Remembering Rachel Corrie, still not forgotten ( 10/4/79 - 16/3/03 )

It has become customary  of me to pay tribute to the passing of  Rachel Aliene Corrie, 
a courageous  23 year old American Peace activist and humanitarian  from Olympia, Washington who was crushed to death by an Israeli military, caterpiller D 912 bulldozer in 2003, while undertaking non-violent direct action trying to protect the home of  innocent  Palestinian  homes from demolition in Rafah in the Gaza strip. whilst serving with the ISM - International Solidarity Movement.
Rachel had come to Gaza during part of her senior college assignement that connected her home of Olympia with Rafah, Rachel  had engaged with other International Solidarity Movement activists in efforts to prevent continued demolition of Palestinian homes in operations that the Israeli military claimed were aimed at eliminating weapons smuggling tunnels.
 She was horrified at the destruction she witnessed. Homes were destroyed and people detained and killed on a daily basis. Rachel recorded what she observed and felt in letters and emails to her family. In one email she wrote, "Now the Israeli army has actually dug up the road to Gaza, and both of the major checkpoints are closed. This means that Palestinians who want to go and register for their next quarter at university can't. People can't get to their jobs and those who are trapped on the other side can't get home, and internationals who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, wont make it."
In another email she wrote, "Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom... Honestly a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence off the willful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me."

On 16 March 2003 in the Gaza Strip's southern city of Rafah, Corrie stood  before an Israeli bulldozer whilst wearing a bright orange fluoresent jacket and using a megphone in hopes of stopping it from  demolishing the home of a local Palestinian  family.

Corrie believed that her foreign features and blonde hair would deter the bulldozer, but she was wrong. She was crushed to death when the bulldozer driver ran over her repeatedly, according to witnesses.

The people of Gaza received news of her murder with grief and horror, describing her as a "martyr "and staging a massive funeral for the American activist. Since then the name Rachel Corrie has become synonymous with the Palestinian cause, an icon of global solidarity withe the people of Palestine. Her name was chosen as the name for an Irish aid ship that set out to Gaza in 2010, while her story has been told in several documentary films  portraying Palestinian suffering. 
So today day I reflect upon Rachel's brave stand in Gaza and her courage to resist, and all  those who continue to live and struggle there. And all those passionate change makers across the globe who each day act with conscience and work tirelessly to try and make a difference.
Justice has never been served for her, along with many others who have been killed under the Israeli occupation. In 2005 Corrie's parents filed a civil lawsuit against the state of Israel, for a symbolic one U.S dollar in damages, to make the point that the case was about justice for their daughter and the Palestinian cause, she had been defending. Charging Israel with not conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and with responsibility for her death.  In August 2012, an Israeli court rejected their suit.
Her death they said was a " regrettable accident " for which the state of Israel was not responsible. According to Judge Oded Gershon of Haifa Court she had " put herself in a dangerous situation " whilst dressed in a bright orange and acting as a human shield, jacket when she was crushed to death. Israel to all intents and purpose declared itself not guilty of her murder. giving its stamp of approval to the flawed and illegal practices of the Israeli military. the verdict  failed to hold Israel's military accountable for its continuing violation  of human rights. 
The home Rachel died trying to protect was razed to the ground, along with hundreds of others.  and today Israel still acts with impunity, There is still no justice when their courts show such contempt for justice's meaning. There is no justice either , when the Gaza strip remains a sealed open prison, there is no justice when countless Palestinian families  are made homeless, their houses destroyed. Where is the justice for them or their friends after the uneccessary death of their loved ones.
Remember that what is happening in Palestine is no inexplicable cycle of violence where each side is as bad as one another.It is no more than an equal  cycle of violence than that seen in apartheid South Africa. Being against this injustice is not anti-Jewish, as is standing up to the British Government's injustices is seen as being anti- British.
Rachel Corrie understood these links and connections and would have known about an active Israeli peace movement, and of the hundreds  of Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories, many of whom have been jailed for their stance. Israel has invaded Palestinian land in breach of international law. Rachel died while attempting to prevent a demolition of a home, a common practice that the  Israeli army, uses as a collective punishment that has left more than 12,000 Palestinians homeless since the beginning of the second uprising in September 2000. A practice that violates International Law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
So here's to the memory and bravery of Rachel Corrie  a true American hero,who courageously died whilst living her dreams, staying human and showing her solidarity with her beloved friends, the Palestinians. who continues to inspire activism and compassion across the globe, her  spirit lives on, challenging us to get out of our comfort zones and act with our convictions.
Rachel's death was tragic, but  brought the world's attention to the suffering and death of thousands of Palestinians. At least 6,500 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli occupation since 2000, so the international community must carry on fighting for their justice too, as well as that of Rachel's, the situation sadly in the West Bank and Gaza, still no different today.
The world must not stay silent, while the struggle continues against the demolition and occupation of Palestinian homes and lands, restrictions of movement, detentions, arrest, collective punishment, the siege of Gaza and the aggressive military attacks that continue  on a daily basis. Here is a link to the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice set up in her memory. I for one will not forget  her , alongside the Palestinians  and by supporters of the Palestinian struggle around the world, as she  continues to remind us to be kind, generous anf, strong even in the most difficult of circumstances. 

https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/

I'd Rather Be Dancing (Rachel Corrie's Song ) -  Jim Page

The words of following song are based on actual letters Rachel wrote home to her parents, before she died.

. Genesis P-Orridge, 1950 – 2020: Uncompromising Artistic Provocateur

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950) the pioneering and boundary shifting English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, occultist,  disciple of William S. Byrroughs, transgressive counter-cultural icon and a pioneer of radical performance has died aged 70. after  battling leukemia for 2½ years, the Dais Records label announced.
The label shared a statement from P-Orridge’s daughters Careese, and Genesse on their parent who identified as third gender, they wrote:

Dear friends, family and loving supporters, It is with very heavy hearts that we announce thee passing of our beloved father, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
S/he had been battling leukemia for two and a half years and dropped he/r body early this morning, Saturday March 14th, 2020.
S/he will be laid to rest with h/er other half, Jaqueline “Lady Jaye” Breyer who left us in 2007, where they will be re-united.
Thank you for your love and support and for respecting our privacy as we are grieving.

