The Life and Genius of Thelonius Monk (10/10/1917 - 17/2/1982)

Be bob legend and leader of the post war jazz revolution Thelonious Sphere Monk was born on the 10th of October 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, two years after his sister Marian. A brother, Thomas, was born a couple of years later. In his sixth year he was taken north from the racially oppressive Land of Cotton to relative freedom within the urban racism of the Big Apple settling on West 63rd Street in the San Juan Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, near the Hudson River. His father, Thelonious, Sr., joined the family three years later, but health considerations forced him to return to North Carolina. During his stay, however, he often played the harmonica, ‘Jew’s harp,” and piano, all of which probably influenced his son’s unyielding musical interests. Young Monk turned out to be a musical prodigy in addition to a good student and a fine athlete. He studied the trumpet briefly but began exploring the piano at age nine. Although he had some formal training and eavesdropped on his sister's piano lessons, he was essentially self-taught. By his early teens, he was playing rent parties, sitting in on organ and piano at a local Baptist church, and was reputed to have won several “amateur hour” competitions at the Apollo Theater. Monk attended Stuyvesant High School, but dropped out at the end of his sophomore year to pursue music and around 1935 took a job as a pianist for a traveling evangelist and faith healer.
Returning after two years, he formed his own quartet and played local bars and small clubs, until the spring of 1941, when drummer Kenny Clarke hired him as the house pianist at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. Minton’s, legend has it, was where the “bebop revolution” began. The after-hours jam sessions at Minton’s, along with similar musical gatherings at Monroe’s Uptown House, Dan Wall’s Chili Shack, among others, attracted a new generation of musicians brimming with fresh ideas about harmony and rhythm, bringing Monk into close contact and collaboration with other leading exponents of bebop, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker and later, Miles Davis, and Monk’s close friend and fellow pianist, Bud Powell.

Known as one of the first creators of modern jazz, Monk’s music was known for its humorous, almost playful, quality.Monk's style at the time was described as "hard-swinging," with the addition of runs in the style of Art Tatum. Monk's stated influences include Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, and other early stride pianists His playing was percussive and sparse, often being described as “angular,” and he used complex and dissonant harmonies and unusual intervals and rhythms. 

He was also one of the most prolific composers in the history of jazz. Many of his compositions, which were generally written in the 12-bar blues or the 32-bar ballad form, became jazz standards. Among his best-known works are “Well, You Needn’t,” “I Mean You,” “Straight, No Chaser,” “Criss-Cross,” “Mysterioso,” “Epistrophy,” “Blue Monk,” and “ ’Round Midnight.”

Eccentric, enigmatic, extraordinary, no one in jazz has really played like Monk. His  idiosyncratic style utilized unexpected melodic twists, dissonant harmonies (which are pleasing to jazz players), erratic percussive phrases punctuated by unexpected hesitations and silences. Despite these unorthodox qualities, Duke Ellington is the only jazz composer who has been recorded more often than Monk, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70. Monk is one of only five jazz musicians to have been on the cover of Time (along with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck and Wynton Marsalis).

In 1944 Monk made his first studio recordings with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet. Hawkins was among the first prominent jazz musicians to promote Monk, and Monk later returned the favor by inviting Hawkins to join him on the 1957 session with John Coltrane. Monk made his first recordings as leader for Blue Note in 1947 (later anthologised on Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1) which showcased his talents as a composer of original melodies for improvisation. Monk married Nellie Smith the same year, and in 1949 the couple had a son, T.S. Monk, who later became a jazz drummer. A daughter, Barbara (affectionately known as Boo-Boo), was born in 1953.
Harsh, ill-informed criticism limited Monk’s opportunities to work, opportunities he desperately needed especially after his marriage, and the birth of his son, Thelonious, Jr., in 1949. Monk found work where he could, but he never compromised his musical vision. His already precarious financial situation took a turn for the worse in August of 1951, when he was falsely arrested for narcotics possession, essentially taking the rap for his friend Bud Powell. Monk refused to testify against his friend, so the police confiscated his New York City Cabaret Card. Without the all-important cabaret card he was unable to play in any New York venue where liquor was served, and this severely restricted his ability to perform for several crucial years. Monk spent most of the early and mid-1950s composing, recording, and performing at theaters and out-of-town gigs, composed new music, and made several trio and ensemble records under the Prestige Label (1952-1954), cutting several under-recognized, but highly significant albums, including collaborations with saxophonist Sonny Rollins and drummer Art Blakey. In 1954, Monk participated in the famed Christmas Eve sessions which produced the albums Bags' Groove and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants by Miles Davis. Davis found Monk's idiosyncratic accompaniment style difficult to improvise over and asked him to lay out (not accompany), which almost brought them to blows. However, in Miles Davis' autobiography Miles, Davis claims that the anger and tension between Monk and himself never took place and that the claims of blows being exchanged were "rumors" and a "misunderstanding."
In 1954, Monk paid his first visit to Europe, performing and recording in Paris. It was here that he first met Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, a member of the Rothschild banking family of England and a patroness of several New York City jazz musicians. She would be a close friend for the rest of Monk's life.
In 1958, Monk and de Koenigswarter were detained by police in Wilmington, Delaware. When Monk refused to answer the policemen's questions or cooperate with them, they beat him with a blackjack. Though the police were authorized to search the vehicle and found narcotics in suitcases held in the trunk of the Baroness's car, Judge Christie of the Delaware Superior Court ruled that the unlawful detention of the pair, and the beating of Monk, rendered the consent to the search void as given under duress. State v. De Koenigswarter, 177 A.2d 344 (Del. Super. 1962). Monk was represented by Theophilus Nix, the second African-American member of the Delaware Bar Association.
In 1955, Monk signed with a new label, Riverside, and recorded several outstanding LP’s which garnered critical attention, notably Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington, The Unique Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners, Monk’s Music and his second solo album, Thelonious Monk Alone.

