A shocking bill proposed by a right wing M.P that would see increased charging is listed to be debated in Parliament. MP Christopher Chope wants to increase charges throughout the NHS and will use the debate in the House of Commons to persuade his fellow Conservatives to include it in their next manifesto. Currently NHS charges are restricted to only a few areas such as dentistry, eye tests and prescribed medicines. Chope's bill would open the floodgates to charging for a host of other services which would include GP appointments and some hospital procedures.It has no chance of being passed without Government support but could be debated in the main chamber if there is time in an attempt to spark a national debate on the issue. The National Health Service (Co-funding and CoPayment Bill) https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/nationalhealthservicecofundingandcopayment.html would make provision for co-funding and for the extension of co-payment for NHS services in England. Meanwhile hospitals are increasingly understaffed and ill-resourced and unable to respond to the urgent need of patients - even those of emergency patients. It is not the fault of the staff , it is the fault of the Tories, who have driven the N.H.S to breaking point. Waiting times are up, and it is getting increasingly difficult to see your G.P when you want, combined with ambulance services being put under enormous pressure. The N.H.S is in crisis because it is continually being undermined by this government through covert privatisation that carries on the wreckage and destruction that Margaret Thatcher started. The N.H.S is on a cliff edge because of underfunding which threatens to push it over, with continuing attempts to make the N.H.S unworkable by making impossible demands on the system and its staff. So we have to continue to fight to save it from the grips of the privateers, because we owe it our lives. We can not afford to sit back while it is being chipped further away and falling increasingly into the hands of those who seek to make profit out of our healthcare. The Torys keep pledging that the N.H.S is safe in its hands but at least we can now see this for the lie that is. Don't say you were not warned. Contact your MP here https://www.writetothem.com/
Cheers Bertolt Brecht, ( the late brilliant German poet and playwright) as long as we excuse ourselves from politics, our countries will continue to be run by rogues. Those in power will continue to fill their pockets at the detriment of the people. If good people continue to avoid politics, the bad will continue to leave their mark, any chance of a better world is lost. The world does not need political illiterates it needs you to make a difference. Is it not our collective responsibility to stay engaged with matters arising. Have not we as human beings, evolved to the extent that we cannot fail to notice certain things are undesirable and need to be opposed. This does not mean that we have to follow systems of political authority, we can remain outside and question the status quo, with a careful and deliberate observation of events. The way to change society is not to be folded into systems of control, but to counterbalance and neutralize , we can do this by the way we live our lives. There's nothing apathetic about that. Because of toxic conditions, people are finally waking up, refusing to be political illiterates any more, refusing formative culture and its attendant cultural apparatus that create a form of manufactured consent. Political illiteracy kills the imagination, our questioning spirit, the need to question and revolt, our informed judgement and critical capability. This simply allows those in power to remain unaccountable, enabling them to continue to cause damage to our society. Meanwhile the British public has allowed right-wing press barons like Rupert Murdoch to frame the political debate to such an extent that the actual meanings of basic political words and phrases have become lost, basic political words and phrases like ' socialist' and left wing' have been divorced from their actual meanings. This also allows the Tories to carry on regardless, creating so much damage to our society, releasing their brand of conscious cruelty, currently stripping our assets, privatising our NHS piece by piece, and with their policy of universal credit simply designed to blame the poor for their own poverty. This what they do as they give tax cuts to their friends the rich, this is their morality, a form of sickness, which allows people because of political illiteracy to accept their lot , and lose sense that they are being exploited and robbed blind on a daily basis. We cannot afford to close our eyes and drift to sleep, we have to learn to fight, continue to shout out, engage ourselves beyond apathy and indifference, for a brighter future, in which justice and equity belong to everyone, for the many not the few.
Today marks the birth of radical Chartist Henry Vincent .Vincent, was the eldest son of Thomas Vincent , a
goldsmith, who was born on 10th May 1813 at 145 High
Holborn, London. When the family business failed in 1821, the Vincents
moved to Hull. Henry received little schooling, though he was an avid
reader. In 1828, he was apprenticed to a printer. During this
apprenticeship, his early interest in radical politics, taking note of the agitation and revolution taking place in France, and influenced by the work of Thomas Paine, which would lead him into activism with his election as vice-president of a local Paineite
discussion group and as a member of the Hull Political Union. Upon the
completion of his apprenticeship in 1833, Vincent’s uncle helped him
obtain a position at Spottiswoode’s, the king’s printers, in London.
In
1836, Vincent became involved with a dispute at Spottiswoode’s and left
the firm with about sixty other employees. About this time his mother
inherited an independent income, which freed Vincent of family
responsibilities (his father had died in 1829, leaving a widow and six
children). Vincent started getting more heavily involved in radical circles and in
1836 joined the London Working Men’s Association.
He became a very
successful lecturer and travelled extensively promoting the People’s
Charter.The Charter demanded the reform of parliament, At this time very few people were qualified to vote, around one in twenty of the population of England and Wales, voting was done in public and votes were often bought, Chartists demanded votes for all men over the age of 21 ( some wanted votes for women, but it was felt that this would make the movement a laughing stock) and annual elections to ensure that MP's were instantly answerable to their constituents. They also wanted the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies redrawn so that each seat would have an equal population. To allow anyone, whatever their background to become an MP, they demanded the end of the law which said that an MP has a large amount of land and MP's were to be paid. Secret voting was asked for to ensure that people could bot be victimised for their favoured candidate, and to prevent votes being bought.
In
December 1838, Vincent contributed to the Chartist cause through
the founding of a weekly newspaper, The Western Vindicator based in Bath.'Chartism was the result of increasing class consciousness in the working class, as this extract from a leaflet issued by the South Wales Chartists in 1839 shows: 'The wealth producer is made the slave to the possessors of wealth that he has laboured to create; power is transferred from labour to capital and the producer sinks into a mere instrument to be used as needed, and thrown aside as soon as a more efficient one is presented.'
Chartism is often dismissed as only being about reform of the polling system, but it was much, much more. Workers thought that when the Charter was law their lives would be transformed for the better. They believed that 'children would no longer labour... men and women would only work for six hours a day... the distinctions between rich and poor would be swept away.' After the government turned down the mass petition for the Charter, leaders like John Frost and Henry Vincent called for 'physical force' to obtain the Charter, amounting to political revolution. Parliament’s refusal to listen to their concerns led to increased working class anger. erupting and South Wales would become the storm centre of this discontent.
