Changes to the Human Rights Act

..
A quick plug for the following event, todayOn Wednesday 19^th October Clynfyw Care Farm is holding an event at Small World Theatre, Cardigan, relating to changes that the Government is planning to make to The Human Rights Act.
Since the Second World War, The Human Rights Act has been a vital tool that supports and protects us all. The proposed changes will have an impact on our whole society.
In 2015, the Daily Telegraph published an open letter signed by 163 organisations, which called on “those with power to respect human rights laws”. The organisations represented people from across the UK including carers, disabled people and children, professional bodies like the British Medical Association and Royal College of Nursing, and local councils. The letter called on “those with power to reflect on the meaningful, often quiet, ways human rights make a difference for people in their everyday lives.”

‘There are pros and cons to every argument,’ said Clynfyw’s Jim Bowen. ‘In this event we present both sides, with speakers explaining what the Act is, how it has helped to protect us as a society and how it might evolve in the future.’

The new measures will erode the right, to privacy. to a fair trial, to protest an to freedom from torture and discrimination. It will enable the government to deport more people and defy the European Convention on Human Rights. The current law gives us the right to get justice from British courts without having to go to the European court. It requires all public bodies, including central and local government, the police, the National Health Service, prisons and other services to abide by these human rights, and extend to outsourced public services such as care homes.
The legislation also includes the right to life, not be tortured or subjected to inhuman treatment, not be held as a slave, to liberty and security of the person, to a fair trial, not to be retrospectively convicted for a crime, to a private and family life, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, to freedom of expression, to freedom of assembly and association, to marriage, not to be discriminated against, to the peaceful enjoyment  of one's property and the right to education.
Speakers have been invited from the Welsh Conservatives and also the British Institute of Human Rights. Each will explain how they believe the Human Rights Act should be used to protect and develop our country as a whole, and whether changes are needed at all.
The Human Rights Act is of great relevance to us all. It is especially important to everyone in Social Care as there are significant rights and duties that everyone should know about. Everyone is welcome. There will also be a free soup and rolls for lunch for all attendees. Please come and join me please let us know if you can.I have a load of free badges from my local amnesty International in support of saving the Human Rights Act that I will be distributing.g

More information: 01239 841236
Jim.clynfyw@gmail.com

 I believe public opinion is against scrapping this act, and that people are prepared to fight for it.Please sign the following petition it would mean a lot to me. Thanks.


https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-our-human-rights

So long Dario Fo (24/4/26 -13/10/16)

(accidentally deleted this post earlier, so had to come up with something new)

It was with sadness, that I discovered from an Italian friend the death of Dario Fo. A writer and performer whose onstage antics offended popes and presidents, bureaucrats and  and conservatives of every stripe, died on Friday at home in Milan. His death was confirmed by his Italian publisher, Chiaralette, he succumbed to complications arising from a lung condition he had suffered for years,he was 90.
In 1997, the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature,the Nobel jury honoured him for work which emulated "the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden, with a blend of laughter and gravity he opens our eyes to abuses and injustices in society and also the wider historical perspective in which they can be placed" ". It is kind of ironic that he died on the same day that Bob Dylan was awarded his.
Probably best known abroad for the series of plays he wrote in the immediate aftermath of the upheavals of 1968, such as the Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, inspired by the mysterious death of Giuseppe Pinelli an Italian Anarchist in a police station after a bomb attack in Milan a year earlier who fell or was pushed to his death from a balcony window,Mistero Buffo a retelling of the Christian gospels in an improvised format, which let him comment on everything from corruption in the Catholic Church to contemporary social and political issues. The play outraged the Vatican and was condemned by the Pope as blasphemous and We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay.In this play, based on actual events, prices were spiralling so high that ordinary people could not afford them and decided that they would only pay the original price before the price hikes. Like Accidental Death of an Anarchist, this play continues to be performed, in England as recently as 2012 and in France in 2014. The play Mother’s Marijuana Is the Best confronted Italy’s growing drug problem. “Rich people consume and use drugs, while poor people are used and consumed by drugs," he famously said at the time. Fo wrote more than 80 plays, which have been translated into 30 languages.
In addition to being a playwright, he was also a director,actor stage and costume designer,satirical anarchist,political provocateur, clown, jester and singer songwriter .Alongside his wife and muse Franca Rame he was an unapologetic anti-capitalist and remained one to the end.A fiercely leftist activist throughout his life, Fo’s work attacked institutions of organized crime, racism, corruption, religious theology and war.Unafraid of controversy, Fo was banned from Italian state broadcasting for 14 years and his support for left-wing causes led to U.S. visas being denied in the 1980s.
 Dario Fo was born in San Gario, a small town on Lago Maggiore in the province of Varese, Italy. His  father Felice,was a socialist, station master and actor in an amateur theatre company; his mother Pina Rota, was a woman of great imagination.As a student, he was called up to the army of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, but escaped and hid in an attic for the last few months of the war before Italy was liberated.
From the beginning of their careers at Milan’s famed Piccolo Teatro, Fo and Rame, who died in 2013, used their platform to champion the rights of workers, poor people and the disenfranchised, and to protest establishments political, social and religious, often drawing stern rebukes being jailed on numerous occassions ,facing violence, censorship, disruption and intimidation from both fascists, the police, the government and the vatican.After performing an anti-police show in Milan in 1973, Rame was kidnapped, tortured and raped by fascist thugs.Receiving his Nobel prize, Fo said that he shared the credit with Rame, as she had been his muse. Even as they subsequently suffered from failing health, they always rediscovered the vigour and inspiration to continue creative work.The inspiration for his style came from the strolling medieval players, the giullari, who travelled from town to town, setting up in market places and playing to the crowd, the ordinary people they belonged to.
Fo continued to enjoy writing plays that drew from Italian political scandals. In the late 1990s, Il Diavolo con le Zinne (The Devil With Boobs) transposed the Tangentopoli, or Bribesville, scandal to 16th-century Florence. The corrupt magistrate was played by the Italian stage’s leading traditional actor, Giorgio Albertazzi, who had never hidden his right-wing sympathies.Their collaboration surprised many, but they declared they were both anarchists in their own ways.His 2003 play The Two-Headed Anomaly,  took aim at Italy's then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russian president Vladimir Putin,  and  was censored on television.
 After Rame’s death  Fo decided the best way to commemorate her was to continue the work they had done together.  Fo gave public support to the comedian turned politician Beppe Grillo, and later found a new kindred anarchistic spirit in Pope Francis whom he celebrated with a mock-medieval play about St Francis of Assisi..Fo ran for mayor of Milan in 2006 and remained a committed activist right to the end, committed to the working-class, and anti-war, anti-Fascist and climate change activity skewering Italian authorities with his sharp wit and appearing at a rally in support of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement last month
 Accepting the Nobel, Fo remarked   “A theater, a literature, an artistic expression that does not speak for its own time,” he said, “has no relevance.”"With Dario Fo's death, Italy has lost one of the great characters of its theatre, culture and civilian life," said Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi..
 
They say we should be moderate
Not stirring up class war
But we're bent on being obdurate
We'll take it all, we don't ask more
We'll defeat their aims for starters
We'll foil their dastardly plan
Can we have their guts for garters?
We say fucking right we can!
-Can't Pay, Won't Pay 1970

So long Dario Fo, a giant of Italian culture has left us R.I.P

Beyond the chains of humanity

Chains of fear
from Gaza to Aleppo,
the borders of Mexico
to Calais where tears run dry,
people crying out for help
abandoned seeking dignity,
waiting for tomorrow to call
the imprints of fellow man
to release them from pain.