Monk turned a page with his 1956 album, Brilliant Corners, which is usually considered to be his first true masterpiece. The album's title track made a splash with its innovative, technically demanding, and extremely complex sound, which had to be edited together from many separate takes. With the release of two more Riverside masterworks, Thelonious Himself and Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane, Monk finally received the acclaim he deserved, and his career began to soar.
In 1957, the Thelonious Monk Quartet, which included John Coltrane, began performing regularly at the Five Spot in New York. Enjoying huge success, they went on to tour the United States and even make some appearances in Europe. By 1962, Monk was so popular that he was given a contract with Columbia Records, a decidedly more mainstream label than Riverside. During the 1960s, Monk scored notable successes with albums such as Criss- Cross, Monk’s Dream, It’s Monk Time, Straight No Chaser, and Underground. But as Columbia/CBS records pursued a younger, rock-oriented audience, Monk and other jazz musicians ceased to be a priority for the label. Monk’s final recording with Columbia was a big band session with Oliver Nelson’s Orchestra in November of 1968, which turned out to be both an artistic and commercial failure. Columbia’s disinterest and Monk’s deteriorating health kept the pianist out of the studio.The years that followed included several overseas tours, but by the early 1970s, Monk was ready to retire from the limelight.
His style  was not universally appreciated poet with the poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissing Monk as 'the elephant on the keyboard'. Monk's manner was idiosyncratic and eccentric. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses, plus his goatee beard. He was also noted for the fact that at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. Monk's style was so different that he didn't have many imitators; but he had many musicians that were influenced by him, and were interpreters of his music.
The documentary film Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988) attributes Monk's quirky behaviour to mental illness. In the film, Monk's son, T.S. Monk, says that his father sometimes did not recognize him, and he reports that Monk was hospitalized on several occasions due to an unspecified mental illness that worsened in the late 1960s. No reports or diagnoses were ever publicized, but Monk would often become excited for two or three days, pace for days after that, after which he would withdraw and stop speaking. Physicians recommended electro convulsive therapy as a treatment option for Monk's illness, but his family would not allow it; antipsychotics and lithium were prescribed instead. Other theories abound: Leslie Gourse, author of the book Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk (1997), reports that at least one of Monk's psychiatrists failed to find evidence of manic depression or schizophrenia. Others blamed Monk's behavior on intentional and inadvertent drug use: Monk was also unknowingly administered LSD, and may have taken peyote with Timothy Leary. Another physician maintains that Monk was misdiagnosed and given drugs during his hospital stay that may have caused brain damage.Jazz musicians have always been vulnerable, depending, as so many of them do, on drink and drugs to make their ordeals temporarily bearable. Monk was mo exception. However, it is often the case with creative people that along with some level of madness comes genius and wisdom.
Like his music, Monk’s views on religion were also unorthodox. As a teenager, as mentioned earlier he played the organ for a traveling evangelist, but it appears he was an agnostic who held no religious beliefs of his own. Biographer Robin D. G. Kelly writes that “Monk clearly was not a true believer,” and that “most people who knew Monk remember that he rarely attended church and did not speak about religion in the most flattering terms.” His niece Charlotte said “he was never into religion. Religion was not his thing. . . . He never went to church or any of that. And his kids, he never took them to church. He said they had to have their own mind about things.” When the journalist Valerie Wilmer asked him, “Do you believe in God?”, Monk replied, “I don’t know nothing. Do you?” But Monk was tolerant of religion, and although ambivalent himself, he sometimes accompanied his mother on the piano as she sang her beloved hymns while dying of cancer.
Monk also had long periods of not talking to anybody. He spent the final seven years of his life, until his death in 1982 in near total silence, not speaking or playing a note to anyone  in Baroness de Koenigswarter's apartment in Weehawken. On February 5, 1982, he suffered a stroke and never regained consciousness; twelve days later, on February 17th, he died. He is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Since his death, his music has been rediscovered by a wider audience and he is now counted alongside the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and others as a major figure in the history of jazz. Whatever Thelonious was to the media, it's clear what his legacy will be to jazz music: that of a true originator.Today Thelonious Monk is widely accepted as a genuine master of American music. His compositions constitute the core of jazz repertory and are performed by artists from many different genres. His recordings both live and in the studio continue to inspire jazz musicians, and many of his albums, remain essential listening, that have bought me great comfort over the years, transcendental and beautiful. He has since  been the subject of award winning documentaries, biographies and scholarly studies, prime time television tributes, and he even has an Institute created in his name.A true original there's only one Monk, he  probably said it best when he insisted that a "genius is one who is most like himself."  In 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2006, Monk was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. His place in the jazz pantheon is secure. A link to this wonderful artist can be found here:- https://monkinstitute.org/
And below are some personal favourites from him.

Thelonius Monk - This is my story , This is my song

Thelonious Monk - Epistrophy

 Thelonious Monk -  Hackensack, `1965 

Thelonious Monk - Body and Soul

Thelonious Monk - Monk's Dream 

Thelonious Monk - Misterioso

Thelonious Monk - Everything happens to me

 Thelonious Monk Quartet - Round Midnight

On World Mental Health Day 2018 :End the stigmatisation, Stop and scrap Universal Credit

Today marks World Mental Health Day, a day that provides campaigners with the opportunity to raise awareness and advocacy against social stigma that people with mental health issues daily experience.
Mental illness is now recognised as one of the biggest causes of individual distress and misery in our society, comparable to poverty and unemployment. One in four adults in the UK today has been diagnosed with a mental illness, that can have a profound impact on the lives of tens of millions of people in the UK, and thus affect their ability to sustain relationships, work, or just get through the day. What greater indictment of a system could there be.
The issues of mental health and mental illness are complicated. Yes  there is persuasive evidence that human biology plays an important role in determining each person’s likelihood of contending with particular mental health conditions, but experiences of social isolation, inequality, feelings of alienation and dissociation, and even the basic assumptions and ideology of materialism and neoliberalism itself are seen today to be significant drivers too.
Sadly despite the efforts of many, the subject of mental illness remains a taboo subject, the fact is that many in our communities suffer from a wide of different problems like clinical depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, anxiety, mania and drug and alcohol problems. Many of us are left to face our problems in silence and isolation, while experiencing daily life as a battle, having  to choose  between societies consensus ways of dealing with things, medication, psychotherapy, counselling etc etc, or simply learning to forget.
Emotionally, our heads are only just above water. I personally have a black dog that  calls regularly, that  I unfortunately  have no control  over, it just happens. Combined with anxiety, can suddenly feel  fear, and all those turbulent  unexplained feelings that drives one to self destruction,.In extreme circumstance  can also  get so angst ridden that I cannot leave my house, let alone phone a GP to seek help, because I fear I will be judged and blamed somehow, embarrassed and ashamed for something I have no control over. With a tendency to affix blame and leave me  feeling even more unworthy. I'm getting there but still have a long way to go. I have learnt techniques to  help, but realize  using liquid courage, certainly does not help, though that does not stop me ,especially when out and about in public.
Enough about me, among the most menacing barriers to the social progress we need around mental health. are the profound levels of guilt, shame and stigma that surround these issues.Those who suffer are often, like me, ashamed to speak of it. Those who are lucky enough to be free of mental illness are terrified of it. When it comes to mental illness, we still don't quite get how it all works. Our treatments, while sometimes effective, often are not. And the symptoms, involving a fundamental breakdown of our perceived reality, are existentially terrifying. There is something almost random about physical illness, in how it comes upon us, a physical illness can strike anyone. But  mental illness  that could also strike any of us, without warning should be equally recognised.
Combined  with  simple fear, mental illness brings out a judgmental streak that would be unthinkably grotesque when applied to physical illness. Imagine telling someone with a broken leg to "snap out of it." Imagine that a death by cancer was accompanied by the same smug head shaking. Mental illness is so qualitatively different that we feel it permissible to be judgmental. We might even go so far as to blame the sufferer. Because of the  stigma involved  it often leaves people much sicker. 
We live under a system of blame that somehow makes the emotional and psychological difficulties we encounter seem to be our own fault. People left feeling ashamed that they need medication, seeing this as revealing some constitutional weakness. Afraid about needing therapy, thinking that they should be able to solve their problems on their own.  Individuals actually fail to seek any treatment, because mental health care is seen as something that only the most dramatically unstable person would turn to. It is estimated that only about a quarter of people with a mental health problem in the UK receive ongoing treatment, leaving the majority of people grappling with mental health issues on their own, seeking help or information, and dependent on the informal support of family, friends or colleagues.
Those who live with mental illness are among the most stigmatised groups in society. We are challenged doubly. On one hand with the struggle of our symptoms that result from our illnesses and then by the stereotypes and prejudice that results from peoples misconceptions about mental illness. Many  are robbed of opportunities that help define  a quality life,  jobs, safe housing, health care and affiliation with a diverse group of people, and are left feeling almost invisible and on our own. Prejudice leads to discrimination and so on.
 It should not  be the case that some of us have to suffer in silence from anxiety and depression, we should be ok to say we don't feel ok. When some of us actually seek some assistance, we get doubted and pushed away. All this plays a part in making us feeling worse and keep us down. There is growing concern that our Governments policies are actually fuelling the current  mental health crisis. Budget cuts to mental health services combined with no genuine support are driving  many people to the edge. As a result many people  are currently left isolated, facing long waiting lists for mental health therapies and diagnostic assessments
Prime Minister Maggie May herself  once described the shortfalls in mental health services on her first day in Downing Street  "as one of the burning injustices in our country" Despite these gestures she and the Tories have not delivered on their promise to give mental health the same priority as physical health. They have  offered  no extra funding whilst systematically raiding mental health budgets over the last eight years. There are now over 6,000 fewer mental health nurses than in 2010. The number of psychiatrists employed by the NHS has fallen by  four percent since 2014 , with a 10 percent drop in those who specialise in children's mental health and a similar drop in those working with older adults. Eight years of Tory Government have left those with mental health problems without the support they need.
Currently people with mental health problems are becoming “tangled up” in the bureaucracy and flaws of the government’s new universal credit benefit system,claimants facing considerable hardship and considerable deterioration in their mental health because of universal credit. Sophie Corlett, director of external relations for the mental health charity Mind, has said “They struggle with the process, but they end up tangled in the process and unable to dig their way out of it."“They struggle with the online application, they struggle with the conditionality that comes while you wait for your work capability assessment (WCA), they struggle with waiting for their first payment and if they are able to get an advance payment they struggle to pay that back.”A key concern, she has also said , was the period between the start of a universal credit claim and the WCA, during which claimants can be forced to carry out the usual 30-plus hours of jobsearch activity while waiting to be assessed for their “fitness for work”
Carrying out this jobsearch activity is a huge barrier for many people with mental health problems, who are often not even well enough to visit their own jobcentre. Under the sanctions system, benefit recipients have part of their payments temporarily stopped if they fail to meet strict work-related conditions, such as failing to attend a work placement, or being a few minutes late for a jobcentre appointment. People with complex needs are thus forced into a process which is long, complicated and cruel, which does not recognise their personal abilities, vulnerabilities and difficult circumstances.
With the upcoming roll out of Universal Credit, this will only make matters worse. especially for those of us living with mental health issues. Universal Credit is not fit for purpose, it needs  to be stopped and scrapped now, We  simply can't trust May and co on mental health.Their toxic policies helping to exasperate the mental health crisis in our country. If this does not actually make you angry then you have  become conditioned and devoid of feeling, and they simply have you under control.
We need to break the silence around mental health.Too often mental health is swept under the carpet and ignored , because of the stigma and taboo surrounding it, so we have to keep battling to destroy the negative attitudes and stereotypes that is directed towards people with mental health issues, and to keep challenging policies that heed  individuals recovery.
On World Mental Health Day I think its important to stress that the proportion of the population that will  experience  episodes of acute emotional distress is extremely high. It  should not be shameful to say that one is suffering from mental illness, no less than to announce that one is asthmatic or has breast cancer.Talking about these issues, breaking the silence, can also be a source of liberation, so we should keep fighting for the best mental health care to be the  natural right of all, because engaging in the struggle toward such a society can be a source of hope for many. In the meantime I will  personally try to keep  surviving, and hope that one day mental health  becomes  a genuine Government priority that  really helps reduce peoples pain and suffering.
I will end this post by saying, that I believe today should  act like a catalyst for Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey to scrap the controversial Universal Credit Welfare system and replace it with something that takes into account peoples needs and strengths.
Meanwhile If you need to talk to someone, the NHS mental health helpline page includes organisations you can call for help, such as Anxiety UK and Bipolar UK. or call The Samaritans on 116 123.And if you need help with your application for Universal Credit contact your local CAB https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

