Mother Maria of Paris : Anti Fascist Martyr

 

 

Maria Skobtsova , known as Mother Maria of Paris, who saved numerous Jews in Nazi-occupied Paris,  was born Elisabeth Pilenko on 20th December 1891 to a well-to-do Russian family in the Latvian city of Riga. Her parents were devout Orthodox Christians and in this atmosphere of piety Elisabeth was raised to love and serve God. All this changed at the age of fourteen when her father died, which seemed meaningless and unjust to her. She decided that she no longer believed in God and declared herself an atheist. "If there is no justice, there is no God!" she said.

During her teenage years, Russia was in the throes of the approaching end of Tsarist rule, the subsequent revolution and Communist rise to power. Elisabeth became enamored of this revolutionary movement and at the age of 18 married a member of the Bolshevik party. While at the university in St. Petersburg, she was involved with an avant-garde literary circle and later published two volumes of poetry that were highly acclaimed.  Though she still regarded herself as an atheist she began to question her revolutionary sympathies as she saw the violence, poverty and suffering that the revolution plunged Russia into. Little by little, her earlier attraction to Christ and His Church came back to life and grew deeper in her soul. She began to read the Gospels and lives of the Saints. She applied for entrance to the Theological Seminary at St. Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, an unprecedented request. Up to this date only male students preparing for the priesthood were admitted to the seminary and yet, surprisingly, she was admitted to the renowned school.

By 1913 Elisabeth's marriage had collapsed and ended in divorce while she was expecting their first child, Gaiana. Returning home to her family's country estate in Russia's south, she joined the Social Revolutionary party  after the February Revolution. She apparently wished to assassinate Leon Trotsky for closing the SR Party Congress, but friends persuaded her to instead move back to the Black Sea to work for the SR there. She was very active as a community organizer in Anapa, and in 1918 was elected mayor of the city when it fell under White Army control. 

She led underground resistance against the Bolsheviks, while trying to protect the population from the terror of the new regime. She was arrested and put on trial, but managed to escape capital punishment due to a skilled defence and help by the judge, D. Skobtsov, whom she ended up falling in love with and marrying. Before long Elizabeth was again pregnant and her son, Yuri, was born and later another daughter, Anastasia. With the Bolsheviks beginning to gain the upper hand in the civil war, Daniel and Elizabeth decided s too dangerous to remain in Russia and after a long journey found themselves in Paris, France in 1923.

Tragedy struck the family in 1926 when five year old Anastasia died of influenza. After keeping vigil by her daughter's bedside for a month and watching her beloved child die, Elizabeth penned these mournful words:

"When someone you love has died, the gates have suddenly opened onto eternity, all natural life has trembled and collapsed, yesterday's laws have been abolished, desires have faded, meaning has become meaningless, and another incomprehensible meaning has grown wings on their backs..... Everything flies into the black maw of the fresh grave: hopes, plans, calculations, above all, meaning, the meaning of a whole life. If this is so, then everything has to be reconsidered, everything rejected, seen in its corruptibility and falseness. " 

In Paris, more and more moved by religious impulse after the deaths of her daughters, she completed a course of study at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute by correspondence, and in 1932 became a lay nun, taking the name Maria. She became aware that God was calling her to become a mother to all people who would cross her path. She felt that she was to share the love she had for her daughter with all people, especially "for all who need maternal care, assistance, or protection," as she said. While her husband supported the family by driving a taxi, Elizabeth devoted herself more and more to social work and theological writing. Perhaps a result of their daughter's death, Elizabeth's second marriage to Daniel Skobstov was dying and they soon separated.

Elizabeth acquired a position with an agency that assisted Russian refugees living in France and saw first-hand the poverty and dire circumstances in which they lived. With two failed marriage behind her, Elizabeth searched for what her true vocation in life was to be. With the support of her bishop, Metropolitan Evlogy, she began to consider the monastic life. But she felt herself drawn to a new form of monastic life, one that combined prayer and contemplation with service to those in need around her. She was tonsured a nun in 1932 and given the name Maria. Metropolitan Evlogy blessed her to devote herself to a new kind of monastic life, what she called "monasticism in the world." She opened a house of hospitality in Paris to serve the poor, the homeless, the desperate. She was not content to simply wait for the needy to ring her doorbell but traveled the back alleys and bars of Paris seeking out those in need of her maternal care. She entered those places where other people were simply afraid to go; she found beggars and drunkards, took them to her home, washed, clothed, and fed them.

The last phase of Mother Maria's life began when the German Nazis conquered and occupied France during World War II. While it would have been possible for her to flee France as the Germans were advancing toward Paris, she refused to leave. "If the Germans take Paris, I shall stay here with my old women. Where else could I send them?"

Mother Maria joined some colleagues in preparing and dispatching food parcels and funds to families of more than 1,000 Russian émigrés who were imprisoned by the Nazis.Early in 1942 the Nazis began their registration of Jews. Jews began to knock on the door of the house of hospitality asking if the chaplain, Father Dimitri Klepinine, would issue fake baptismal certificates to save their lives. With the support of Mother Maria, Father Dmitri issued the fake documents, convinced that Christ would do the same. When the order came from Berlin that the yellow star must be worn by all Jews, many French Christians felt that this was not their concern since it was not a Christian problem. Mother Maria replied, "There is no such thing as a Christian problem. Don't you realize that the battle is being waged against Christianity? If we were true Christians we would all wear the Star. The age of confessors has arrived."  She also hid Jews at Lourmel and forged documents for them.

In July, 1942, mass arrests of Jews began to take place--12,884 were arrested of whom 6,900 were children. They were held prisoner in the Velodrome d’Hiver, Paris’ sports stadium, just a kilometer from Mother Maria's house, before they were sent to Auschwitz. With her monastic robe gaining her entrance, she spent three days at the sports stadium distributing food and clothing and even managing to smuggle out some children by bribing garbage collectors to hide them in trash cans. Her house of hospitality was literally bursting at the seams with people, many of them Jews. Mother Maria remarked, "It is amazing that the Germans haven't pounced on us yet." She also said that if anyone came looking for Jews she would show them an icon of the Mother of God.

On February 8, 1943 the Nazis did pounce and arrested Mother Maria, her son Yuri, Father Dmitri, and their helper, Elia Fondaminski. In the pocket of Yuri was found a letter from a Jewish family asking for a false baptismal certificate.

Father Dmitri was interrogated by Hans Hoffinan, a Gestapo officer. A portion of the interrogation has been preserved:

Hoffman: If we release you, will you give your word never again to aid Jews?

Father Dimitri: I can do no such thing. I am a Christian and must act as I must.