Caresse & Genesse P-Orridge

#s/heisher/forever

P-Orridge was born in Victoria Park, Manchester on February 22 1950,, as Neil Andrew Megson and grew up in Essex. As a teenager, he attended Solihull School in Warwickshire, where he was interested in occultism, avant-garde art, radical politics and underground music.After being hospitalised aged 17 following a blackout they decided their life should be dedicated to art. They began to conduct ‘happenings’ designed to spark an “artistic revolution”. Such works were controversial – their Hull University magazine Worm, which published anything submitted without editorial interference, was banned for obscenity by the Student Union.
S/he left the University of Hull to join the Transmedia Explorations commune in London, leading lights of the counter-culture scene since 1967, leaving the commune after three months to found the controversial avant-garde art and improvisation music collective COUM Transmissions  with artist Cosi Fanni Tutti, inspired by the subversive prankery of thee dadaists and the situationists. COUM Transmissions founded its own counter-culture commune of artists and thinkers called the Ho-Ho Funhouse in a dockside warehouse and moved towards more theatrical performance art, such as purposefully turning up to play as gig with no instruments, or encouraging audiences to boo them offstage.Their 1976 exhibition at London’s Institute of Present-day Arts, titled Prostitution, scandalised the art world, and prompted Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn to denounce the group as “the wreckers of civilization”
It was during this time that s/he also began a friendship and correspondence with Beat writer William Burrroughs that wuld last until the authors death in 1997. Soon afterwardsr Genesis and Tutti branched out to form Throbbing Gristle in 1975 with Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson. The band was named after Yorkshire slang for an erect penis.They released "United "  b/w " "Zyclon B Zombie," their first single, on their own Industrial Records label"

Releasing their debut album The Second Annual Report in 1977. Crude, uncompromising and deliberately malicious, it was not always an easy listen, – based all-around a number of variations of the music Slug Bait and Maggot Loss of life, which in depth sadistic functions of violence and murder. Only 785 copies were being pressed, but the album was a critical affect on the industrial movement, a a lot more antagonistic cousin of punk. As a member of this seminal band, P.Orridge  contributed shock tactics and performance art with subversive, hybrid aesthetics, thus helping to define the nascent industrial genre as an adventurous and edgy one. The hugely influential group traded in harsh, grating confrontational music, white noise, primitive, based samples,  drum loops and spoken word poetry and disturbing visuals,  that often featured nudity, self- mutilation  and images of Concentration Camps were active from 1975 to 1981 and again from 2004 to 2010. Their third album, 1979's 20 Jazz Funk Greats is considered to be one of the most influential industrial albums of all time. A vast array of alternative acts, from My Bloody Valentine,;Killing Joke to Nine Inch Nails and Aphex Twin  and Ministry remain firmly in its debt.
The band collapsed in 1981 due to personal issues and P-Orridge went on to found the experimental “video group who does music” Psychic TV with Alternative TV’s Alex Fergusson. They embraced video art, psychedelia, electronica and punk. Delving further into P-Orridge’s interest in the occult, and fetishism they also utilised magical sigils, Tibetan instruments made of human thigh bones, and explored the teachings of LaVeyan Satainism; they hoped reclaim television as a form of eso terrorist” magick rather than a tool of establishment indoctrination, and scored a minimal hit with Godstar, a tribute to late Rolling Stone guitarist Brian Jones.

Psychic TV made their debut in 1982 at a four-day multimedia event in London and Manchester called the Final Academy, which featured artists including  William S Burroughs and Brion Gysin.
The band’s output was prolific – releasing much more than 100 albums, and entering the Guinness Reserve of World Data after issuing 14 dwell records in the room of 18 months. From 1988 onwards they became under the influence of acid house.
 P-Orridge was also a founding member  in 1981 of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth  ' anti-cult'  TOPY gathered members of the industrial music subculture, artists and occultists, into a loose network with the aim of, in Genesis' words, "changing society through the magical transformation of individuals". TOPY was dedicated to the occult, chaos magic, and ultimately attacking British society,  who existed to promote a system ov functional, demystified magick, utilising both pagan and modern techniques..

With these projects, as well as their abundant  visual arty, P- Orridge, applied the cut and paste techniques of William S.Burrough and the occult philosophies of Aleister Crowley to cultural  work that aimed to corrupt and unsettle the habits of normative consensus society and brazenly confronting power and pushing the boundaries of acceptance wherever they could. “I am at war with the status quo of society and I am at war with those in control and power,” said Genesis in 1989. “I’m at war with hypocrisy and lies, I’m at war with the mass media.”
In  1992, Genesis’s dwelling in Brighton was raided by Scotland Yard’s Obscene Publications Squad after a  Channel 4 Dispatches programme claimed to have footage of P-Orridge abusing children in sex-magic rites. The  material was later found to be video performance artwork from the early 1980s – partly funded by Channel 4 itself, and featuring no children.programme.
Despite this the artist went into self-imposed exile in the US. Consistently pushing the boundaries of adventurous art, P.Orridge pioneered new ways of thinking around identity, gender and relationships and S/he met the performance artist Lady Jaye Breyer in the nineties. Together the legendary couple moved to New York and began a lifelong project of “pandrogeny”which  was Genesis's attempt to virtually "become" Jaye via physical and spiritual transfiguration Breyer and P-Orridge underwent numerous cosmetic, surgical, and medical treatments in order to approximate one another, thus finally merging into a single pandrogynous being named Breyer P-Orridge. “Pandrogeny as a concept is not about gender—it’s about the ending of all binary perception.It’s influenced by the allegory of the path of no distinction—that all definitions, distinctions, values, matters of what could be considered good, bad, delicious, or revolting are all human-made. They’re not innate. That’s true of identity, which includes gender.For for us it’s about erasing the need to even consider gender.”
This pandrogyny project was cut short when Breyer died of acute heart arrhythmia in 2007, an especially painful loss at a time when P-Orridge was beginning to receive highbrow acclaim,triggering a long cycle of grief  for h/er partner. Undergoing gender reassignment surgery in the mid-2000s and, according to a 2019 interview in the Los Angeles Times, preferred gender-neutral pronouns in part because of “a desire to include into conversations the voice of their longtime creative and romantic partner Jacqueline ‘Lady Jaye’ Breyer.
S/he had been diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia in 2017,a year after Psychic TV recorded their final studio album. It was a diagnosis which s/he took on with the spirit only a true avant-garde, occultist could. Speaking to The New York Times in 2018, P-Orridge had this to say about her philosophy on life:“When you’ve got a terminal illness, you think about what your
legacy might be. My only answer is, we would hope that it would inspire people to see that they can do a life totally as they would like it to unfold. Live your life every day like a page in your book of life, and make that page as interesting as you can. Whenever you have a choice, say: Which is the better page in my book?”
TryMarie Losier’s documentary film The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye was released in 2011,

 and in 2016 the Rubin Museum of Art in New York hosted Try to Altar Everything an exhibition of P-Orridge’s paintings, sculptures and installations. In 2018 s/he published Brion Gysin: His Name Was Master, a collection of interviews and essays.
In 2003 P-Orridge had unveiled PTV3, a new band drawing on the legacy of Psychic TV. They released four albums and several EPs between 2007 and 2016. In 2018 they performed at Heaven in London.
P-Orridge is survived by two daughters, Genesse and Caresse, from a first marriage, to Paula Brooking, which ended in divorce.
A  daring authentic, uncompromising musical  pioneer, cultural engineer,  provocateur extraordinary, shapeshifting purveyor of the senses, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is arguably one of the most important icons of Alternative Culture of the latter quarter of the 20th century and beyond who leaves a legacy of much richness, who remains a hugely influential figure on young musicians looking for new directions,a unique persona who has certainly inspired me,  may  s/he continue to find unconditional love as s/he travels into the infinite. Goodbye to this musical legend, there is beauty and there is ugliness, and angels and demons in every land we tread., Genesis will be missed deeply.