Vincent was sent to Wales by the London Chartists as a ‘paid missionary’, to
spread support for the People’s Charter and during the spring of 1839
he addressed mass meetings across Monmouthshire. His
lecturing and writing activities were brought to an abrupt halt though after his arrest in May, 1839.The
warrant from the Newport magistrates charged him with having
participated in ‘a riotous assemblage’ held in that town on 19th April
1839. He was taken to Bow Street, charged, and committed to Monmouth
gaol to stand trial at the ensuing assizes. So great was the rage felt outside the court that the mayor was obliged to read the Riot Act. His trial took place on 2nd August 1839 before Sir Edward Hall Alderson,
baron of the exchequer. Sergeant Thomas Noon Talfourd conducted the case
for the crown, and John Arthur Roebuck that for the defence. Roebuck
showed clearly from the admissions of the chief witnesses for the
prosecution that Vincent had told the people to disperse quietly and to
keep the peace. The full text of what Vincent wrote, and his own account of what he said that day in Newport, can be found in an article from the Western Vindicator now published on the vision of Britain website.
Vincent, neverthless was found guilty and sentenced to
twelve months’ imprisonment. He applied for the use of books
and writing materials but was refused all but religious books. On
9th August 1839, Lord Brougham brought Vincent’s case to the attention
of the House of Lords. Vincent,though only found guilty of a misdemeanour on
one count only, was treated as a felon. The intense feeling in South Wales at the time about
Vincent’s treatment in prison would help glavanise the Chartist cause which would result in the rising that would follow in Newport..
On the morning of 4th November 1839, large
crowds, estimated variously at from eight thousand to twenty thousand,
marched towards Newport,intending to rescue Vincent from prison and seize the town. They believed that his release would signal a large-scale insurrection throughout the country. However they came into collision with the
military and when John Frost and the marchers arrived in Newport they
discovered that the authorities had made more arrests and were holding
several Chartists in the Westgate Hotel. The Chartists marched to the
hotel and began chanting "surrender our prisoners". Twenty-eight
soldiers had been placed inside the Westgate Hotel and when the order
was given they began firing into the crowd, ending in a bloodbath with 30 dead.
Afterwards approximately 200 Chartists were arrested for their involvement in the
march. The three principal leaders, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and
William Jones, were found guilty of high treason and sentenced to be
hung, drawn and quartered. Although their sentences were later reduced
to transportation for life following a national outcry, they were the
last people to be sentenced to this punishment in England and Wales. Courageous men who were all prepared to fight for the cause of Chartism and the that of of the working class.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/remembering-chartist-leaders-found.html In March 1840, Vincent was tried a second time at
Monmouth for ‘having conspired together with John Frost to subvert the
constituted authorities, and alter by force the constitution of the
country’. A second count charged the men with having uttered seditious
language. Again Sergeant Talfourd conducted the prosecution. Vincent
having been dissatisfied with Roebuck’s conduct of the defence at his
first trial, now decided to defend himself. He did so with such skill
and persuasion that the Monmouthshire jury, while finding both prisoners
guilty, recommended clemency for him. He was sentenced to twelve
months’ imprisonment. Talfourd was so impressed by Vincent’s defence
that he indicated his regrets at having undertaken the case for the
prosecution and became involved in the efforts to obtain better
conditions for Vincent.
After his release Vincent married Lucy Chappell,
daughter of John Cleave, at the register office, St Luke’s, Chelsea, on
27th February 1841. They settled in Bath, where Vincent resumed
lecturing and publishing The Vindicator until it ceased publication in 1842, and continued to spread the Chartist cause throughout the country, while joining the National Charter Association..In
July 1841, he stood as a radical candidate for Banbury in the first of
what was to be a long list of unsuccessful attempts to gain a
parliamentary seat.
His ideas became more moderate, concentrating ore on moral reform than of class conflict, though his ultimate political aim of universal suffrage did not waver, He joined groups linked with the Temperance movement and teetotal political societies, which condemned the social evils of drink. Because of his now more moderate approach , previous close allies of his in the Chartist movement disagreed with him over his watering down of the physical force message of Chartism and the distraction of the Temperance message. In 1842, Vincent helped set yp the Complete Suffrage Union that had similar aims to the Chartist movement and though still a member of the National Charter Association, he was no longer the envied spirited orator of old, and some of his old friendships and bonds were now broken, some Chartists, broke ranks with him, because they did not support his allegiance tothe Complete Suffrage union, some heckled him and branded him a traitor.
Despite these setbacks Vincent continued to hold and develop his progressive views and was invited to speak on long tours of America in 1866, 1867 and again in 1875 and 1876.His wider travels would stimulate his interests in world politics and working conditions.He became stoutly anti-war, seeing war as a means of domestic oppression orchestrated by oppressive governments.In 1848, he lectured for the Peace Society Anti-slavery too became his focus at this stage and he lectured on a number of social and historical questions. In these later years he also spoke out in favour of
popular education, free trade, and religious tolerance. Vincent’s own religious sympathies were
with the Society of Friends, though he was never formally received into
membership. In addition to his public lectures, Vincent frequently
conducted services on Sundays in free church chapels as a lay preacher.
Vincent died on 29 December 1878 and is buried at Abney Park Cemetary in Stoke Newington..
By 1918, most of the Chartist demands had been met, and women over the age of 30 were also entitled to vote. Ten years later all women over the age of 21 could vote.But the Chartists had wanted all their demands at once, this after all is what had made them Chartists in the first place, and the important demand for annual elections still has not been gained. Only a reduction in the term of parliament from seven years to five was passed.But Chartists and men like Henry Vincent helped spread socialism and the events in Newport are now rightly celebrated each year as a symbolic step towards winning some democratic rights, leaving us with a tremendous legacy that serves to inspire and educate all those who wish to change the world.
When there’s someone, one someone, who makes your days brighter,
makes your joys greater, makes your heart lighter…Someone, one someone,
you want to share with, do everything with, go everywhere. Someone, one
someone you want to live for…You have something called love.”
- Kahlil Gibran
Today would have been my beloved's birthday, she would have turned 58years young, nevertheless her spirit and magic I still feel on every
sunrise, in the early morn, after the moon has set , arriving every
dawn, neither west, east, south or north, her petals following no
borders,her footsteps still following rhythmic beats of the world,
dancing freely, I still see her holding out her hands, in these days of
confusion her words still clear, I tell myself she is free, where skies
gleam and trees sway ,a drifting peaceful beauty.I offer to sweet Jane
this poem.