Paul Robeson - Joe Hill

Joel Emmanuel Hagglund (Joe Hill)  born October 7, 1879 Gavle, Sweden,he emigrated to the United States in 1902, where he changed his name to Joseph Hillstrom. After several years as an itinerant worker - a 'hobo' he joined the IWW (the Industrial Workers of the World).A wobbly organiser, balladeer, he was also a man of pride, the flag that he proudly  followed was one of international solidarity. 
Union organiser, songwriter and member of the Industrial Workers of the World. He was murdered at the age of 36  by a US Government  firing squad framed for a murder that may believed he did not commit. An innocent man  condemned to death for his passion. Many historians have  come to recognise it as one of the worst travesties of justice in American history. After a trial riddled with biased rulings and suppression of important defense evidence and other violations of judicial procedure, which was characteristic of many cases involving labour radicals.
 Just prior to his execution. Hill had written to  fellow International Worker of the World Bill Haywood saying. "Goodbye Bill. I die like a true rebel.Don't waste any time in mourning. Organise.
An estimated 30,000 people attended  his funeral in an impressive singing demonstration under the banner ' In Memorium-Joe Hill - Murdered by the Capitalist Class. A rebel to the core, his voice still rings out loud, rightfully  venerated and celebrated as a hero and martyr.He started the struggle that many  continue to fight today.

Music and the IWW: the creation of working class counterculture

https://libcom.org/history/music-iww-creation-working-class-counterculture-terland

Remember the Battle of Cable Street : No pasaran !

                                Detail from Cable Street Mural
 
I have made a point of annually remembering that 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.
Many 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.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 is growing throughout Europe, on 13th October the far-right racist Democratic Football Lads Alliance have organised a demonstration for bigots and Islamaphobes in London. In July 2018, 10,000 of them took to the streets, uniting racists from UKIP to Generation Identity, where nazi salutes were casually raised . No longer a fringe group, the far right are given airtime by the mainstream media, well funded and supported by many in the political establishment. Across Europe racist and fascist organisations are receiving growing support at a level not seen since the 1930s. Tommy Robinson, ex EDL leader and notorious fascist, who is being courted by UKIP, is a firm favourite of the DFLA. Thugs linked to the group attacked RMT union members and others, after a recent anti fascist march, in London. The far right, at street level and electorally, use Islamophobia as a way of rebuilding in Britain.
The DFLA and their supporters want to come to London to spread their racism and Islamophobia. Stand Up To Racism, supported by Unite Against Fascism and Love Music Hate Racism will be resisting their race hate. We are at a crucial moment in our time and cannot simply allow such forces to grow. We must continue to  regenerate a broad based mass resistance to division and hate, to turn the tide on the rise of hate, oppose racism, Islamophobic scapegoating and Antisemitism. A national demonstration against these forces has been called for Noveber 1th , details for event can be found here.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1887445111550804/
 
The winds that blew across Cable Street still exist today , we must remain vigilant to this. We should never forget the Battle of Cable Street. Teach your childrem about it. Today and tomorrow we must still rally around the cry of No Pasaran- They shall not pass. Everyone, who cares about the future of our society, should come together, for the politics of unity not division

Men they couldn't hang - Ghosts of Cable Street

On the edge of reason ( for Theresa May)

The Tory's gathering again, leaving desperate voices forgotten
with empty gestures,  waving their promises and lies,
clanking their chains, bringing their daily curses
soundbites of shame, in these mad days of Brexit,
continuing to misgovern, no sign of being strong and stable
people sad for this country, as they manage to wreck it,
homeless people dying on our streets, poor people starving
food banks  growing,  benefit claimants living in fear,
May robotically dances on stage, malfunctioning once again
no dancing queen, just a self depreciating clown,
after the laughter has died down, their creepy and scary
Theresa, and chums, it's time for them to be gone.