 (Hoffinan struck the priest across the face.)

Hoffman: Jew lover! How dare you talk of helping those swine as being a Christian duty!

Father Dimitri: (holding up the cross from his cassock): Do you know this Jew?

For this Father Dimitri was knocked to the floor.

Mother Maria and those arrested with her were all sent to concentration camps--the men to Buchenwald and Dora and Mother Maria to Ravensbruck. There, as prisoner Number 19263, she continued her ministry among her companions, with the strength of her faith giving them encouragement and love in the midst of hopelessness and despair. Finally, Maria, her health broken, could no longer pass the roll call on Good Friday 1945. She stepped into the line with those women condemned to die, hoping to inspire them to meet their fate with faith in God. As one witness wrote, “She offered herself consciously to the holocaust . . . thus assisting each one of us to accept the cross. . . . She radiated the peace of God and communicated it to us.” Mother Maria Skobtsova was  killed in the gas chamber at Ravensbruck concentration camp on March 31, 1945, Holy Saturday, only a week before the camp was liberated. 

In 1985, Yad Vashem recognized her as Righteous Among the Nations for her work saving Jews from the Holocaust, and in 2004, with some controversy, she was a former socialist revolutionary who was twice-married for starters, and she remained an intellectual of leftist bent throughout her life, the fact that she smoked, and her somewhat heterodox preaching,  the Russian Orthodox Church canonized her as a martyred saint.

Passing Christmas Lights

 

Passing colors glowing, tinsel hung high 

Christmas lights, shimmering and sparkling

the smell of food, enticing on tongue

another world lingers though

a different reality resides

in the corner of our eyes

beyond the tragedy of hunger

the waste of consumerism

austerity that daily bites.

For many now the air drips with sadness

as the cold season blows again

people on their own, due to Covid pandemic 

as the sky above turns dark and grey

citizens left wanting, running on empty

struggling on, feeding on misery and decay

but think of all the Turkey's that will be  saved.

Perhaps some small acts of kindness
will be sufficient to keep some gladness alight
against buffeting winds, strength can grow
allow people to decorate hearts with hope
fill glasses full of reason and some cheer
with little things, perhaps time will heal
abandon the past, infiltrate the future 
share some sustenance of survival.

Musical Highlights : 2020

 

Ok  it's been a rather crap year with our daily lives transformed by the pandemic, that  continues to  challenge us. But despite the strangeness of 2020 music has continually arrived to give much needed respite.Music acting as a balm and also a mirror, creativity inspiring  people to think differently about the world,

From the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement to Black Lives Matter, musicians have heralded major political movements that have helped change the world. In  these troubling  times a lot of the best music of the year responded in one way or another, to the  constant uncertainty we are all now travelling. 

Now is a time to pause and reflect .To all those who’ve grieved the loss of a loved one this year, felt the pain of racial injustice create fresh wounds and open old ones, or lost sleep not knowing how they would be able to protect and care for their loved ones in these uncertain times, I sincerely  hope  music has at least comforted your life as much as mine.

Bandcamp by the way, an artist-focussed platform that allows people to support their favorite musicians and labels under pressure from the COVID-19. continues to support musicians  and artists who have been hit especially hard .Lets  continue to try and support those that continue to enrich our lives.This year’s awesome Bandcamp Fridays initiative has been a huge success, with CEO Ethan Diamond revealing that an incredible $40 million has reached in-need artists and labels in 2020. 

“On the first Friday of every month since March, we’ve waived our revenue share to help support the many artists who have seen their livelihoods disrupted by the pandemic,” writes Ethan in a statement as the year draws to a close. ​“Over the course of these nine days, fans paid artists and labels $40 million dollars, helping cover rents, mortgages, groceries, medications, and much more. If you’re among the nearly 800,000 fans who participated, thank you.”

Happily, Ethan continues that Bandcamp Fridays will be continuing next year as things are still looking relatively uncertain right now.

“Although vaccines are starting to roll out, it will likely be several months before live performance revenue starts to return,” he adds. ​“So we’re going to continue doing Bandcamp Fridays in 2021, on February 5, March 5, April 2, and May 7. As always, isitbandcampfriday.com has the details. 

“If you’ve started to feel guilty about buying music on any day other than Bandcamp Friday, here’s something to keep in mind: on Bandcamp Fridays, an average of 93% of your money reaches the artist/label (after payment processor fees). When you make a purchase on any other day of the month (as 2.5 million of you have since March, buying an additional $145 million worth of music and merch) an average of 82% reaches the artist/label. Every day is a good day to directly support artists on Bandcamp!” Fuck Amazon.

Seasons greetings, a big shout out to everyone who helped keep funds coming in for those in the music industry in 2020. Reminisce about the good times, respect to the music makers and to the NHS staff who continue their work, which is so admired, working long shifts, saving lives. In these dark days be safe, stay alert, take care. In no particular order here are my musical highlights of the year.

 

1.  We Are the Cellar Bar Restoration Society - Various

 

 

 

2. Efa Supertramp - Apocalipstick Blues.

 3. Carla Bley / Andy Sheppard/ Steve Swallow - Life Goes On 

4. Igran  Hamasyan - The Call Within 

5. Cynefin- Dilyn Afon / Following the River

 6. Spurious Transients - The Internal Inferno Of The Nocturnal Mock Turtle

7.Muddy Summers and the Dirty Field Whores - The elegance of Mud

8.  The Cravats – Hoorahland

9. Primitive Ignorant - Sikh Punk

10 Idles - Ultra Mono

11.Asian Dub Foundation -Access  Denied

12. Bill Fay - Countless Branches 

13. Sean Taylor - The Path into the Blue

 14. Datblygu - Cwm Gwagle

15. Penny Rimbaud - Arthur Rimbaud in Verdun

 

16. Antibalas - Fu Chronicles

 

17. Makaya McCraven and Gil Scot Heron- We're New Again

 

 18. FourTet - Sixteen Oceans

 

 19. Cornershop- England Is A Garden

 

 20. JARV IS - Beyond the Pale

 

Alchemy.

Hearts are like parachutes 

sometimes they fail to open
but it's not always dark  when we fall
in our gasps, broken hearts are mended
skip centuries, provide moist happiness

seduce our minds in rooms that change

release tired thoughts of into the atmosphere

and in depth of the night, poems will be built.

Like acrobats by the rivers edge,

balancing sensitively before  plunging into waters deep

revealing charms, like perfumed breezes
swimming among currents of transformation.

as flickering lights go out, chains cast of

consciousness teasing, thoughts drifting 

allow the smuggled sighs of yesterday

to take us to the land of dreams

Cymru Rhydd / Free Wales

There is fire in the air

time of old spirits resurgence

moments to ponder

spinning on and on

the grave injustices

of tryweryn, capel celyn

flooded  against a peoples will 

to provide Liverpool with water

Epynt a community evicted 

to make way for a military range.