Accordian Player
With delicacy her hands played
tunes of light and magic,
gently squeezed through her fingers
made dreary days get filled with light,
deeply concentrating,she would release a smile
intricate notes casting joy, melodious accord,
bouncing bellows, jigs and reels
bringing the lungs of her instrument to life,
weaving music, stitched in time
dissipating sadness, releasing endearment,
my mind's eye will always honour
a once familiar sound and sight so loved,
I carry her memory deep in heart
Rays of warmth will never depart,
I miss her greatly but am out of tears
this vision soars now forever over summer skies.
Under the glowing sun
my garden is quilted
by memories of angels
who drifted far away,
but underneath a painted sky
bluebells dance,and earth vibrates
releasing her shouldering power
growing stronger as afternoon passes
shaking the waking steam of thought
chaos bubbles into order.
Embracing the magic of summer
arms outstretched, inner peace is released,
in reflective moments of tranquility
surrender to natures beauty,
enchantment bringing happiness
I light a jazz cigarette, feel at ease,
in calmness, forget the worries of the world
in this peaceful space, nourishment sipped.
"Die Religion ist das Opium des Vokes" "Dir Religion ist das Opium des Vokes" "Dir Religion ist das Opiun des Volkes"
Happy birthday Karl Marx, shame about the millions, who died in your name, however lets allow some of your thoughts, to grow, beyond sectarianism, you who believed that religion was the opium of the people, meaning that it was imposed upon the ordinary person in order to control him. Who personally believed in no such thing as God or Gods. Born into a middle class jewish family came to believe that religion was basically used to suppress people, with a complete negation of reasoning. Who wanted a society based on reality, on truths, a society where the individual took responsibility and did not leave everything to a belief system or a supreme being. Personally speaking, it feels like in a lot of cases religion can make you a puppet, I believe in science, but sometimes when feeling irrational the supernatural, I do though carry a political faith. And a drug that can keep people happy in the short term, has the potential of appeal, any numbness of pleasure in this world, that gives immediate pleasure, that is a quick fix, a short cut to immediate pleasure, can it all be roundly condemned? Consequences can be quick, but in the long term consciences can deaden. Some say the internet and facefuck does this every day. Hey ho. One day soon we might have a chance to overthrow the capitalist system too, before it's to late. Power to the people, create your own illusion. Do it yourself.
The following is an extract from Karl Marx's introduction to the critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, first published in 1844.
" For Germany, the criticism of religion has been completed, and the critisism of religion is the prequisite of all critisism.
The profane existence of error is compromised as soon as its heavenly oratio pro aris et focis (" speech for the altars and hearths," i.e, for God and country) has been refuted. Man, who has found only the reflection of hiimself in the fantastic reality of heaven, where he sought a superman, will no longer feel disposed to find the mere appearance of himself, the non-man, where he seeks and must seek his true reality.
The foundation of irreligious criticism is : Man makes religion , religion dos not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man - state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because thet are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their conditions is to call on them to give up a conditon that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.
Criticism has plucjed the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillisions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.
It is therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth has vanished, to establish the truth of this world. It is the immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of history, to unmask self-estrangement in its unholy forms once the holy form of human self-estrangement has been unmasked. Thus the critisism of Heaven tirns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics."
They teach us to be subservient and respectful
To obey their rules, which they change whenever they choose,
Treat us with hatred and derision, humiliation and disrespect
Destroying communities, continuing to insult and neglect.
They teach us about pain and desperation,
Tell us everything's alright when it isn't,
Turning a blind eye for their own means
That we've been conditioned not to notice.
They teach us, about broken promises, desolation
Ghost like towns, where hope and love has gone,
Levels of greed everywhere, forces of negation
As we stumble and fall, all they offer is rejection.
They teach us, about abandonment and disillusion
Hatred and division seeping daily through our lives,
Barbarism and racism swallowing up hearts and mind
Time to depart this darkness, these tides that bind.
They teach us, how to question, rippling waves bursting through
With different rays of possibility,for the many not the few,
Springing back with resilience,bringing a splash of hope
In our country sinking in the mire, with faith we can delope.
The above image of the hoisting of the Red Flag over the Reichstag 2 May 1945, has come to represent the total victory of Soviet Russia however the red flag was actually first raised on the Reichstag on April 30 as the Red Army and the Nazis were still fighting for control of the building . Erected in 1894, the Reichstag's architecture was magnificent for it's time. The building contributed much to German history and was considered by the Red Army the symbol of their enemy, and the heart of Nazi Germany
On May 2, two days after Hitler had killed himself and the same day that General Helmuth Weidling, the last remaining commander of the Nazi forces defending the German capital, ordered ' the immediate cessation of resistance, and thus surrendering the city to the Red Army, Yevgeny Khalder a 28 year old -photojournalist and Red Army naval officer (1917 -1997) was ready to record the symbolic image of Germany's capitulation after days of intnense fighting.
The above photograph was actually staged for propaganda purposes, but nonetheless became an iconic symbol of the Soviet Union's triumphant victory over Nazi Germany.Next to Joe Rosenthal's photo of raising the flag on Iwo Jima, Khaldei's photo, is perhaps the most famous of Worf War 11, But unlike Rosenthal's his was both staged and doctored. Noting the publicity the Iwo Jima photos had recieved , Soviet officials, ordered Khaldei to fly from Moscow to Berlin in order to take a similar photo that would symbolise the Soviet victory over Germany. Khaldei carried with him a large flag, sewn from three tablecloths for this very purpose, by his uncle. When Khaldei arrived in Berlin he had considered a number of settings for the photo, including the Brabdenburg Gate and Temelhof Airport but he decided on the Reichstag, even though Soviet soldiers had already succeeded in raising a flag over the building. He met a young comrade in the burnt out parlament building and persuaded him to pose on the roof with the flag, Two other Red Army soldiers joined them to recreate the scene above..
Before the photo's first publication in Ogoniok, a Russian magazine, Khaldei realised that one of the three Soviet soldiers on the roof was wearing two watches, one on each wrist, a clear sign of looting which did not fit into the heroic image of the Red army. He scratched the second watch from the negative. Dark billowing clouds of smoke were added also to a later version of the photograph for more dramatic effect.
Another picture of the same scene
German magazine Der Spiegel wrote, "Khaldei saw himself as a propagandist for a just cause, the war against Hitler and the German invaders of his homeland," When asked about the manipulation, Khaldei responded, " It is a good photograph and historically significant. Next question please."