As the politicians daily call
planting seeds of chaos,
with unblinking eyes
spreading darkness,
sadness falls and trust rushes by
hope keeps missing its targets ,
bitter taste is the daily harvest.

Far away tears of compassion flow
the winds of humanity blows,
trying to sprinkle some kindness
refusing to ignore or lose faith,
with freedoms banner speaks out
goodwill peaks out beyond the clouds,
delivering streams of conscience.

( this poem can also now be found here too :-   https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/beyond-the-chains-of-humanity-by-dave-rendle/   )

Senghenydd Mining disaster: lest we forget

At 6.00 a.m this morning 14 October 1913, a series of terrible explosions ripped through the Universal Coal Pit in the village of Senghenydd,  a town in the Aber Valley, four miles north west of the town of Caerphilly, in South Wales ( U.K).

The cause of the disaster was thought to have been a 'firedamp', when a spark ignites methane gas, and then explodes, this explosion sucks coal dust on the floor into the air and causes a huge explosion. In Senghenydd this spread even further underground of the mines, and was followed by 'afterdamp', where deadly poisonous gases  replaced the missing air and oxygen.

The result was 439 miners and 1 rescuer  being killed and it is now considered to be the worst mining accident in the U.K  and  the most serious in the terms of loss of life. It followed an earlier disaster in May 1901, three underground explosions at the colliery killed 81 miners. 

The rescue operation in 1913 lasted for 3 weeks, although by then the chance of finding anyone left alive had long faded.Fires in the workings hampered rescue efforts, and it took several days before they were under control. It took six weeks for most of the bodies to be recovered and the fire to be extinguished. The subsequent enquiry pointed to errors made by the company and its management leading to charges of negligence against Edward Shaw, the colliery manager, and the owners.The report was critical of many aspects of the management's practices, and considered it had breached the mining regulations in respect of measuring and maintaining the air quality in the workings, and in the removal of coal dust from the tracks and walkways.The report pointed out that because the management had not implemented the changes needed to the ventilation fans as demanded by the Coal Mines Act 1911, the fans were unable to reverse the direction of the airflow, which would have blown the smoke out through the Lancaster shaft, although Redmayne and his colleagues held differing opinions on the advisability of reversing or stopping the airflow.Further criticism was directed toward the emergency procedures. The lack of respirators at the mine was deemed to have cost lives.The lack of an adequate water supply for fire fighting was also criticized, as it would have been thought that the fact the colliery was such a gassy one, and it had already been devastated by an explosion previously, that the management would have made arrangements for a supply of water adequate to meet an emergency of the kind that actually occurred. For his guilty role Shaw was fined just £24 – less than 6p per life lost. Incredibly, the pit owners were fined only £10 on one charge – not having a reversible fan, newspapers calculated the cost of each miner lost was just 5¹ ⁄ pence.

It would send shockwaves throughout the world, reminding people of the terrible cost of coal  and capitalist greed and neglect   that stole the lives of 440 men and boys. The sheer numbers working in the colliery indicate its importance, and centrality, in the life of Senghenydd, and the wider area, and of the terrible, generation toll it would take on the village. Mothers and fathers mourned sons, wives lost husbands and children would never know their fathers and young men their futures, the deaths of of 440 men on a such a small community had a devastating effect; 60 victims were younger than 20, of whom 8 were 14 years old; 542 children had lost their fathers and 205 women were widowed. The impact on individual households was great: 12 homes lost both a father and son, 10 homes lost two sons each, while the death of one father and son left an 18-year-old daughter to raise her 6 siblings alone; another woman lost her husband, 2 sons, a brother and her lodger.

The Universal Colliery would eventually close in 1928 but the impact of the disaster has been carried through generations in the village which is now in Caerphilly borough.  

According the Carwyn Jones the Welsh first minister at the time of the 100th anniversary ' The Senghenydd tragedy has come to symbolise the dangers and sacrifices made by those who went underground in search of coal but never returned home. It is fitting that this should be the location for a memorial dedicated to all the miners that have died in mining disasters across our nations.'

In 1981 a memorial to the men who died in the disaster was unveiled by the National Coal Board  followed by a second in 2006, to honor the dead of both the 1901 and 1913 explosions. In October 2013, on the centenary of the tragedy, a Welsh national memorial, commissioned by the local Aber Valley Heritage group, which had secured Heritage Lottery Funding and undertook its own fundraising campaign, it pays tribute to the victims of all 151 recognised disasters, when five or more people died, to have occurred in Wales, was unveiled at the former pithead, depicting a rescue worker coming to the aid of one of the survivors of the explosion.The memorial and gardens will not only provide a priceless and fitting tribute to all the colliery workers who lost their lives in the mines, but will act as a suitable and prominent reminder of the rich mining heritage that is ingrained into our communities.

I have written about this disaster previously but  I have always made it a point to remember my peoples history .On a personal note I can never forget the tales my own grandad told me, who himself was a miner's boy  in the valleys in the 1930's assisting  his father. he taught me never to forget the long list of tragedy, human grief and loss in our history, and the sorrow of communities like Senghenyd who have lost their loved ones. 

I remember the terrible loss, and also remember the greed and contempt for the lives of workers and their families which led to such suffering, which occurs when capitalism is free to pursue its basic principles in which  some peoples lives are  expendable in the pursuit of profiti.

Cofiwch Senghennydd

Remember Senghennydd

 The statue, designed by sculptor Les Johnson, depicting a rescue worker coming to the aid of a survivor after a mining disaster, situated at Senghenydd..

Uniliver, I guess I'm not a fan

Across the globe Uniliver is still viewed as a ruthless exploiter of  resources and people on a global scale.Unilever is huge. It's the largest consumer products company in the world. It's the world's third-largest advertiser. And it's the most multinational of all the multinational corporations. More than five hundred companies belong to the Unilever Group, and they operate in seventy-eight countries, manufacturing in most of them. A unadmiring writer once lamented that "something approaching two thirds of mankind buy from or sell to Unilever, and most people use its products every single day of their lives." http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/unilever/moskowitz_1987.html The company's own literature says rather matter-of-factly: "Unilever does business in or with nearly every country in the world." No other company can claim that ubiquity. The British and Dutch empires remains in place. I am not a fan.Who despite spending billions on advertising and promotion trying to present themselves as an ethical company that has cleaned up its act has a long history of behaving in an unethical way built on exploitation and misconduct across the globe. A 100-year history of relying on cheap land and labor to make mass products at huge profits but at high social and environmental costs combined with an insensitivity towards its own workers ..

I am not a fan of Tescos either,not a place I choose to shop  a supermarket that Uniliver is attempting to bully at the moment.Uniliver has recently demanded an extra 10% from Tescos trying to exploit the post Brexit economic situation,after the pound has plunged, in what amounts to many as daylight robbery.Not just to Tesco but to poor people who already have not enough change in their pockets for food to sustain them. Tesco have at least had the tenacity to say no.But it meant the withdrawal of lots of well known brnds from its websites and stores

Uniliver's  attempt at hijacking the prices is blackmail exploitive and self serving casting themselves as the saviours of the moment but avoiding mentioning their own roles in causing many problems of the global arena (such as financial crisis, land-grabbing, tax loss, obesity, malnutrition, climate change, habitat destruction, poverty, insecurity) they claim to address. Most of their proposed solutions either require passivity from governments (poverty will be solved by wealth trickling down through a growing economy) or the creation of a more friendly environment for business. At a time when we should be concentrating on more important issues like fascists,racists, the Tory's toxic policies, the refugee crisis etc etc..Uniliver's headlining stunt is rather low.