From despair to hope

There's so much conditioning, making us hate
that we become our own enemies at the gate,
beams of reason disappearing before us
colors of hope melting in the earth,
politicians burying consciousness
join in the revel, play with the devil,
bitter and biting, silently gloating
releasing fathomless depths of despair,
punishing people for simply being ill
with policies of cruelty that actually kill,
the ghosts of Grenfell still haunting the land
yet they continue building walls to divide,
louder and louder, the wind is raging
the air not yet full of resignation,
strong, courageous and resilient
we can overcome the monsters,
gentler aspects of humanity will reveal
to not allow ourselves to be draped in pain,
hopelessness will only hang around, if we feed it
blazing embers of defiance burn brightly too,
we can be saved, greet  tomorrow's epiphany
the future unwritten, can cancel  negativity.

The above poem can also be found here :- 

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/from-despair-to-hope-by-dave-rendle/

Divided and out of control, time to kick the Tories out.

The Tory conference  has started today in  Birmingham , running till Wednesday 3 October,as they continue to  sprout their message of a stronger, fairer United Kingdom,  and their leader refuses to apologise for her hostile policies,displaying a clear lack of care for anyone, lets not forget that all Tory's are the same. Whatever period in time,  they always leave us with a diabolical legacy, while at the same time  trying to convince  people that they have been doing a decent job.
Aided and abetted by their friends  in the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Express,the Times,  the BBC and the Scum etc all  misleading and parroting  the Tory's narratives and soundbites. Should we simply forget their ruthless, toxic and unjust policies. Their constant assaults  on the N.H.S,  people on welfare, the disadvantaged, the poor, people forced to use food banks, rising homelessness, benefit cuts, universal credit, combined with low pay, zero hour contracts, benefit cuts, the lack of affordable housing, not forgetting the windrush scandal and  our public services cut to the bone and the ongoing mess that is Brexit, the list is endless, their  cruel conscious  ideological policies that have caused so many unnecessary deaths  should not be simply forgotten.
We have to get rid of them by any means necessary,  because the devil comes in many shapes and sizes, and I believe it is truly at home in the Conservative Party, a demonic party, if there ever was one  As Theresa May continues to  blister on in her usual fashion of delusion , laughing at us all, we simply cannot afford to tolerate her or her Government anymore , we would all be better served with a government that actually supports peoples needs, based on ideas of social justice and fairness, mutual aid and sustainability. Theresa May and co are so divided and out of control they are no longer fit to govern, we need a general election now, their time is up , they have to go as soon as possible.

Newtown Neurotics - Kick out the Tories

For Charlie Sharp, poet, musician, artist, R.I.P

Autumn is waking
as a friend drifts to sleep
and trees shed their tears
in the distance the sound of a harmonica
soaring in the sky
by the side of a silvery moon
another star is born
all flames become light
blazing, burning bright.

Alan Moore - Jerusalem

Alan Moore is famous for his groundbreaking work in comics: Watchmen (1986–’87) which fundamentally transformed mainstream comic literature in the 1980s, and many of Moore’s other titles — V for Vendetta (1988–’89), Batman: The Killing Joke (1988), From Hell (1989–’96), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999–) — have become cultural landmarks. Moore detests the corporate franchising of his work, however, and after finishing his occult series Promethea in 2005, he largely moved away from illustrated storytelling, spending the subsequent decade crafting Jerusalem, a massive prose narrative (“longer than the Bible,” Moore quips) divided into three volumes, which was released in 2016 by Liverlight Publishing.
Out now comes a beautiful paperback edition of Alan Moore's Jerusalem, in which he pens a grandiose tome about his hometown of Northampton, employing an extremely wide variety of styles, including a poem and a play, channeling both the ecstatic visions of William Blake and the theoretical physics of Albert Einstein .
Combining elements of historical and suprnatural fiction and drawing on a range of writing styles, the author describes it as a work of "genetic mythology". Fierce in its imagining and stupefying in its scope, Jerusalem is the tale of everything, told from a vanished gutter. In these pages lurk demons from the second-century Book of Tobit and angels with golden blood who reduce fate to a snooker tournament. Vagrants, prostitutes, and ghosts rub shoulders with Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce’s tragic daughter Lucia, and Buffalo Bill, among many others. There is a conversation in the thunderstruck dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, childbirth on the cobblestones of Lambeth Walk, an estranged couple sitting all night on the cold steps of a Gothic church front, and an infant choking on a cough drop for eleven chapters. An art exhibition is in preparation, and above the world a naked old man and a beautiful dead baby race along the Attics of the Breath toward the heat death of the universe.
An opulent  working class mythology for those without a pot to piss in, through the labyrinthine streets and pages of Jerusalem tread ghosts that sing of wealth, poverty, and our threadbare millennium. in these pages spin a metatextual ritual that aspires to overturn the fundamental economic mythology built into the social fabric of late capitalism. In an era when the working classes are portrayed as hopeless victims or demonised as thugs and idiots, while all the while being urged on to greater extremes of racism and xenophobia by the popular media, Jerusalem rejects the portrayal of limited horizons and the glamorisation of poverty that Moore sees in TV shows like Shameless in favour of a work that grants dignity and profundity to life at the bottom of the economic shitheap,
Yet another  masterpiece from my favourite visionary, who continues to plant seeds in us, so we may grow and understand. beyond the dark satanic mills of our ordinary oppressed existences, we are all already living in the shining, eternal city of Jerusalem. Alan Moore is one of  the few Writers capable of illuminating the exterior/interior of our Lives, for that I am truly grateful, this book by the way. is much easier than Ulysses and funnier too, though must add when I originally read got lost a bit, but that is often the way with me. Seek this tome out nevertheless, I strongly recommend.


Get it here :  amzn.to/2CX9toI

"A master storyteller taking  the voices of the dead as his own'" - Neil Gaiman 

"He saw, as through a fog, the grave mistake he'd made. He'd been so anxious for success and validation that he'd come to think you weren't really a writer unless you were a succesful one. He knew, in this unprecedeted patch of clarity, that the idea was nonsense. Look at William Blake, ignored and without recognition until years after his death, regarded as a lunatic or fool by his conpeporaries. Yet Benedict felt sure that Blake, in his three-score-and-ten, had never a moments doubt that he was a true artist. Ben's own problem, looked at in this new and brutal light, was a simple failure of nerve."-Alan Moore, Jerusalem 

Link to earlier posts of mine on Alan Moore :-

 https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2018/03/alan-moore-on-art-and-magic.html

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2013/11/happy-60th-alan-moore-181113-dont-let.html?m=0
 

Booking.com :Erased Palestinians

  .