The time when precious children

were punished and beaten

for simply speaking their native tongue

these  acts have never been forgotten

etched  in a nations  memory

to justify Cymric vision

of putting past wrongs to right

where once their were whispers

voices unite together for independence

no longer wishing to live under chains.

Travelling through waves of longing 

hopes and fears forever thronging 

among threads and currents flowing 

navigated thoughts, rhetoric of belonging

over barricades halting progress

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.

Desiring a future built from freedom

not some half thought pipe dream

in  a peoples uprising of mighty force

the dragon can be truly woken

across hills and valleys

daily delivering strength

igniting passion, a people's will

our underestimated power

filling hearts and minds with pride

with discontent demand a Welsh republic

a truly fair and equal society for its citizens

the British  crown of domination abandoned,

International Human Rights Day 2020 : Recover Better - Stand Up for Human Rights

December 10th is Human Rights Day. On this day the whole world celebrates (this year mostly virtually) one of the greatest  accomplishments of the last century, the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.in 1948. The Declaration set out, for the first time in history, those fundamental human rights that Governments all over the world undertook to respect, protect and promote. .In 1950, the Assembly passed resolution 423 (V), inviting all States and interested organizations to observe 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.

 And ever since that auspicious day it has stood as the first major stride forward in ensuring that the rights of every human across the globe are protected. From the most basic human needs such as food, shelter, and water, all the way up to access to free and uncensored information, such has been the goals and ambitions laid out that day.

The Declaration proclaims a simple, yet powerful idea :

 "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,"  "They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

These rights are the birthright of all people: it does not matter, what country we live in and even who we are. Because we are human, we have these rights; and Governments are bound to protect them. They are not a reward for good behaviour, nor they are optional or the privilege of a few- they are inalienable  entitlements of all people, at all times- regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. And because they are universal, they are also matters of legitimate concern; and  standing  up for them is a responsibility that binds us all.

 It is the most translated document in the world, available in more than 500 languages.  When the General Assembly adopted the Declaration, with 48 states in favor and eight abstentions, it was proclaimed as a "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations", towards which individuals and societies should "strive by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance".

Although the Declaration with its broad range of political, civil, social, cultural and economic rights is not a binding document, it inspired more than 60 human rights instruments which together constitute an international standard of human rights. It has helped shape human rights all over the world.

Today the general consent of all United Nations Member States on the basic Human Rights laid down in the Declaration makes it even stronger and emphasizes the relevance of Human Rights in our daily lives.The High Commissioner for Human Rights, as the main United Nations rights official, plays a major role in coordinating efforts for the yearly observation of Human Rights Day.

Human Rights Day reminds us that there is much to be done  and around the world to protect those who cannot voice or respond to perpetrated discrimination and violence caused by governments, vigilantes, and individual actors. In many instances, those who seek to divide people for subjective means and for totalitarian reasons do so around the globe without fear of retribution. Violence, or the threat of violence, perpetrated because of differences in a host of physical and demographic contrasts and dissimilarities is a blight on our collective humanity now and a danger for our human future.

Human Rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth until death. They apply regardless of where you are from, what you believe or how you choose to live your life. They should never be taken away, these basic rights are based on values such as dignity, fairness, equality, respect and independence. But human rights are not just abstract concepts, they are defined and protected by law.

The aim of Human Rights Day is to raise awareness around the world of our inalienable rights – rights to basic needs such as water, food, shelter and decent working conditions. In the UK we are protected by the Human Rights Act 1998, however in other countries, especially developing countries, the laws are not in place to protect people and to ensure that their basic needs are met.

For millions of people, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still just a dream.Many people around the world are still denied the most basic of human rights on a daily basis. Women’s rights are still repeatedly denied and marginalised throughout the globe, despite 70 years of the milestone declaration on human rights. Confronted with widespread gender-based violence, hate and discrimination, women’s well-being and ability to live full and active lives in society are being seriously challenged. 

Racism, xenophobia and intolerance are still  problems prevalent in all societies, and discriminatory practices are widespread, particularly regarding the  targeting of migrants and refugees. including in rich countries where men, women and children who have committed no crime are often held in detention for prolonged periods. They are frequently discriminated against by landlords, employers and state-run authorities, and stereotyped and vilified by some political parties, media organizations and members of the public.

Many other groups face discrimination to a greater or lesser degree. Some of them are easily definable such as persons with disabilities, stateless people, gays and lesbians, members of particular castes and the elderly. Others may span several different groups and find themselves discriminated against on several different levels as a result.

Those who are not discriminated against often find it hard to comprehend the suffering and humiliation that discrimination imposes on their fellow individual human beings. Nor do they always understand the deeply corrosive effect it has on society at large.

Nearly a billion people do not have enough food to eat, and  even in wealthier countries like the UK and the US where there is an increasing growth in food banks. Poverty is a leading factor in the failure to protect the economic and social rights of many individuals around the world. For the half of the world population living on less than $2.50 a day, human rights lack any practical meaning.

For this  Human Rights Day we must continue to  stand with all people targeted for giving expression to the vision and values embodied in the declaration. Every day must be Human Rights Day, as every person in the world is entitled to the full and indivisible range of human rights every day of his or her life.Global human rights are not selective in their value or meaning, nor are they limited to a day or time of year. Until all people have access to these human rights we must stand up, advocate for, and insist that more must be done. Human Rights Day should serve as a reminder to act for those lacking basic rights each and everyday. 

 Human Rights Day calls on us all to ‘stand up for someone's rights today!’ It reminds us what we have achieved over the years to respect, promote and protect human rights. It also asks to recommit and re-engage in championing these rights for our shared humanity since whenever and wherever humanity's values of equality, justice and freedom are abandoned, we all are at greater risk.

This year’s Human Rights Day theme is to "Recover Better - Stand Up for Human Rights". This year the theme is in sync with the COVID pandemic and it focuses on creating equal opportunities for everyone to address the failures and disappointments we all were exposed to due to COVID -19. and focuses on the need to build back better by ensuring Human Rights are central to recovery efforts. 

We will reach our common global goals only if we are able to create equal opportunities for all, address the failures exposed and exploited by COVID-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched, systematic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination.

The COVID-19 crisis has been fuelled by deepening poverty, rising inequalities, structural and entrenched discrimination and other gaps in human rights protection. Only measures to close these gaps and advance human rights can ensure we fully recover and build back a world that is better, more resilient, just, and sustainable.