The consumer must be reminded that there are always alternatives,we still have plenty of choices,much better ones too, far more ethical too and that nones of us should  be pressurised or dictated to by capitalist bully's. Uniliver should be reminded of this fact, at the end of the day the people of Britain don't respond well to consumer bullying. Uniliver should also be reminded that many of the products that they are trying to manipulate the price rises, like PG Tips and Marmite are actually made here in Britain and in the case of Pot Noodles here in Wales. But actually owned in some way by Uniliver. Who knows, maybe people will notice how many companies are owned by Unilever, and perhaps  they'll rethink their shopping.Search for something better. But the fall in the pound cannot  not justify Unilever’s reported demand for a 10% price increase for an entirely UK sourced product. Uniliver are just using Brexit as a premise for profiteering.

Hopefully other supermarkets will try and resist price increases as most of them are trying to cut prices to attract consumer and maintain their market share against ‘low-cost’ rivals.Uniliver like other global corporations are trying to manipulate things to serve their own pockets, our interests are a very low priority. We must keep questioning them and continue to hold them into account.

On that note I could murder a Pot Noodle.I know,perhaps not. Laters.

UPDATE 10.37.pm

Got back a moment ago, 10.15 p.m to discover that Uniliver has now resolved tts dispute with Tesco and that well known brands will now be back on the shelves..
After both companies’ share prices fell on Thursday and Unilever was criticised for blaming the attempt to increase prices on the fall in the value of the pound, a deal was reached late in the afternoon.Watch out for further price hikes in the future. As for Tesco being called the peoples champion by the tabloids, don't believe the hype.In a general emerging anti corporate culture, people are seing through them too.

The Aberfan Young Wives Club

50 years ago next week on Friday October 21, 1966 , approx 9.16 a.m shortly after school assembly many tons of collier rubbish (slag heaps) swept down the sides of a  Merthyr Mountain  above the town of Aberfan after several days of heavy rain, Liquified and pouring down  this black tidal wave would engulf everything in its path in this catastrophic tragedy.A tragic memory from Wales's turbulent living history.
A new documentary will be examining how Aberfan has carried on in the 50 years since the horrifying events that took place on that day.The Aberfan Young Wives Club, to be broadcast on ITV tonight at 9pm on Wednesday, features the young women of the town who banded together to support each other and their community in the face of tragedy.
It follows the women who came together just weeks after so many mothers involved had buried their children to form a support group, which they dubbed the “Aberfan Young Wives Club”.The programme will focus on these women's vital role in keeping their community alive.
The group steadily grew in size and organised events, talks and trips, as well as helping each other in their bereavement. Some of the women will be speaking about their experience for the very first time.The film utilises remarkable archive footage as well as the moving testimony of the mothers who have met every week since the tragedy.
Aberfan was to many a result of a conflict of financial interests, which would see the death of 144 people, including a 115 innocent  children, many of whom were between the age of seven and ten along with, five of their teachers, in what is now known  today as one  of one of Wales worst mining disasters in it's history, not forgetting Senghennydd which I've written about previously when in 1913 over 400 were killed.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/100th-anniversary-of-senghenydd-mine.html
By the time the landslide stopped, it had demolished Pantglyn Junior School and 20 houses, severely damaging the Secondary School.

The sores and wounds of this disaster are now forever  stored in the memories  and feelings of the people of Wales because of the whole collective loss of a generation that was wiped out. We should try never to  forget  the children and adults who died, this human tragedy, that  many say could easily have been  prevented. The National Coal Board  (NCB) were repeatedly warned to move the slag heaps to a safer location, because they were also  close to natural underwater springs. Did the NCB have the decency to acknowledge their blame, to bow their head in shame, like hell no, but we were to  learn sadly far too late that the NCB was ostensibly a capitalist organisation more concerned with profit than lives.  A report by the government at the time said " Blame  for the disaster rests upon  the National Coal Board. The legal liabilities of the National Coal Board to pay compensation for the  personal injury ( fatal or otherwise) and  damage to property is incontestable and uncontested." The Government of the day was also extremely insensitive to the victims families, and people whould have to wait for years, for compensation.
So tonight I hope you can catch the programme scheduled,  remember  the people of Aberfan, a community  that is still profoundly affected by this disaster, one in three survivors still  suffering from Post traumatic stress,  nearly 50 years after this tragic event took place. People felt guilty that they were  left alive, they did not feel like survivors,there were cases of children not being allowed to play in the street, in case it upset other parents.
Let us  hope that lessons learnt from this incident can be learnt for tomorrow, and  remember that this bitter legacy still continues, what with continuing social and economic problems in the South Wales valleys still  being wrought  because of successive governments who have made lives a  continuing source of discomfort.  Combined with the failure of responsibility by the relevant authorities and the appalling behaviour of  some parties in the aftermath of the disaster.
Today, however there is very  little to remind visitors of  this tragedy, just an abstract memorial garden in the village and the childrens section in the graveyard.I hope that those too young to remember this injustice will continue to be reminded of this awful event that the people of Aberfan remember every single day.
In addition to the programme mentioned , Sir Karl Jenkins has composed a major new choral work, entitled ; Cantala Memoria - For the Children which was commissioned  by S4C, the Welsh language channel in commemoration and mark the 50th anniversary of the disaster.
Lest we forget, people before profit.

 Karl Jenkins - lament for the valley

R.I.P the little angels that were lost forever.

Respect to former Pink Floyd singer and songwriter Roger Waters

 

Respect to former Pink Floyd singer and songwriter Roger Waters who made his feelings about Donald Trump and Israel clear during a politically-charged performance in his set that closed out a three-day classic rock concert in Indio, California on Sunday night. .

As Waters performed the Pink Floyd song Pigs, Donald Trump’s face appeared on the massive video screen above the stage as a swine-shaped balloon with a caricature of the Republican presidential candidate floated in the crowd.On the side of the balloon “Ignorant, lying, racist, sexist,” was written as well as screens flashing quotes from Trump, including comments from a controversial video from 2005 released last week. Subsequent images showed Trump wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood.

Trump's desire to build a wall on the Mexican  also annoyed Waters, who acknowledged the hypocrisy inherent in a country whose population largely descended from immigrants.Waters followed up with "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)," during which 15 school-age children came onstage wearing T-shirts that read, "Derriba el muro" — Spanish for "Take down the wall." 

While other Desert Trip performers mentioned the presidential election, Waters was also the only one who brought up the Black Lives Matter movement in front of the overwhelmingly white audience. As he performed "Us and Them," the big screen showed pictures of protest signs. "White silence is violence," read one. "I cannot believe I still have to protest this (expletive)," another said.
Waters told the crowd that he's been working with wounded warriors in Washington, D.C., and brought a young American veteran who lost his legs onstage to play lead guitar with the band on "Shine on You Crazy Diamond.""Working with these men has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my life," Waters said. He dedicated the song to all victims of war and violence.
Waters waited until near the end of his performance to voice his support for the Palestinian-led BDS movement. He said: “I’m going to send out all of my most heartfelt love and support to all those young people on the campuses of the universities of California who are standing up for their brothers and sisters in Palestine and supporting the BDS movement,” he said, “in the hope that we may encourage the government of Israel to end the occupation.”