In the years before his death in October 1997, he liked to say: "I forgive the Germans, but I cannot forget."His father and three of his four sisters were murdered by the Germans. As a war photographer from Red Square to the Bhudapst Ghetto, to Yalta and the Nuremberg trials Khaldei chronicled many of the world's most important events with an artist's eye and a journalist's timing. However after the war Khaldei became the victim of anti-Semitism in Stalin's totalitarian dictatorship and struggled to remain employed., but somehow he continued to photograph, now working as a freelance photographer for Soviet newspapers and focused on capturing the scenes of everyday life, In 1959, he got a job again at the newspaper Pravda where he worked until he was forced to retire in 1970. His wartime photographs were later collected in a 93 page book ( Ot Murmanska do Berlina / From Murmansk to Berlin) published in 1984.
Happy May Day/ Beltane. As humanity continues to move in a very funny direction, here is a message of hope and positivity, a retelling of the traditional folk tale Tam Lyn, by the poet Benjamin Zephaniah who cleverly rewrote the tale for a project called the Imagined Village, with a superb backing of electro-reggae from Transglobal Underground, plus a a haunting accompanying
melody from Eliza Carthy. All in all,a pretty good way to start the
month. Solidarity and love.
Tam Lyn (retold)
Don't be scared
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
This was when the workers they
Celebrate fertility
It was the first of May
She stepped into the club
Lookin' for the holy herb
And a magical dub
A virgin full of rhythm
Her passion shining bright
Her future in her hand
And she was holding it tight
So she found that holy herb
It was sweet Carribean
She burned that holy herb
In an organic chillum
And she moves to the bass
She retold to creation
They was time and space
For this heavenly maiden
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
It was when the workers day
Celebrate fertility
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
It was when the workers day
Celebrate fertility
He was a mover and a shaker
Who was prone to temptation
He stepped up in the angel
And made his objection
Saying "Woman was not made
to partake this herb"
He cursed and she was humble
And she called him absurd
Then she took him to a place
That was not very far
They connected at the waist
In the back of her car
Her innocence was gone
In just under an hour
He was forced to hang on
While she flashed her girl power
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
It was when the workers day
Celebrate fertility
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
It was when the workers day
Celebrate fertility
Love is impatient
It ignores tradition and convention
It is not bound by human constructs
Jurisprudence and the laws of men
Love reaches out and holds open-hearted
It demands attention
It is in a world of its own
Yet it connects worlds that will forever
Be set apart
Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Oh I know I have and I feel I have
A sweet hope of glory in my soul
Make love not war
This is how we do it
Make love not war
This is how we go
Make love not war
This is how we do it
Make love not war
This is how we flow
Make love not war
Our man had moved on
Said he was wild
Then our lady found
She was heavy with child
When she told her father
He said go seek him out
She found him six months later
Down town hangin' about
He said who's the daddy
She said you are the one
He said I am an alien
And quite soon I'll be gone
'Cos the land immigration
Want to get rid of me
There's no peace in my nation
I'm a war refugee
There's no peace in my nation
I'm a war refugee
There are people in uniform
Out to get me
There's no peace in my nation
There's nowhere I can hide
If you really do love me
Will you stay by my side?
I can groove on the dance floor
But my baby's quite clear
I don't know all the answers
But I'm trying to relate
Since I've been in exiled
I just don't know my fate
And a best-selling tabloid
Always reeling with hate
There's no peace in my nation
I'm a war refugee
I'm surrounded by war
But there's war inside me
"There's no peace in my nation
and I'm feeling downhearted
When the Beastie Boys get me
I'm told I'll be deported
S"So I need you to hold me tight
For tomorrow in court
And I need you fill yourself
with positive forces
'Cos I wanna be wich' yu
And I wanna live
So I need you to give me
All the love you can give"
So the next day in court
She held him really tightly
Just fifteen minutes before
He went in the dock
So the next day in court
She held him really tightly
Just fifteen minutes before
He went in the dock
And her positive thoughts
Made her touch the almighty
And our brother shivered
From his toes to his locks
He turned into a victim
He turned into a loser
He turned into a pimp
And a real mister mean
But she kept holding on
And when those demon were gone
He turned into himself
Just a cool human being.
And the judge said you can go now
The judge set our man free
He was free to be
Indefinitely
And the judge said you can go now
And our joyous refugee
Just said "Thank you, judge,
and now I plan to raise a family"
So he became a citizen
Our angel became a wife
And they had what modern folks would call
A pretty happy life
They met on the dance floor
On the first of May
And the baby that they had
Grew up to be a club DJ
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
(Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul)
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
This was when the workers they
Celebrate fertility
(Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul)
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
This was when the workers they
Celebrate fertility
(For I know I have and I feel I have
a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
For I know I have and I feel I have
a sweet hope of glory in my soul)
(Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul)
Make love not war
This is how we do it
(Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul)
Make love not war
this is how we go
(Well I know I have and I feel I have
A sweet hope of glory in my soul)
Make love not war
This is how we do it
Make love, not war,
This is how we go
Make love, not war
This is how we do it
Make love not war,
this is how we flow.
Amber Rudd has finally bowed down to the inevitable and was forced to resign yesterday after 200 MP's signed letter accusing her of making up immigration policy on the hoof. About time too.She was responsible for misleading the government over targets for the deportation of illegal immigrants. Rudd had claimed to a parliamentary committee that her department did not impose targets, but the Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday, that in a private letter to Theresa May in 2017, she had informed the Prime Minister that she intended to boost deportations by 10%.
Rudd's departure deals a further blow to the embattled Prime Minister's leadership, after a misjudged election last year aimed at "strengthening her hand" in Brexit negotiations backfired spectacularly when her Conservative party lost its parliamentary majority.
Theresa May may run but she can't hide. Rudd has shielded her from the Windrush scandal for too long. It's time now for the Prime Minister to take responsibility and consider stepping aside too,let's not forget that it is she that has been the leader that's presided over legislation that's discriminated against a whole group of people who came from the Commonwealth, who suffered racism when they first came over, and then had to relive the trauma all over again because of Theresa May.
Her apologies and excuses are hollow and shallow, and have come too late from the author of cruel and vindictive policy.During the past six years she has been responsible for the deportation of thousands of people. It was she who created draconian immigration rules. In 2013, May oversaw the whipping up of a climate of increasing state and media racism, typified by government sponsored vans featuring anti immigrant 'Go home'! adverts. Introducing the Immigration Act 2014, she boasted of how living in Britain would now' become tougher for illegal immigrants.' Most of the Act had nothing to do will illegal immigration but this did not prevent her using the word 'illegal' every time she said 'immigrant' and 'hardworking' every time she said 'taxpayer''
She was responsible for whipping up a climate of fear, the 2014 act that was draconian enough was swiftly followed by the 2016 Act, which was more of the same, but even harsher. Her apologies for the treatment of Windrush citizens and her assurances no one would be deported would have carried more weight if she had ackowledged her role in the shameful episode and past measures, that have caused so much damage. that she has not shown remorse for, or any regret. It was May who was determined to create what she termed a " hostile environment" for illegal immigrants which had such miserable consequences for the Windrush generation which has since mortified the country.