The UN partners for Human Rights have listed out measures that should be kept in mind to seal the gaps in human rights protection that were fuelled by COVID crisis this year. There is a list of measures that need to be followed to make our society and in turn the whole world a more resilient and just place.

• End discrimination of any kind
• Address inequalities
• Encourage participation and solidarity
• Promote sustainable development

 It’s important to acknowledge that human rights, have rarely been gifted to us through benevolent leaders. Rather, they have been won after long fought battles and collective struggle. We need to recognize and pay tribute to human rights defenders the world over, putting their lives on the line for others, our voice must be their voice. 

 As thousands of struggles have proved, human rights are a vital lever in the quest for equality and social justice. If governments will no longer protect human rights it will be up to us, the people to keep on fighting for them and ensure our human right are always upheld.

Lets work to achieve a better life for all. And more importantly, to continue to take a stand for people whose human rights are still not being met across the globe, find a way to use our voices for those who may not have an opportunity to advocate for themselves. At the same time  strengthening  international law and justice in order to end impunity, and bring to justice those guilty of violations of human rights and offer protection to their victims. 

 Today is an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of human rights in rebuilding the world we want, the need for global solidarity as well as our interconnectedness and shared humanity. A future  of cooperation among citizens, peoples and between nations. It is a a prerequisite for a more peaceful future where disputes are solved through negotiation and diplomacy. 

"If your neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor, "- Desmond Tutu

http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/  

 I Have the Right

I have the right to my own opinions
to state what I believe to be the truth,
I believe in freedom of thought
I believe in freedom of speech,
I have the right to be free from bondage
to be free from chains and mental slavery,
to choose what I want to be, where I need to go
because this is my right to be free.

I have the right to speak out
this is my choice, this is my conscience,
this is my right to freedom of expression
this right allows me to speak out against oppression,
this right allows me to stand against transgression, 
                                           aggression, exploitation
this right acknowledges that all born equal and free.

Everyone  is a unique individualistic form 
all have a right to life and liberty,
dignity and pride, the security of protection
that allows us to cry, to love and laugh,
remember that when justice is forgotten 
alternative paths trample down opposition,  
decency and justice, respect, and all that has been given
so  keep on fighting for human rights with no inhibition
remember actions speak louder than words
and what unites us is greater than what seperates 

Amidst The Bones of Winter

The air around us full of spite and bitterness

Weight of debt is crushing poor countries

Hearts pound relentlssly as sadness triplicate

Harm, keeps shattering nations apart

Death clouds rising from battered singed earth

The scars we trace, visible across the world

But still the  ebb, and the cuckoos cry

As our eyes awaken, cold with loss

Many resenting change, but many seeking for it

Time to be patient, time to be strong

With unbounded love and iron will

Share solidarity now times are tough

Cling on for now to mundane things

Past winter, lets hope solidity brings

Trouble's fading, the end of fear

Beyond black depression in which we sink

True peace and tranquility not currently near

May the storm we currently embrace, to recede.

Feet treading  deeply in the mire of solitous path

Mask up with rainbow hues, look ahead

Seek always  facilitators of kindness,

Beyond politicians who bludgeon us to death

Against the shrill blasts that inflict us daily

The homeless still sleeping  in shivering streets

The sickness of racism, planting poison 

Carry on loving, following flickering stars in sky

Leap frog from the ruins, bomb the earth with healing. 

Asian Dub Foundation - Coming Over Here ft. Stewart Lee

 

Released on 2nd December just as the one-month countdown to Brexit got underway, radical UK comedian Stewart Lee has joined trailblazing activists, artists and rock n’ roll agitators Asian Dub Foundation for a brand new video of Coming Over Here. This bombastic track was released on their album Access Denied back in September and, now, in full video form with Stewart Lee making a very temporary appearance as a frontman for ADF.

The track  samples Lee’s riposte to former UKIP leader Paul Nuttal’s xenophobic rant on BBC Radio 4. The now-infamous sketch as performed on his BBC show Comedy Vehicle in 2014. tackles the hypocrisy of the nationalist agenda, via a brief world history of immigration: “Bloody poles coming over here, coming over here being all Polish and mending everything… when I was a kid it was the Indians, coming over here, inventing us a national cuisine. And before then, in the 5th century it was the Anglo Saxons, with their shit burial traditions and miserable epic poetry…”

The cut is taken  seminal British band Asian Dub Foundation’s ‘Access Denied’, an album released in September. It’s their first since 2015’s ‘More Signal More Noise’, and it comes 25 years after their landmark debut, ‘Facts And Fictions’. Lets make their Brilliant new track the New Year Brexit Number 1 on January 1st It's the perfect response to Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and every other far right Tory Brexiter, https://www.facebook.com/ADFStewartLee4Xmas/

The  new album showcases ADF in full spectrum mode from the tough Jungle Punk sound of “Stealing The Future”snd  Frontline which is a global call to solidarity, which wraps up its objections to poverty, racism, capitalism, the war on terror, the global war machine and surveillance capitalism in three minutes of punk-fuelled industrial dub.and  through to the orchestral meditation of “Realignment” and the reggae lament of the title track.

Other  guest spots  include Greta Thunberg, incendiary Palestinian shamstep warriors 47 Soul, 
Chilean revolt’s rap main figure Ana Tijoux. Asian Dub Foundation  continue  their sonic opposition to the powers that be and “Access Denied” kicks harder and higher than ever, confronting themes surrounding Brexit, hostile border policies and the climate crisis.

Their new album, proves the band still has a lot of fire in their bellies, a force to be reckoned with, in  2020, the band still has a dual mandate: to make your feet move and your mind think.

More Asian Dub Foundation

Official Website – Facebook – Twitter – YouTube – Spotify

 

Rosa Parks : Quiet Revolutionary

 

It was on this day in 1955 when a simple act of defiance elevated a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, into a pivotal symbol in America's civil rights movement. Rosa Parks, a 42-year old African American woman who worked as a seamstress, boarded a Montgomery City Bus year old  to go home from work. At that time, Afro-Americans in the United States suffered the humiliation - especially in the South - of not being able to share the same public places with whites: schools, restaurants, waiting rooms. Segregation reached such a point that “only white” or “not black” signs were displayed in the bathrooms. The Jim Crow laws, inherited from 19th century slavery, were designed to make African Americans feel inferior and thus keep them marginalized from society.

Only whites could use the front entrance of buses , and in addition to this, a section of the bus would be reserved for only white passengers, whether they were there or not. If a black passenger sat in these seats, or even directly behind, they could be arrested and would face the risk of being attacked, and possibly even killed, by the KKK. At this time, lynching was quite popular and occasionally the white people would take a Negro man and put him to death. A few months before Rosa Parks decided to not give up her seat, 14-year old Emmett Till had been killed in Mississippi for simply “looking at a white woman”. 