Throbbing Gristle - Almost a kiss

Throbbing Gristle - What a Day

Throbbing Gristle - Dream Machine

Psychic TV - Infinite Beat

Psychic TV - Pagan Day

Psychic TV - The Alienist

Psychic TV - Just Drifting (for Caresse)

Some basic things we can do to meet our fears and diminish our anxiety over Coronavirus.

We are ALL connected. The coronavirus is spreading across the world. It has reached pandemic proportions and we are facing.a global health crisis. It's a tough time for all of us.

From the United States to Italy, Iran to South Korea,  the epidemic is getting worse. sending countries into economic meltdown as markets whipsaw and panic buying leading to food shortages. .

Governments have issued new rounds of travel bans. Institutions, schools  and public places facing shutdown.

At the same time some politicians are using the crisis for political gain, but the virus itself, has no politics, does not discriminate and sees no borders.

Trustworthy health advice has never been  more vital. It could be the difference between life and death.

It is important to remember that there is currently no specific treatment for coronavirus.

Antibiotics do not help, as they do not work against viruses;.

Please note, each infected person will start being infectious after 12 to 24 hrs, showing symptoms after  5 to 12 days. They will infect  on average 2.6 other people

The public has a crucial role in containing the virus. and here are  some basic things we can do to meet our fears and diminish our anxiety:

Ignore conspiracy theories and peddlers of misinformation,  it's  so easy to feel scared and alone at times like this, that's why we need to ground ourselves in our collective strength and grow strong by caring for each other.

Practice social distancing, work from home,  people should avoid gathering in public places,and participate in gatherings virtually instead.

Stay at home as much as possible.

Cancel non essential appointments

Wash your hands often for at least 20 seconds.

Don’t touch your face.

Elbow bump, touch your heart, or gently bow instead of hugging or shaking hands.

Disinfect around you and buy what we need (just what we need).

Protect your immune system with plenty of fruits and vegetables and get caught up on sleep.

If you are sick and experiencing symptoms (coughing, fever, and shortness of breath, please stay home so that you do not get others sick.

Perhaps the most important message the coronavirus offers is that the natural world is conspiring to save us from ourselves, to slow our materialistic greed and reign in our aggressive, self-centered, short-term, and xenophobic tendencies.”

It feels strange and hard to refrain from social engagements when we are feeling anxious and the need to connect. But right now the best way we can support each other is by keeping each other healthy.

Think about how we can support each other and our neighbors while not being together in person.

Reach out to one another by phone, email, text message, facebook etc.

While many of us are decreasing our physical contact, we need one another more right now, not less.

Be kind to those who are working, who are doing the jobs  that care for life.

Notice them, thank them, help calm their anxieties.

Keep in mind that during times of crisis, those who are most vulnerable, the poor, the elderly, women and children .

Making sure older neighbours have enough food, shops are doing home deliveries, community organisation are checking in with people they know are struggling.

Please do not  panic, Spread the love.

We will get through this together.

Here is a link to  the latest information on the Novel Coronavirus from Public Health Wales

https://phw.nhs.wales/topics/latest-information-on-novel-coronavirus-covid-19/

Tory Hand Wash Out

Filthy Torys telling us to wash our hands with soap
Words of advice from those that offer no bloody hope,
Daily releasing immorality and stains so impure
With toxic, rotten, cruel, conscious ideology,
Sordid,vicious, ill-inclined, carrying the stench of evil
Creating  division, iniquity, infecting the land,
Places where no one is left with room to dream
Voices are denied, discounted, so easily excused ,
Where music has been stilled, no joy to be found
As people search for crumbs, some healing air,
Trapped and controlled  by usurpers who rule by stealth
Who could not give a fuck about the nations health,
Wherever they roam or walk just give offence
The simple fact is we can't trust the Conservatives,
As they continue to destroy essential services
Abandon care for many people in need,
Led by a bumbling narcissistic circus clown
How can we  trust them on coronovirus,
Whose double standards put us all in jeapordy
Continuing to release unfurling tragedy.

International Women's Day - Solidarity to my Sisters.

Celebrated on March 8 every year, International Women's Day is a day dedicated to honoring the achievements of women throughout history and all across the globe, and is typically a day for women from all different backgrounds and cultures to band together to fight for gender parity and  women's rights.

 This year, International Women's Day occurs on a Sunday and will be celebrated with the special 2020 theme, #EachforEqual, celebrating  "Generation Equality” and the continued fight for equal rights for women.

 “We don’t have an equal world at the moment and women are angry and concerned about the future,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in a statement. “It's an impatience that runs deep, and it has been brewing for years…..Though we are radically impatient, we are not giving up and we are hopeful.”

 International Women’s Day is a time for reflection of how far women have come, advocacy for what is still needed, and action to continue breaking down barriers. With over a century of history, IWD is a growing movement centered around unity and strength. 

International Women’s Day has a rich history dating back 108 years, at the beginning of the 20th Century women across Europe and America were finding their voice. That wanted and demanded decent jobs, better pay, and the right to vote or hold public offices, for their emancipation. It was out  of this air of dissatisfaction that International Women's Day was born. 

At the beginning of the 20th Century women across Europe and America were finding their voice. That wanted and demanded decent jobs, better pay, and the right to vote or hold public offices, for their emancipation. It was out  of this air of dissatisfaction that International Women's Day was born.
In 1909, the United States labour movement and the push for women’s suffrage were both gaining steam. Russian refugee, labor organiser, and journalist Theresa Malkiel served on the women’s committee of the Socialist Party of America. Envisioning a more active role for women within the movement, she declared February 23, 1909 “National Woman’s Day.” New York socialists celebrated with a meeting of about 2,000 people in Manhattan.
“The very first observation of our national Woman’s Day,” recalled activist Meta L,Stern three years later, “proved so successful that Woman’s Day became generally accepted as an annual Socialist holiday.” Along with May Day, she explained, the day stood “for new hopes and new ideals; the abolition of wage slavery and sex slavery; the coming of a freer, better and happier manhood and womanhood.”In 1910 at the Second International,  a world wide socialist  congress, German Socialist  Clara Zetkin https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2015/07/happy-birthday-clara-zetkin-571857.html proclaimed International Women's day to commemorate the US demonstrators ( garment workers who had marched and picketed  demanding improved working conditions  and a 8 hour day)  whose ranks were broken up by the police, and honour working women the world over.  
 Originally called National Woman’s Day, the monumental annual celebration spread across the world (officially celebrated in 1911), but it was Russia who unknowingly set the March 8 trend and helped spark a revolution. When tens of thousands of women converged in Petrograd, Russia to mark the holiday—as well as demand an end to World War I and protest food shortages—the demonstrations  turned into a massive strike. Within hours, 100,000 workers, including men, walked out on their jobs to join the demonstrators.
The movement grew to as many as 150,000 striking workers within a few days. Eventually, even the Russian army joined the marchers, withdrawing their support from the Tsar Nicholas. It was the beginning of the Russian Revolution.
After World War II, the holiday picked up steam, and lost many of its associations with socialism and radical politics. As the women’s liberation movement swept around the world in the 1970s, the United Nations designated 1975 International Women's Year and celebrated the holiday for the first time. Two years later in 1977,  designated March 8 International Women’s Day, and, in 1996, began to adopt an annual theme for every year. The first theme was "Celebrating the past, Planning for the Future." This year’s theme #EachforEqual is meant to be a shared goal throughout 2020.