Shouldn’t you know if you’re going to book a room in an illegal Israeli settlement? Apparently, Booking.com doesn’t think so.
Days ago Booking.com, bowing to pressure from pro-Israel activists, started describing all of Jerusalem as a "city in Israel"- literally erasing Palestinian East Jerusalem. It's not clear why the online travel  reservation servixe made the call to change its description of Jerusalem, given that East Jerusalem is regarded as occupied territory under international law and global consensus is that the eastern part of the holy city is the capital of Palestine. Israel’s control over the eastern part, which the Jewish state annexed in the 1980s, is disputed and seen as illegal by many countries and international organizations, including the European Union and the United Nations, and to reject Israel’s decision to settle its citizens there. Despite the international community, rejecting Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, it still continues to be occupied.
Through recent settlement activity, Israel continues to reinforce existing settlements and the separation of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and is exacerbating the territorial fragmentation of the West Bank. Settlements are illegal under international law as reaffirmed by UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016), The developments on the ground make the prospect of a two-state solution increasingly unattainable.
It is also worth noting that though Palestinians in East Jerusalem are required to pay taxes like any other inhabitant of the city, but do not receive the same services that others do. The Jerusalem Municipality deliberately avoids significantly investing in infrastructure and services in the Palestinian neighborhoods – including roads, pavements, water and sewage systems, schools and cultural institutions. This policy affects almost every aspect of Palestinians’ lives in East Jerusalem.
The willigness of the global brand to wade into a global row with such alacrity is likely to raise eyebrows. Founded in the Netherlands in 1996, Booking,com is said to offer more than 28 million reported listings in more than 138,000 destinations in 229 countries and territories worldwide. More than 1.5 million room nights are reserved daily on the platform, according to the firm.
Booking.com’s CEO Gillian Tans is a proud progressive female leader, famous for her openness — so if we put her personal reputation on the line we can get Booking.com must tell the truth: that East Jerusalem is occupied territory.
In response to media reports, Booking.com downplayed the change, showing they don't really understand how painful it is for Palestinian families to watch their history get erased one website at a time.
But this isn't just about websites, it's about a concerted cultural campaign that starts with pro-Israel, right wing extremists,extends to Trump moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, and continues when mainstream companies like Booking.com get on board with erasing Palestinians connection to their homeland.
We need to make Booking.com a line in the sand - anns CEO Gillian Tans is our best shot to getthem to tell the truth about Israeli occupation. Join CODEPINK, Jewish Voices for Peace and others in sending a message to Gillian Tans. Add your name below and share with everyone you know. Cheers.

https://secure.everyaction.com/ntXPlQJufkShJrAzW_fruA2

Chas and Dave singer Chas Hodges dies aged 74, RIP

Sad to hear that one half of much loved Cockney music duo Chas and Dave, singer Chas Hodges has died aged 74.It was announced earlier today in a tweet from the musical duo's twitter account. The band posted online: "It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the passing of our very own Chas Hodges, "Despite receiving successful treatment for oesophageal cancer recently, Chas suffered organ failure and passed away peacefully in the early hours of this morning."
https://twitter.com/chas_dave/status/1043470431783710720
A message on the groups website added:"We would like to thank our fans or their fantastic support and goodwill at this difficult time."
The official Twitter account for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, of whom Hdges was a huge fan, posted ;Everyone at the Clun is deeply saddened to hear of one of our own, Chas Hodges."Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time,"
Born Charles Nicholas Hodges  in 1943, Chas will be forever remembered for his work with David Victor Peacock, better known as Dave.Hodges' career kicked of the 1960's working alongside legendary producer Joe Meek, while working as a musician he backed Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent. Hodges also played bass with a short lived band called the Outlaws , who were once supported  by the Beatles, who he stuck up a long friendship with. Hodges also worked with the highly respected Cliff Bennet and the Rebel Rousers , he  also had sessions with Ritchie Blackmore, and joined Albert Lee's band Heads ,Hands and Feet, plus a short lived stint with the Rockers, who featured Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, the Move's Roy Wood and Status Quo drummer John Coghlan.
Chas and Dave formed in 1975, known for their distinctive 'rockney' style, which blended early rock and roll with elements of cockney musical hall humour, pub singalong and boogie woogie piano.In the tradition of the Kinks and the Small Faces and around the same time as Ian Dury and Squeeze, they wrote exceptionally witty songs about life in London, performed with a strong affection for all.,so tied to its place, singing about the working classes of the city. After supporting Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979, they went on to  enjoy a run of hits in the late seventies and early eighties with songs like  Gertcha,'Rabbit, The Sideboard Song,'Ain't No Pleasing You and'Snooper Loopy. They became known and loved because they knew how to give audiences a good time, gaining an enthusiastic cult following with both  young and old.
They disbanded in 2009 following the retirement of Dave Peacock  after his wife Sue's death.
However in 2010 Chas and Dave announced their return to live circuit  with much critical acclaim. The duo released their first album of new material in over three decades this year, ' A  'liitle Bit of Us'  included a track that addressed  Chas's cancer diagnosis. The band was forced to cancel a number of dates back in August of this year to his illness. In a statement at the time Hodges stoically said:"In my time as a musician/entertainer.I would say the most depressing thing to do is to have to cancel a gig or gigs."
Already the internet is awash with tributes to him,  on all accounts a gentleman who was admired and loved in equal measure. Over the years,  some  saw Chas and Dave as a bit of a novelty act, but  Chas Hodges was one of the most talented musicians this country has ever produced, my record collection is better to have them within it. An absolute legend, so long for now Chas ,R,I,P your songs  will continue to  brighten up many a darkened days,..

Rabbit - Chas and Dave, 1981

Chas and Dave - Gertcha

Chas and Dave - Ain't No  Pleasing you 

Chas and Dave - Sideboard Song, 1979

The Rockers - We are the boys

After EU Calls Theresa May Bluff - Time for her to go.

The Tory's double standards have long been plain to see. Strong and stable they certainly are not. Forced to backtrack time and time again. No wonder commentators have dubbed Theresa May the Queen of U-Turns. She and her party are completely lacking  any credibility or moral fibre, but keep continuing to  cause so much wreckage and damage to our country, with their sheer incompetance.
Now after farting around for over years, wasting everyone's  time with ludicrous plans regarding Brexit, she has again been put on the spot after delivering yet another pointless speech on the progress,or lack of it with  negotiations.Thursdays gathering of European leaders in Salzburg was supposed to help bridge outstanding differences and pave the way for a potential deal by the middle of November, but ended in humiliation for May as they rebuffed her plans.In an ambush that blindsided British  officials,  the EU council president, Donald Tusk dismissed and demolished  her Chequers proposals as unworkable after a private meeting of national leaders. He later openly mocked her on Instagram, with a satirical  post referring to the EU's rejections of her plans to "cherry pick" parts of the European single market. He was joined by the French president Emmanuel Macron, who dismissed the entire Brexit project as being pursued by "liars".
It really though came as no surprise that her plans were rejected.Michel Barnier, the blocs chief Brexit negotiator, has said on numerous occassions this summer that its core proposals, the UK effectively stays in the single market for goods and collects EU tariffs on Brussel's behalf was never going to be accepted.
This rejection has now triggered a crisis in government  of her own making, and as she ratchets up her language on the issue, in a form of futile defiance she really  does us no favours, with many believing that May has outlived her usefulness, as her domestic 'credibility' is seen to be so badly damaged, her subsequent statement  attracted widespread attention, partially for being "pathetic, painful and petulant''. If she really believes she has the country with her, and  has its best interests in mind, then she should call a General election. Blaming the EU will no longer work for her.We so need to bring  her down as soon as possible, she and her party have no clue how to extricate themselves from this mess, while continuing to screw the country.Yep Theresa May, it's time for her to go, I certainly will not be shedding  any tears for her.

Anointments of Progression

On the verge of sleep, the world is waking
As time illuminated, keeps on passing,
Travelling through waves of longing
Hopes and fears forever thronging,
Among repeated languages of learning

Navigated thoughts, rhetorics of belonging..
.
Between homelands and borders
Over barricades halting progress
In mesmerizing moments of abidingness,
Our worn out feet moving onwards,
From early morn till late at night
Seeking better ways to break the rules.