Roger Waters is a well known critic of Israel who openly supports the BDS movement. Waters in February told a British newspaper that many musicians are afraid to call out Israel over it’s policies in relation to Palestinians as they see the backlash he has absorbed since supporting the BDS movement.

“The only response to BDS is that it is anti-Semitic,” Waters told the newspaper. “I know this because I have been accused of being a Nazi and an anti-Semite for the past 10 years.”

Waters openly calls for other artists to boycott Israel and to not perform there as pioneering electronic dance act the chemical brothers are planning to do on November 12th. A band I may add I have long admired. Music and other forms of art don't exist purely on an elevated artistic platform that is separated from the mundane world. What makes it significant is its connection and effect to the everyday reality.
As Tom Rowland himself said in an interview back in 2005: “Music is bigger than us."
Israel takes advantage of this, by using culture as a form of propaganda to whitewash and justify its regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid over the oppressed Palestinian people.
This is no secret. Israeli government officials have summed up how Israel exploits culture in order to cover up its severe violations of international law.On that note there is a petition up and running, that urges this band to respect the cultural boycott. You can sign here, if you wish :-

https://www.causes.com/actions/1786127-sign-the-petition-to-the-chemical-brothers?recruiter_id=189304238&utm_campaign=recruiter_link_inviter_copyable&utm_medium=recruiter_link&utm_source=causes.

 Before closing with "Vera" and "Comfortably Numb," Waters told the audience, "It's been a huge honor and a huge pleasure to be here to play for you tonight."His set also included "Time," ''Money," ''Wish You Were Here" and "Dark Side of the Moon."
So good that in this divided world there are still individuals like Mr Waters, who are prepared  to use their voices to continue to stand up and be counted. Sadly every age brings fresh injustice,and  those who speak out will continue  to be derided but at least theyat least  have the spines to use their voice to raise awareness, showing solidarity with those  that are often ignored, so thank you Roger for sharing your humanity.

Roger Waters - Another brick in the wall Part 2 Mexico 2016

Roger Waters - Pigs ( Three Different Ones)
Live, Mexico City Oct 1 2016

earlier  thoughts on Donald Trump

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/intolerantina-poem-for-donald-trump.html 

Austerity Bites .

(guess I've become fixated. My first response to May)

There  is something in the air
and we breathe it everyday
a war of attrition
an ugly game of lies
as the politics of austerity
bites and pinches our lives.

Today, this country
is no gentle place
the sky full of tory toxitity
as they tear apart the welfare state
and so much more.

Easy to lose control
trying to feed hungry hearts
all we need is love they say
but on poverty's line
it's the only thing 
we have now for free.

It feels like 1979 again
but with more of a sting
as  politicians pickpocket
daily from our purse
and bankers bonuses still pile high.

Silence is not golden
time for them to hear us shout
beyond their false mirrors
no use just complaining
in the darkness we must sow light  
as they treat us with derision
time to drive these bastards out.

(This statement is now complete.)

Nick Drake - Tomorrow is a long time

Nick Drake singing Bob Dylan's ' Tomorrow is a long time '

I absolutely adore the sentiments as well as the  background noises.

If today was not an endless dream?

If today was not an endless highway
If tonight was not a crooked trail
If tomorrow wasn’t such a long time
Then lonesome would mean nothing to you at all
Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin’
Yes, and if I could hear her heart a-softly poundin’
Only if she was lyin’ by me
Then I’d lie in my bed once again

I can’t see my reflection in the waters
I can’t speak the sounds that show no pain
I can’t hear the echo of my footsteps
Or can’t remember the sound of my own name
Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin’
Yes, and if I could hear her heart a-softly poundin’
Only if she was lyin’ by me
Then I’d lie in my bed once again

There’s beauty in the silver, singin’ river
There’s beauty in the sunrise in the sky
But none of these and nothing else can touch the beauty
That I remember in my true love’s eyes
Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin’
Yes, and if I could hear her heart a-softly poundin’
Only if she was lyin’ by me
Then I’d lie in my bed once again 

I, Daniel Blake

The new film by British filmmaker Ken Loach, I Daniel Blake won the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.Focused on the Kafkaesque ordeals of a 59-year old widowed carpenter who puts up with  health allowance benefits after suffering a heart attack, it is an indictment of an entire social system in which Britain’s most vulnerable are being thrown overboard by a cold and cost-conscious bureaucracy that received its marching orders from the combined forces of New Labour and the Tories.
Daniel Blake (59) has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the State. He crosses paths with single mother Katie and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie’s only chance to escape a one-roomed homeless hostel in London has been to accept a flat in a city she doesn’t know, some 300 miles away.
Daniel and Katie find themselves in no-man’s land, caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy as played out against the rhetoric of ‘striver and skiver’ in modern-day Britain.
The movie's writer Paul Laverty has said the research team was stunned at how people with mental health issues and disabilities were targeted by the welfare cuts.He said people interviewed within the Department for Work and Pensions told them "they were humiliated at how they were forced to treat the public. There is nothing accidental about it."
The actress who plays the young single mother, Katie -- Hayley Squires -- who Daniel's character befriend, recently slammed anti-welfare "propaganda" that she said has turned working class people against each other. "Normal people are led to believe that this amount of people are on benefits and are therefore scroungers, and this amount of people are going to work to pay so that they can scrounge." "They've left us to argue among ourselves so they can keep doing what they are doing."
A must see film, ever so needed in the present time,which I confess already seen , but am looking forward again to seeing it among others, when it arrives in my local theatre from 18 November to 24 November.http://www.mwldan.co.uk/whatson/cinema-2d-sinema-2d/i-daniel-blake-15#.V_KxOiRVLIU I just hope this powerful tool has the actual ability to change things or at least manages to shame the Government and show people  exactly whats going on in the uk today,at job centres up and down the country and how the DWP really works, a  rotten system essposed, designed to demoralise and create pain and despair with conscious cruelty on a daily basis.
But for the Conservatives, under the direction of Theresa May the ideological destruction of our society continues, and they carry on regardless, with an ideological mission of punishing the poor and those most vulnerable
 I,Daniel Blake represents though clearly of this Governments  betrayal of people in need, wanting simple sustenance in order to survive Finally I just hope this powerful film will evoke sympathy and recognise the fact that daily people are being screwed by the Tories, faced by obstacles, in  complete denial of peoples need for dignity and respect .Of so much moral imperative, I look forward to the day, when we say enough is enough.In the meantime well done Ken for continuing to lend the poor and downtrodden a voice.I really hope that this film and its powerful indictment of life under Tory rule  is seen by as many as possible.

Everyday in pieces- A poem for National Poetry Day

Every day is in pieces
tired and weary
returning  twists  never fade
but food and love so nourishing
helps release some starlight,
beyond the misty clouds
barking loudly in the shadows
in the hide and seek of eternity.
Everyday comes in pieces
but surreptiously hope returns
hellbent on survival
over mountains soars
pausing in moments
always wanting more.