"We can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations, and celebrate women's achievements," states the organization's site. "Collectively, each one of us can help create a gender equal world. Let's all be #EachforEqual."

The IWD 2020 campaign theme draws on the notion of "collective individualism," which refers to the idea that every individual is a part of a whole, and that an individual's actions, behaviors, and mindsets can all have an impact on larger society. IWD is a national holiday in 27 countries like Russia, Afghanistan, and Laos; in some countries, like Nepal and China, it’s a national holiday for women only.

IWD is a day to celebrate the social, political and other acheivements of women. A day to recognise the oppression that still  flourishes, caused by both capitalism and patriarchy. An  unfortunate and undeniable reality for the majority of women today.The  fight for womens rights might looks a little different today, but our sisters are still facing discrimination and injustices across the globe.
In recent times, issues of women's political influence and economic equality have been joined by broader struggles against, racism, war, violence, environmental destruction, and other forms of oppression for peace and social justice  and is now often spread into  a whole week of activities.
Time to celebrate the gains  women have made and to  keep on calling for the changes that are still very much needed. Women are still not equally represented in business or politics, girls facing sexual objectification from an early age,  girls told  to shrink themselves make themselves smaller. Women still forced to flee domestic abuse,  others facing honour killing, a practice that allows family members to murder women for dishonouring their families, by refusing arranged marriages, removing their faith or for simply dressing in ways considered inappropriate. I also note that the basic needs of most Palestinian women are daily being violated by Israels's ongoing occupation and siege. The siege in Gaza a contributing factor in one fifth of maternal deaths in Gaza.
Yet  contrary to Orientalist  misrepresentation, women have been at the heart of liberation struggles in the Middle East and North Africa. At the moment in the region of Turkey and Kurdistan women are being politicised in a long struggle against theocratic totalitarianism, inspiring us in their fight for emancipation and freedom.
So today as I observe International Womens Day, I stand up for all women still trapped by injustices, still suffering from abuse, at the end of the day I believe the women's struggle is a struggle for the freedom of all people, recuperating the fair value of people over things. I recognise the practice and theory of mutual support that women have laid, that are the foundations of social change that we must keep building. Women who recognised the tactical necessity of standing and working together, lest they be destroyed individually, women who put to shame the ridiculous notion of  a 'women's place. Their struggle is ours too. I acknowledge all those  who have been persecuted, jailed, tortured, simply for being a woman. Especially those who are among the most vulnerable in this present moment of time - the refugees. 
Let us also celebrate the  powerful women who've fought dictatorship, risked their lives to fight climate change and led mass movements for justice across the world, we cannot let their contributions go unnoticed today and every day.
Solidarity with the women of  Kobane, Mexico, Afganistan, Gaza, women of the world, to my sisters nearer home and to all the comrades  who are still fiercely opting to break every chain.
Despite strides made by the international women’s rights movement – and union campaigns for women’s rights – over many years, protests will be staged across the world today against injustice, abuse, discrimination, violence and harassment targeted at women and girls.,calling for gender equality, an end to gender-based violence and occupational segregation,
If you do one thing this international Women's Day, can you please push the following petition that will help drive real change to make our society safer and better for girls and women, everyday of the year.

Change.org/OurStreetsNowIWD

Heddwch/Peace. Solidarity forever

" Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation,  and it is perhaps, the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress, towards equality, development and peace."

- Gen Secretary of the UN  - Koffi Annan

oh and as Emma Goldman pointed out  :-

" The most  violent element in society is ignorance."

Here is a link to the Socialist Roots of International Women's Day

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-socialist-roots-of-international.html

Muna Abdulahi - Explaining Depression to a Refugee

Muna Abdulahi is a Spoken Word Poet based in Minneapolis MN.

 In her work, she explores many themes of belonging and identity, particularly in the context of migration and nationality.

As a writer/poet, Muna pushes herself to tell the stories that are erased, silenced, devalued, or buried, the stories that are difficult, the stories that bring together communities, youth, and discussions.

 In her poem Explaining Depression to a Refugee she delivers a powerful  important message of the refugee experience, covering  diaspora, depression and doctors, that gives voice to the voiceless.

Abdulahi expresses the confusion her mother, a former Somalian refugee, displays as she is unable to fathom her daughter being diagnosed with depression.

She explains the stigmatisation the Somali culture places on mental health as her “native tongue doesn’t speak of it to its existence.”

 After a brutal war, one that caused many to see their loved ones murdered before their eyes for simply belonging to the wrong clan.

Fearing for their lives, people fled on foot and paid smugglers for entry to foreign lands.

Somali refugees are forced to grapple with the cultural and economic battles common to many who are forced to abandon their lives and seek refuge thousands of miles away from home.

But in spite of that shared pain, in the Somali community, goes largely unaddressed

Here is a link to a musical version of the poem.

https://home-street-home-records.bandcamp.com/track/a-poem-by-muna-abdulahi

Find more from Muna Abdulahi  here.

Some Praise for Dewi Sant / St David

 