With an understanding of the severity of this discrimination and intimidation, we can appreciate how significant it was when one lone woman, said “no” Contrary to popular belief, Rosa Parks wasn’t too tired. She wasn’t incapable of leaving her seat when bus driver James F. Blake demanded her to do so. She was properly seated in the colored section, but because the white section was full, Blake attempted to move Parks back to accommodate the white patron.

Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement, made the decision to remain in her seat because she didn’t believe she should have to move because of her race, even though that was the law. Rosa sat in the middle seats, which could be used by blacks if no white required. When that part was full, the driver ordered her along with three other blacks, to give up their places to a young white man who had just gotten up. The others rose, but she remained motionless. Her defiance led to her arrest, and  four days later, Parks was convicted of disorderly conduct. but made her name a byword for freedom and justice, especially in the fight against inequality.In her memoirs she says 

"People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move. Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it."

It must be noted that Rosa  wasn't the first person to have been arrested in Montgomery for refusing to give up seats , Claudette Colvin, a fifteen year old girl, had been convicted for refusing to give up her seat to a white person earlier in the year.  Claudette's case had already created a desiree by some civil rights activists to have a boycott of the buses.

Rosa's action though provided more momentum, and ended up giving voice to the movements for the end of  segregation that had already begun to be noticed. A 26 year old Baptist pastor named Martin Luther King proposed a city wide boycott of public transportation at a church meeting. On December 5th, 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. Since African Americans made up about 75 percent of the riders in Montgomery, the boycott posed a serious economic threat to the company and a social threat to white rule in the city. Out of Montgomery's 50,000 African American residents, 30,000 to 40,000 participated. They walked or bicycled or car pooled, depriving the bus company of a substantial portion of its revenue. The boycott lasted 381 days, and proved to be effective, causing the transit system to run a huge deficit. After all Montgomery's black residents were not only the principal boycotters, but also the bulk of the transit system's paying customers.The Montgomery bus boycott was an impressive exercise in solidarity, unity and resistance.

The successful boycott was a precursor to sweeping social change. The simple act of Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus–and the resulting boycott–helped spawn civil rights legislation that would soon outlaw race discrimination in housing and employment. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and  Voting Rights Act of 1965, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting, would follow. The constant factor driving the change toward equality was focused protest. With new self respect and a new sense of dignity , it was part of the beginning of a call for revolutionary change, the oppressed were determined to stand up and struggle until the walls of injustice had crumbled. It would be a long and hard journey, a battle that is still ongoing.

Parks remained active in promoting civil rights for the rest of her life, including opposing apartheid in South Africa.When Parks died at the age of 92, the front seats of buses in Montgomery and Detroit (Parks’ hometown at the time of her death) were draped with  black ribbons in her honor. In 2000, a library and museum in Montgomery were dedicated to Rosa Parks. The  Rosa Parks Museum https://www.troy.edu/rosaparks/ houses a replica of the bus that sparked the civil rights activists to boycott an important mode of transportation. The library and children's wing not only tell the story of Parks to its hundreds of visitors, but also those of Nixon, Gray, and Colvin. There is a "time travel" machine that transports the visitors from the 1800s to the Jim Crowe era and to 1950s Montgomery. 

 Let us remember her today, and acknowledge Rosa's act of quiet resistance, that still resonates down the corridors of time. She remains a symbol to all to remain free. Her actions resonate with us today, and echoes with the divestment movement  and the campaign of boycott  that were used against apartheid South Africa, are currently again utilised against the policies of apartheid Israel.Where people are once again daily defiantly taking nonviolent direct action in the name of freedom.

Like Rosa Parks before her,  many Palestinians  are currently struggling against unjust laws, in their  case the injustice of a 50-year military occupation that denies Palestinians their land, right to travel and self-determination. Israel maintains an apartheid system of democracy for Israeli Jews - and discrimination against Israelis of colour - second-class citizenship for Israeli citizens of Arab descent, and dispossession and disenfranchisement for Palestinian Arabs in the territories. 
 "Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust," Martin Luther King said  "All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority."

Rosa Parks led by example. Hers was not the loudest voice or the most forceful. She did not create change by arrogance or violence. And while she was an apostle of the nonviolence movement, Mrs. Parks never saw herself that way. She never sought the limelight and was never really a political figure at all. But the power of her ideas was not constrained by continents or oceans. As the mother of the new civil rights movement, she left an impact on the entire world.

Nelson Mandela, after his release from prison, visited Detroit. When he got off the plane, politicians, businessmen, and other dignitaries waited to greet him. The one person he recognized was Rosa, and he began to chant, “Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks.”

 When she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996, she was recognised for remaining “committed to the cause of freedom, speaking out against injustice here and abroad” and demonstrating “in the words of Robert Kennedy, that each time a person strikes out against injustice, she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope which, crossing millions of others, can sweep down the walls of oppression.”

There will only ever be one Rosa Parks. She taught  people to struggle and how to triumph. May we all aspire to emulate her— to be strong and humble voices for justice.  Rosa Parks  reminds us that it  is possible for a single person to engage in an act of resistance against oppression to spark the seeds that can change the world. Ultimately, the power for change rests with the people. It always has. That’s the timely lesson of history. Let's  continuously fight  against disenfranchisement and segregation, and for those whose lives are still  tarnished by inherently racist systems.

Rosa Parks : A Quiet Revolutionary

John Maclean: Red Clydesider (24/8/1879 - 30/11/1923)

John Maclean, Clydeside  revolutionary socialist, republican , educator and trade unionist was born in Pollokshaws, Glasgow, 24 August 1879  the sixth of seven children (three died in infancy) of Daniel and Anne Maclean. Daniel was originally from the Isle of Mull  and his future wife Anne MacPhee from the highland village of Corpach on Loch Linnie. Both Daniel and Anne (and Maclean’s grandparents) Gaelic speaking had been evicted from their highland homes as a direct result of the brutal landlordism which decided that sheep and deer were more financially rewarding tenants than human beings. The process of industrialisation forced Maclean’s parents and thousands of others south into the rapidly expanding slums and tenements of the central belt. By the time Maclean was 10 years old his father was dead from an industrial related illness. 