Solidarity with women activists as Israel intercepts boat seeking to break Gaza blockade

 

A boat full of women activists which was headed peacefully for the Gaza Strip was intercepted and commandeered by the Israeli Navy yesterday in international waters.The Women’s Boat to Gaza was making good progress on the Mediterranean and the women on board were excited about meeting the people on the shores of Gaza who were waiting for them. Some Palestinians even spent the night at the beach to greet them. At 9:58am EDT, flotilla organizers lost contact with the boat, Zaytouna-Oliva. The US Embassy confirmed that the boat was intercepted and Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Zaytouna-Oliva was boarded by members of the Israeli navy. The Israelis took control of the boat and rerouted it – under force – to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The activists were transferred to authorities “for further processing,” the Israeli military said in a statement late Wednesday.. It should be noted that it is an illegal act to attack civilian boats in this way..

Women from different parts of the world who care and feel passionately about the freedom of Palestine and Gaza had set sail to Gaza with two ships the Zaytouna and the Amal - meaning "olive" and "hope" - had set sail last week from Barcelona, Spain, en route to the besieged Gaza Strip,in order to raise awareness about and try to break Israels decade-long illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.The activists were transferred to authorities “for further processing,” the Israeli military said in a statement late Wednesday.

The boat dubbed “Women’s Boat to Gaza,” was carrying 13 women including Mairead Maguire, the 1976 Nobel peace laureate from Northern Ireland, Fauziah Hasan, a doctor from Malaysia, and retired US army colonel Ann Wright. The boat is part of the wider Freedom Flotilla Coalition that consists of pro-Palestinian boats that regularly seek to go to Gaza to try to break the blockade.

None has yet managed to get through yet..The flotilla is, at its core, a symbolic attempt to bring international attention to a blockade that has further impoverished and isolated Gaza, while sending a message of solidarity to Palestinians there.The Zaytouna-Oliva was carrying no material aid. This was by design because Israel, as a premise for their attacks, would claim that weapons and contraband were on board. The owner of Zaytouna-Oliva is Israeli.
Previous solidarity boats to Gaza have been intercepted and their passengers detained in Israel and deported.Eight Turkish nationals and a US citizen were killed in May 2010 when Israeli forces stormed the Mavi Marmara boat that was part of the Gaza Freedom. The people in Gaza were excited about the boat of women activists making their way to them in an attempt to break the illegal siege and blockade that plagues their everyday lives The people in Gaza were excited about the boat of women activists making their way to them in an attempt to break the illegal siege and blockade that plagues their everyday lives, a group of Palestinians had gathered on the beach in the hopes of welcoming the boat to shore but the vessel was intercepted before it could reach them.Earlier in the day they had heard the terrifying sounds of Israeli bombs near their homes,as Israel bombed several areas

                   
                            Palestinian women waiting on the shore to greet the Women's Boat to Gaza            
                                
The all-women boat also wanted to bring awareness to  the role of Palestinian women in their struggle, as they face the effects of occupation and settler-colonialism, under a illegal blockade.legal blockade. Over 1.5 million most of whom under 20 years of age are struggling to survive in Israeli occupied Gaza. Israel keeps violating the international law. According to the studies Gaza is estimated to become unsuitable for life by 2020. Turning the city into an inhabitable place undeniably is a crime against humanity. Women also carry the bulk of responsibility for the care of traumatized children. According to the United Nations, more than 160,000 children in Gaza are in need of continuous psychological support,United Nations officials have also called for the blockade to be lifted, saying conditions are deteriorating in Gaza.
 Sondos Ferwana, a spokesperson for the activists, told a Turkish news agency that the capture of the boat was “another act of Israeli piracy.”The Women’s Boat to Gaza group released a pre-recorded video statement made in case the boat was intercepted.“If you’re listening to this, then you will know that myself and all the women who sailed on the Women’s Boat to Gaza have been arrested and are in detention in Israel,” Maguire says in the video, which can be viewed above.Maguire adds that Israel’s actions are “totally illegal.”The Women’s Boat to Gaza Twitter account published photos of solidarity protests in Spain as news of the boat’s capture reached activists.

The last message heard  from Mairead Maguire stated: "We are people of the world, we should be allowed to bisit our brothers and sisters in Gaza and not be stopped. We will continue to support the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine until they have human rights and their freedom."Solidarity to all these brave women taken, we must demand that Israel acts immediately to ensure the safety and well being of the crew and passengers on board the Zaytoun-Olive, and must continue to call for the end of the blockade. No country has the right to isolate and collectively punish them against international law. Not only were Israels actions illegal, but they set a terryfying precedent, giving a greenlight for other nations to attack civilian ships in international waters. If in the UK, I would urge you without delay to contact the foreign secretary Boris Johnson, details are here, more contacts at bottom of post.:-

Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary
Phone: +44 20 7219 4682
E-mail: boris.johnson.mp@parliament.uk
Twitter: @borisjohnson
Facebook: facebook.com/foreignoffice
Twitter: @foreignoffice

 Palestinian boats go out to meet the vessel but it was intercepted before it could reach shore.

Song for Gaza from Zaytouna-Oliva, Women's Boat For Gaza

"We anchored up and sail out from the shore of Spain
Our boat Zaytouna-Olive is her name
And olive is the symbol of a faraway place
To which we steer our course across the waves

We are thirteen women here to sail with peace in our hand
Towards our sisters in this foreign land
From many different corners of this world we have come
To bring to you the freedom of a song

[Chorus]

We will sail for your freedom
Our sisters in Palestine
We will never be silence
Until you are free
We are guided by the light of the stars at night
And the power of the sea so very bright
As the world is watching us we bring our women voice
With a message that we all should have a choice
Your grandmothers they planted olive trees
Upon the land where you should live in peace
Though trees of thousand years they've been all go away
May daughters plant the seeds to let them stay

[Chorus]
We will sail for your freedom
Our sisters in Palestine
We will never be silence
Until you are free"

Synne Sofie Recksten, Emma Rinqvist, Marama Davidson

For more details about the Womens boat to Gaza and other people to contact, here is a link :-

https://wbg.freedomflotilla.org/

80th Anniversary : Remember the Battle of Cable Street; No pasaran

                                Detail from Cable Street Mural
 
On the 9th October 2016 anti-fascists from across the UK will come together to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. Socialists, Trade Unionists and anti racism groups will march from Altab Ali Park to Cable Street where a rally will be held to commemorate the defeat of fascism in London's East End eighty years ago.

" No Pasaron"/ They Shall Not Pass!!"