It's become a bit of a tradition to mark the occasion of St David's Day/ Dydd Gŵyl Dewi, which celebrates my nations patron saint, who died on this day back in 601. The day is marked by parades, concerts and the wearing of one or both of Wales’s national emblems, the daffodil and leek.
The ancient tradition of eating and wearing leeks on St David’s Day supposedly goes back to the 6th century. It is said that St David told  Welsh warriors to wear leeks in their helmets in battle against the despised Saxons to differentiate themselves from their enemies,  and that the leeks won them victory. This is pure legend of course, but soon the association between leeks and war was firmly cemented in the Welsh mind. In the 14th century Welsh archers adopted green and white for their uniform in honour of the leek. And to this day the Royal Welch Fusiliers uphold the tradition of eating raw leeks on 1 March.
St David’s status as a modern national icon is a good example of how easily myth can trump historical evidence (or rather the lack of it). He lived and died fifteen hundred years ago, during a period of Welsh history often referred to as ‘the Age of the Saints’. The fifth and sixth centuries saw an intense bout of religious activity in Wales as holy men like David preached the word of God, founded churches and, if the monkish historians of the Middle Ages are to be believed, performed all manner of miracles.
Yet we have very little reliable information about who David was, what he did, or even when exactly he lived. It seems likely that his fame stemmed from the establishment of a monastery in modern-day Pembrokeshire in the late sixth century – a settlement which we know today as the cathedral-city of St Davids. However the earliest direct references to him are found in manuscripts dating from the eighth century, almost 200 years after his death, so it is difficult to be sure about much else.
Luckily the Welsh have never been inclined to let a lack of evidence get in the way of a good story. While little is known  about his life, much of the traditional tales about St David are based on Buchedd Dewi (Life of David), which was written by the scholar Rhigyfarch at the end of the 11th Century.
 Rhygyfarch's life of Saint David is regarded by many scholars as suspect because it contains many implausible events and because he had a stake in enhancing Saint David's history so as to support the prestige of the Welsh church and its independence from Canterbury, the center of the English church (still Catholic at the time). According to David Hugh Farmer in The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Rhygyfarch's history of Saint David "should be treated as propaganda, which may, however, contain some elements of true tradition." So most of what we know about Saint David is really legend; and none the less inspiring for it.
Saint David's existence at least does not seem to be in doubt; it is attested to in written records from earlier dates. He was born in the 6th century in or around South Cardigan and North Pembrokeshire in what is now southwest Wales, the exact year of his birth is unknown, with estimates ranging from 462 to 515 AD.  Born into local royalty, his mother was Saint Non, daughter of a Celtic chieftain, a  woman of great beauty and virtue.Saint David's father was a prince called Sant, son of the King of Cardigan But David wasn't the child of a love-filled marriage. He was concieved after his father either seduced or raped Non, who went on to become a nun.
David's greatness was prophesied, both in the Christian and pagan worlds. Merlin, the great mage at the court of King Arthur, foretold his coming. St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, who at that time lived near St Davids, or Mynyw as it was then known, is said to have wanted to found a monastery nearby, but was told by an angel that the place was reserved for another who would appear in due course. St Patrick’s disappointment was soothed by a vision which showed him that his true vocation lay in Ireland. St Davids father, was also warned by an angel that he would find three treasures by the River Teifi in Cardiganshire, which should be set aside for his son; a stag, a salmon and a swarm of bees. These seemingly strange gifts each had a great significance. The stag, said to eat snakes, represents Christianity's conquering Satan (the serpent); the fish represents Saint David's abstinence from liquor; and the bees represent his wisdom and spirituality.
Even from his birth strange things have been said about David. It is said he was born in a wild thunderstorm, the birthing process was said to have been so intense and fraught that his mothers fingers left marks as she grasped a rock. As David was born a bolt of lightning from heaven is said to have struck the rock, splitting it in two and at the moment of birth a spring of pure water gushed out of the ground. A blind old man who held David at the baptism. had his sight restored by applying this remarkable water to his eyes. This is one of the colourful stories about the childhood of Dewi Sant.
Non named her son Dewidd, though local Dyfed pronunciation meant he was commonly called Dewi. David is an Anglicised variation of the name derived from the Latin Davidus.
Brought up by his mother in Henfeynyw near Aberaeron, David is said to have been baptised at nearby Porthclais by St Elvis of Munster. It is said that a blind monk, Movi, was cured after drops of water splashed into his eyes as he held David.
David was educated at a monastery, usually taken to be Whitland in Carmarthenshire, under St Paulinus of Wales. He is said to have cured his tutor of blindness by making the sign of the cross. Seeing  David as blessed, Paulinus sent him off as a missionary to convert the pagan people of Britain.Having chosen life as a missionary monk, David travelled to France, Ireland, and the Middle East to learn and to proselytize.He went from place to place helping the poor, and teaching men to live as he did. David is known for converting his countrymen to Christianity.
It is said  that once when David  was preaching at a large outdoor gathering, in Llanddewi Brefi people complained they couldn’t hear or see him  until a white dove landed on David’s shoulder, and as it did, the ground on which he stood rose up to form a hill, making it possible for everyone to see and hear him , both near and far off, where a church now stands. The dove became his emblem often appearing in his portraits and on stained-glass windows depicting him. Doves are considered pure due to their typical role as a messenger or a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
There are many other stories about the man, no one can actually tell if any of them are actually true or not but create a nice tale to tell nevertheless. It is also said that he once rose a youth from death, and milestones during his life were marked by the appearance of springs of water.
In 550 AD, St David was named the Archbishop of Wales at the Synod of Brefi church council and stayed in the settlement of Mynyw and set up a large monastery. David was a bit of a disciplinarian and hard task masker, but the monks in this monastery  obeyed him and lived a simple life, drinking water and eating only herbs and bread. Dewi became known as Dewi Dyrfwr (David the water drinker) as meat and beer were forbidden. Although the monks farmed the surrounding land, David insisted that they did not use animals to carry their tools, they were to carry them.Also none of the monks were allowed any personal possessions and they spent evenings praying, reading and writing.
Eventually became so unpopular with his monks for the life of austerity he made them live, that they tried to poison him.David was informed about this by St Scuthyn, who as legend says, presumably in the absence of a ferry or a Ryanair flight, travelled from Ireland on the back of a sea-monster for the purpose.
He frequently visited other places in South Wales, and churches were afterwards built in  many of these villages in memory of him.  A legend says that Dewi  once went to Jerusalem with two companions, St Teilo https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/02/st-teilos-day-dydd-sadwrn-teilo.html?m=1 and St Padarn. The three left Wales together "with one mind, one joy, and one sorrow." When after a hard journey they arrived at Jerusalem they were received with joy and hospitality, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem gave Dewi, before he returned to Wakes, a remarkable bell which " shone with miracles," a staff, and a coat woven with gold.
 Dewi's last recorded words appeared in a Sunday sermon. Rhygyfarch, himself the son of a later Bishop of St David's, records the words as "Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us."
Dewi is said to have lived for over 100 years, some say, hold your breathe, to the age of 142 or 147 (his clean living ways, sure must have helped him) and died on Tuesday 1 March 589, in the week after his final sermon. He was buried in the grounds of his monastery, which was said to have been "filled with angels as Christ received his soul".
 Mynyw is now known as St David’s, the UK’s smallest city (,near the southwestern tip of Pembrokeshire.) in his honour. The monastery has since become the magnificent St David’s Cathedral and was a prestigious site of pilgrimage in the middle ages and is still a site of immense interest to this day. It is said by some that two pilgrimages to St Davids are equal to one pilgrimage to the Vatican in Rome. His shrine  became so famous that three English monarchs - William 1, Henry 11 and Edward 1 are said to have made pilgramages to it. 