Sending love songs to universe 

From affliction simple  honesty 

To melt  away all  borders of hate 

Taming the storms keep on releasing 

I refuse to be silent, often belligerent 

Spirit free, dancing  refuses to be broken.

And when solace accidentally slips on by
Some will surge among drunken woeful cry,
Those who escape, get a chance for another look
Turn the page, open a brand new book,
To dream and dare, among ubiquitous shoots
As a new season arrives, sprouts new routes.

Drifting in imperceptible process of change
Filling pockets with formulas to rearrange,
Paths unknown, awareness in transition
Creating beautiful new traditions,
In places stored deep from hearts
Listening, touching, wanting, living.

Days of  possibilities begin, 

With a galore of surprises,

Finding answers beyond  turbulence

The unquiet waves rearrange,

Offer different perspective

The gleam  of calming sunsets.

Owain Glyndwr Day

September 16th is the anniversary of the proclamation in 1400, of Owain Glyndwr as Prince of Wales and is now celebrated annually as Owain Glyndwr Day.We can not know for certain whether all the stories about him are true, but what we do know is that his life was a very remarkable one, and there is no name known better here in Wales than that of this great man.
He was born in the year 1359, at the height of the Black Plague, although the exact date remains a mystery, He was an  unlikely  candidate for the role of freedom fighter, born  as he was into an upper-class family descended from the princes of Powys on his father's side, and heir to the lands of Rhys ap Gruffydd on his mother's, he enjoyed the privileges due to one of the most powerful lords in Wales. It was the custom in these days for the sons of noble-men to be taught in the art of fighting early, but Glyndwr, as a lad was fond of learning, and when he was old enough, he was sent to London to study  law, at the Inns of Court in London, to become a squire to the Earl of Arundel, and  to serve with distinction in the Scottish campaigns of King Richard II, and later in the French campaigns. In 1383, he married Margaret, daughter of Sir David Hanmer, an important justice on the King's bench. He took up residence in his family home in Sycharth in the valley of the Dee. Here he called the Welsh bards and minstrels together in order to encourage  music and song.
Events soon brought this comfortable life to an end, and Owain would not enjoy peace for long, which not only disrupted Glyndwr's family circle but altered the course of Welsh history. In 1399, Henry Bolingbroke deposed Richard II. As King Henry IV, he levied even harsher taxes against the Welsh. This happened at the worst possible time for the Welsh, who were already suffering from recurring outbreaks of the Plague. The new taxes added to the hardships and resentment of the common people and made them ripe for rebellion, and soon Owain would be called to lead his people in war
He  also had a jealous neighbour called , the Marcher Lord, Sir Reginald de Grey of Ruthin, who was anxious to seize some of the land which Owain now possessed. Glyndwr appealled  to Parliament against Grey,but the new  king Henry IV, remembered  how Owain had served his enemy Richard, and took Grey's side. To make matters worse, Grey would not deliver a writ bidding Owain to join Henry in a war against Scotland, and this made it appear that Owain had disobeyed Henry and had become a traitor. Lord Grey saw this as an opportunity, and seized Owain's lands north  of the Dee,declaring them forfeit to the King. When Owain and his people saw this injustice, the old spirit of war bust into a fierce flame,as Owain felt he was left with no option other than to rebel against the unjust and oppressive rule of the English, and soon the whole of Gwynedd was in revolt.

 
Word of Glyndwr's stance struck a chord with other disaffected Welsh people and he became the symbolic leader of the resistance movement against the crown and in September, 1400, Owain attacked the town of Ruthin, plundered it and left it in flames.He also took possession of some of the lands of Lord Grey.On 16th September  on the outskirts of Ruthin he was proclaimed by his followers as Prince of Wales.The men of Wales flocked in droves to Owain's banner as word of the revolt spread, like wildfire throughout the country and many exiled Welsh people returned to join what had become a widespread national uprising. Welsh students at Oxford and Cambridge reportedly dropped their books and headed home to join the fight. Anti-English sentiment grew so strong that Welsh labourers in Shropshire and Herefordshire left their jobs to support the cause.
Parliament didn't take these events lightly, immediately passing even harsher anti-Welsh laws. Henry then marched a large army across North Wales, burning and looting without mercy. Confronted with strong English opposition, Glyndwr and seven supporters headed for the safety of the mountains and bided their time.
Glyndwr won his first great victory against the English in the summer of 1401. Camped with fewer than 500 men at the bottom of the Hyddgen valley, he found himself surrounded by 1500 enemy troops. With no option other than to fight, he amazingly defeated the English, though about 200 of his followers died as well. This success inspired legions of new supporters, many from the higher ranks of Welsh society. Glyndwr received further support from England's enemies: Scotland, Ireland, and France. In the meantime, the English continued their offensive, fanning the flames of Welsh ire by attacking and defiling the Cistercian monastery of Strata Florida.
Owain was a natural leader ,the spark that united the Welsh discontent about specific issues in Wales,many dating back from the death of Llewelyn the last, https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/12/llewellyn-ap-gruffyd-last-prince-of.html who was killed in 1282, and soon Owain had a large loyal army under his command. When Henry IV heard of this he hastened back from Scotland  intent on crushing Owain and destroying his army. Owain saw that it would be useless to try and lead his forces against an army of 28,000 of the King's men, so he wisely withdrew into the mountains,there he remained in safety until all was ready for an attack on the English. Henry and his army in the meantime, having destroyed much property returned to England, but after gaining little or nothing.
In his retreat at Snowdon, Owain planned his next campaign. In 1401, Owain made Plymlimon the base of the campaign on which he decided, because there his supporters could easily come to him from both North and South. In the spring of that year he attacked and destroyed various towns on his way to South Wales. Henry heard of this new uprising, and immediately led an army to fight Owain, but again the English had to return after suffering much loss, and gaining nothing.
The year 1402 was the most successful for Owain, a comet that had appeared in the skies was thought to herald greater victories and portending a sweeping victory for Welsh independence. and in fact the tide of battle swung dramatically in Glyndwr's favour. He took his old enemy, Lord Grey prisoner, and carried him off to the mountains, Marching to the South Owain and his army destroyed the castles of Crickhowell and Abergavenny.The town of Cardiff was attacked, and the bishops palace at Llandaf was burnt. Caerphilly and other castles fell, and soon the whole of Glamorgan was one. Henry IV was now planning to send three armies into Wales to surround and conquer the great Owain hurrying back to the North, cut off all the supplies of the English armies, and they returned to England with all haste.
Owain was now at the height of his power.In 1404 , Cricieth, Harlech and Aberystwyth  castles were captured. There was something forward thinking in his vision of Wales. He called not one but two Welsh Parliaments and wanted to create two Welsh universities and to have a Welsh Church controlled  by Welsh bishops.Until then, with the compliance of the Vatican, English Kings appointed Bishops for Wales,English speaking not Welsh. He called together a Welsh Parliament at Machynlleth, where he was crowned Prince of Wales.He told  the Parliament of his schemes to have Welsh universities which should be equal to that of Oxford, and promised to restore the old laws of Howel the Good. Owain intended to use his power for the good of his country, using his charismatic influence as a leader of a Wales free from the yoke of English rule.Agreements with France and Spain were drawn up  and rench troops landed at Milord Haven to join his army. The second parliament was held the following year in Harlech, and Glyndŵr's idea of splitting Wales and England into three parts was discussed. Mortimer would have the south and the west, Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, would have the middle and north, and Owain himself would have Wales and the Marches. On 31 March 1406, to ensure extra help from France, Glyndŵr wrote a letter to King Charles VI from Pennal near Machynlleth. This is the famous Pennal Letter. In the letter Owain agrees to transfer the obedience of Welsh churches from the Pope in Rome to the Pope in Avignon. He did not receive a reply to the letter.