On 4th October, 1936, the people of the East End inflicted a massive defeat on Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists.
During this time Britain was facing very serious economic problems. Throughout the mid 1930s, the BUF moved closer towards Hitler’s form of fascism with Mosley himself saying that “fascism can and will win in Britain”. The British fascists took on a more vehemently anti-Semitic stance, describing Jews as “rats and vermin from whitechapel” and tried to blame Jews for the cause of the country's problems. Mosley’s blackshirts had been harassing the sizeable Jewish population in the East End all through the 1930s. By 1936 anti-semitic assaults by fascists were growing and windows of Jewish-owned businesses were routinely smashed. Hurrah for the Blackshirts!’  The notorious Daily Mail headline is just one chilling indication of the very real threat Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists posed in the mid 1930s.
On Sunday Oct. 4, 1936, Mosley planned to lead his Blackshirt supporters on a march through the East End, following months of BUF meetings and leafleting in the area designed to intimidate Jewish people and break up the East End’s community solidarity. Despite a petition signed by 100,000 people, the British government permitted the march to go ahead and designated 7,000 members of the police force to accompany it.
They were not to be welcomed, instead they were met by over 250,000 protestors, waving banners with slogans such as 'They shall not Pass'( no pasaron, famous republican slogan from the Spanish Civil War) , 'No Nazis here' and 'East End Unite.'  A mighty force had assembled prepared to defend their streets and neighbourhoods and their right to live in them.
As the fascists assembled in Royal Mint Street, near the Tower, they were attacked by large groups of workers. When the Metropolitan Police tried to clear a path through Gardiner’s Corner, a blockade of tens of thousands of people stood firm. Anti-fascists blocked the route by barricading the street with rows of domestic furniture and the fascists and the police who were defending them were attacked with eggs, rotten fruit and the contents of chamber pots. Local kids rolled marbles under police horses hooves. A mighty battle ensued, leaving many injured and others arrested.
80 years later it is remembered because it saw thousands of people, from many walks of life, women, children, local jews, Irish groups, communists, socialists, anarchists standing firm as one in an incredible display of unity who worked together to prevent Mosley's fascists from marching through a Jewish area in London.Together, they won a famous victory and put the skids under Britain’s first fascist mass movement.The  fascists did not get to march and they did not pass, and were left in humiliation so today we look back on this living history in celebration and pride.
Significantly, for some people that were involved in the protest, Cable Street was the road to Spain, and many would go on to volunteer as soldiers for the Republicans there, this year also marks the 80th anniversary founding of the International Brigades. The legend that was Cable Street became the lasting inspiration for the continuing British fight against the fascism that was spreading all across Europe and would eventually engulf the planet in a terrible world war.
We might like to think those days are behind us, but anti-semitism, racism and intolerance  is on the rise. The far-right are growing throughout Europe. Following the divisive and anti-immigrant rhetoric surrounding Brexit to fuel a spike in reports of racist hate crimes. The winds that blew across Cable Street eighty years ago still exist today, we must remain vigilant to this. We should never forget the Battle of Cable Street. Teach your kids about it. 
Today and tomorrow we must still rally around the cry of No Pasaran - They shall not pass.

Men they couldn't hang - Ghosts of Cable Street

Phillipines: Stop Encouraging Murder

When comparing yourself to world leaders or historical figures, there are perhaps less controversial choices than Adolf Hitler. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte last Friday likened himself to the Nazi leader, saying he wants to kill millions of drug addicts, just as Hitler killed Jews during the Holocaust.

"Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now there is 3 million, what is it, 3 million drug addicts (in the Philippines), there are," he said in a speech in his hometown of Davao City.

"I'd be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have (me). You know my victims, I would like (them) to be all criminals, to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition."

History counts the cost of Hitler's purges against "undesirables" at 11 million, 6 million of whom were Jews.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, in Israel to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Simone Peres, condemned the remarks.

"These statements are revolting, and President Duterte must retract them and apologize," Lauder said. "We just marked the 75th anniversary of Babi Yar, the massacre of more than 33,000 Jews in Ukraine by Nazi Germany. ... Now, the elected leader of the Philippines openly calls for the mass murder of people who are addicted to drugs.

"Drug abuse is a serious issue. But what President Duterte said is not only profoundly inhumane, but it demonstrates an appalling disrespect for human life."

 Amnesty International said that Duterte "has sunk to new depths" and urged governments around the world to condemn his "extremely dangerous outburst."

On Sunday  Duterte issued an  his apology saying  it was intended only for the Jewish community. He lashed out again at Western critics and human rights advocates who have raised concerns over his brutal crackdown, which is estimated to have left more than 3,000 suspected drug dealers and users dead in just three months. Duterte said in a speech in the central city of Bacolod that he never had any intention "to derogate the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Germans." "I apologize profoundly and deeply to the Jewish community," Duterte said.
A little to late methinks.The controversial leader campaigned on a hard line against crime, particularly drug offenses, and has in the past uttered statements which have caused many in the international community to recoil.Since winning the presidential election, President Duterte triggered widespread alarm by calling for the restoration of the death penalty, vowing to preside over a wave of extrajudicial executions, threatening journalists, and intimidating human rights defenders.
This is in a context where a climate of impunity for human rights violations prevails in the Philippines, including for torture and other ill-treatment by the police. Only one police officer has ever been brought to justice under laws criminalising torture, and few have been held accountable for killings of journalists.  A growing number of critics, including U.N. officials, the European Union and the United States, have voiced concerns over the widespread killings and human rights violations.

The country’s new president is running a ‘war on drugs’ that involves a deadly crackdown on anyone believed to be connected to the drugs trade. He has suggested there might be monetary rewards for those who murder people and is seemingly encouraging the police to kill.

Call on authorities in the Philippines to stop sanctioning murder and to protect the right to life for all citizens. Tell this man he has to stop:

You can take action via Amnesty International  here:-

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/philippines-stop-murder-drugs-president-duterte

Roy Bailey - The Ballad of Vic Williams

The right to conscientious objection has also been recognised in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Recently, the legal right to act in accordance with one's conscience has been placed on the statute book by the Government through the Human Rights Act 1998.
In the First World War, about 16,000 British men were recorded as conscientious objectors after conscription started in 1916, In the Second World War, there were 61,000. Conscription was abolished in 1960, so all British soldiers are now volunteers – although in 1991 Vic Williams a soldier  was jailed for 14 months for desertion and conduct prejudicial to the good order of discipline, after he went absent without leave during the Gulf War. Vic Williams said he left the regiment because he did not believe that a military solution to the Gulf crisis was justified, and because he had decided that his conscience could not allow him to take part in any such action.  He had served in the British Army for five years as a trained radar operator before his departure, and had a clean conduct record.  Before giving himself up to the police at the end of the Gulf War in early March, Vic Williams made public statements opposing the war for oil in a Hyde Park demonstration and on a BBC television programme . Amnesty International at the time considered him to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned because he acted in accordance with his conscientiously held beliefs.
He began serving his prison sentence on 2 October 1991. The above video is of Roy Bailey singing “The Ballad of Vic Williams.”

Growing stronger with momentum.

( As the Tory's meet for their conference in Birmingham this weekend, a reminder that better forces are growing stronger outside)

The sound of hope rings in the air
shouting loudly in the breeze,
giving back elements of power
to the powerless and forgotten,
moving mountains with thought
releasing strength to force change
for equality,peace and justice for all,
to take away the chains of privilege
but watch as some try to push our dreams
                                 out of reach;
but revolutions of the mind run deep
sharing the same ideals people unite,
in solidarity together will stand
growing stronger with momentum,
joining forces with others pushing
there's no better way of getting things done.

Waldo (Goronwy) Williams (30/9/04 -20/5/71 ) - Blessed are the Peacemakers

Waldo Goronwy Williams is regarded as a mythical figure, here in Wales. No one who knew him bore a grudge towards him , and to many  he is seen as one of the greatest Welsh language poets of the twentieth century.

