spain, most notably in Badajoz, where many hundreds of revolutionary workers were machine gunned to death in the city's bullring.
The fascist government of Berlin and Rome were only to glad to assist Franco in his 'cleansing' of the Spanish population, as both a geo-political necessity and as a test for their military command, new military technology and fighting forces. At his trial for war crimes at Nuremberg, the leading Nazi Hermann Goering would tell the tribunal that he had urged Hitler to send German forces to stem socialism in the Iberian theatre and to test out the Luftwaffe.
We should never forget.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/04/twih-a23.html
The destruction of Guernica was part of Franco's wider, brutal campaign against the existence of the Spanish Republic. This campaign led not just to widespread destruction of property, but thousands of civilian casualties too, as well as widespread displacement. Many sought refuge abroad, as many as 3,800 Basque children were evacuated to England and Wales for the duration of the war. The British Government at the time callously refused to be responsible for the children, but  throughout the summer children were dispersed to camps throughout Britain. Eight of these colonies were here in Wales. They were received with a mixture of hostility and kindness, but they had all managed to escape the grips of Franco's fascist Spain.
Picasso's picture still resonates with clarity, capturing the full terror and horror of this terrible moment in history.

Guernica: The history and art of:-

Guernica - Paul Eluard - P Picasso  - Victory at Guernica
Music: Richard  Wagner and Herbert Von Karajan

extract from poem written by Paul Eluard, a surrealist poet and friend of Picasso, in August, 1937.

Lovely world of cottages
Of the night and fields
Faces good in firelight good in frost
Reusing the night the wound and blows

Faces good for everything
Now the void fixes you
Your death will serve as a warning

Death the heart turned over

They made you pay your bread
Sky earth water sleep
And the misery of your life.

Finally : Justice for Hillsbourough 96.

                               Hillsborough 96 victims.

Finally after 27 long years of struggle and anguish, the bereaved families of Liverpool fans who lost their lives in Hillsborough in1989 have been delivered some kind of justice as a jury has ruled  that  96 Liverpool fans who died  had been unlawfully killed and that fans behaviour did not contribute to their deaths. Police response and planning at fault.
But why has this agony taken so long for this jury to vindicate the families long fight for justice, hindered  perhaps by  the approach over the years by South Yorkshire Police to hide away adverse findings. Evidence that they did not want us to see. What the families have had to endure for the last 27 years is truly horrifying and shocking,  cover ups by the police , the state, and successive Tory and Labour governments.
From  the onset survivors of Hillsborough have spoken of how they were intimidated and threatened by  police and left feeling traumatised, accused of wasting police time because they did not like their evidence, because it did not fit into their versions of the event, led about by the police, the scum newspaper, vilified and labelled, the dead were demonised, the falsefying of statements,  but by group efforts and the support of individuals justice has come, late, but better than never. Thank goodness to all those who never gave up.
Shame still hangs however over the lying police, lying press government and FA as people still lying covering up on top, but a scrap of  justice is finally offered 27 years overdue.No lie lasts forever.
Those responsible  should pay the price.

PS

Don't ever buy this racist, sexist, lying, homophobic, anti-working class pile of ****

Dennis gets stuck into Hunt

Dennis Skinner tells health secretary Jeremy hunt 

To  "wipe that smile of  his face,  he.s almost giving the impression he is revelling in standing up too the junior doctors."
Here we go nursery level rhyming time Dennis Skinner a complete winner, Jeremy Hunt a complete ****.
Enough said but will add that  I support the junior doctors 100 % .Their fight is our fight we should not be held to ransom.
We will hear a lot of non-trutha about junior doctors in next few days in parts of the media in an attempt to discredit them  but the Tory's are losing the argument, the junior doctors are fighting for all of us, the heart and soul of the NHS, that's why we have to and must continue to support them.

April Bursting

( inspired by Garden for the bees this weekend  initiative by 38 degrees
https://www.facebook.com/peoplepowerchange  )


Flowers are blooming again
Leaves are popping
Insects are buzzing,
The afternoon delivers sun, fresh air,
To blow away morning's face.

I have a favourite place
Somewhere I go to hide away,
Where fragrance floats and mingles
I stand awakening, moving shadows,
Bouncing over primroses and bluebells
Today sowing seeds over earth
Offering some food for the bees.