From the suffering caused by Home Office policies , under Rudd, and Theresa May that has caused such tragedy. From the Windrush generation to the women who've been on hunger strike in Yarl's Wood detention centre, and to anyone threatened by the racist 'go home' vans, these policies have spread misery across the country.What is clear and certain that the government under May will continue to wreck the lives of refugees, asylum seekers, low- paid workers and their families.
Rudd may have gone, but the real architect of these hostile policies remains in Downing Street and the blame for recent scandal remains firmly under her feet, which does not make her own position tenable. From bad to rotten now we have Sajid Javid a hard nosed Tory banker who bought into the Thatcherite philosophy that poor people deserve what they get - nothing, ,whose responses to the Grenfell Tower tragedy were simply appalling, who only a few weeks ago called a democratic grassroots movement " neo fascist" now traking over a Home Office which has inflicted inhumane treatment on British citizens, denied them medical treatment, imprisoned and deported them, who so far has done nothing to suggest that he plans to change immigration policy in any substantial from what happened under his predecessor.
And with Parliament set to debate a petition this week on the amnesty for " anyone who was a minor that arrived in Britain between 1948 to 1971." which would include the Windrush generation, May looks sure to face more difficult questions over her government's handling of the scandal. https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/petitions-committee/news-parliament-2017/windrush-amnesty-debate-17-19/
Many are now calling for Theresa May to quit too,shadow minister Dawn Butler said "Our Prime Minister Theresa May now has no human shield, it is time for her to follow suit and step down. Labour MP Rosena Allin- Khan added "Rudderless and without direction. Theresa May needs to do the right thing and step down!" .The clock is currently ticking for her , it's time for her to go, at the heart of this Tory Government is its incompetence, vindictiveness and intolerance, and callousness which has damaged the UK's standing and reputation across the world.
The Syrian war, as we all know too well, has been one of the bloodiest of the 21st century. It has bred the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, and the ever climbing death toll, sees no signs of abating. Despite this Syrian artists have managed to render their pain, and create art and to bear witness with artistic memory to this nation torn apart, conveying their hope and despair for the world to see.
The above picture depicting a Statue of Liberty-like structure,rising from the ruins of Syria has recently been doing the rounds of the internet. The image in question is from a work by Syrian Artist, Tammam Azzam, and is actually a digital composition in
which different parts of bombed out buildings are assembled together to
resemble French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s statue.The artist has been in the spotlight previously for addressing the Syrian tragedy through his work ( when he photoshoped in 2013 Klimt’s
“The Kiss” atop a war-ravaged building from Syria). It is one of many pieces created by the artist over the course of this long running conflict.
Another haunting picture of his shows a Syrian building floating on balloons out of the smoking hole in the side of the Twin Towers on 9/11.
One other shows a hand grenade made of brightly coloured flowers which Azzam captioned "Syrian Spring "
Tammam Azzam
Born in Damascus, Syria in 1980, Tammam Azzam received his artistic
training from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Damascus with a
concentration in oil painting. Alongside a successful career as a
painter in Syria, Azzam was a prolific graphic designer. Forced to flee from his home and studio in Damascus at the start of the
Syrian civil war in 2011, Tammam Azzam left behind his painting
materials and reputation as one of Syria’s key artists. Restless in his
exile, Azzam could only watch the developments of the conflict stream
through his Twitter feed, increasing in number and devastation every
day. Anguished in his powerlessness, he could no longer withstand the
despair such destruction caused him. As a substitute for paintbrush and
canvas, Azzam adapted to a new medium: digital art in which to express himself and his sadness with the events that were unfolding in his homeland of Syria.
Henri Matisse, The Dance (1910)
The artist who is
not affiliated with or embedded in any opposition group, moved to Dubai where he spent the next four years. Here in a solo
exhibition held in November 2012 in Ayyam Gallery Dubai (Al Quoz),
digital artworks representing a location the Syrian Uprising has
affected were overlaid with the text, ‘In the revolution’, followed by
the name of the area that witnessed the revolution. Other examples took
the form of fractured and wounded maps of my country, stop signs covered
with bullet holes, bleeding apples, fallen chess pawns and puzzle
pieces, and symbols of peace reconfigured into targets, all symbolizing
the violence and suffering the Syrians are facing.
Azzam who is still an active Twitter user, takes advantage of his
international fame to share updates of the conflict, but he mainly
spreads messages of peace. The artist tweeted an article about the statue of Liberty image to clarify his position and the misleading associations that have been attached to it.
He said pro-Assad and regime loyalists were
sharing the picture and lying about its origins saying: “From a Syrian
artist to America, using his own destroyed home in Aleppo.”
He
said the work was done by a photomontage on the computer and not a real
statue. The Syrian artist explained: “The Statue of Liberty in New
York does not represent US politics and I used it only as the symbol of
freedom.” “The piece at the time was
carrying a message of optimism despite all of the destruction in Syria,”
he added “but that was a long time ago.”
Azzam said he doesn’t respond to people who were using his picture in a context that he had not intended. “I’m
an artist, and I’m busy with all my art work, and have no time to
respond to anyone, I draw people and their worries, and not about
politics,” he said.
Recently, he has returned to painting with Storeys, a series of monumental works on canvas, that show the magnitude of the devastation in Syria. The artist studied photographs from several Syrian cities, including Douma and Aleppo, on which to base the paintings, excavating the horrors of war and the ongoing humanitarian crisis, depicting scenes of massive neighbourhood devastation in which whole buildings are bombed or leveled..
Azzam is realistic about the impact of his artwork in the conflict. In
an interview he once said “I believe that art can’t save the country.
Bullets are more powerful than art, now. But I believe at the same time
that all kinds of culture, art or writing, cinema or photographs, can
rebuild something in the future.” Again through Twitter, he often
considers the power of political and protest art in a world where anyone
who has access to the internet is equal in their freedom to express
their discontent. This form of art will continue to define the conflict
in Syria and elsewhere in the world, as for the first time in history,
any protestor has the voice to address the global audience. Despite the
undeniable problems associated with aestheticizing protest by presenting
it as art, nothing can prevent the rise of artists like Tammam Azzam
and the place they are claiming for themselves in the violent and
complex dimension of conflict.