St David’s Day has been celebrated in Wales on 1st March since the 12th Century when David was made a saint by Pope Callixtus II, at the height of the Welsh resistance to the Normans. You will find churches and chapels dedicated to him in south-west England and Brittany, as well as Wales. His influence also reached Ireland, where the Irish embrace his beliefs about caring for the natural world.
The nickname ‘Taffy’ for a Welshman links back to St David as the original and ultimate Welshman – the term dates to the 17th century and derives from ‘Dafydd’, the Welsh for David.William Shakespeare name-dropped St David in Henry V. When Fluellen’s English colleague, Pistol, insults the humble leek on St David’s Day, Fluellen insists he eat the national emblem as punishment: “If you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek” (Act V, Scene I).
Whatever the true story of Dewi Sant is , there is no doubt that he was indeed a figure of much historical and spiritual significance that still carries with him much importance to the people of Wales today,  a cheerful and celebratory day as my country comes together in honour of their patron saint to celebrate Welsh history, culture, and identity with pride.
In 2000 the National Assembly for Wales voted unanimously to make St David’s Day on the 1st March a bank holiday., but  the idea was rejected by Westminster, surprise, surprise. Nevertheless, St David’s position as the patron saint of Wales has only grown stronger since then, with parades and concerts now a staple part of the festivities each year.
This time of the year also serves to remind me that the miracle of spring is just around the corner, unlike David however I will be having a few pints of cwrw/ beer. The day  might  bring  some rain to the land of my mothers, but don't let that stop you from putting on your leeks and daffodils and singing the praises of good old Dewi Sant.  Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus i bawb /Happy Saint David’s Day to you all. Heddwch/ Peace

Links to a few earlier St David's Day/  Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Posts

Gillian Clarke - Miracle on St David's David's Day 

 https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2013/03/gillian-clarke-8637-miracle-on-st.html

The Praise of St David's Day Showing the reason why the Welch -men Honour the Leeke on this Day 

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-praise-of-st-davids-day-showing.html

Evan James (Ieuan ap Iago) An Ivorite song to be sung to the tune of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2014/03/evan-james-ieuan-ap-iago-1809-2091878.html

Harri Webb -  The Red , White and Green

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/03/harri-webb-7920-311294-red-white-and.html

The Welsh Language - Alan Llwyd

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-welsh-language-alan-llwyd-b1948.html

Myriads of Consciousness

(The following inspired by a friends  prompt  could one fit RAGBAG into a piece of writing to bring along to the February Session  of the Cellar Bards )

Myriads of Consciousness

My divergent thoughts are akin to a rag bag
frequently refuelled at dawn,
in spare moments, on vaults of eternity
spinning words, from waves of optimism,
infusing a melange of fermenting emotions
as waters levels rise above the equilibrium,
on a hill remembering those that came before
on pathways of navigation, measuring time,
under the influence of drum beats symphony
flavoured by tobacco, grass and rum,
searching for reasons, visions once lost
finding gravity, in moment's of flight,
rediscovering the joyful solitude of one
magic in music, oceans of sounds,
the moon gliding through the night sky
dancing pulsating stars, casting their light,
the memory bank of inner imagination
avalanches of alchemical surrender,
unlocking the doors of perception
secrets once locked away, now shared,
lessons from history, the illusion of choice
insurrectionary choruses with non-passive voice ,
tibetan charms, the belief in reincarnation
beautiful goddesses, on a mission,
mind drifts, towards sinuous horizon
the petals outside calling, springtime returning,
on the threshold of the land of dreaming
beyond borders, tremulous echos resonate.

DWP condemned for destroying reports into people who committed suicide after welfare benefits stopped.

The DWP has admitted shredding reports on around 50 people who killed themselves following social security payments being withdrawn, promoting accusations of a “cover-up.” by some families who lost loved ones.
Officials at the DWP claim they shredded reports into suicides linked to benefit payments ,
made before 2015,  being stopped, citing data protection laws.
However the data watchdog has rubbished the claims, insisting that there was no legal requirement to destroy the documents by a specific date. They added that a “public interest” exemption could have been used.
One benefit recipient, Tim Salter, who had been left partially-sighted following a previous suicide attempt and who was experiencing mental health issues, was found ‘fit for work’ and his welfare payments were severely cut, just nine months before his death in 2013.
The admission from the UK government department comes following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by the BBC. It revealed that at least 49 internal reviews carried out by 2015 had been shredded.

The harsh changes to the welfare system, introduced by the then-Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith between 2010 and 2016, were widely criticized following concerns they were linked to suicides among claimants.

Stephen Timms, chairman of the Commons work and pensions committee, threatened ministers with an inquiry if he does not receive clarity on what improvements can be made.
Mr Timms said he was "sympathetic" to those who feared an internal cover-up, and speculated that the department was attempting to keep "hush-hush" any links between the deaths and decisions to stop benefits or deem the claimants fit to work.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the DWP should be looking to learn from past mistakes rather than disposing of evidence.
"I think families should be entitled to see these reports," said the Labour MP.
"The law does not specify five years or six years, and I think this kind of information should be held for longer.
"In any case, there's no reason why they should be destroyed. They should be kept and progress on implementing improvements monitored."
Mr Timms said one of the early things his committee will look at when it meets for the first time in this parliament is to agree on a letter calling for "clarification and improvements" from welfare ministers.
If the response is not deemed satisfactory an inquiry will be considered, he confirmed.
He told the BBC: "I think all of this raises very troubling questions for the department.
"For a long time they refused to address them at all. Now they're starting to address them but in a very secretive and unsatisfactory way.
"I think for a long time they were very reluctant to accept that what they were doing had contributed to these deaths at all.
"I think they are now being forced to own up to the fact. That is happening, but they're doing it very reluctantly and very slowly and trying to keep the thing as hush-hush as possible, and it's not good enough."
The news comes after  Labour’s Debbie Abrahams fought back tears in the Commons on Monday as she read out more than 20 names of people who died after experiencing difficulties with the benefits system.
 

The MP said some died after “taking (his/her) own life after being found fit for work” or through illness after losing their benefits.
Leading a Commons debate on the death of people on social security benefits since 2014, Ms Abrahams told MPs: “These are people’s family members and we are failing them, we’re absolutely failing them. We mustn’t let this continue.”
She added: “This isn’t an exhaustive list but it shames us all, it shames the Government in terms of the inaction.
“I’ve raised this so many times over the last five years and there’s been no change whatsoever.”
 Ms Abrahams accused the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of failing to have the right systems in place to learn from deaths linked to benefit issues, asking: “Do you not feel ashamed?” She also said: “It’s a scandal. These are British citizens who are dying as a result of policies implemented by this Government. “Everybody should be taking note.”
 Ms Abrahams said she has asked for a full independent inquiry and wants a response by the end of the week, noting: “This is too serious to be ignored.”
Earlier, the former shadow work and pensions secretary said: “Over three-quarters of claimants who appeal their assessment decision telling them that they are fit for work have the decision overturned. “And that’s because these are poorly people.”
She went on: “Peer-reviewed research published by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health estimated that between 2010 and 2013 work capability assessment was independently associated with an additional 590 suicides, 280,000 cases of self-reported mental health problems and 725,000 additional anti-depressant scripts. “These assessments are not only not fit for purposes, they are actually doing harm.”
Ms Abrahams, before reading out the list, also referred in detail to three cases – including 57-year-old Errol Graham who died in 2018 weighing just 4.5 stone, eight months after his Employment and Support Allowance was stopped after he missed a work capability assessment.
She said: “His daughter-in-law Alison has been scathing telling me of the anger she and husband Lee feel. “She said that what was particularly shocking was how the QC acting on behalf of the Government during the inquest tried to intimidate not just the family but others as well, shouting at the police officer who found Errol’s body about what else he’d seen.
“In particular what offended them deeply was that … the police officer was asked had they found takeaway menus or any takeaway cartons. “It was quite clear at that inquest the DWP, … and the Government, was far from listening and trying to learn from this but they were seeking to blame, which is absolutely unforgivable.”
Ms Abrahams also highlighted the cases of Jodey Whiting, who took her own life after her disability benefits were stopped, and Liverpool resident Stephen Smith – with MPs hearing his “emaciated” body was “more reminiscent of someone from a concentration camp rather than 21st century Britain”.
The Commons heard he died of multiple organ failure after being found fit for work.