The flower's weeds will ripen
And wild winds will scatter,
Sending shoots and roots,
From this present time,
Far into the future,
Release an abiding, shining hope
That lights a way through the dark.

As greenery blossoms
Soft rays of warm light, 
Clear pathways of soul and heart
React to understanding, 
Drift in fine feeling
Creating  glorious scenes,
Surveying all
I will sit and dream .
.

Prince ( 7/6/56- 21/4/21) - Sign of the Times, R.I.P

On the airwaves, sent out rap, house, funk, psychedelia, one man soul train, strutting sexy stuff, musical textures of freedom, Hendrix, Sly Stone, James Brown, an eclectic musical virtuoso, his brain an inner studio, of deep funk devotion, innovator of musical  genius, an ego that electrified,with duality of free expression,  today's  forecast  cloudy with a chance of purple rain, as another uncompromised voice is lost, cadences of difference will keep on singing, eliminate gender, point another way, doves will cry for all, eyes will close, as third eyes open. Meteors will blaze a fiery trial. Indelible footprints will continue to reveal.

Prince Roger Nelson, 
Rest in Power.

"  Dearly beloved,
we are gathered,
here today,
to get through,
this thing called life.

Electric word life,
It means forever, 
and that's a mighty long time,
But I'm here to tell you,
There's something else,
The afterworld.

A world of  never ending happiness,
You can always see the sun , day or night,
Let's go crazy, Let's go nuts,
Look for the Purple banana,
Til they put us in the trunk,
Let's go!

We're all excited,
But we don't know why,
Maybe it's because,
We're all gonna die.

Let's go crazy, Let's go nuts. "

from; Prince - Let's go crazy ; 1984.

 

Happy birthday Mrs Windsor, now it's time to stop the reign.

 

Today the Queen otherwise known as Mrs Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, turns 90,  a long life indeed, and also shares a birthday with my own grandson who himself turns four today, so salutations to him as well.
Many of us today instead of joining in the sycophantic celebrations that are taking place would instead actually like to have a debate about Britain's future. After all no-one should be head of state for decades without any elections. Do we simply sit back and watch her son Charles become King, after her reign?
A long life is not an excuse in itself for a long reign. The fact that the Queen is now the longest reigning monarch I do not see in itself as a cause for celebration, but an opportunity and reminder of how much we  need real radical democratic reform. Millions of us are simply not interested anymore in royal milestones, in times of austerity, and as usual we are denied the opportunity to hear any real debate about the future of the monarchy.
In a statement posted by Republic a grassroots movement that has over 5,000 members and 35,000 supporters it said todays event " reminds us that support for the monarchy is bound up with support for the Queen." The group has also  criticised the BBC's coverage, I agree with them, adding  it is the usual fawning display that simply does not warrant or deserve this amount of coverage, is there not much more worthy things that need reporting? It is completely over the top. The Republican movement in Britain has announced that it will campaign to make the case for holding a referendum on the future of the British monarchy after the Queen's death. Like me it does not think that the British monarchy a harmless tourist attraction that most people think, rather that it has a history of abusing public money and meddling in politics. Furthermore is it not the case that as long as we remain subjects not citizens, of our country, our political and social attitudes will continue to retain an archaic flavour that is harmful equally to our image  of ourselves and attitude of others towards us. Until we turn our back on  hereditary  power at the top of our political, military and religious institutions we have little chance of shaking of the mentality of society defined by class that serves to prop up the same elitist status quo.
How can we continue to tolerate a hereditary monarch representing the feudal society of medieval England in a modern democratic state. How is it is still acceptable that the British taxpayer still has to pay £75,000,000 a year to support one of the richest families in Britain ( wealth accumulated and robbed from people during previous centuries) when people are made homeless, forced to sleep on the streets, how can we justify spending this on relics that serve no purpose while 13 million of us are in poverty and 913,000 of us are having to rely on foodbanks.. The Queen's private residence Buckhingham Palace estimated to be £55 billion!!
The monarchy like slavery , sexual and class discrimination and colonial exploitation is a throwback to our shameful past and an impediment to a bright future.
So happy birthday Mrs Windsor,  but please let the British public decide now whether we want you or not, I have already made up my mind, it is outdated and does not serve our modern needs,an irrelevent drain on our society  so viva republic.

http://republic.org.uk/