Whether made digitally or photoshopped his work remain powerful pieces of art, and through his eyes,as he sees it expresses a need for unity and the fact that human suffering is the same whatever part of this planet we are on. He remains an arresting visual chronicler of what remains when an entire people’s way of life is upended, possibly for generations to come, using the means available to him, to show the world what is going on in his country and reinforce that “empathy should not be limited to the first world”.My heart personally goes out to all those currently suffering the devastating impact of war.
Azzam currently lives and works in Deimenhorst, Germany and has contributed to large scale international exhibitions across the world.
The Easter Rising was launched in Dublin on Easter Monday April 24,war of independence, the civil war and ultimately the freedom of the Irish republic ( though minus the six counties.) 1916 when revolutionary socialists and nationalists attempted to to spark a general uprising across Ireland against British imperialism , beginning a process that would eventually lead to the Proclamation on behalf of the Provisional Government, proclaiming the whole of Ireland as a Sovereign Independent Republic. The background to the rebellion was the centuries of national oppression suffered and felt by Irish people by under British.domination and rule, and the intensification of the national question around the issue of home rule ( limited self-governmet for Ireland within the United Kingdom )
Three groups were behind the rising, but the most important was the
Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) which was formed in the mid-19th
century.Thomas Clarke and Seán Mac Dermot were the key figures in the IRB, which had been recruiting among Irish nationalists in Dublin ., many of whom were disillusioned to the extent of Ireland's support for Britain in the First World War.
The
Irish Volunteers were a military group formed in 1913 and its members
accounted for the largest number of men who were called out on Easter
Monday.
The Irish Citizen Army, a socialist militia, led by James Connolly https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/james-connolly-working-class-hero.html formed to protect striking miners in 1913 also played an important role.
The
key group was a seven-man IRB military council, drawn from those three
organisations, which planned the Easter Rising with complete secrecy.They were Tom Clarke, Sean McDermot, Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, James Connolly and Eamon Ceannt.
By 1914, the division over Home Rule had taken Ireland to the brink of civil war. Unionists had founded a 100,000 strong militia, the Ulster Volunteer Force, to resist its implementation, while moderate nationalists set up the Irish Volunteer Force in response.
But the outbreak of the First World War would see the two sides rally to the war effort,, which saw the majority of both militia enlisting in the British Army, making up a large compound of the 210,00 Irishmen who served. However a huge amount of around 13,000 dissident Irish volunteers remained in Ireland, rejecting the war.
The decision to rise was based on the traditional dictum that England's difficulty was Ireland's opportunity. But
it also reflected the military council's fear that Irish nationalism
was in decline, a concern reinforced by popular Irish nationalist
support for the aims of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the British
war effort.
On 23 April, the council agreed to proceed with the rising the next day, Easter Monday.
The drafting of a proclamation declaring a republic was one of the final steps taken by those who planned the rising. It
decided that the proclamation should be read to the public outside
Dublin's General Post Office (GPO) by the president of the Provisional
Government of the Irish Republic. It was agreed that Pádraig Pearse a poet and educator should act as president, and
Connolly as commander in chied, who in the run up to and during the rising itself, made political
concessions to the forces of nationalism he was fighting alongside,
setting aside some of the ideas and methods he had so carefully
developed during decades of revolutionary activity. This is best
reflected in the Proclamation he put his name to, which is,
notwithstanding the positives sentiments it contains, is a nationalist
document.
Shortly
after noon on Easter Monday, Pearse accompanied by an armed guard,
stood on the steps of the GPO and read the proclamation, signalling the
beginning of the Easter Rising.
Ireland's 'national right to freedom and sovereignty' was asserted, which was partly based on Robert Emmet’s proclamation
of Irish independence of 1803, enshrined equal suffrage and equal
rights. It spoke of “religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal
opportunities to all its citizens” and “cherishing all children of the
nation equally”.
The conflict that followed was largely confined to Dublin. The rising itself seemed doomed from the beginning. With only a small
number of fighters the rebels were militarily significantly outnumbered
and outgunned. The rebellion was largely confined to the fighting in the
four courts and General Post Office in Dublin although there was also
support from rebel forces in Galway and Wexford. As the week progressed, the fighting in some areas became more intense,
leading to several prolonged, fiercely contested street battles.
Military casualties were highest at Mount Street Bridge and fierce fighting also took place at South Dublin Union and North King Street. The suppression of the rising was immediate with martial law being declared on April 25 1916.
Under supreme Commander in Dublin Major General John Maxwell , the British forces had authority to punish the risings participants. They were determined to suppress and crush the new wave of Irish militant nationalism, arresting and rounding up many in the aftermath, along with leaders as well as suspected supporters in a nationwide sweep, aided by police. Over the following week, the British deployed over 16,000 troops, artillery and even a naval gunboat into the city at Liffey to suppress the rising.After five days of fierce fighting and the rebel headquarters at the GPO being heavily bombarded, the six-day-long Easter Rising, in which over 2000 Irish Republican Volunteers seized the General Post Office and other key points in Dublin, effectively ended with the surrender of the Irish Republican headquarters to British forces on April 29, 1916. Pearse surrendered unconditionally to prevent the further slaughter of unarmed people of Dublin , realising that his own forces were surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered.
A total of 450 people were killed during the rebellion, 2,614 were injured, More than 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested, over twice the number of people that had actually taken part in the actual rising.As far as Mawell was concerned the ringleaders of the rebellion and their supporters were guilty of treason in a time of war. It should be noted that the First World War, was taking place at the same time, and they should recieve the ultimate penalty - death. But the tremendous courage and self-sacrifice displayed by the likes of James Connolly and indeed the others who fought in the rising cannot be disputed. Let us remember. People gave their lives so that the religious and civil liberty, equal rights and opportunities of all its citizens would be protected.
Connolly was imprisoned, and despite his severe wounds, was tied to a chair and
executed by the British military on May 12th 1916 by firing squad to the
outrage of many people in Ireland and across the world.
With the subsequent execution of 15 of the leaders it would sow a wave of resentment, prompted by the general feeling that unnecessary severity had been deployed ,proving a catalyst in changing public opinion into away from a desire for Home rule and a demand for a fully Independent Irish Republic.
Even though the rising was thwarted five days later and Irish independence would not happen until 1923, many believe that the actions that began that Easter Monday helped inspire similar
rebellions in more distant parts of the British Empire, and internment camps such as Frongoch in North Wales became known as the University of Revolution. which would see a total of at least 30 men held here going on to become MPs in the new Irish parliament in Dublin that would be formed.
By the summer of 1916 the rebel leaders were viewed as heroes, and by January 1919 when a more concerted war for Independence broke out the huge impact of the Easter Rising would be seen. Sadly the vision of these brave men and women who had risen, has not been fully realised with fostering divisions, Britain's continuing claim to sovereignty over six counties in the north east of Ireland, and the failure to actually achieve a united Irish republic, means that the dream is still not complete, a conundrum than many still find troubling to this day.