He was also a Quaker, a notable pacifist , anti-war campaigner and Welsh Nationalist. Born on the 30th September 1904 in Haverfordwest the third of five children of John Edwal Williams (1863-1934) and Angharad Williams (née Jones, 1875-1932). His father was headmaster of Prendergast School in Haverfordwest and English was the language spoken within the family. Following periods of nervous illness which left a lasting impression on his young son, in 1911 J. Edwal Williams was appointed headmaster of Mynachlog-ddu School, located in the same county but in a Welsh-speaking community in the shadow of the Preseli hills. This move was of great significance in Waldo Williams's development. Waldo (he is often referred to by his first name only) stated that he learnt Welsh playing on Mynachlog-ddu schoolyard, an experience recorded in an early poem, 'Yr Iaith a Garaf' (The language I love). The family moved again in 1915 to Clunderwen on the border with Carmarthenshire; a few months later the family's eldest child, Morvydd Moneg, died.

At some point after this and during the Great War Waldo had an experience or vision in the gap between two fields, Weun Parc y Blawd and Parc y Blawd, on Cross farm, Clunderwen. He later described it as a realisation 'sudden and vivid, that men were above all things brothers to each other'. This event would have confirmed the pacifist convictions held and expressed by his parents and inspiring one of his most loved poems ‘The Two Fields’/‘Mewn dau gae’.Waldo Williams was brought up Baptist but became a Quaker in the 1950s, joining Milford Haven Meeting.. 

Towards the end of his life he recollected listening to his father in 1916 reading T.E,Nicholas's anti-war poem 'Gweriniaeth a Rhyfel' (Democracy and War) to his mother in their home. It seems that the young boy began to write poetry in Morvydd's company; in doing so he was following in an uncle's footsteps. His father's brother William 'Gwilamus' Williams (1867-1920) published a volume of poetry and was a pioneer of vers libre in Welsh.

Waldo went to Narberth County School and from there to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1923 to study English and History. He played an active part in student life, editing The Dragon during the 1926-7 session. As well as writing editorial pieces he published his own English and Welsh poems anonymously in the magazine. After graduating he worked as a supply teacher in his native county for some years, without ever constructing an orthodox and successful professional career. This can be attributed in part to periods of mental illness, and later in his career to his pacifist commitments.

He was a conscientious objector during the Second World War which led to his dismissal from a headmastership. . The strength of his convictions also led to him breaking the law by refusing to pay his income tax in protest against the role of the British Government in the Korean War. He continued his protest until the end of compulsory military service. During this period his campaigning earned him time in prison.

His work was touched by romanticism  but also often carried a political message.The horror of war is evident in his poems during World War 11 and he wrote his most poignant  poetry during the years that followed the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Williams belonged first of all to the Welsh tradition of the Cerdd Gwlad (folk poets) a poet who served his locality by celebrating its life and people in verse. A poet of considerable ability in Cynghaned and free verse, with delicate use of alliteration,a delicate weaver of wisdom . But he was also inspired by the mystical revelation he had as a youth about the unity of the whole of mankind.His faith in the brotherhood  off all men. This revelation was realised in the cooperative and harmonious living he witnessed among the farming communities in the Preseli Hills and reflected in the feeling of belonging, knowing and desire that people should live together in peace expressed in his memorable poetry. It was also a threatened society the Governments establishment of a firing range (so reminiscent of the decision to set up a bombing school at LLyn in the late 30's) was the catalyst for the production of a small group of powerful poems about Welsh nationhood, with the will to resist as the central theme

Personal tragedy marked his life too following the death of his wife Linda from tuberculosis in 1943, and the strength of his convictions would lead to periods of intense mental suffering, his questioning of humanity's frequent inhumanities. He never remarried. Later he would describe his two-year marriage as "fy mlynyddoedd mawr" – "my great years"

He stood  as the Plaid Cymru candidate for Pembrokeshire in 1959, where he won a 4.52% share of the votes and and used his poetry to express his nationalism, which had considerable influence on the younger generation of activists in particular.  His major volume of poetry is Dail pren/The leaves of the tree, published in 1956.

He died  on tthe twentieth of May in 1971 at St Thomas's Hospital Haverfordwest and is buried at Blanconin Chapel Burial ground in Llandisillio. Known for his kindness and unassuming manner, this visionary pacifist leaves a moral and cultural legacy that is immense. A poet who remains of national importance. Blessed are the peacemakers.  

Many of Waldo's poems can be read in translation. The most comprehensive being ' The Peacemakers : Selected Poems , Gomer, 1997, in which I reproduce the following poems. There is a memorial monolith dedicated to him and the upright bluestone is situated on Rhos Fach near Mynachlogddu..

Pa Beth yw Dyn?

Beth yw byw? Cael neuadd fawr
Rhwng cyfyng furiau.
Beth yw abnabod? Cael un gwraidd
Dan y canghennau.

Beth yw credu? Gwarched tref
Nes dyfod derbyn.
Beth yw maddau? Cael  fford trwy'r drain
At ochr hen elyn.

Beth yw canu? Cael o'r creu
Ei hen athrylith.
Beth yw gweithio ond gwneud can
O'r coed a'r gwenith?

Beth yw trefnu terynas? Crefft
Sydd eto'n cropian.
A'i harfogi? Rhoi'r cyllyll
Yn llaw'r baban.

Beth yw bod yn genedl? Dawn
Yn  nwfn y galon.
Beth yw gwladgarwch? Cadw ty
Mewn cwmwl tystion.

Beth yw'r byd i'r nerthol mawr?
Cylch yn treiglo.
Beth yw'r byd i blant y llawr?
Crud yn siglo. 

What is Man ?

To live, what is it? It's having
A great hall between cramped walls.
To know another, what's that? Having
The same root under the branches.

To believe, what is it? Guarding a town
Until acceptance comes.
Forgiveness, what's that? A way through thorns
To an old enemy's  side.

Singing, what is it? The ancient
Genius of the creation.
What's work but making a song
Of the trees and the wheat?

To rule a kingdom, what's that? A craft
That is crawling still.
And to arm it? You put a knife
In a baby's hand.

Being a nation, what is it? A gift
In the depths of the heart.
Patriotism, what's that? Keeping house
In a cloud of witnesses.

What's the world to the strong?
Hoop a-rolling.
To the children of earth, what is it?
A cradle rocking.

Rememberance/Cofio

Un funud fach cyn elo’r haul o’r wybren,
Un funud fwyn cyn delo’r hwyr i’w hynt,
I gofio am y pethau anghofiedig
Ar goll yn awr yn llwch yr amser gynt.
 
Fel ewyn ton a dyr ar draethell unig,
Fel cân y gwynt lle nid oes glust a glyw,
Mì wn eu bod yn galw’n ofer arnom –
Hen bethau anghofiedig dynol ryw.
 
Camp a chelfyddyd y cenhedloedd cynnar,
Aneddau bychain a neuaddau mawr,
Y chwedlau cain a chwalwyd ers canrifoedd
Y duwiau na ŵyr neb amdanynt ‘nawr.
 
A geiriau bach hen ieithoedd diflanedig,
Hoyw yng ngenau dynion oeddynt hwy,
A thlws i’r clust ym mharabl plant bychaìn,
Ond tafod neb ni eilw arnynt mwy.
 
O, genedlaethau dirifedi daear,
A’u breuddwyd dwyfol a’u dwyfoldeb brau,
A erys ond tawelwch i’r calonnau
Fu gynt yn llawenychu a thristáu?
 
Mynych ym mrig yr hwyr, a mi yn unig,
Daw hiraeth am eich ‘nabod chwi bob un;
A oes a’ch deil o hyd mewn Cof a Chalon,
Hen bethau anghofiedig teulu dyn?