                                                      Owain Glyndwr's banner

However Owain was not to retain his powers for long, although he had the help of powerful allies. King Henry stopped the tide of his success, and in spite of the help that Owain received from his allies, the royal army won a decisive victory over him in 1405. Many Welsh soldiers were slain and Owain's son Gruffydd was taken prisoner. Prince Henry marched with his army into North Wales/ Aberystwyth castle was captured in 1846, and in the next year Owain's stronghold, Harlech Castle, fell into the hands of the English.
Owain the great  hero  though remaining a problem for a while, by 1410 Glyndwr was a hounded pariah, and saw anti-Welsh legislation more repressive than ever, Owain and his followers were forced to flee and hide themselves in the hills. In 1413,Henry IV died, and Henry of Monmouth was crowned Henry V. Little is known about the closing scenes of his life, Henry V offered him a pardon in 1415, but he was apparently too proud to accept it,but as the sands ran out of his rebellion, he was never captured or betrayed, and he simply slipped away, some say finding shelter at  the home of one of his daughters, across the border in Herefordshire. His son, Maredudd ap Owain Glyndwr, also refused the pardon, but accepted another in 1421, suggesting that by this time that his father was, by then dead.
Owen Rhoscomyl who wrote Flame bearers of Welsh History in 1905  believed Glyndwr’s spirit lived on, saying of Glyndwr’s unknown grave: ”Time shall not touch it, decay shall not dishonour it for that grave is in the heart of every true Cymro. There for ever, from generation to generation, grey Owen’s heart lies dreaming on, dreaming on, safe for ever and forever.”
Yet the people he presided over lost everything in a decade of bitter struggle, and saw the regulations designed to keep them repressed rendered considerably harsher for two generations to come, Wales' citizens were treated as second hand citizens compared to the English..
Centuries have now passed since this great Welshman died, but his name and his spirit will be forever honoured by the Cymry, because  he was the champion of its people, and his ideals still inspire this nation, he has  since become a symbol of pride and freedom, and our want for self autonomy. The nationalist movement has always held Owain Glyndwr in high regard, and  he is now a figure of mass culture in Wales. In his play, Henry IV, Shakespeare portrays Owain Glyndwr (anglicised as Owen Glendower) as a wild, exotic, magical and spiritual man, who recalled him as being “not in the roll of common men”. playing up the romantic 'Celtic' traits. In the 19th century his life and legacy was beginning to be re-evaluated as the Welsh 'nation' began to find its voice once more. The discovery of his seal and letters were proof that he was a national leader of some importance.

He has since become revered, almost a saint, referred to by many as the 'last Prince of Wales',  acquiring a mythical status alongside Cadwaladr, Cynan and like the legend of King  Arthur, Welsh legend has it that when Wales is threatened again threatened again, he will rise again in order to lead the defense of Wales  and liberate his people. Even the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro hailed him as “the World’s first guerilla leader" his coat of arms since waved in parades, an invocation of past grievances, with statues and monuments, alongside pub and street names commemorating him.
The Owain Glyn Dŵr society was founded in 1996 by Adrien Jones (the society’s President) to “...commemorate the role of Owain Glyn Dŵr in Welsh history...” and “... create a permanent memorial....” That memorial was unveiled at Machynlleth on the 600th anniversary of the start of his revolt against the English crown. For information about the society click her
Dydd Owain Glyndwr hapus i pawb/ Happy Owain Glyndwr day to all.

Twitter Storm : Sat 15 September, Tell @HSBC to #StopArmingIsrael & divest from Elbit Systems now!

Israel uses military force to maintain its oppression of Palestinians. It targets and tests their weapons on Palestinian civilians using tear gas grenades, rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition, and carries out mass arrests, house demolitions and extrajudicial executions.
This brutality lies at the heart of Israel’s systematic violations of Palestinian rights, amounting to serious breaches of international law, and even war crimes.
HSBC is a major shareholder in companies selling weapons and military technology to Israel including Elbit Systems,that is Israel's largest private arms company, which manufactures drones and surveillance technology, and has recently sold Israel cannons for internationally banned cluster munitions. HSBC claims to have a strict policy against doing business with companies involved in cluster munitions production, but still holds millions of pounds worth of shares in Elbit Systems.
We can’t allow banks on our high streets to continue lending support to Israel’s militarised repression of Palestinians. Together, we can break the chain of complicity.
Join the  twitter storm happening now tell @HSBC it’s time to #StopArmingIsrael and divest from Elbit Systems and all companies selling weapons to Israel’s military today! #HSBComplicity

Marc Ribot -" Bella Ciao (Goodbye Beautiful) " ( feat. Tom Waits )

Bella Ciao is an Italian folk ballad, with a robust, storied past, the author of the lyrics is unknown; but the music and spirit of the song is based on a folk song sung by rice-weeders on the River Po basin in the early part of the 20th century,the earliest written version is dated 1906 and comes from near Vercelli, Piedmont.
It was revised and re-written during Word WarII for the Italian anti-fascist resistance fighters, and it has since becomes used worldwide as an anti-fascist hymn of freedom and resistance.
The original Partisan version  sung in Italian can be found here:-

 Many Italian versions, including this modern rendition by the  Modena City Ramblers, have appeared over the years, while in addition to the original Italian, the song has been sung by revolutionaries and fighters the world over in numerous languages.including Arabic, Bosnian, Breton, Catalan, Chinese , Croatian, Danish, English, Esperanto, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Hebrew, Japanese, Persian, Kurdish, Norwegian, Occitan, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Syriac, You can read more about the songs  long history here http://riowang.blogspot.com/2008/12/bella-ciao.html
The following  beautiful version featuring Tom Waits with his grizzled inimitable voice, that puts real feeling into his reading of the song, is taken from Songs of Resistance 1948-2016, the new album by guitarist Marc Ribot, who describes it as a protest record adding, "Every movement which has won anyrhing has had songs."  “Tom brings a certain gravitas to everything he does,” says Ribot. “My Italian friends say he sounds exactly like an old ‘partigiano’ (resistance fighter)!”
The video below is directed by Jem Cohen and uses footage from anti-Trump demonstrations in Washington DC, that makes its parallels with modern life very explicit, the song is still so relevant for the world we are in today. Pairing Waits' vocals with footage of police and soldiers guarding barricades at anti-Trump protests.
This year. we have seen some of the biggest fascist demonstrations in decades, supported by the international Alt-right. The fight against these forces of fascism  must continue, as the flower of resistance still grows strong..
Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 comes out today  Sept. 14 via Anti-.

 Bella Ciao

One fine morning
I woke up early
(bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao)
One fine morning
I woke up early
to find the fascist at my door.

O, partisano,
please, take me with you
(bella ciao, bella ciao, goodbye beautiful)
O, partisano,
please take me with you,
I’m not afraid anymore.