 The individual  cases are listed here exactly as they were described in the Commons by Labour MP Debbie Abrahams. Changes to phrasing have been made by Hansard which produces a written record of the Commons. 

Errol Graham died weighing just five stone in 2018 after his ESA was stopped 
Jodey Whiting took her own life in 2017, three days after last ESA payment
Stephen Smith died of multiple organ failure after being found fit for work 
Jimmy Ballentine took his own life in 2018 after being found fit for work 
Amy Nice took her own life in 2018 after being found fit for work 
Kevin Dooley took his own life in 2018 after losing ESA 
Brian Bailey died in July 2018, taking his own life after being found fit for work 
Elaine Morrall died in November 2017, taking her own life 
Daniella Obeng died in December 2017, again taking her own life 
Brian Sycamore died in September 2017, taking his own life after leaving a note blaming the DWP after failing his work capability assessment 
Mark Scholfield who died in July 2017, was a terminal cancer patient who did not receive any UC before he died in spite of his illness 
Chris Gold who died in October 2017, was found fit for work following a stroke and was facing foreclosure when he died because he could not work 
Lawrence Bond collapsed and died in the street in January 2017 after being found fit for work 
Julia Kelly died in 2015, taking her own life after losing ESA for a third time 
Ben McDonald took his own life in March 2015 after being found fit for work 
Chris Smith who died in 2015, had cancer and was found fit for work despite a terminal diagnosis 
Michael Connolly took his own life on his birthday in May 2014 after losing his ESA
David Clapson could not afford to power his fridge to store his insulin and died as a result in July 2014
George from Chesterfield died of a heart attack in May 2014, eight months after being found fit for work despite having had three previous heart attacks 
Robert Barlow died of cancer in April 2014 after losing his ESA 
David Barr died in September 2014, taking hiThere is a mass of anecdotal evidence out there that indicate vulnerable people are being put under intense economic and psychological pressure by the actions of the DWP and their 'Job-Centre' foot soldiers.s own life after losing ESA 
Trevor Drakard took his own life in 2014 
Shaun Pilkington died in January 2014 
Terry McGarvey died in February 2014

DWP minister Mr Tomlinson said failings would be looked at by a Serious Case Panel.
But despite inquiries by  outlets such as the Disability News Service, the DWP has repeatedly refused to release details of how this panel will work.
There is a mass of anecdotal evidence out there that indicate deeply vulnerable people are being put under intense economic and psychological pressure by the actions of the DWP and their 'Job-Centre' foot soldiers, .that sees individuals, who are desperately in need of support,  not punishment, being tipped over the edge, often after benefits were withdrawn, leaving them stressed and penniless.
In what should be a national scandal, real lives have been lost because people could not see a future beyond the mess of their welfare payments. Every one of their deaths could and should have been avoided. While we must grieve for those lives, the starkest examples of the psychological fall-out of austerity, we should not forget. so many more who are suffering day-in, day-out. It’s yet more evidence that the welfare benefits system is unfit for purpose.
Shamefully, instead of taking all this into consideration, the Tory government’s punitive approach, (alongside that of the DWP)  is not likely to cease any day soon. They will continue to fail  the most vulnerable  among us, withdrawing support from those who so need it most, leaving people out of pocket and unable to afford the basic essentials and putting many lives further at risk. We have a long time to go to claim we live in a compassionate society when we allow  people to endure this systematic cruelty.

 In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie.

Protesters Demand Julian Assange Be Freed

Hundreds of people including Roger Waters, co-founder of the Pink Floyd rock group,  designer Vivienne Westwood, and former Greek finance minister Yannis Varoufakis. marched through central London on Saturday demanding that jailed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange be released.
Fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood wore a neon green paper halo with the word "angel" written in black marker. Assange was "the angel of democracy," she explained.

The case was injected with a dose of intrigue last week when the defence claimed US President Donald Trump had promised to pardon Assange if he denied Russia leaked emails of his 2016 election rival's campaign.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian GRU military intelligence agencies hacked the servers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the runup to the November vote.
WikiLeaks then published the stolen emails. Assange has previously said that he received them from through his website's anonymous file sharing system and had no idea who obtained them first.
The DNC hack plays no role in the US case against Assange and Trump denied promising a pardon but the court said last week that the evidence  was admissable.
Waving placards declaring “Journalism is not a crime” and “The truth will set you free,” the protesters marched to Parliament Square, where speakers included Assange’s father, John Shipton.
Assange, 48, spent seven years holed up in Ecuador's London Embassy before being dragged out in April. Shipton has said his son’s health suffered during in that time and may not survive the prosecution.and fears that sending his son to the United States would be akin to a death sentence.
He said: “I look over the crowd and see many familiar faces in the crowd and the press supporting Julian and I thank you.
“I bring to you his affection, his nobility of purpose and his strength of character after nine years. I don’t really understand why Julian is in jail here.”
He described the imprisonment of the Wikileaks founder as “arbitrary detention.”

The US aims to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act, accusing him of scheming with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack a password for a classified government computer. WikiLeaks subsequently published thousands of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange faces 18 charges from the US, including conspiracy to hack into government computers.
The hearing, scheduled for today, will consider only whether the charges are political in nature — not Assange’s guilt or innocence, If the court finds the charges are political, his extradition would not be permitted under the UK-US extradition treaty.If found guilty he could face a 175-year prison sentence.
A hero to many because  he has exposed abuses of power, yet Assange is cast by critics as a dangerous enemy of the state who has undermined Western security. He says the extradition is politically motivated by those embarrassed by his revelations. Assange argues he acted as a journalist and is therefore entitled to First Amendment protection. He also maintains the documents exposed wrongdoing and protected many people.

Civil liberties groups and journalism organizations, including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, have urged the U.S. to drop the charges, saying they set a chilling precedent for freedom of the press. Amnesty International issued the following statement about the Assange “The US government’s unrelenting pursuit of Julian Assange for having published disclosed documents that included possible war crimes committed by the US military is nothing short of a full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression.” 