Stories and personal experiences of the Highland Clearances were frequent topics of conversation in the Maclean home. They were also graphically outlined by Karl Marx in Capital, Volume One. Despite wretched poverty and family loss Maclean’s mother was determined he should get an education. It is likely these two factors: a loving and determined mother and an encounter with Marx led Maclean to view the world and his future through the prism of Marxism. Certainly by the end of the decade Maclean was a teacher studying for his MA and had rejected the religion of his childhood for the embrace of Marxian economics. Of this period he would write “It was the knowledge of the sacrifices made and self-denial endured by my mother and sisters to enable me to be educated, that made me resolve to use my education in the service of the workers.”

John Maclean's political career began when he joined the Pollokshaws branch of the Progressive Union, a body which discussed philosophy, science, literature and politics.While teaching for the Govan School Board,in 1903 Maclean joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), the first Marxist organisation in Britain, where he quickly made a name for himself as a talented orator and political agitator. 

During the summer holidays, when Maclean was free from his duties as a schoolteacher, he toured the industrial centres of Scotland, spreading the word of Marxism and class politcs. He did this on street corners, outside factory gates, and in parks, he spoke to miners, shipyard workers, engineers, women weavers, anyone whose struggle he considered part of his own. He encouraged membership of trade unions, wherever he lectured, and acquired a reputation as a staunch and committed socialist. During this period he also found time to marry his wife Agnes, who bore him two daughters, Jean and Nan,

In 1908 Maclean began teaching classes in Marxist economics and industrial history. These classes, held in Glasgow, were open to trade unionists, political activists and the general public alike, and proved a great success. Held weekly they at times gathered together hundreds of workers keen to soak up revolutionary theory. 

Unlike other doctrinaire socialists of the day, Maclean threw himself into working class struggles as they emerged. He was a plain-talking, no-nonsense agitator. What he lacked in poetics, he made up for in forcefulness. He epitomised the "Red Clydeside" that emerged after me First World War, and gave a concrete expression to the mass movement of that time.

During the years immediately prior to the first world war, Maclean became increasingly opposed to the pro-war stance and policies of the SDF and its leadership.In 1911 Maclean joined the newly formed British Socialist Party (BSP) and became a vigorous anti-war and anti-conscription campaigner. He wrote an article in Justice where he argued: 

" It is our business as Socialists to develop a “class patriotism,” refusing to murder one another for a sordid world capitalism. The absurdity of the present situation is surely apparent when we see British Socialists going out to murder German Socialists with the object of crushing Kaiserism and Prussian militarism. The only real enemy to Kaiserism and Prussian militarism, I assert against the world, was and is German Social-Democracy. Let the propertied class go out, old and young alike, and defend their blessed property. When they have been disposed of, we of the working class will have something to defend, and we shall do it."  

He was credited with telling workers at his rallies that if they wanted to fight a Hun, to go and fight the English king. Comments were also made to Ulster Unionists that England was defending Catholic Belgium against Protestant Germany, and using them as cannon fodder. He had a well-developed sense of irony! His denunciations of the war cost him his job, but he continued to campaign against the murder of German and British workers alike. He pointed out the war-mongering and profiteering of the munitions factory owners, and the private landlords who seized the opportunity (whilst their men were at war) to increase the rents in Glasgow. They were decisively beaten by the Rent Strikes of 1915, which led to the Rent Restriction Act of 1916. 

He had launched a newspaper, the 'Vanguard', in 1915 but only 5 issues were released before he was arrested and imprisoned for sedition under the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA). In February 1916 he was arrested for a second time, and on April the 11th was sentenced to three years' penal servitude. He was released 15 months later due to pressure from prominent socialists and mass demonstrations. He supported his friend, Edinburgh born James Connolly, in his struggle for an Irish Workers Republic. Connolly, in the very last issue of "The Workers' Republic," also demanded MacLean's release. A fellow Scot also had a far-reaching effect on MacLean's political thinking. This was Ruaraidh Erskine of Marr, a prominent leader of the Gaelic language revival in Scotland, who for years had advocated a Scottish Socialist Republic. Erskine had hailed both the Easter Rising and the Russian Revolution, and had taken an anti-war stance. When the Easter Rising took place in Dublin, MacLean was still in jail. Connolly was judicially murdered on the orders of the British State - shot whilst tied to a chair, as he could not stand due to his wounds.

Following the October Revolution Maclean, dubbed ‘The Scottish Lenin’, was appointed the first Bolshevik Consul in Scotland and an Honorary President of the Soviet Republic, in recognition of his revolutionary agitation and his tireless work in support of the Bolshevik revolution. Maclean opened an office for the Consulate at 12 Portland Street, Glasgow, but the Consulate was not recognised by the British authorities, and Maclean and his staff suffered constant intimidation.  Despite harassment by the Special Branch, MacLean did much work to aid Russian political refugees. But the English Government had, at this time, militarily intervened to smash the young Russian Republic. Maclean was arrested and faced charges of sedition following his vocal public opposition to the First World War and attempt to organise a workers; mutiny against it.

"I wish no harm to any human being  said Maclean, "but I, as one man, am going to exercise my freedom of speech. Np human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to protest against  wrong,my right 5o do everything that is for the benefit of mankindl I am not here, then, as the accused, but the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot."

 he declared in his famous ‘speech from the dock' in the Edinburgh High Court. This was a tremendous condemnation of both capitalism and war and was made in the most intimidating of surroundings and circumstances, standing before the very core of the ruling class bedecked in their wigs and stockings, and with the power over MacLean's very life at their disposal.  He proceeded to condemn the carnage and horror of war and said, 

"on that and on other grounds, I consider capitalism the most infamous, bloody and evil system that mankind has ever witnessed. My language is regarded as extravagant language, but the events of the past four years have proved my contention". 

On May the 9th 1918, MacLean received a sentence of five years' penal servitude for sedition.  The end of the war saw him released early from his five year sentence but not before he had endured months of force feeding after embarking on a hunger strike. His wife, Agnes, described his treatment as ‘slow murder’ by the state. While many others were imprisoned for anti-war activity during this period the treatment of Maclean stands out as particularly vindictive.

Upon his release he was out in time to contest the Gorbals seat as the official  Socialist candidate at the General election and received 7,436 votes against 14,247 votes of George Barnes, the sitting member. Despite this, MacLean remained optimistic that a revolutionary situation could be generated in Britain.

In 1920 he broke with the British Socialist Party, but did not join the new British Communist Party. He took up the emerging nationalist movement believing in the idea of a Socialist Republic and a distinctive Scottish Workers' Republican Party.