A woman named Kate Middleton gave birth to a baby boy this morning, her husband William was by her bedside. It's their third child. As the BBC continues its sycophantic fawning and it takes over the news agenda to divert attention from Windrush and Syria. Here's a really
positive way to respond to the Royal Baby news. Donate to the Child
Poverty Action Group. Here's a link :- http://www.cpag.org.uk Remember any other family living this kind of life at taxpayers
expenses would be hounded by the press as benefit scroungers. No
bunting for me, but congratulations to the parents, but as we continue to face misery under the reign of Theresa May I can't though find much reason to get over excited . It just serves to remind us all of
the appalling inequality that still exists in our country, which is at the core of existence of monarchy. Nothing quite symbolises stagnation, immovable social barriers quite like the royal family. Amid growing austerity, these occasions should remind us too, that
in 2018 modern Britain the aristocracy still own more than one third of
the country continue to hold onto disproportionate power. This baby
will have every need pandered too, servants to make sure it goes for
nothing, while others are born into poverty, whose mums cannot afford
food or heating. Behind all the spin and the fairytale nonsense, we should recognise the sad fact that the gloss of inherited privilege, still shines,
I look forward to the day when, we are all born equal. Should not
every new baby born, be headline news. The upcoming May 2018 wedding of Meghan and Harry should also be seen in this context Austerity Britain and universal credit verses a pageant of the rich with expenditure being no object. There's a petition at the moment too asking that the BBC is fair balanced and proportionate, and avoids wild speculation and inaccurate claims about the royals and public opinion You could sign it here :- https://www.republic.org.uk/petition/bbc-coverage
Privilege Verses Poverty So a child is born the silver spoons are near for him to be fed, with all the vestiges of power that he could ever possibly eat, while media overdrive in frenzy gather outside, a life of privilege awaits.
Meanwhile the poorest among us born in chains, our voices go unanswered and in refugee camps across the world children choked in shadows of rubble and dust, their future already denied they are seemingly invisible.
Innocent children killed by drones the press ignores their story and people consigned to poverty and misery by tory austerity and welfare reform are expected to fawn whilst queing at foodbanks running on empty.
Daily we are manipulated and the benefit claimants, disadvantaged, and the underpaid workers are told to go to hell, Royal sprog does not have to worry though in the 21st century it seems, we're still born unequal, will be looked after by nannies, sent to public school look forward to a lifetime of pampering and advantage, and his grannies had a bloody pay rise too.
We wait because we have no choice
all of us will not come back from the abyss,
death from warfare, death from addiction.
disease, austerity, melancholic affliction.
most will encounter death in the flesh
strings of infinity, stretched out, as we coalecse.
For years now, we have
exchanged propaganda presents,
here, there, everywhere, we wait for return
as dusk dances upon the sky with starlight,
we remind ourselves that everything that lives
will one day eventually cease to exist.
Time gets swept away, conjuring questions
which way now, but elsewhere,.
some choose revelation, some simply forget
others hum notes, that cannot be heard,
by anyone, save the listeners
above and beyond.
The sweetness of the world
its bitter pill often too hard to taste,
tears shed in ditches, to the point of no return
life balances on a thread, wears no uniform,
ready to bleed, ready to burn
a future under a cremated sun.
Life is a segway of delicate navigation
often the scales, tip one way or another,
lets us fall, stay or drift far away
following contracts of internal emotion,
good and evil, light and darkness
passion, apathy, peace, war, love and hate.
As days are dark, and night grows blacker
terrible flashbacks pass through mind,
with no end in sight, souls find no rest
remain powerless as life disparages,
tentative moments, in the pace of uncertainty
in moment's quiet,we can try, find harmony.
Survivors accept things as they are
take steps away from the edge,
abandon division, ideological tides
discover beauty among the ruins,
find some force, to ignite every breath
fight for life,so that they can win.
The Empire Windrush arriving in Britain from Jamaica, 21 June 1948
After Theresa May was forced to make a grovelling apology to Caribbean leaders for Windrush
scandal, after Caribbean migrants who arrived in Britain 50 years ago were
threatened with deportation, because some of them may be living here 'illegally', and when over-zealous enforcement means that long-term legal residents live in fear and face deportation from the only home they have ever known, something is very wrong. This follows the case of Jamaica-born Albert Thompson. Who was told to present a British passport or pay £54,000 for NHS cancer treatment., and arrives shockingly during the signifiant anniversary of Enoch Powell's infamous ' Rivers of Blood speech..
Green MP Caroline Lucas was right to say that the Tory government
“wants to create a hostile environment for migrants. This isn’t a design
flaw, it’s central to their programme.”
We should remember the infamous words uttered by Theresa May as home
secretary in 2012. “The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really
hostile environment for illegal immigrants.”
Under racist immigration polices introduced by Theresa May then and 2014, many of the children of the Windrush migrants are now finding themselves hounded by the government.Further changes to already racist immigration laws in 2012 and 2014
mean migrants can now be forced to prove they have the right to be here. Employers, landlords and public services such as the NHS can demand to see paperwork for healthcare provision.. other people facing deportation, others have been made homeless or
fired from their jobs. And some others have been forced to pay
thousands in legal fees in their battle to stay.
This "hostile" immigration policy devised by Theresa May during her
time as Home Secretary has been regarded as "almost like Nazi Germany" by
some ministers, the former head of the civil service has said.Lord Kerslake claims that concerns were voiced within government after the policy was announced in 2014.
He added that the strategy was a "very contested piece of legislation" that some ministers were "deeply unhappy" with. "Now, I can't say, and shouldn't say, as the former head of the civil
service, precisely who gave what advice to whom. But, what I can tell
you, it was highly contested and there were some who saw it, I shan't
name them, as almost reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the way it's
working," he said. Asked if he was referring to people in the civil service, Lord Kerslake said: "No, some in the ministers were deeply unhappy."
Speaking on BBC 2's Newsnight, Lord Kerslake criticised the way the
Windrush controversy was being handled, calling Amber Rudd's attempt to
blame the situation on the civil service "completely ridiculous".“You cannot create a climate and then not expect it to have consequences,” he said.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has refuted these comparisons.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "I have never heard anyone make that comparison before Lord Kerslake did. "It is not for me to criticise a distinguished former public servant like Lord Kerslake, but I respectfully disagree."
Mr Gove went on to praise Home Secretary Amber Rudd's response to the
Windrush scandal after many were wrongly threatened with deportation.