And if I die
a partisano
(bella ciao, bella ciao, goodbye beautiful)
bury me upon my mountain
beneath the shadow of a flower.

So all the people,
the people passing
(bella ciao, bella ciao, goodbye beautiful)
So all the people, the people passing,
they say “O, what a beautiful flower!”

This is the flower of the partisan
(bella ciao, bella ciao, goodbye beautiful)
This is the flower of the partisan
who died for freedom.
This is the flower
of the partisan
who died for freedom.

The other 9/11

 

 Repost with additional information

On September 11, 2001 the USA experienced a great tragedy,I join people all over the world in remembering the lives lost on that day, and the hundreds of thousands more killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the other wars that followed.
Today though I also remember another 9/11, when on this day on September 11 1973, the democratically elected Government of Chile's socialist President Allende was brutally overthrown in a bloody, military coup led by fascist General Augusto Pinochet, friend of Margaret Thatcher. An American sponsored coup  that crushed a democratically elected government, which would lead  to years of repression, torture, forced disappearance, false imprisonment, fear, death and for many Chileans exile. Democracy would not return for 17 years with the Chilean people having to endure years of autocratic military rule.
In Chile in 1970 Salvador Allende won 36.6% of the vote and established his Popular Unity government in power much to the alarm of the United States government who feared his leftist government would slide into one party rule like Fidel Castro's Cuba. Allende's political platform was populist and he promised the nationalization of many sectors of the Chilean economy and the distribution of wealth to the country's poor. These plans, however, were not accepted in Washington, which saw Chile as the new “red menace”, a cancer to be eradicated and in a way to make it an example to anyone who dared to follow in its footsteps.The involvement of the CIA is proved by documents and files decrypted that confirm what we already knew: the coup had its legitimation from  President Nixon and the National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, the future Nobel Peace Prize.
Today in 1973 the Chilean military, under Pinochet's command, announced a coup and  Air Force planes  attacked the presidential palace. Within a few hours, the military had seized control of the government, and Allende and many of his ministers were left dead  in the presidential palace as the military unleashed a wave of brutal repression against the population and  the people's movements, ushering in almost two decades of right wing military rule under Pinochet. 

The military and secret police began rounding up thousands of  people loyal to President Allende.Many disappeared" into army-run, CIA-supported torture centers, never to be heard from again.Over 20,000 people  are  established to have been killed during Pinochet's reign  of terror. and 60,000 tortured,  hundreds of Allendes supporters alone were gunned down in Santiago Soccer stadium, so  today in Chile  this event is still marked  with anger, people taking to the streets and displaying it, Chileans still having to deal  with the devastating legacy of life  under a fascist regime.
Today on  this tragic anniversary, it is time to remember again, a time in our  history that still holds daily reverence to most Chileans lives,and for much of Latin America, and for the  many democratic reformers and carriers of solidarity's message worldwide.
In Florida in June,2016 a jury  found a former Chilean army officer liable for the murder of folk singer and activist Víctor Jara in 1973. Jara was tortured and shot more than 40 times in the days after the U.S.-backed coup. The verdict against Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nuñez marked what The Guardian newspaper called "one of the biggest and most significant legal human rights victories against a foreign war criminal in a US courtroom." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/27/victor-jara-pedro-pablo-barrientos-nunez-killing-chile  Speaking on the steps of the Florida courthouse, on , Jara’s widow Joan Jara Turner said at  the time, "What we were trying to do for more than 40 years, for Víctor, has today come true."
Since then in a form of justice eight retired Chilean military officers have been sentenced to 15 years in prison for Victor's murder.This hero of the people whose life and music has been celebrated ever since. 

Yet  no US presidential apology, has ever been made for what was unleashed on the workers, students and ordinary people of Chile on this day. So today as America  remembers  their own  9/11 lets not forget the other injustice that they helped cause.

I am  sadly reminded that years after the world watched as planes hijacked by terrorists  crashed into the World Trade Center ( that caused a further millions deaths, also creating millions of refugees, malnutrition, birth defects and other health disasters on generations of children  in Iraq and other war zones), the harrowing  cycle of violence never ended. 

My only hope now is that we continue to express true sorrow, whilst collectively recognising the terrible legacy of these two  9/11's. Let us chart a more just and peaceful path forward. Lets hope the forces of truth and reconciliation long continue to be fostered and that  all victims are  rightfully remembered. 

Victor Jara - Venceremos
 

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/40th-anniversary-of-chilean-coup.html

The Battle of Stockton, 1933

Today I commemorate the Battle of Stockton when over 2000 anti-fascist  demonstrators drove out of this town members of the British Union of fascists.
In the 1930's Oswald Mosley's party saw deprived areas experiencing mass unemployment and acute poverty, their planned march was an early attempt to rally support and recruits in depressed areas. Stockton  was an ideal town for the BUF to target as it was  particularly hard hit  by the 1930 Great Depression.In Germany, similar towns had fallen under the sway of the Nazis so the BUF had expected to be greeted with a warm welcome.

In Stockton, the first attempts by the local BUF Branch to begin organised street propaganda and open air soapbox meetings had hit determined opposition from local leftwingers. The footsoldiers of this opposition was supplied by members of the local Branch of the National Unemployed Workers Movement, with the active support of both local supporters and members of the Labour Party and the relatively small Teesside Communist Party.

On this day on Sunday 10th September 1933, the blackshirts arrived at Thornaby Town Hall and marched in formation over Victoria Bridge and into Stockton town centre. They were heading for the market cross in Stockton High Street, with the view of galvanising support and encouraging locals to join their ranks.
But as their leader, Captain Vincent Collier, tried to speak from the steps of the Market Cross, outside the grand town hall, he and his fellow fascists  numbering around 100 were met with a wave of resistance, their leaders voice was  drowned out and spat at, greeted by more than two thousand local people who had been waiting for them.
As sticks and stones rained down on the fascists  and fighting between the BUF  and the people of Stockton ensued, as  the Northern Echo and other local press. reported at the time the use of weapons being wielded by both sides. Wooden staves and pickaxe handles, and more lethally, potatoes into which razor blades had been studded to be thrown at the fascists.The end result being that the fascists were forced to flee and driven out of town, and never returned.

No arrests were made but a number of the Fascists were injured, some so seriously they required treatment in local hospitals. The Battle of Stockton was over; the Fascists were denied their ‘Conquest of the streets”. Losing credibility and their wealthy backers the BUF declined into a violent, London-based grouping of thugs and misfits. 
Local people had nor been to slow to see the analogies between what had happened on the streets of Stockton and what was occurring in the towns and cities of Germany. The Stockton  events had occurred after all had occurred a mere eight months after Hitler had seized the German Chancerllorship, and at the same time as the trial and execution of the hapless Van Lubbe, the man accused of starting the Reichstag fire, an event which conveniently allowed Hitler to put into law draconian emergency decrees which effectively  turned Germany into a armed dictatorship, and fascist state.
Stockton was by no means unique in attracting the attention of fascist forces during the pre-war years. But unlike the now legendary Battle of Cable Street in London https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2015/10/they-shall-not-pass-battle-for-cable.htm 
which took place 3 years later it is now largely forgotten. But as fascism and fascists, and their forces of darkness are  still unfortunately with us, and are on the rise, let us proudly remember the people of Stockton  who stopped them in their paths. Together united we can repel them again. We will continue what our Grandfathers did, a fight that has never finished. They shall not pass / No Pasaran..

The Young 'uns -  The Battle of Stockton

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