Throughout the years leading to the foundation of the Communist Party of Britain in 1921, many heated arguments ensued over the nature and character of the new revolutionary party. MacLean was by now convinced that the best way to assist the world's first worker's government was not merely to assemble communist parties of the same mould and shape, but to confront the need for socialism in every other country of the world head on. In other words, MacLean remained true to his international socialism, but saw that the best way to assist world revolution was through the revolutionary break-up of the British state and the establishment of a Scottish Worker's Republic. National Independence formed a prelude to social independence, and the two were basic halves of a democratic ideal. In August 1920, whilst the world was still experiencing the by now ebbing tides of the great international revolutionary wave of 1916-21. Maclean issues his famous call-"All Hail, the Scottish Workers' Republic!"

In 1920 MacLean relaunched "Vanguard." and began to write numerous articles supporting the Irish struggle and urging Scotsmen, as fellow Gaels, not to be used as tools for murdering their brother Gaels in Ireland. During this time he published a pamphlet 'The Irish Tragedy - Scotland' s Disgrace', which sold 200,000 copies. In this he called for a General Strike and for the withdrawal of English troops in Ireland. MacLean addressed meetings on the Irish question in Ireland, Scotland, and England, and continually urged working class support for the Irish struggle. Orange mobs broke up one meeting in Motherwell. 

In May 1921 he was again arrested and imprisoned for sedition, serving three months. In September 1921 came yet another arrest, and a sentence of one year. During this time he forced the prison authorities to concede him the status of a political prisoner, something never accorded by England, which refuses political status to obviously political prisoners. He continued to write various pamphlets, such as his famous "Open Letter to Lenin", which attacked his so-called socialist detractors.

Maclean was released in October 1922.In November 1922, MacLean reissued his call for "A Scottish Workers' Republic", alongside his address for the general election. This address began "I stand before the world as a Bolshevik, alias a Communist, alias  a Revolutionist, alias a Marxian. My symbol is the Red Flag and it shall keep on  floating high."

Revealing himself not to be a Scottish nationalist but a Scottish Internationalist, who saw the setting up of a Scottish Workers' Republic as a link  in a chain which began with the British state and ended when " all the independent workers' republics will come together into one great League of Parliament of Communist Peoples, as a stage in the future when inter-marriage will wipe out all national differences and the world will become one"

 Maclean and a few faithful comrades formed the Scottish Workers' Republican Party early in 1923, which promoted both communism and Scottish independence with the key aim of establishing a Communist Republic of Scotland. They began to prepare for an election pending on December the 30th 1923. He was standing as a candidate for his Scottish Workers' Republican Party, again in Gorbal's , which was slowly building its strength; but his own strength was, sadly, failing. 

On St Andrew's Day November 30th,  1923  he died aged only 44, at his home in Pollokshaws, of pneumenia, his health ruined by constant political struggle, five terms of imprisonment, the period of hunger strike and the subsequent force feeding by prison authorities.

Maclean's funeral march, led by the Clyde Workers' Band, was followed by between 10000 and 20000 people through the south side of Glasgow to his final resting place in Eastwood cemetery.

The Trade union and labour movement established a memorial fund that provided for John MacLean;s wife snd family for decades after his death.The Cairn built in 1973 in  Pollokshaws to commemorate John Maclean carries the inscription, "He forged the Scottish link to the golden chain of world socialism.".

After a long period of neglect, British labour history now affords John Maclean his rightful place as a leading revolutionary of the 1910-1922 period. The workers of Glasgow conferred on Maclean the title of champion of the labouring classes, and with the formation of a John Maclean Society which led to the development of an annual graveside commemoration, which endures today. Maclean remains a dominant figure in the popular account of Red Clydeside and a key source of inspiration. A Clydeside man of principle, a man who was anti-racist and anti-imperialist.

In Maclean, socialists, republicans, nationalists, and communists found a figurehead who is both Scottish and international; an anti-war martyr, uncorrupted by the totalitarianism of the 1930s and 1940s, and full of the hope and passion of the first communist heroes, like Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, and Lenin. In this sense, for the Scottish left, Maclean stands as a kind of missing link between international communism and Scottish nationalism. His legacy strong, who offered people a radical vision of the better world to be won, a vision of authentic socialism from the bottom up.

Maclean was later the subject of a poem written by Hugh MacDiarmid, and has also featured in a number of songs. During the Soviet era a street, Maklin Prospekt, in Leningrad was named after Maclean. The USSR also published a postage stamp to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1979.

 We can draw continuing inspiration from these famous rallying cries from Maclean: “we are out for life, and all that life can give us!” 

"No human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind" 

John Maclean (!879 - 19230 - Hugh MacDiarmid

  

All the buildings in Glasgow are grey With cruelty and meanness of spirit, But once in a while one greyer than the rest A song shall merit Since a miracle of true courage is seen For a moment its walls between. Look at it, you fools, with unseeing eyes And deny it with lying lips! But your craven bowels well know what it is And hasten to eclipse In a cell, as black as the shut boards of the Book You lie by, the light no coward can brook. It is not just the blue of heaven that colours The blue jowls of your thugs of police, And 'justice' may well do its filthy work Behind walls as filthy as these And congratulate itself blindly and never know The prisoner takes the light with him as he goes below. Stand close, stand close, and block out the light As long as you can, you ministers and lawyers, Hulking brutes of police, fat bourgeois, Sleek derma for congested guts - its fires Will leap through yet; already it is clear Of all MacLean's foes not one was his peer. As Pilate and the Roman soldiers to Christ Were Law and Order to the finest Scot of his day, One of the few true men in our sordid breed, A flash of sun in a country all prison-grey. Speak to others of Christian charity; I cry again For vengence on the murderers of John MacLean. Let the light of truth in on the base pretence Of justice that sentenced him behind these grey walls. All law is the contemptible fraud he declared it. Like a lightning-bolt at last the workers' wrath falls On all such castles of cowards whether they be Uniformed in ermine, or blue, or khaki. Royal honours for murderers and fools! The 'fount of honour' Is poisoned and spreads its corruption all through, But Scotland will think yet of the broken body And unbreakable spirit, MacLean, of you, And know you were indeed the true tower of its strength, As your prison of its foul stupidity, at length. Dick Gaughan - John Maclean March

