John Lennon - Power To The People

Well done Greece, went to bed last night very happy.
This is not just a victory for the people of Greece , but a victory to the people of Europe. The tide against Austerity has turned. Another Europe is coming!
Greece is the word, better shape up.

Happy birthday NHS

Nye Bevans legacy came into the world 67 years ago this morning,when he opened Park Hospital in Manchester at a time of rationing and shortages, when we were nearly bankrupt, a jewel  that the war generation left us with, a proud legacy, for us to all to continue to share. It offered for the first time a free healthcare system for all, and has since  played a vital role in caring for all aspects of our nations health. My own father served it well for nigh on 40 years.
Remember we paid for it, so it is owned by us, it is our precious commodity, it must suvive, we must tear the vultures hands from it.
As the Tory's and their rotten hearts seek to dismantle it,  we should not forget Nye's words who said ' It will last as long as their are folk with enough faith to fight for it.
We  cannot reach the day again where people make a profit out of our sickness.

Happy birthday Clara Zetkin ( 5/7/1857 -20/6/33) Organiser of the First International Womens Day

Happy Birthday Clara Zetkin, ( nee Eissner), pioneering German Marxist theorist, advocate for womens rights and universal suffrage.Born  on  July 5, 1857, Wiederau, Saxony [Germany,

Clara Eissner was educated at the Leipzig Teachers’ College for Women.

Perhaps influenced by her upbringing and social class, it was during her time there that she became involved with the women’s movement and  in 1878 she joined the Socialist Workers’ Party (SAP), which changes its name to Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1890.  In 1878, German chancellor Otto von Bismarck banned all SPD activity in an attempt to curb the party’s power in the government. Following this act, Zetkin and other leading members of the SPD had to leave Germany to avoid persecution and prison. Zetkin migrated first to Zurich, and then to Paris. While in exile, she met her partner Ossip Zetkin. Though they never married, she took his name and together they had two sons. 

She spent most of the 1880s in self-imposed exile in Switzerland and Paris, writing and distributing illegal literature and meeting many leading international Socialists.  After participating in the founding congress of the Second Socialist International (1889), she returned to Germany and from Stuttgart edited the Socialist women’s paper Die Gleichheit (“Equality”) from 1892 to 1917.

In 1907 she was a cofounder of thegal literature and meeting many leading international Socialists.  After participating in the founding congress of the Second Socialist International (1889), she returned to Germany and from Stuttgart edited the Socialist women’s paper Die Gleichheit (“Equality”) from 1892 to 1917.
Zetkin became the leading female theorist of socialist emancipation theory and as such helped to formulate the core ideas of socialist feminism. An important medium for her to spread socialist ideas in circles of working class was the socialist women’s journal of the SPD, Die Gleichheit (Equality). Here and elsewhere she argued that women could only become emancipated if they worked like men and earn their own income, which would made them independent from men and integrated them in society and politics. They should receive the same pay and privileges as men in the workplace. For her wage inequality hurt women and men.  She strongly made this arguments in an article in Die Gleichheit published in December 1893, in which she addressed this issue. 

The article served as a call to action. It  framed women’s economic equality and social emancipation as a matter of class struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat, only after a socialist revolution women could really become equal as women and as workers. Zetkin argued that wage inequality would hurt both, female workers because the poor wages made it incredibly difficult for women to afford adequate living conditions, and male workers because of the competition of cheap female labor.

 As a result, Zetkin called equal wages and stronger attempts pf the SPD and the trade unions to organize women in the labor movement. Only when women became equal to men at work and, by extension, in the home could they begin working towards class reforms. In addition to promoting socialist feminism, Zetkin provided some much-needed leadership and structure in the German socialist women’s movement. In 1907 she was a cofounder of the International Socialist Women’s Congress.

During the First World War, Zetkin, along with Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919) and her friend Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919), belonged to the small opposition in the SPD that rejected the party’s policy of Burgfrieden (a truce with the government, promising to refrain from any strikes during the war). Among other anti-war activities, Zetkin organized an International Socialist Women’s  Conference against the war in Bern, in neutral Switzerland, from March 25-28, 1915, to which  all other participants had to travel illegally. 

Despite the danger of imprisonment, 25 women from, Britain, France Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Switzerland participated in this first international women’s conference for peace, which ended with a joint resolution.  Because of her anti-war opinions, Zetkin was arrested several times during the war, and in 1916 taken into “protective custody” (from which she was later released on account of illness). 

In 1916 Zetkin was one of the co-founders of the Spartacist League (Spartakusbund), which published  illegal, anti-war pamphlets pseudonymously signed “Spartacus” (after the slave-liberating gladiator who had opposed the Romans). The Spartacus League vehemently rejected the SPD’s war policy and supported the growing number of riots and strikes against the war all over Germany. 

In April 1917 Zetkin joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) which had split off from the SPD, in protest at its pro-war stance. In January 1919, after the German Revolution in November 1918 she became a co-founder of the Communist Party of Germany becoming a member of the party’s central committee and got first elected to the Reichstag in 1920, and again  in 1932, at the age of 75, where as the oldest member she was entitled to open the parliaments first session. She took this as  her golden opportunity to bravely make a long speech, denouncing Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party .and  to o struggle in unity against fascism.