One fleeting moment as the sun is setting,
One gentle moment as the night falls fast
To bring to mind the things that are forgotten,
Now scattered in the dust ages of the past.

Like white-foamed waves that break on lonely beaches,
Like the win's song where no one hears the wind,
They beckon us, I know, but to no pupose-
The old forgotten things of humankind..

The artistry and skills of early peoples,
Small dwelling-places and enormous halls,
Old well-told tales that have been lost for ages,
The gods that now no mortal could recall.

And little words of languages long-vanished,
Lithe words once lively on the lips of men,
And pretty in the prattle of small children,
No tongue will ever utter them again.

Oh, earth’s innumerable generations,
Their sacred dreams and fragile sanctity,
Is the heart silent that was once acquainted
With sadness and with gladness and with glee ?

Often at close of day, when I am lonely,
Ilong to know you all, bring all to mind;
Is there a heart or memory still to cherish
The old forgotten things of humankind?

One fleeting moment as the sun is setting,
One gentle moment as the night falls fast,
To bring to mind the things that are forgotten,
Now scattered in the dust of ages past.

Like white-foamed waves that break on lonely beaches,
Lke the wind’s song where no one hears the wind,
They beckon us, I know, but to no purpose –
The old forgotten things of humankind.

The artistry and skills of early peoples,
Small dwelling-places and enormous halls,
Old well-told tales that have been lost for ages,
The gods that now no mortal could recall.

And little words of languages long-vanished,
Lithe words once lively on the lips of men,
And pretty in the prattle of small children,
No tongue will ever utter them again.

Oh, earth’s innumerable generations,
Their sacred dreams and fragile sanctity,
Is the heart silent that was once acquainted
With sadness and with gladness and with glee ?

Often at close of day, when I am lonely,
I long to know you all, bring all to mind;
Is there a heart or memory still to cherish
The old forgotten things of humankind?

translated by Alan Llwyd 

 

Gwyn (Alf) Williams ((30 /09/25 -16/11/95) - The People's Rememberancer

Gwyn Alfred Williams better known as Gwyn 'Alf ' Williams was born this day, 1925  at 11 Lower Row, Pen-y-wern, Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan. He was one of three children born to Thomas John Williams and Gwladys Williams nee Morgan, both of whom were schoolteachers.

Gwyn Alf would become a.Socialist historian and broadcaster, of powerful force who I recognise as an early informing political influence when I first read his brilliant  books and subsequently saw his spellbinding documentaries he produced in the 1980's for  television in which he used his stammer to brilliant effect. Which was living proof also that speech impediments are no bar to acquiring great oratorical skills. I am grateful to him for helping me rediscover my peoples history, not the English history that was forced down our throats when we were at school, who is regarded as  an important influence on the way we now think about our country and people.

Educated firstly, at Cyarthfa Grammar School in Merhyr he went on to study history at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, He formed his political opinions during the dark days of the Depression and the Spanish Civil War, and his left wing parents plied him with books that nurtured him in the radical working class community that was now riddled with poverty and unemployment. The opinions he fostered at this time were firmly retained throughout his life. He became a Marxist,  who was driven by a dynamic and heartfelt concern about his own people, the Welsh.

Like many others at the time of the Spanish Civil War he joined the Young Communist League . He did not mange to get to Spain but did serve in the army and fought in the Normandy campaign following the D-Day landings in 1944. After his discharge he went on to read history at Aberystwyth University, and became Lecturer in Welsh history there in 1954 He was such an entertaining speaker that students from other departments, regularly sat in on his lectures, for the  passionate way he spoke about industrial Wales, after which he would often adjourn to the nearest pub to continue the flow of his lectures..By now he had found himself opposing the party line on Tito, and left the party
He left Aberystwyth to take up a Readership at York University and spent from 1964 to 1974 as Chair of history. During this period he became a member of the Labour Party for a spell, then rejoined the Communist party in 1979 but left again to become an uneasy home in the Labour Party but eventually found a political home on the left wing  of Plaid Cymru, for a while he was a leading member of the editorial board of the magazine Radical Wales and served on the party's Executive Committee.
He had  learnt Italian and Spanish for his study of the history of Communism in Italy and his study of the life and works of Antonio Gramsci and Goya and the impossible Revolution. His wife, Maria, belonged to the community of steelworkers from northern Spain who were long established in Dowlais. Returning to Wales in 1974 he became  Professor of History at University College, Cardiff,
But it was with his books on Welsh history that made the most impact " The Merthyr Rising" inspired by ten years of class struggle, stands as a classic of Marxist historical writing and was the first full account of the workers' revolt of 1831 and the execution of Dic Penderyn, one of the earliest martyrs of the Welsh working class https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/cofiwch-dic-penderyn-remember-dic.html.  In Madoc; the making of the myth,  he critically examined the evidence for the discovery of America by Prince Madog ab Owain Gwynedd in about 1170 and in particular, for the existence of a tribe of Indians , known as the Mandans, who were said to be his descenants who were said to speak Welsh, then there was "When was Wales?", which was perhaps his most popular and influential work, an excellent book which demolishes all the myths that are the stock in trade of Welsh nationalism. The 1980s also spawned his career as a broadcaster with the television series, The Dragon Has Two Tongues, which brought his passionate wit to a wider audience, as he sparred with Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, a typically puffed up specimen of the Welsh establishment.who was diametrically opposed to nearly everything  dear Gwyn stood for  It had a huge impact on me as a teenager, marvellous stuff, that I sadly can't share due to copyright issues.

In 1983 Williams took early retirement at the age of 58 from his Chair at Cardiff (he was fond of describing himself as "a redundant historian") and after  he and his wife parted began making films with Teliesyn, one of the independent companies on which the reputation of Welsh broadcasting now largely depends.Among the people about whom he made fascinating films were James Gillray, Sylvia Pankhurst, Pushkin, Mary Shelley, and the Welsh writers Saunders Lewis, T.E. Nicholas and Iolo Morganwg, showing of his impressive range.He cast a  marvellous figure, a unique cross of a Welsh revivalist preacher, revolutionary communist, distinctive with his shock of flowing white hair and obvious stutter.He moved from Cardiff to the village of Drefach Felindre, in Dyfed, where he shared a home with his partner Sian Lloyd zt Ty Dyffryn.
Gwyn Alf was not content with scholarly work that was not backed up by political engagement. He tried to influence public opinion and in all his work the capitalist, centralist, British State (and English hegemony) had to be undone if Wales was.to survive and prosper I wonder what he would have thought of the state of Wales post Brexit , perhaps he would passionately remind us to us that the poorest communities across Wales will get sympathy from Conservative governments we are now face an onslaught more devastating than back when Gwyn Alf roared so passionately in the 1980's. Do we never learn from our historians or do we simply ignore them.
Gwyn Alf Williams saw himself as “a people's remembrancer”, attempting to influence contemporary opinion by a dramatic presentation of Welsh history. More than anyone of his generation Gwyn A. Williams infused scholary history with immediate concerns, and his books, in range and content, reflect both his rooted particularity and his international perspective.
He died on 16 November 1995 at the age of 70 in Drefach Felindre of cancer, he was a heavy chain smoker and was cremated at Parc Gwyn crematorium, Narberth, on 22 November after a ceremony in which ‘The Internationale’ was sung together with a Welsh hymn. Even after death, he remains one of Wales’s greatest and most influential historians.