International Day of Solidarity With The Palestinian People 2020

Today is International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The United Nations chose this day, 29th November, in accordance with mandates given by the General Assembly in its resolutions 32/40 B of 2 December 1977, 34/65 D of 12 December 1979, 56/34 of 3 December 2001, and other relevant resolutions.
The date of 29 November was chosen because of its meaning and significance to the Palestinian people. Because on that shameful day in 1947, the General Assembly adopted resolution 181(II), which came to be known as the Partition Resolution. That resolution provided for the establishment in Palestine of a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State”, with Jerusalem as a corpus separatum under a special international regime. Of the two States to be created under this resolution, only one, Israel, has so far come into being.
 This United Nations decision unleashed a catastrophe whose reverberations Palestinians continue to experience until today. Three-quarters of a million Palestinian Arabs—who were the majority of the population of historic Palestine, fled for their lives after experiencing or learning of massacres by Zionist paramilitary organizations, or were expelled from their homes during the ensuing Arab-Israeli war of 1948. By the 1949 armistice, the original partition lines had shifted violently so that Israel’s footprint became much larger than envisioned by the proposed partition plan, it was accorded 55 percent by the plan, but seized an additional 25% of Palestinian territory. At present, the drastically reduced Palestinian land continues to be occupied by the Israeli military and Jerusalem is occupied and divided with Israel controlling and limiting access to religious sites. Palestinians originally displaced during the Nakba (the Arabic word for Catastrophe—what the Palestinians call the 1948 war when they lost their homeland) are still prevented from exercising the right to return to their homes in what is now Israel. And contrary to the resolution (and to the Fourth Geneva Convention )   Israel has  continued to expropriate additional vast tracts of Palestinian territory for its own use and especially for the building and transfer of its own Israeli citizens to illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
The Palestinian people, who now number more than 8 million, live primarily in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem, part of which is now administered by the Palestinian Authority; in Israel; in neighbouring Arab States; and in refugee camps in the region.
The International Day of Solidarity has traditionally provided an opportunity for the international community to focus its attention on the fact that the question of Palestine is still unresolved and that the Palestinian people is yet to attain its inalienable rights as defined by the General Assembly, namely, the right to self-determination without external interference, the right to national independence and sovereignty, and the right to return to their homes and property from which they had been displaced.

73 years on, the Palestinians continue to suffer the disastrous consequences of that imperial decision to allow the colonisation of Palestine. Today, we-affirm our solidarity with all Palestinians in historic Palestine, with Palestinian political prisoners (women, men & children) in Apartheid Israel's jails, and with the millions of refugees struggling to make their legally guaranteed Right of Return a reality by returning to their homes. And we reaffirm our support for the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions - BDS - Movement until Israel complies with international law.

As the threats facing the Palestinian people intensify day by day, our only response can be to give even more, and to do even more. The Israeli government continues to press ahead with its gross violations of international law and Palestinian human rights, accelerating the ongoing colonisation of yet more Palestinian land. Israel has continued to demolish Palestinian homes and buildings in the Occupied West Bank. 2020 has seen the highest level of Palestinian home demolitions in four years, despite the covid-19 pandemic, which has left over 400 people homeless many of who are children. Earlier this month, Israel illegally destroyed the entire Palestinian village of Khirbet Hamsa al-Foqa - making 73 people, including 41 children homeless - in the largest incident of forced displacement in years. 

The Israeli government continues to press ahead with its gross violations of international law and Palestinian human rights, accelerating the ongoing colonisation of yet more Palestinian land. These include plans to proceed with formal annexation. Despite the rhetoric from some of our political leaders that the US- UAE has taken annexation off the table, Israel has made clear that its plans are merely on temporary hold. Netanyahu has stated clearly, speaking after the UAE deal that “There is no change to my plan to extend sovereignty, our sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, in full coordination with the United States.”

 Meanwhile Israel proceeds with the de facto annexation on the ground. In October 2020 the Israeli government approved 5,400 new settlement units on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank. In tandem, Israel has continued to demolish Palestinian homes and buildings, with 389 Palestinian structures in the West Bank razed from March to August 2020, leaving over 400 Palestinians homeless. And Israel continues to subject Gaza to an ever-tightening land, air and sea blockade, making life insufferable for the nearly two million Palestinians, the majority of them refugees from Israel’s ethnic cleansing, trapped in the enclave. Like Palestinian refugees everywhere, they are denied the right to return to the homes from which they, their parents or grandparents were expelled.

The world has failed to implement the international consensus sought by the United Nations to find a fair and just solution to the Palestinian issue because the Superpowers in the United Nations Security Council have used their veto powers to stop important UN Resolutions aimed at actualising the broader view of the majority of the countries around the world. It is with sadness that we observe that the UN has been powerless to do the right thing for the Palestinians.

In January 1976 the United Nations, backed by a wide global consensus, passed a Resolution granting Palestine political sovereignty. This Resolution received the support of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the Arab countries, the European Bloc and the Soviet Bloc. However, this UN effort was also stopped by the exercise of a veto from the United States. The 1981 initiative from Saudi Arabia called the FAHAD peace deal was also rejected by Israel.

 For decades the world has been helplessly watching the Palestinian tragedy unfold as the people of this land are being driven out of their homes that are being destroyed. They are forced to wander as they are constantly harassed and deprived of the very basic necessities such as water. They have no freedom of movement, as they are being arrested arbitrarily, even little children and women have been detained.

In October 2000, the UN Security Council resolved with a 14 to 0 vote that Israel should act according to the obligations and agreements contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention and return all Palestinian lands that have been occupied. At that time the US abstained from voting. 

In addition, in 2001 when Israeli troops clashed with Palestinians, attempts by the United Nations to send in international observers to minimise violence under the so-called Michael plan was opposed by Israel and the United States.

These actions of the US have damaged its credentials as a neutral player in resolving issues in the Middle East and has ruined its reputation as a champion of democracy and global justice. Under President Donald Trump the US Middle East policy has been very one-sided. However, under the new Democratic President it is hoped that the policy towards this region will be fairer and more progressive. If that does not happen then it will be a big blow against America’s boast of being a country that is a proponent of peace and democracy across the world.

Today and everyday  lets reiterate our solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination. We must amplify the Palestinian people’s call for freedom, justice, equality and the right of return,  building a future of peace, justice, security and dignity for  the Palestinians.

 The UK government must take action too by banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements and implementing sanctions, including a two-way arms embargo, until Israel complies with international law. Public bodies also need to take action to ensure that they are not investing funds or procuring contracts with companies complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses. 

In drawing attention to the struggle of the Palestinian people we cannot but remember the firm stand that the United Nations took against racism, against the evil of Apartheid and supported the liberation struggle of the people of South Africa. 

 At the time his people were liberated, the celebrated leader of the liberation struggle for South Africa Nelson Mandela made a profound statement, which resonates around the world to this day.

 He said: “For many years the United Nations stood firm against racism. Because of that a worldwide consensus was built against this unfair system. We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” 

Apartheid is a crime against humanity. From the rivers to the sea, Free, Free Palestine! 

 

 This Sunday 29 November, Join the Online Rally for Palestine: Stop Annexation and Apartheid 

 Register now and don't miss out

http://palestinecampaign.org/events/online-