She also held the view that still holds much resonance today, that the source of womens oppression was in capitalism, and that any form of liberation, could only be served with the self-emancipation of the working class.

Elected to the presidium of the Third International (1921), she spent more and more of her time in Moscow.  Three volumes of collected works, Ausgewählte Reden und Schriften (“Selected Speeches and Writings”), were published in East Berlin from 1957 to 1960.] She died June 20, 1933, Arkhangelskoye, Russia, U.S.S.R.) aged nearly 76, 

Long may this grandmother of revolution, be recognised and celebrated. Clara Zetkin remains an invaluable fixture in modern feminist movements. Even now, women are still fighting for equal pay in the workplace, and figures such as Zetkin remind modern women that cooperation is of utmost importance, and that perseverance is critical to making progress in the movement for women’s equality. Zetkin’s most lasting legacy however, is her reputation as an organizer and effective leader. It’s no secret that modern politics and social movements are deeply affected by partisanship, so Zetkin is most relevant in that she is an example of what can be achieved with organization and cooperation.

In the garden

In  the garden, I steal myself away,
sit and inhale pungent smoke,
watch the grass grow beneath my feet,
as I try to forget the burden that humanity brings,
the shadows lift and the sun comes out.

I escape darkened patterns of thought,
walk barefoot over turf,
water flowers as senses awaken,
scatter seeds for the butterflies and bees,
in my sanctuary of devotion.

Here lies a place of  peace, a pleasant distraction,
a landscape shaped by hand,
in harmony with nature,
enabling magic to grow again,
to release its melding scents.

I could stay here for a while,
but I go and wait for loyal love's return,
and the companionship of friends,
as the earth spins gently by,
and the night sky turns silver.

Heatwave flashback

Been busy helping someone move today, gosh it was rather sweltering. But if I think its been hot this week, I recall the summer of 1976, the year of the national Eisteddfod coming home to us here in Cardigan/Aberteifi. Throughout the summer the entire country sweltered under the heat, for most of its duration, the therometers tipped 26c,  at least I was not stuck in the confines of school. 
Rivers ground to a trickle, while some even stopped flowing. Without water,  companies were forced to cut the working week, while vans patrolled the streets to make sure the hosepipe bans were strictly enforced. Today at least I had  the relief of a bit of rain, thank goodness for that.Ah days of youthful adventures by the seaside on the West Wales coast, and the dawning of the musical explosion of Punk.



The 1976 Punk explosion

Gaza bound flotilla seized by Israeli navy.

Following my last post, news  has reached me that Israel has boarded and taken over a vessel attempting to break the blockade of the Gaza strip, officials have said.
In a statement the Israeli army on Monday  said that it did not use force in redirecting, the main boat Marianne to the  Israeli city of Ashdod. 
Petros Stergiou, a spokesperson for the flotilla told Al Zazeera that organisers lost contact with the ship at around 2 am time on Monday morning as the military boats approached. Once again the Israeli government and its military has acted like state pirates and attacked in international waters. We must continue to respond and react against this injustice, as we will until the port of Gaza is open and the seize and occupation is ended.
I hop all on board will be safe.


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/gaza-bound-flotilla-seized-israeli-navy-150629032943407.html

Breaking the Siege Freedom Flotilla III

Today a flotilla of at least 3 ships with supporters from over 20 countries, will try to set out across the Mediterranean Sea, bound for the Gaza strip. The aim being to confront Israels maritime blockade of the Palestinian people, and deliver symbolic  humanitarian aid to those imprisoned there.
Dismissed by Israel as a publicity stunt,and a threat, unauthorised, but serves to remind the world that the blockade is another war crime. A continuous violation of international law. A collective punishment of more than 1.8 million Palestinians.. The flotilla's journey will seek to highlight  the impact of Israel's 8 year imposed,inhumane land , air and sea blockade.
Setting sail to what is known as the worlds largest open-air prisons by many different human rights groups. The blockade having already bought a solitary confinement to Gaza's people by further restricting their movement outside the territory and curtailing  the amount of items that can be bought in.

Activists on these ships will attempt to deliver much needed medical supplies and solar panels, to people  living in disgraceful conditions, in an act of peaceful civil disobedience and solidarity. I hope we will not see a repeat of what occurred 5 years ago when a previous Gaza Freedom flotilla of 6 ships, the first including Turkish and Greek vessels, made nine attempts to break the siege. These ships  were also carrying humanitarian aid and building materials, activists and journalists and aid workers. It resulted in Israeli commanders boarding a ship called  the Mavi Marmama in international waters, in horrifying scenes it resulted in 8 activists being killed, dozens injured, in an act of piracy that also saw dozens  injured.
Since then, others have attempted to land supplies in Gaza, or even sail from Gaza to rendezvous offshore. All have sadly failed, with ships impounded and destroyed.
The journey will be a tough one, but I hope the latest attempt will succeed, that they reach Gazas port, without any fatalities or injury and bring attention to the international community the Palestinians plight and send a message of hope to the Gazans who have to endure such a punishing daily life of struggle.
This blockade must be lifted