"I think the gracious way in which she apologised to those affected
was a model of how a politician should react to a situation like this,"
he said.
Tory local government minister Sajid Javid added that he was “deeply concerned” about the scandal.
Yet at the same time the Tories have no sympathy for the thousands of people held at Britain’s borders in Calais, nor is there scandal for people or outrage for people currently cruelly being detained in immigration removal centres like Yarl’s Wood, Is is not shameful that such centres exist at all?
The Home Office vile policy to create a 'hostile environment' for migrants in the UK has rightly come under fire with the Windrush Scandal.
We should now be calling on politicians, as well as journalists to sign up to
principles for ethical reporting on migration. To recognise that
migrants are #notillegalHUMAN. It is scandulous that any human being can be described as illegal.
Amber Rudd, the current Home Secretary has been using the language of
individuals to take away from the structural racism that is behind the
Home Office deportation system.
This needs to stop. All deportations are unjust.In order to make this happen we need politicians that can pledge to work towards these 10 principles for ethical reporting on migration, of which over 60 politicians and journalists have already signed up to. All deportations are unjust.
We should remind ourselves that a lot of the government's policies on immigration/ asylum/ right to stay isn't driven by actual concrete consequences. It's driven by
pandering to anti immigrant / racist views. Britain an only atone for damage caused by adopting policies exactly opposite to those currently in place, welcoming the migrants who come to our country with open arms and not treat them as second-class citizens.
And in solidarity,it's time for Theresa May and Amber Rudd to be deported from office.
The Chittagong Armory Raid, also known as the Chittaqong uprising was an attempt on 18 April 1930 to raid the armoury of police and auxillary forces from the Chittagong armoury in Bengal province of British India by armed revolutionaries for Indian independence from British colonial rule.
This elaborate plan was conceived by a softly spoken local teacher by the name of Surya Ben who was popularly known as Masterda..In. 1916 when he was a B.A student in Behrampore College he learned about the Indian freedom movement from one of his teachers. He was drawn to revolutionary ideals and joined a revolutionary organization called Anushilan Samity. movement. After completing his studies he returned to Chttagong in 1918 and joined as a teacher at National School. Nandakanan., At that time, the Indian National congress was the most prominent political party there.
Surya Sen
All of the leaders of the uprising, were participants in the congress led civil Disobedience movement launched in 1919. They were bitterly dissapointed by Gandhi's decision to call of the movement following the violence in Chauri
Chaura in 1922.Apart from Surya Sen, Lokenath Bal, Ganesh Ghosh, Anant Singh, Ambika Chakravarti, Pritilata Waddedar, Tarakeswar Dastidar, Nirmal Sen and Kalpana Dutta are the names of other unsung heroes, involved in this revolt..
The inspiration of the Chittagong raid actually came from the 1916 Irish
Easter uprising, which vexed the crown, and in the case of the Chittagong mission, there is one dimension which, in later decades and still today, is seen by many as the definitive moment when women left the traditional roles to play a part in defining an independent national identity.
Pritilata Waddedar, also from Chittagong, accompanied Sen during the
1930 mission and later, in 1932, led another raid on the Pahartali
European Club, which reportedly had a sign at the entrance: “Dogs and
Indians not allowed.” During this operation, Pritilata was surrounded and took a cyanide
pill to kill herself, thus creating a defiant nationalistic image to be
followed by women in future decades to break down restrictive social
shackles.
The aims of the Chittagong raid were to seize enough arms and ammunition which would be used in a great uprising, and show others that it was possible to challenge the armed might of the British Empire.
After extensive planning and deliberation, and after managing to build up an army of teenage recruits. The plan was to assassinate the members of the European Club
– military and government officials who were responsible for siding
with the British to maintain the Raj. The other objective at the time was to make Chittagong independent.
At around 10 pm. around 100 of these recruits clad in khaki, marched in military order in several groups. One of their batches raided the telephone exchanges and Telegraph offices and managed to cut off all communications between Calcutta and bacca.. The second severed rail connections at Nangalkot and Dham, which caused derailment of good trains and blockading of all railway traffic. At the same time leaflets were distributed all over the town explaining the objective of the raid.. They also hoisted the national flag on the premises of the armoury, and proclaimed a provisional Revolutionary Government It was a symbolic blow on the British supremacy at the time.
After that they fled to the hills.
They were pursued by the Police; and were surrounded by the British Indian Army
in the Jalalabad Hills, where they had took shelter on the afternoon of 22 April 1830.There was an encounter in which over 80 troops and 12 revolutionaries were killed in a gunfight. Surya Sen and some of his fellow revolutionaries were successful
in fleeing. The revolutionaries who were arrested in Chittagong were
captured and trialed with 12 people being deported for life.
Stunned by Surya Sens actions, the British embarked on a series of brutal combing actions around the Muslim dominated villages where the revolutionaries were hiding. Despite repressive British actions, these villagers did not betray Surya and his band, instead they offered them food, work and shelter for three years.
In February 1933 Surya Sen was eventually arrested by the Police after being betrayed by one of his comrades, Netra Sen. He
was brutally tortured by the British for days, his teeth knocked out, nails ripped, limbs and joints
broken, before he was dragged to the rope unconscious and, hanged, and given a burial at sea.
In his last letter, written to his friends Master-da exhorted us, 'Death is knocking at my door.My mind is flying away towards eternity... At such a pleasant, at such s grave, at such a solemn moment, what shall I leave behind you? Only one thing that is my dream, a golden dream, the dream of Free India. Never forget the 18th of
April 1930, the day of the Eastern Rebellion in Chittagong..Write in
red letters in the core of your hearts the names of the patriots who
have sacrificed their lives at the altar of India's freedom.'
This remarkable, anti-imperial revolt
remains relatively little-known, if not quite forgotten, but at the time managed to rattle an empire and two
films have since been made about it. Ashutosh
Gowariker's Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se (2010), starring Abhishek Bachchan
and Deepika Padukone, and Debabrata Pain's small-budget but award
winning Chittagong (2012), featuring Manoj Bajpai and Vega Tamotia,
both, unfortunately, flopped at the box-office.
Earlier,
Manini Chatterjee, the daughter-in-law of communist leader PC Joshi and
Kalpana Datta (1913-95), wrote a gripping account Do and Die: The
Chittagong Uprising 1930-34 (1999).
She was well placed to do so because her mother, Kalpana, had been one of the insurgents who took part in the uprising.
Surya Sen and many of his comrades paid a heavy price, sacrificing their life, for the cause of freedom even though their actions have got dispersed in the pages of history.