Assange is currently incarcerated in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, having previously spent seven years inside the Embassy of Ecuador. He holed up in the South American country’s U.K. diplomatic mission in 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden to face questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. That case has since been dropped.Assange was evicted from the embassy in April 2019 and arrested by British police for jumping bail seven years earlier.

Ahead of the protests, 76-year-old singer-songwriter Roger Waters accused “the powers that be” of trying to “kill” Assange ahead of his extradition hearing. Speaking on Friday, Waters dismissed the charges against Assange as “nonsense” and claimed he faced a “kangaroo court”.

“He has committed no crime, he published something, he’s a journalist, he did what journalists are supposed to do. There was no threat to national security,” Waters said.

“It looks as if the powers that be have every intention of submitting to the demands of the United States government to have him extradited to the US so they can lock him up until he is dead.”

In addition to speaking at the protest rally, Waters put out a video supporting Assange, and suggested Assange should not be held for a “minor bail infringement”.

Asked who he believed was behind Assange’s imprisonment, he said: “The ruling class, the powers that be… the corporate world, the rich people, the people who run everything, the people who tell (prime minister) Boris Johnson and (US President) Donald Trump what to do. Those people.
“I’m not suggesting there are men in hoods and secret societies but we all see what’s happening.”
Speaking to the press near Battersea Power Station in south London, Waters posed for photographs next to a version of the inflatable pig balloon that featured on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals.
Waters previously called for the release of Assange during a rally outside the Home Office in central London in September, when he played his former band’s hit track Wish You Were Here from a makeshift stage. https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2019/09/pink-floyds-roger-waters-to-perform.html
Assange's lawyer, Éric Dupond-Moretti, said on Friday that he intended to ask French President Emmanuel Macron for political asylum in France.
Assange lived in France for three years and has a child living there,  France rejected a previous asylum request in 2015.
 The extradition hearings at Woolwich Crown Court will be held in two parts, with the second section not starting until May to allow both sides more time to gather evidence.

Earlier today, Mr Assange spoke initially to confirm his name and date of birth to the hearing.
Mr Assange nodded towards the press benches before taking his seat. The court's public gallery was full with supporters of Mr Assange, including his father John Shipton. who a day before claimed his son had been "harassed" by a prison cell search.
After a visit to the prison on Sunday, Mr Shipton criticised the "plague of malice" which he said "emanates from the Crown Prosecution Service" towards Assange.
Mr Shipton urged that his son be allowed bail, telling reporters: "For the life of me I can’t understand why Julian Assange is in jail having committed no crime, with family here that he can come and live with."
Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis said Assange was in a "very dark place" due to spending more than 20 hours a day in solitary confinement.

Mr Varoufakis called for the extradition to be stopped "in the interests of 300 years of modernity, 300 years of trying to establish human rights and civil liberties in the west and around the world".
Assange's lawyer, Éric Dupond-Moretti, tsaid on Friday that he intended to ask French President Emmanuel Macron for political asylum in France.Assange lived in France for three years and has a child living there. France rejected a previous asylum request in 2015.

More than 40 international legal experts have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanding the "rule of law be upheld", claiming Mr Assange has not had proper access to his legal team.
The letter was handed in to 10 Downing Street on Saturday and also urged the British legal community to act "urgently" to secure the WikiLeak founder's release.
Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, whom Assange was charged to have conspired with, was sent back to jail last May for refusing a second time  to comply with a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks and Assange. Many believe that Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange are both imprisoned and tortured for revealing the ugly truth about wars, empire, torture and political corruption. Hopefully soon justice will prevail. Here  is a link to Assange's Defence Opening Statement.  https://dontextraditeassange.com/JA_Defence_Opening.pdf

Exposing Crimes Isn't A Crime :Free Julian Assange

 Next week, on February 24, a court in the U.K. will hold a hearing to determine whether to grant Trump’s request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States for trial on 18 charges under the Espionage Act carrying up to 175 years in prison.
Assange’s alleged crimes date back to 2010, when the organization he founded, WikiLeaks, transmitted documents to media outlets including Le Monde, The Guardian and The New York Times. The documents, which were provided to WikiLeaks by whistleblower Chelsea Manning, included 250,000 US diplomatic cables and US army reports about military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and exposed cases of torture, abduction and disappearances.
 The publication of these documents by media outlets was clearly in the public interest, and not an act of espionage.  If the legal persecution of Assange continues, investigative journalism and press freedom will be the victims, since news organizations regularly rely on and publish classified information to serve the public interest.
Since his arrest Assange has been locked up in Belmarsh Prison in London and UN special rapporteur Nils Melzer reported that he has been deliberately exposed to inhuman and degrading treatment that could be described as psychological torture.
Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray has said “he has all the symptoms of a torture victim, in terms of disorientation & difficulty in asserting their will & speaking coherently"
 Massimo Moratti of Amnesty International has publicly stated on their website that "Were Julian Assange to be extradicted or subjected to any other transfer to the USA, Britain would be in  breach of its obligations under international law."
Human Rights Watch published an article saying. "The only thing standing between an Assange prosecution and a major threat to global media freedom is Britain. It is urgent that it defend the principles at risk."
Assange's arrest and possible extradition to face charges related to an alleged conspiracy with Chelsea Manning to publish documents that exposed corruption and criminality by numerous private businesses, tyrant, and countries worldwide is ultimately  an attack on press freedom. The arrest sets a dangerous precedent that could extend to other media organizations. The NUJ has stated "US charges against Assange pose a huge threat, that could criminalise the critical work of investigative journalists and their ability to protect their sources."
Assange is now in grave danger. The Trump administration is pressing for his extradition to the US, where he will be indicted on fabricated charges and face a heavy jail term or even the death penalty. Assange’s only “crime” has been to expose to the world the war crimes and diplomatic intrigues of US imperialism.
Rather than being extradited to the U.S to be tried and imprisoned, he should be released and allowed to return to his home to Australia. With  renewed attacks on civil liberties  by Boris  Johnson and the Conservative Government looking increasingly likely, this fight is part of the same fight to ensure we are not silenced over Palestine and that anti-trade union laws do not become any stricter. Stopping the extradition of Assange is a fight for us all. 
The risk of an unfair trial is very real given the targeted public campaign against Assange undertaken by US officials at the highest levels. This has severely undermined his right to be presumed innocent. 
Join in calling on the UK government to respect the principles of freedom of expression and the defence of journalism, and to respect Assange's human rights. If we no longer know what out governments are doing and the criteria they are following if crimes are no longer being investigated, then it represents a grave danger to societal integrity. 
Please sign the following  urgent petition to the UK  government. Don't extradite Assange to the U,S.  demanding that Assange is released  and that he is ensured his safe passage home to Australia. https://www.codepink.org/assange?utm_campaign=assange_alert_feb20&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepinkurging 
There is also a march from Australia House in London on 22 February. Find out more here. https://www.facebook.com/events/931609000567992/